Rating: 
Summary: A cure for "the glories of War".
Review: If all you have read by Alistair MacLean is "The Guns of Navarone", you have missed a much better read in this book. HMS Ulysses is a fine action tale, with all the drama and tension of The Hunt For Red October. But there is so much more--the realistic descriptions of life on a warship in the North Atlantic, men who reflect on the nature of war, individual acts of heroism and tragedy. All these things raise it above the common lot of the war novel. You will be inspired by some of it, fascinated by some of it, and you may even have to stop---as I did---to put the book down for a moment to recover when the terrible savagery of War becomes too gut-wrenchingly alive. Strongly recommended; a fantastic book.
Rating:
Summary: Novel combines action with tribute to the men of the RN
Review: In H.M.S. Ulysses, Alistair MacLean attempted to marry a first rate action novel with a tribute to the men who fought the Battle of the Atlantic. The result probably comes as close as possible to achieving two divergent goals. An action novel should have top rate suspense and a series of minor actions which lead to a rousing climax with a victory of good over evil. Conversely, a tribute should reflect the boredom, the horror, the tension and ultimate futility of war while honouring those who fight it. The conflicts occur in trying to portray both boredom and tension as well as a rousing climax and a sense of futility. It's a credit to MacLean that he succeeds as well as he does.As an action novel, H.M.S. Ulysses works quite well. There are a series of actions including progressively larger battles with the enemy and a tremendous North Atlantic storm culminating with a climactic surface battle. Typical MacLean tension builders such as traitors within are present. Conversely, the tribute works well. There is a great sense that the ship is a family. Many of the men either have no other family, have lost them during the war or their families are now irrelevant to their day-to-day lives. One of the most poignant passages occurs when one sailor is ordered to torpedo a ship on which his own father is sailing. The physical and emotional ordeals of the Murmansk run are well detailed. This was cold and harrowing duty against bitter elements and a determined enemy without any obvious results for the sacrifices made. Some compromises are necessary to marry the two genres. The convoy is savaged worse than the ill-fated, real life PQ-17 and faces all the extremes of weather and enemy attacks. This fits the action genre but is excessive for a tribute novel. Conversely, the action novel suffers because there is no sense that anything important was accomplished nor is there a rousing triumph of good over evil in the climactic battle scene. However, it is amazing how little the novel suffers overall. MacLean went on to do the rousing WWII action novel better in The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare and Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea is a better tribute; but I doubt that anyone else could attempt such an ambitious compromise and succeed.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book
Review: In Russia are pyusblished many books about World War II. MacLean book is one of the best among them.
Rating:
Summary: As Good As They Come
Review: It seems like some sort of sacrilege to cry while reading a war novel, much less to admit it to millions of strangers, but I did (multiple times) and I am (now). H.M.S. Ulysses is many things: a thrilling and perfectly-plotted action novel; a harrowing and accurate rendition of life in a (very far) North Atlantic convoy; a meditation on men, bravery, honor, courage, cowardice, life, and death. But for me, it is first and foremost a tremendously powerful, tragic, and ultimately affirming tale of redemption. I haven't done it any sort of justice, but that's just as well. You'll just have to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A rolling-good tale of derring-do
Review: MacLean never wrote a better novel than this, his first. For those who love the sea and yet respect her fearsome savagry, HMS Ulysses satisfies. Brilliant character development, superb technical detail. HMS Ulysses is a good novel -- more than that, the book pays tribute to both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Marine, and homage in equal measure to all -- German, British, American. It reminds us that brave men sailed the North Atlantic, and that courage knows no boundaries. The book follows the fortunes of a fighting ship whose crew is slowly self-destructing after months of convoy duty in the North Atlantic. They are offered the prospect of a break in the Mediterranean if they can complete one final convoy to Russia through the murderous North Atlantic, and thereby atone for a mutiny that has left two people dead... Their voyage -- and ultimate atonement -- tests the mettle of all on board, and challenges the base assumptions we tend to make about the inherant goodness of Humanity. It will leave you pondering how you would have responded under similar circumstances, and perhaps may leave you less than satisfied with what you learn about yourself. As a tale it compares well with Noel Coward's wartime movie "In Which We Serve". MacLean paints his tale with prosaic pictures that stay in your mind more persistently than any film could. The final image of the HMS Ulysses, with battle ensign flying, stays with you long after you put the book down. MacLean's book reminds us that things like this happened every day, once. It is a reminder of the gallantry of a generation that is fast disappearing.
Rating:
Summary: A rolling-good tale of derring-do
Review: MacLean never wrote a better novel than this, his first. For those who love the sea and yet respect her fearsome savagry, HMS Ulysses satisfies. Brilliant character development, superb technical detail. HMS Ulysses is a good novel -- more than that, the book pays tribute to both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Marine, and homage in equal measure to all -- German, British, American. It reminds us that brave men sailed the North Atlantic, and that courage knows no boundaries. The book follows the fortunes of a fighting ship whose crew is slowly self-destructing after months of convoy duty in the North Atlantic. They are offered the prospect of a break in the Mediterranean if they can complete one final convoy to Russia through the murderous North Atlantic, and thereby atone for a mutiny that has left two people dead... Their voyage -- and ultimate atonement -- tests the mettle of all on board, and challenges the base assumptions we tend to make about the inherant goodness of Humanity. It will leave you pondering how you would have responded under similar circumstances, and perhaps may leave you less than satisfied with what you learn about yourself. As a tale it compares well with Noel Coward's wartime movie "In Which We Serve". MacLean paints his tale with prosaic pictures that stay in your mind more persistently than any film could. The final image of the HMS Ulysses, with battle ensign flying, stays with you long after you put the book down. MacLean's book reminds us that things like this happened every day, once. It is a reminder of the gallantry of a generation that is fast disappearing.
Rating:
Summary: A cut above
Review: MacLean's first novel, this is easily his best. It is a little different than his usual adventure-thrillers. This is a serious book about the naval war of World War II. The North Atlantic convoy runs saw some of the highest casualties during the war and MacLean puts the reader squarely in the middle of that icy Nordic hell. What happens when men are pushed far to far makes for some of the most gripping reading around.
Rating:
Summary: A cut above
Review: MacLean's first novel, this is easily his best. It is a little different than his usual adventure-thrillers. This is a serious book about the naval war of World War II. The North Atlantic convoy runs saw some of the highest casualties during the war and MacLean puts the reader squarely in the middle of that icy Nordic hell. What happens when men are pushed far to far makes for some of the most gripping reading around.
Rating:
Summary: A little mentioned classic of Naval literature
Review: MacLean's HMS Ulysses is a classic book of man against man but more importantly, man against the sea. Set in the brutal Murmansk Run, this book is an account of the men of a ship marked out from the rest of the Royal Navy by a resistance to discipline. The crew is rebelling against mindless authority but is still ready to do its duty - along the lines of the great Mutiney of 1797, when ships of the Royal Navy effectively deposed brutal and mindless officers but always maintained that it would up anchor and fight any attackers. The men of Ulysses strike me as linear descendants of the sailors fighting Napoleon's fleet. There is a great cross section of British society in the officers and men of Ulysses; from aristocratic flag officers to gentleman rankers in the lower rates. Petty tyrants and officers one would gladly follow anywhere. MacLean has included them all and made it work to perfection in his tale. THe constant theme is not the brutality of war, or men killing each other, but the constant battle with the sea in all its many forms. MacLean's attention to detail gives an almost 'you are there' quality to his writing. The reader feels he is right there on the bow of Ulysses as it gets underway for one more run to Murmansk, to being on the bridge in her ultimate engagement with the German Navy. You can almost feel the bone breaking cold whenever you are placed out on deck. MacLean puts you right in the middle of it. If any of MacLean's books deserve to be made into movies, this is one that is long overdue. I found this book to be one that I didn't want to put down. I felt the charecters were all extremely well developed, men that were almost real. I don't know if MacLean was in the Royal Navy during World War II, but reading this book, I certainly get that impression. This is a classic in Naval literature.
Rating:
Summary: A little mentioned classic of Naval literature
Review: MacLean's HMS Ulysses is a classic book of man against man but more importantly, man against the sea. Set in the brutal Murmansk Run, this book is an account of the men of a ship marked out from the rest of the Royal Navy by a resistance to discipline. The crew is rebelling against mindless authority but is still ready to do its duty - along the lines of the great Mutiney of 1797, when ships of the Royal Navy effectively deposed brutal and mindless officers but always maintained that it would up anchor and fight any attackers. The men of Ulysses strike me as linear descendants of the sailors fighting Napoleon's fleet. There is a great cross section of British society in the officers and men of Ulysses; from aristocratic flag officers to gentleman rankers in the lower rates. Petty tyrants and officers one would gladly follow anywhere. MacLean has included them all and made it work to perfection in his tale. THe constant theme is not the brutality of war, or men killing each other, but the constant battle with the sea in all its many forms. MacLean's attention to detail gives an almost 'you are there' quality to his writing. The reader feels he is right there on the bow of Ulysses as it gets underway for one more run to Murmansk, to being on the bridge in her ultimate engagement with the German Navy. You can almost feel the bone breaking cold whenever you are placed out on deck. MacLean puts you right in the middle of it. If any of MacLean's books deserve to be made into movies, this is one that is long overdue. I found this book to be one that I didn't want to put down. I felt the charecters were all extremely well developed, men that were almost real. I don't know if MacLean was in the Royal Navy during World War II, but reading this book, I certainly get that impression. This is a classic in Naval literature.
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