Sat 13 Apr 2013
Reviewed by Allen J. Hubin: ERIC AMBLER – The Dark Frontier.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
Allen J. Hubin
ERIC AMBLER – The Dark Frontier. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1936. Mysterious Press, US, hardcover, 1990; reprint paperback, 1991.
Eric Ambler’s first novel, The Dark Frontier from 1936, has taken until now to find a publisher in this country: Mysterious Press. Ambler argues fervently in his contemporary introduction that this is parody, and in truth it was hard for me for much of the narrative to regard it as anything else, till at last the story drew me in.
But I wonder if a youthful Ambler thought at the time it was parody he was writing. In any event, a tiny Balkan kingdom, Ixania, is full of starving peasants and little else — except a brilliant scientist who has invented something that might be used for great good or evil, something that sounds a good bit like atomic energy.
An earnest academic, Professor Barstow, is somehow transformed into the intrepid agent Conway Carruthers, who is determined to save an unready mankind by obliterating all record of the invention. Others, of course, have rather different things in mind for it.
This story is not persuasive for the first half and not particularly memorable of character or plot throughout, but it’s a pleasant enough diversion and good to have to complete the Ambler oeuvre in the U.S.
Vol. 13, No. 1, Winter 1991.
April 14th, 2013 at 12:39 am
Ambler is quite recommendable, if only for the specific ‘taste’ of the times and countries he describes .
The Doc
April 14th, 2013 at 11:03 am
I learned a lot about life (and intrigue) in pre-War Europe from reading Amber’s earliest books. They fascinated me. Those he wrote after the war and for the rest of his career did not interest me as much.
April 14th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
No, the later ones don’t live up to much.
The Doc
April 15th, 2013 at 8:33 am
There are some later Ambler novels which are rather good, for example THE LIGHT OF DAY, DOCTOR FRIGO, THE CARE OF TIME. I think, none of his novels is really weak.