As I mentioned previously, my uncle was an author and I've been picking up his books to own and to read. Three have arrived and so far I have not found anyone on TradeMe offering Moving Target. I also mentioned I'd give a review. I'm not the best reviewer or perhaps the best at expressing my opinions but I am opinionated that's a fact.
The first thing about it would be... yes it could be made into a movie. I'm going to give the whole plot here, I hate giving away ending but I guess you most of you won't get a chance to read this so here we go.
It opens just after the attack on Pearl Harbour and a US army team is arriving in Antarctica. There is no base and so they have to get all equipment off the ship and set up the base themselves. They are on a mission to take aerial photographs of the continent for future expeditions. To aid in this they set up a satellite base to report on the weather so the planes know if they should take off or not. Life in both these bases is shown positively with the wise commanders being able to stop everyone going stir crazy. There is one humourous scene where after a lecture on frost bite and what to do (if you see it start as a small white patch then rub, rub rub the skin warm), with the lecture fresh in their minds the guys have to take a leak, and one guy who is going like Niagara Falls is told he has a white spot "on the end of his wonk".
In this satellite base the leader gets appendicitis and has to be flown out, Commander Canris take a a plane from the main base there but due to weather cannot land and is injured himself. The guy dies.
Flash forward to at least the 1950's it's winter and Commander Canaris is now Admiral. He arrives in Christchurch New Zealand and has decided that they have to make a night flight down to Antarctica to rescue a crewman with a brain tumour. The US PR machine is at work as it will be history making, but apart from his loyal subordinates nearly everyone is against him and the flight overall. They have to show the evil Russians that the US can get to any of their bases, where ever they are and when ever needed.
Down in the dark they have to cut, the ice to make a runway, argue with each other and just follow orders. In Christchurch they bonk their wives and girlfreinds (the sex scenes are about 1 sentence long - but you can bet Hollywood would make them 10 minutes...), meet with the press and argue.
In the end it comes down to that they have to remember it is a human being, a friend they are doing this for. During the cutting of the run ways one of the tractors gets lost and falls through the ice.
The plane takes off, the Admiral can't go as by his own rule anyone with a cold can't go (previously nearly the whole base was laid low by a cold a visitor brought). The weather gets bad and the plane can't land, they decide to try an iceberg with a flat top, that had broken off earlier in the story, but it crashes with full loss of life.
The second plane goes, with the Admiral this time, lands, gets the guys and leaves. The last words though are form the doctor who points out the guy is so bad he won;t live long enough to make it back to Christchurch.
Now the opinions.
I found the style and prose to be good, it kept me wanting to read, especially as this is not normally the style of book I'd read. A problem I did have was that every now and again the story would jump and they would talk about an event that happened in between and the reader has to work out what it was. (Maybe I'm just lazy after reading 800 page epics that count the leaves on the tree for you while describing things). Also I'm used to the convention that in a chapter if you jump to a new scene or character to leave a small gap, this is not used here and so I was confused a couple times and had to go back to work out why the guy with the 19 year old lover was now opening curtains with his wife.
Overall a good enjoyable read that left me with the important thought that no matter what the cost, when a human is in need you do what it takes.
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