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Thirty-Four East
When tragedy struck the White House, it was naturally expected that the Vice President would assume the presidency. But Vice President Bailey, on a mission to the Middle East to sign a four-power peacekeeping treaty, had been seized by a band of Arab terrorists. Had the Russians deliberately engineered this crisis in American leadership? While an American force races across the Sinai to free the Vice President, an uneasy peace threatens to explode into nuclear war.
434 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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61 people want to read
About the author
Alfred Coppel
136 books14 followersAlfredo Jose de Arana-Marini Coppel was an American author. He served as a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. After his discharge, he started his career as a writer. He became one of the most prolific pulp authors of the 1950s and 1960s, adopting the pseudonyms Robert Cham Gilman and A.C. Marin and writing for a variety of pulp magazines and later "slick" publishers. Though writing in a variety of genres, including action thrillers, he is known for his science fiction stories which comprise both short stories and novels.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 6, 2018
An entertaining Cold War "What-If?" thriller from 1974. I used to devour novels like this when I was tween and early adolescent. Back in the early 1980s when there was still a Soviet Union and Ronald Regan was in the White House.
The story takes place in what is probably the 1980s and set in the Sinai. The United States and the U.S.S.R. have decided that enough is enough and sent troops into the peninsula, to stand between the Egyptians and the Israelis, and prevent any future wars. Of course things go wrong. A series of amazingly coincidental events (as well as implausible) take place within a twelve hour period and in the blink of an eye the U.S. and the Soviet Union are ready to push the nuclear button. From that point it's a race against time to prevent the missiles from launching. The novel moves along at a fast pace and is a professional, competently written thriller. There is some political preaching (shorthairs good - longhair liberals bad) which I chalk up to the time period in which Mr. Coppel wrote the book. The characters exist to move the plot along. They aren't necessarily cardboard cutouts, but they aren't really all that complex as well. The characters are adequate.
The thing about reading the old Cold War nuclear thrillers is ,of course, the Cold War ended with no nuclear suns going off over the world's cities. The old novels have no real sense of relevancy to a reader in 2018, not to mention the technology and attitudes are often amazingly dated. I read them as escapist fare - simple alternative history books. Though they might no longer have the edge they can still provide escapist fare.
Alfred Coppel (1921-2004) made his living writing pulp science fiction in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties. By the late Sixties literary tastes had changed and he moved into writing political/military thrillers with a heavy amount of aviation elements (he was a U.S. Army Air Force fighter pilot during World War II). His books were always plot driven and there was a strong pro-military stance in most of his works. He wrote tight competent thrillers that had little fat on them.
Thirty-four East works. As I already stated earlier it is best if viewed as an AH genre piece. The technical details will seem odd (even groaners) to a modern reader of techno-thrillers until one remembers that the book was written in 1973. It's a readable thriller and it works.
The story takes place in what is probably the 1980s and set in the Sinai. The United States and the U.S.S.R. have decided that enough is enough and sent troops into the peninsula, to stand between the Egyptians and the Israelis, and prevent any future wars. Of course things go wrong. A series of amazingly coincidental events (as well as implausible) take place within a twelve hour period and in the blink of an eye the U.S. and the Soviet Union are ready to push the nuclear button. From that point it's a race against time to prevent the missiles from launching. The novel moves along at a fast pace and is a professional, competently written thriller. There is some political preaching (shorthairs good - longhair liberals bad) which I chalk up to the time period in which Mr. Coppel wrote the book. The characters exist to move the plot along. They aren't necessarily cardboard cutouts, but they aren't really all that complex as well. The characters are adequate.
The thing about reading the old Cold War nuclear thrillers is ,of course, the Cold War ended with no nuclear suns going off over the world's cities. The old novels have no real sense of relevancy to a reader in 2018, not to mention the technology and attitudes are often amazingly dated. I read them as escapist fare - simple alternative history books. Though they might no longer have the edge they can still provide escapist fare.
Alfred Coppel (1921-2004) made his living writing pulp science fiction in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties. By the late Sixties literary tastes had changed and he moved into writing political/military thrillers with a heavy amount of aviation elements (he was a U.S. Army Air Force fighter pilot during World War II). His books were always plot driven and there was a strong pro-military stance in most of his works. He wrote tight competent thrillers that had little fat on them.
Thirty-four East works. As I already stated earlier it is best if viewed as an AH genre piece. The technical details will seem odd (even groaners) to a modern reader of techno-thrillers until one remembers that the book was written in 1973. It's a readable thriller and it works.
July 10, 2016
The main theme of this book seems just as possible today as when first written. Good reading.
June 17, 2010
Enjoying the politics, even with my own political education it was pretty cool to expand on my knowledge around the Sinai Peninsula and the Israeli – Arab conflict.
Call me sentimental, but having only really learnt facts about the USSR and USA cold war it was kind of cool to have the concept of client states describe in a story format, with characters playing out the scenarios I have studied.
NUTS what an insane concept, once again in theory freaky but if you add characters and put in a real life scenario, OMG!!
The Characters are full enough to carry the story, but as the actual events are so intense and fast moving they don't achieve the same kind of arch as one would expect, however having said that the arch is irrelevant as the way the characters have changed by the end of the book is justified by the crisis which is central to the story.
Keeping in mind the time of publication, it is rather sad that historically the vilifying of people was such a trend in the 80’s and 90’s a like; my hope is that the general move now is more to understanding.
While still being negative regarding the USSR and the soviet regime the author does attempt to create a space for understanding, however when referring to the Arab terrorist the terminology leave’s no room for understanding. It is a bias that might come from him or the time he was writing the book, however there should I feel always be room for a comprehension if not buy in of the any fundamentalist movement. What makes movements evil is violence and zealots not the faith that inspires it or even the values being pursued.
I really appreciated the appendix it made the facts really and the story more compelling.
As for the actually writing, no complaints, an easy read if you have the political interest to sustain the constant military jargon; action packed if you don’t but the human drama as previously mentioned is some what lacking.
All in all I did enjoy the book and hope that some one else will too, this book will be retired from my library.
Call me sentimental, but having only really learnt facts about the USSR and USA cold war it was kind of cool to have the concept of client states describe in a story format, with characters playing out the scenarios I have studied.
NUTS what an insane concept, once again in theory freaky but if you add characters and put in a real life scenario, OMG!!
The Characters are full enough to carry the story, but as the actual events are so intense and fast moving they don't achieve the same kind of arch as one would expect, however having said that the arch is irrelevant as the way the characters have changed by the end of the book is justified by the crisis which is central to the story.
Keeping in mind the time of publication, it is rather sad that historically the vilifying of people was such a trend in the 80’s and 90’s a like; my hope is that the general move now is more to understanding.
While still being negative regarding the USSR and the soviet regime the author does attempt to create a space for understanding, however when referring to the Arab terrorist the terminology leave’s no room for understanding. It is a bias that might come from him or the time he was writing the book, however there should I feel always be room for a comprehension if not buy in of the any fundamentalist movement. What makes movements evil is violence and zealots not the faith that inspires it or even the values being pursued.
I really appreciated the appendix it made the facts really and the story more compelling.
As for the actually writing, no complaints, an easy read if you have the political interest to sustain the constant military jargon; action packed if you don’t but the human drama as previously mentioned is some what lacking.
All in all I did enjoy the book and hope that some one else will too, this book will be retired from my library.
August 27, 2020
En lisant ce roman j'ai eu un drôle d'effet de déjà-vu. La similitude de l'histoire avec l'assassinat du prince autrichien qui y a déclenché la première guerre mondiale.
March 30, 2022
Fair yarn of some unlikely events happening all at once.
July 17, 2022
Read in Norwegian. Effective and well done thriller. Author shows extensive relevant knowledge.
May 12, 2018
Thirty-Four East, Alfred Coppel, RDC-M #3-74, 1975. The title is the longitude for the Sinai Penninsula which is split by an Arab Egypt on the West and the embattled Israel on the East. A powerful, tense and politically charged novel. Very good.
November 20, 2014
an interesting premise of a joint USA/USSR occupation of the Sinai
June 25, 2016
this was a realistic novel how the third worldwar could have happened,a nice intermezzo to read,lets take another book in progress
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews