Now, I'm a great fan of the early Alistair MacLean thrillers. For my money, the start of Fear is the Key is one of the best starts to any book I've read, and HMS Ulysses is an underrated masterpiece.
   However, the later books by MacLean definitely tailed off. And I'm afraid Athabasca is one of them. It's really not very good, full of exposition and superficial characters, and an extremely thin plot.
   Sorry, Alistair. I can't recommend this one.