"The Ship" by Stefan Mani - Good read? How did I get on to John Carpenter?

Opening a new book by a new author (to me, anyway) is like exploring a new land. I know that sounds a bit of a wank but books are a great escape and a great way to travel in the mind. I saw on last night's TV news a volunteer program called "Footpath Library" where each night a van drops off a range of books free to the homeless in central Sydney. The rationale being so these people, living on the street, can escape into a good book. But I digress.
I grabbed "The Ship" from my local library. The blurb said the author, Stefan Mani, was "the Icelandic Stephen King". That sealed the deal. Scandi-noir is all the rage and Stephen King used to be my go-to author for spooky thrillers. The first 70 pages introduces the characters through cleverly interwoven incidents in Reykjavik. Then it moves on board the huge freighter, bound for South America. You know there is something evil afoot.
In the movies, having characters stuck in one place, whether it's an Arctic research station, like "The Thing", or a besieged police station in "Assault on Precinct 13" or a interplanetary vessel, like "Dark Star" or later "Alien") is a juicy suspense setup.
Stefan Mani writes a very 'cinematic' novel. He dips his lid to Stephen King with a quick reference to "Christine", comparing the book with the movie). Anyway, I'm only a quarter of way through, but things are chugging along nicely. Hope I'm not disappointed by such a flashy start. The stormy descriptions onboard are so vivid, it may cause the reader to feel a bit seasick.
I just realized all the movies I just mentioned (except "Alien") were directed by John Carpenter. Hope he buys the movie rights to "The Ship".
UPDATE
Finished book. Perplexed by the ending, but definitely kept my interest. Icelandic writers do bleak very well.

RKO Movies you must see

Copyright RKO Pictures LLC/image www.lib.berkeley.edu

One of 'the big 5 studios' declined rapidly once Howard Hughes took over in the late 1940's.  

What Price Hollywood? (early version of A Star is Born); The Most Dangerous Game 1932 (filmed on the same set as King Kong, seriously weird)
King Kong; Flying Down To Rio 1933
The Lost Patrol 1934 (early John Ford effort, Boris Karloff featured)
The Informer 1935 (John Ford again); Top Hat (Astaire and Rogers at their peak, Irving Berlin music, great supporting cast, over the top sets, even if dancing isn't your thing, this movie is still a delight)
Winterset 1936 (ground breaking curiosity piece, Burgess Meredith starred)
Stage Door; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 (released by RKO)
Bringing up Baby  1938 (screwball comedy, much copied (see What's Up, Doc?,1972)
Gunga Din; Five Came Back; The Saint in London; The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 was a great year for movies - see my  post on 1939 classic films
Pinocchio (released only); My Favourite Wife 1940 (remade as Move Over Darling)
Citizen Kane 1941 (Orson Welles peaked early)
The Magnificent Ambersons (a magnificent failure, Robert Wise edited 40 minutes from it) 1942
Cat People; I Walked with a Zombie (two Val Lewton films = creepy classy production on a shoestring budget) 1943
The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, kicking butt) 1944
A Game of Death (Robert Wise remake of The Most Dangerous Game) 1945
The Spiral Staircase (this is a seriously scary film, as good as Hitchcock); Notorious; The Best Years of our Lives; It's a Wonderful Life (what a Wonderful Year!!) 1946
Crossfire; Out of the Past (Robert Mitchum doubleheader, we are firmly in film noir territory here) 1947
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (Cary Grant made every picture watchable) 1948
The Setup (boxing theme mini gem, 80 minutes) 1949
The Man on the Eiffel Tower 1950
The Thing (James Arness in a carrot costume) 1951
Rancho Notorious (Marlene goes camp out West, quelle surprise!); The Narrow Margin (another gem, better than Gene Hackman remake, great twist) 1952
Second Chance (Mitchum again, in 3D!) 1953

a sad ending to a great studio....

The Conqueror 1956 One the greatest turkeys of all time, see John Wayne as a Mongol ravish Susan Hayward. Urban legend? Wayne, cast and crew including director, Dick Powell, later died of cancer due to A-Bomb testing in the Nevada desert after 13 weeks of filming, plus the same sand was brought back to Hollywood for more scenes! Hughes bought up all the movie prints.

Guilty pleasures - Universal Studios films

This is an old family photo, but I got sick of citing Copyright

I am starting at 1960 (I was 4 years old, old enough to remember a movie, I reckon).

• 1960 Midnight Lace; Spartacus (chalk and cheese)
• 1961 Curse of the Werewolf (Hammer horror, with a young, but still creepy, Oliver Reed) 
• 1962 Cape Fear; That Touch of Mink (bleak black&white nail-biter meets glossy Eastmancolor fluff)
• 1963 40 Pounds of Trouble (as a kid I loved the Disneyland locations); The Birds (knockout phone booth scene)
• 1964 The Chalk Garden (had a crush on Hayley Mills); Charade (great Mancini score)
• 1965 The Warlord (Chuck Heston); I Saw What You Did (creepy little William Castle B flick)
• 1966 Gambit (lots of caper movies in the mid 60's), Blindfold (liked the bayou setting)
• 1967 Thoroughly Modern Millie (fun, but too long)
• 1968 Coogan's Bluff (Clint Eastwood, on the verge of superstardom)
• 1969 Colossus, The Forbin Project (taut sci-fi sleeper about a supercomputer - years before War Games)
• 1970 Airport (cheesy but compelling)
• 1971 The Andromeda Strain (great start, stunning production design, but God, it is so talky; Play Misty For Me (Clint's first time as director - has he ever directed a crap movie, even Hereafter?)
• 1972 Frenzy (Hitchcock back in London and a return to form - rape screen in dating agency office is a worry "....Lovely.....Lovely" - chills the bones)
• 1973 American Graffiti;  Day of the Jackal; The Sting (what a year)
• 1974 Earthquake (saw it in "Sensurround", basically big speakers under the seats so they seemed to shudder in seismic scenes.
• 1975 Jaws (of course)
• 1976 The Seven-Per-Cent-Solution (what a cast, love to see it again)
• 1977 The Last Remake of Beau Geste (very patchy, some good sight gags)
• 1978 National Lampoon's Animal House ("To-ga, To-ga, To-ga!")
• 1979 Dracula; The Seduction of Joe Tynan
• 1980 Coal Miner's Daughter; The Blues Brothers
• 1981 Ghost Story (the book's better, but look at the stars: Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Patricia Neal - like Cocoon does Horror)                                        On Golden Pond (another movie full of old fogeys - Fonda and Hepburn)
• 1982 The Thing (holds up very well compared with recent remake, mind-blowing Rob Bottin make-up)
• 1983 Scarface (boffo finale, but 170 minutes ????)
• 1984 Sixteen Candles (this film and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are John Hughes' best films - delightful throughout, great ensemble cast, great score - as you would expect in a John Hughes flick)
• 1985 The Breakfast Club (this is No3, Simple Minds music helps)