Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55275 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Despite the submarine cover art and the rather awkward title, Ice Hunt is no by-the-numbers military thriller: rather, it's a full-blooded, multidimensional adventure story set in the frozen wilds of Alaska, both atop the ice and underneath it. And it's one heck of a fun ride. Matthew Pike is a Fish and Game Officer cataloguing bear populations in the remote Brooks Range--but he's also an ex-Green Beret, which comes in handy when trouble drops out of the sky in the form of a crashed bush plane, a cryptic survivor and some very nasty and well-equipped pursuers. Meanwhile, an American submarine stumbles on an abandoned research station buried under the Arctic ice cap, unleashing a race to conceal the horrors that took place there and to capture the priceless scientific secret still locked within.

James Rollins invokes the polar environment so vividly you can hear the wind shriek and feel the ice forming on your nose and the scientific and medical puzzles at the story's heart may remind you of Michael Crichton's best. The characters, while mostly familiar hero or villain types, are crisply drawn and in some cases quite sympathetic, but it's the nonstop action that carries you along. During several climactic chase scenes, you may find yourself laughing in pure delight--or gasping for breath--as Rollins keeps finding ways to ratchet up the tension one more notch. Ice Hunt is an escapist's delight. --Nicholas H. Allison, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Another amazing book from James Rollins!!
This book was fantastic. If you're looking for a book that will keep you guessing right till the end, you have found it!! The plague/creature/radioactive artifact (so as not to spoil it for you) was slightly disappointing compared to Amazonia or Excavation, but still lots better than average and this very minor grumble was more than made up for by the creepiness of the ending which really makes you think...

I couldn't put this down. You are missing out if you don't read it!!!

ICE OVER (DONE)
For fans of Irwin Allen's VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, James Rollins ICE HUNT pays loving tribute to the style, tone and form of the film, mixed with similar types of action, pacing and storytelling. It's a throwback kind of thriller, pulpy, but fused with current technology and hard science...and if you like what you've read there, then stop reading here, because ICE HUNT is for you, but if you're looking for something more, something that bucks the standard cut and paste techno/adventure/science/submarine/thriller/monster hunt/spy vs. spy/cold war/science shocker/adventure, then ICE HUNT fails on all levels. To be blunt, the book is just plain boring. It has a rich idea, and Rollins does manage to mine some promise from the storyline at times (and if the book had been more geared towards the horror/thriller side of publishing, then ICE HUNT would have fared much better), but for the most part the book is dragged down by too much cardboard, mind numbing backstory (no one is happy in this book, at all, about anything, and it seems NO ONE had a happy childhood, marriage or career... and Rollins isn't content just to give his characters one or two problems, but EVERY problem he can imagine...the leads, Matt and Jenny, alone in the book suffer through a host of problems that most people don't suffer in two lifetimes, let alone one, and all in the space of 394 pages), "one thing after another" action and repeative exposition (Rollins often repeats action from the previous chapter to remind readers of what has happened early on in the book, and by the end he has it repeated sometimes from paragrpah to paragraph), dialouge, and overly clipped and metaphor heavy writing (although to give Rollins credit, there are only so many ways you can write about snow and ice, and Rollins uses them all here, by the close of the book we've moved from the hard science of ice and snow down into Middle Earth where everything looks like dragons bones, teeth and claws). This book really seems less written for the reader, and more written for the small screen. It's a treatment, nothing more. Fused with all the bells and whistles a television mini-series craves for sweeps, if sold, I'm sure will be a big hit. But as a book, ICE HUNT doesn't reward you for the effort put into it. A bigger book for Rollins, some better ideas found inside, but still not a breakthrough... be brave, James, fear not, the fans will follow you even if you break with tradition and blaze a new trail.

Wow......
What can I say - not too much - don't want to give the plot away - take my word for it you have just got to read this book. It keeps you up till all hours and keeps you on your toes as the action gets more thrilling with each turn of the page - Just remember to breathe!!!