The Ice Limit by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Ice Limit
Book Review: Good for a Long Flight
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Ice Limit" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Warner Books, 2000.In the first few pages of the book, Nestor Masangkay is zapped when he touches a meteor that he has found on an isolated island off the southern most tip of Chile. Then, for the next 180 pages or so, you are waiting in suspense for the entire expedition (set up by an American billionaire) to be zapped as they are digging up the bright red meteor. Of course, you know that the entire crew can not be killed, as you have another 250 or pages to read, BUT!, the suspense is there as you turn page after page.
Being chased by a destroyer of the Navy of Chile has to be better justified , in my opinion. The chase chapter, however, a cat and mouse game, (and on storm-tossed seas), keeps you reading. Towards the end you just know that the meteor will go to the bottom, but again, the book leaves you wondering as to what will happen next. This is a fine book to keep you entertained as you travel on a long flight cross country or across the Atlantic.
Book Review: Good story but not quite there
Summary: 4 Stars
You know how it is - you read the blurb and get all excited, can't wait to get home and start right away? That's how this book sounded from the blurb and overall, it was a pleasant page turner. Novels like this usually are lacking in characterization and this is better than most, I'll grant. Yet the types were still rather formulaic - overbearing rich industrialist, logical, unflappable engineer, steely captain, wacky genius, etc.
The plot is simple - a Bill Gates-type industrialist learns of the existence of a huge meteorite near the tip of SOuth America. He pays an enormous sum to a team to recover the rock. They meet up with a rogue Chilean sea captain who has suspicions over their state intentions. They dig & find the meteorite. I kept waiting for the REAL secret to come out and when it did I wanted to say, Is that it? Actually the science was fairly accurate except when speculation was needed when the physics becomes murky and we get a lot of "This-can't-be-determined" answers. The action was fast-paced and all the parts were well-integrated Of course, the meteorite is more than it appearsl of course there is dissension; of course they succeed in their task but at what cost? Give it a whirl.
Book Review: Great
Summary: 4 Stars
I could easily see this book being turned into a movie-- one that I would probably go see. The storyline is dramatic, the characters motivations well-fleshed out, and the Crichton-esque science believable. Fans of Eli Glinn and Effective Engineering Solutions will appreciate his pivotal role. However, fans of Agent Pendergast-- fyi: he does not appear in this book.Book Review: Great ... until the last twenty pages
Summary: 3 Stars
This book teases the reader with allusions to legends of horrific ice monsters feasting on unwitting sailors, but quickly resolves into an extremely interesting novel of the engineering feats required to find, excavate, and transport a meteor of immense mass and unknown dangers.
The characters are generally interesting and mostly likable, with an interesting mix of quirks and strengths. The plot seems largely believable, or at least sufficiently entertaining to allow willing suspension of disbelief (with one glaring exception, noted below.)
Unfortunately, all of this begins to unravel during the book's final act. After watching a main character carefully analyze, plan, and prepare for every contingency, we are suddenly asked to believe he could not guess the motives of the key antagonist (motives that are all-too-clear to the reader), opening himself and his team to terrible dangers. To make matters worse, he apparently enjoys making mistakes (or is perhaps making up for a lifetime of NOT making mistakes), since he begins channelling Bob Denver's Gilligan for the remaining dozen pages causing problem after problem, dragging other characters in after him, until the final moments of the book. I think the worst moment consists of a strange reference to the "2001:A Space Odyssey" ending that is too short to add much meaning to the story, but too long to have been accidentally left in the book by careless editing.
The plot device of the all-knowing hero who becomes a befuddled, bumbling fool to keep the plot moving is endlessly frustrating, and degrades the rest of this otherwise excellent story.
I'm not totally sorry I read it, but I do feel a bit let down by the closing moments of the story.
Of course, the last few sentences *almost* make up for it.
But not quite.
Book Review: Great Storytelling
Summary: 4 Stars
the ice limit had one of the most interesting plots around...i'll be honest, every time someone talks about something of epic proportions, bigger and better (in this case the meteor), i am interested!i loved the whole story trying to figure out the danger the meteor presented and the project to get it home...its just a great story EXCEPT....yes, there is ONE flaw...this book ranked as one of my all time favorites until the cheesy ending which i wont give away and deprive you all of a great novel...this should never have been written, it was downright ludicrous..the earthquakes from the meteor were cool i guess, but the plant like thing it did? come on, Preston and Child are better than that