Black Ice [Paperback]

Matt Dickinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

Adventurer Carl Norland and celebrity explorer Julian Fitzgerald have teamed up in an attempt to walk across Antarctica at its widest point, a crossing of some 2,000 frozen miles. Success would place their names alongside those of such polar legends as Scott, Shackleton, and Admundsen, but when their goal proves beyond their reach, a frantic rescue begins.
 
Hundreds of miles away at drilling station Capricorn, scientist Laura Burgess and her team have made a discovery that will stagger the scientific world. News of their discovery must wait, however, as an urgent plea for rescue reaches the remote camp. Into a gathering storm, the rescuers race to snatch the dying adventurers from nature's hungry grasp.

But even the Antarctic's unending whiteness cannot hide the utter darkness of a madman's heart. Just as salvation seems imminent, a terrible secret threatens to turn the saviors into unwitting victims. And all the while, nature gathers her strength, determined to lay claim to them all…

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

All good tales of Antarctic adventuring, whether fiction or nonfiction, feature a murderously difficult trek across a boundless expanse of frozen icescape. Dickinson's foray into the genre is no exception. Famed British explorer Julian Fitzgerald and Norwegian Carl Norland, his partner, are attempting to walk across Antarctica at its broadest point and have fallen short of the mark by 80 miles. When the plane sent to rescue them crashes, their only hope for salvation is the scientific station Capricorn, some 300 miles away. Capricorn is a drilling base headed by scientist Lauren Burgess, who, along with her four-person team, has made a startling discovery in a fresh water lake that lies 2,000 feet under the ice beneath the base. Lauren rushes off with love-interest Sean and rescues the two explorers, but winter sets in, preventing evacuation, and Fitzgerald is soon revealed to be a black-hearted villain plotting a triumphant return to England as the hero of the expedition-even if he has to kill everyone else in the process. Norland dies in a disastrous fire that destroys the base, forcing the team, hounded by a now insane, ax-wielding, snowmobile-mounted Fitzgerald, to trek back to the site of the original plane crash, where there is a transmitter. Dickinson (The Other Side of Everest) certainly knows his stuff, having personally cheated death on both Everest and the Antarctic ice. Readers unfamiliar with the stories of real Arctic explorers-Shackleton, Scott, Byrd, etc.-will find this a more exciting read than those already acquainted with the fascinating true life stories.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

OUTSTANDING REVIEWS FOR
MATT DICKINSON'S
BLACK ICE
"A really taut thriller full of suspense and genuinely exciting." --Publishing News (U.K.)
 
"A ripping good adventure yarn with a thoroughly admirable heroine, a suitably black-hearted villain and such vivid descriptions of the sheer agony and awfulness of Antarctica you'll be reaching for the central heating switch as you read." --Irish Independent
 
"Matt Dickinson writes a taut thriller set in the icy wastes in such a way that you have to keep reading. Reaching the end will leave you impatient for his next book." --Yorkshire Gazette & Herald (U.K.)
 
"Exciting and fascinating reading." --Daily Mail (U.K.)
 
THE CRITICS ALSO LOVE
MATT DICKINSON'S
THE OTHER SIDE OF EVEREST
"Dickinson has an eye for meaningful detail and storytelling talent--a rollicking, insightful, and harrowing ride." --The New York Times Review of Books
 
"Gripping--the action more than lives up to its promise. Dickinson takes the reader through the steps of his climb with humor, wisdom and a minimum of bravado--a thought-provoking exploration of nature and man's will to master it." --Los Angeles Daily News
 
"Dickinson brings the fresh perspective and wide eyes of the novice to mountaineering's most enduring saga--the result is an absorbing narrative that vividly portrays, step by agonizing step, his slow climb to the summit."

--Mercator's World 
 
"Although Dickinson's work follows in the tracks of Jon Krakauer's INTO THIN AIR and Anatoli Boukreev's THE CLIMB, it is anything but a 'me too' book about climbing Mt. Everest during the spring of 1996 ... Dickinson has his own story to tell, and he tells it very well.... [His] descriptions of climbing are careful and informative, taking nothing for granted. His forceful narrative makes a worthy addition to the growing Everest library." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review!)

"Dickinson's book reads like a thriller, pacy and exciting, giving a good flavor of the sublime misery of climbing at extreme altitude. It is a real page-turner ... fresh and vivid." --Guardian

"Gripping." --The Sunday Times (London)

"[His] excitement at being there is infectious." --Times Literary Supplement

"This is a gripping account of filming--and surviving--in the death zone." --Mail on Sunday (London)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312989326
• ISBN-13: 978-0312989323
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,496,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Read, November 26, 2006

By 

M. Alley "EVOCDude" (Dutch Flat, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Ice (Paperback)

Some of what others here have written is true, but I quite vehemently disagree with the person who typified the book as "too sexist for belief." That couldn't be more wrong. Lauren, the FEMALE protagonist, is the proverbial Rock that kept the entire station together through any and all amounts of adversity. She was The Leader from beginning to end! Yes, she made one particularly frustrating decision, but not ALL the men are perfect either -- many are weak, shallow and, considering Fitzgerald, the MALE antagonist, much worse.

I found Dickinson's book to be engrossing and quite realistic. He clearly has the Cold Adventure Chops to write about this kind of thing, considering his 1996 venture up Mt. Everest which resulted in his 2000 book "The Other Side Of Everest" -- already well reviewed here at Amazon. In fact, I just ordered his non-fiction book whilst writing this review. And no, I'm not a Dickinson Shill. I simply purchase what pleases me and what looks good.

I'll not be a Plot Spoiler here; simply suffice to say that, if you're looking for a realistic portrayal of Antarctic adventure, this is your book. The book isn't sexist or racist or ageist or iceist or any other kind of "ist" you can imagine.

Someone had an agenda in that review and, for whatever reason, a good read wasn't on it.

Bottom line? You can't beat an excellent adventure like this for $6.99.

Just a HAIR dissatisfying? Fitzgerald's future. On the other hand, one could say that Dickinson took the superior stance and avoided going for the obvious in terms of retribution and revenge.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Artic Adventure, March 29, 2007

By 

Michael Harano "sparky309" (San Clemente, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Ice (Paperback)

Very entertaining book on survival in the Artic. Brings out the excitement of survival from both the extreme elements and a murderous adventurer. Enjoyed it very much.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Antarctic Adventure, December 27, 2006

By 

Kara J. Jorges "Avid Reader" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Ice (Paperback)

Lauren Burgess is fulfilling the dream of a lifetime running Capricorn Base, a scientific research station in the Antarctic interior. Three hundred miles away, an expedition consisting of famous explorer Julian Fitzgerald and his companion, Carl Norland, has run into trouble. The two men would have been the first to cross Antarctica on foot at its widest point if they hadn't run out of supplies and begun starving to death 80 miles from the goal. The rescue plane they summon crashes, so Lauren and one of her four teammates, Sean, ride to the rescue, taking the two explorers and Richard, a journalist who survived the crash, back to Capricorn to wait out the winter. It is soon apparent that Julian Fitzgerald is not the hero the media has made him out to be; rather he is dangerously reckless with resources and lives, and Lauren and Sean believe he kept food supplies to himself while leaving Carl and Richard to starve while awaiting rescue. When he announces his plans to finish his trek, demanding a ride back to the crash site to resume his journey, Lauren refuses, and his behavior really gets out of control. Suffice it to say, the team at Capricorn Base finds themselves on the run with almost no resources, in a race to find rescue in the most inhospitable place on earth.

While the story is intriguing and compelling, there were a few minor weak points. Julian Fitzgerald vacillates between being paranoid and just a spoiled brat in a way that lacks consistency. Also, while I liked the outcome, the ending left me feeling cheated. We had been with these characters through an entire Antarctic winter, suffered every step with them on their arduous journey, felt all their hunger and pain, and in the end, though we know their fate, they fade into the background instead of having the book show us their triumph. The same number of pages in the postscript that focused elsewhere would have been better spent with our team of six hardy heroes, and delivering comeuppance to the villain. That was an event I DESERVED to see after all I vicariously went through at his expense, but it didn't happen.

While it is a black mark against it, the ending does not ruin the book because I did like the outcome, and overall it was very well written. Though it contained the clichéd scene of the good guy being too good to finish the villain when she had the chance, thereby needlessly further endangering her team before belatedly growing the spine needed to try to fix things when it was already too late, it was still nonetheless a very good Antarctic thriller. I don't think I've ever read a book with better descriptions of that continent and its frozen landscape. The heroes were also a likeable lot, and the villain deliciously detestable, as they should be in a good adventure tale. In all, Black Ice is a satisfying page-turner.