Dry Ice [Hardcover]

Bill Evans (Author), Marianna Jameson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 16, 2011

In the frozen heart of Antarctica sits TESLA, a secret weather "research" station designed by Greg Simpson for Flint Agro-Chemical, a world-spanning agribusiness. Only a few people know that TESLA is creating weather all over the globe, granting Flint huge harvests and punishing the company's rivals with hailstorms and drought. Even fewer know that from time to time, Flint and TESLA help the Pentagon by providing just the right weather for a military operation. 

When Greg strikes a secret deal with the Pentagon, Flint executives decide to replace him with the beautiful and ultra-intelligent Tess Beauchamp. Arriving, Tess is surprised to find that Greg's second-in-command, Nik Forde, is even better looking than he was when they had a brief affair, ten years ago.

Tess doesn't have long to worry about the difficulties of a workplace relationship. Greg has barely left Antarctica--escorted by Flint security--when his secret, encrypted computer programs activate, sending fatal weather across the globe, striking every continent's grain-growing region and livestock-farming area. Tess and Nik must crack Greg's code and stop TESLA before the US government--unwilling to sit by and watch the planet's agriculture be destroyed by storm and fire, avalanche, and tsunami--launches a nuclear missile at the TESLA base.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Dry Ice:

It’s a great plot, scarier than a terrifying tornado, stronger than a horrible hurricane, but don’t worry, Bill Evans will bring you home safe and sound.”
--Regis Philbin

“Engrossing . . . features cutting-edge science and a globe-threatening attack that reads like tomorrow's terrifying headlines. Weather wonks will be in heaven.”
--Publishers Weekly

“Dry Ice is packed with weather disasters—and no one knows bad weather better than Bill Evans.  His expert’s touch makes Dry Ice compelling reading.”
--George Stephanopoulos, Anchor, Good Morning America and ABC News Chief Political Correspondent

“Dry Ice excites and entertains from first page to last.  Not just a great thriller, it’s sometimes funny and always deeply human.”
--Bill Cosby

“If you thought you knew Bill Evans from his affable, New York TV weathercasts, think again.  In Dry Ice, he proves to be a meteorological Merlin who conjures up a gripping plot twister.  Hang on to your raincoats, people.  We ain't in Kansas anymore!”
--Tom Bergeron, Host, Dancing with the Stars

“Evans skillfully wields his knowledge of meteorology to develop weather as a compelling and fearsome character in the action of the story. Bad weather has never been this good!”
--Sam Champion, ABC-TV Weather Editor 

Praise for Category 7:

"A superb thriller.  Suspenseful and shocking."--Clive Cussler, New York Times bestselling author

"A fast-paced action-adventure that promises a rousing finale and delivers it."--Booklist

About the Author

Bill Evans is the multiple Emmy Award-winning senior meteorologist for WABC, Channel 7 in New York City. He can be heard on WPLJ Radio and has appeared on Good Morning, America and many other television programs. Evans and his family live in Connecticut.

Marianna Jameson has extensive experience writing for the aerospace, defense, and software industries. She is also the author of Big Trouble and My Hero. She lives in Texas.

Together, Evans and Jameson have written the New York Times bestseller Category 7, as well as Frozen Fire.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (August 16, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765324725
• ISBN-13: 978-0765324726
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,228,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Over The Top and Laughable June 9, 2011

By David Girod VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I'll give "Dry Ice" a single star for the basic premise, but unless this was supposed to be a Parody of "Big Action" stories, then it fails miserably as a thriller.

The basic storyline is that there is a Weather "monitoring" station located in Antarctica, which in reality is a weather manipulation machine. The scientists at the TESLA station can manipulate weather to help Flint Agroculture increase profits by providing perfect weather for Flint properties, and by causing foul weather for competitors. Unfortunately a control-freak psychopath is running the installation and decides to create a weather related armageddon when he thinks he is going to be removed from the station.

Like I said, not a bad basis for a "popcorn" thriller. But things begin to get laughable as soon as we meet the "characters", see if you can detect a pattern here:

Greg Simpson - TESLA's chief scientist and resident lunatic (Bad Guy)
Tess Beauchamp - TESLA's incoming replacement chief scientist, beautiful, sexy & smart (Good Guy)
Gianni Barone - The greedy and self serving liason between TESLA and Flint Agriculture (Bad Guy)
Helena Hernandez - The forthright and peace seeking first Hispanic Female US President. (Good Guy)
Frederick Bonner - War Mongering Defense Secretary using TESLA for personal gain. (Bad Guy)
Maribeth Wonson - Presidential Secretary "perpetual serenity..utter unflappability" - (Good Guy)
Croyden Flint - Wealthy owner of Flint Agriculture, the money-man behind TESLA - (Bad Guy)
Carmel McTeague - While young, she is Flint's senior pilot (Good Guy)
Nik Forde - Cocky, immature and somewhat vindictive scientist who often thinks with his crotch (Tweener Guy)

I could list several more, but I'm sure you get the point.... Every female character is strong, independant, honest, valiant, heroic. Every male character is deeply flawed, dishonest, vindictive, murderous, liars or simply stupid. Even Lifetime Channel made-for-tv-movies don't feature this many male heel characters?! Even the female victims are portrayed as strong independant women, and we are supposed to feel sorry for them when bad things happen. Yet the males are usually asking for it, like playing golf in a severe thunderstorm, despite misgivings from their wives. It really became laughable, when a new character is introduced all you need to know is the gender whether they will be good or evil.

And one final note. Some of the writing is so over the top, you can't help but find yourself chuckling. Take this line. A horrific storm has struck a New England golf course, causing multiple deaths and injuries and we get:

"Those puny humans, often called the masters of the universe, cowered before this display of real power." (page 165)

Wow, simply wow. That sounds like a line out of an Ed Wood film or pulled from some Looney Tunes cartoon. So yes, "Dry Ice" is pretty bad if you choose to read it as a serious "thriller". Even if you want to pick it up for the unintentional comedy, I vote you save your money. While I did get a few chuckles, here and there, for the most part I found the whole thing pretty dull. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable read June 10, 2011

By W. D. Barnum VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is a book that is hard to put down once you get into the story. It makes for an enjoyable read.

At times the author gets a little "wordy" and seems to go into great detail (some might find it a bit too much detail) - especially at the beginning of the book.

It seems to be well researched - like Tess saying she grew up at "Wiz Mir" (White Sands Missile Range)- yes that is really what they call it - I know, I worked there in the 1970's, or the brief description of ELF communications with our "Boomers" while they are submerged. Little pieces of knowledge like that add a touch of reality to a book that some might call science fiction. (It is closer to reality than many of us would like to think.)

I can certainly recommend this book for a good summer beach book, or as one to curl up with in front of a roaring fire in the dead of winter.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Weather manipulator goes rogue! August 16, 2011

By Janet Dunn

Format:Hardcover

What happens when a master weather manipulator finds out he is being replaced? World chaos. Greg Simpson helped create TESLA, a weather manipulation station in Antarctica funded by Flint, an agrochemical company. Flint hopes to manipulate the weather to benefit their fields and hurt their competitors. When Flint executives suspect Simpson has gone rogue, they decide to replace him with an old colleague, Tess Beauchamp. Will Greg go quietly? Not likely, TESLA is his baby, and he will not allow anyone to come in and take over. He plants a logic bomb in the computer software that will set off a series of catastrophic events around the world. Can Tess and her team stop it before he destroys the Earth? A suspenseful thriller you won't be able to put down!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, very interesting July 28, 2011

By Darla Mcgranaghan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This was very entertaining and only took me a day to read. I really enjoyed the premise of the book the writing and story line were compeling and slightly over the top. This is a book I have passed to several others and only had one person that could not get through it.

The ability to influence the weather and natural occurances is the stuff of oldtime Sci-fi but more in the current relm of possibility. Scary stuff.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars High Octane Thriller!!! June 10, 2011

By Cynseer Booklover

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson have written a high octane thriller with Dry Ice. While parts of this story were fairly scientific in verbage, I was still captivated by the premise and the amount of anticipation that kept me glued to each page to see how it would finally be resolved. There were moments when I was sure that this might be written upon the basis of true events...which honestly scared the bejesus out of me....but I comfort myself that this is fiction...right??? Very well written and highly entertaining. I recommend it to those who are intrigued by modern day disasters and political suspense. Kudos to the authors!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad weather, bad book February 19, 2012

By Sandy Kay VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

My big mistake was forgetting I had read -- and not liked -- the earlier book written by the authors. My second mistake was in ignoring the poor reviews of this book. (Ignore the celebrity praise -- either they didn't read the whole book or they are trying to help the author by giving the book unwarranted praise.) It was a stinker. The basic concept has great promise -- what could be scarier than having our weather controlled by a madman? And I like thrillers with a female protagonist, so I took a chance on it. But the book fails to live up to the premise in plot details, character development and writing. This is one of the worst books I read all year. (I try not to read bad books -- life is too short to waste my time.) I only gave it 2 stars because the concept was fun. Take my advice, don't read this book. At the very least, don't buy the book. If you feel you absolutely must read it, borrow it from your local library.

The general story is that a global giant agri-chemical corporation has built a super advanced weather facility in Antarctica and uses it to benefit their business and harm their competitors. The facility also does some clandestine work for the U.S. Department of Defense. But Greg Simpson, the scientist who built the facility, has gone a little rogue so the company hires someone to replace him. But his replacement, Tess Beauchamp, is a former student and they have a bad relationship. Part of the manufactured drama is that the company sends Tess in (and takes Simpson out) at the very last time that planes can fly to and from the station until the end of winter -- the facility will be cut off from the rest of the world.... To add to the soap opera caliber drama, Tess and Nik Forde, Simpson's #2 man at the facility, had an affair when they were both Simson's fellowship students. Any decent villain would sabotage the station out of revenge for being pulled out of his own creation and Simpson does so. He activates a program that starts sending terrible storms to get revenge on the corporate officers and make it look like Tess is to blame. Now Tess and Nik have to figure out how to stop it before the government nukes the facility to stop the weather program.

The characters are all cariactures -- either all good or all bad. No nuance, no growth, no development. And there are two obviously different writing styles throughout the book. The description of the storms is the worst kind of overwrought prose (some of the passages are groan out loud ridiculous), while most of the rest of the book is standard action-thriller type writing. And there are many things in the story that don't make sense but I won't go into them and spoil the book for anyone who decides to read it after hearing how bad it is.

Bottom line: Don't bother reading this book. Read more ›