Ice Station [Mass Market Paperback]

Matthew Reilly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2000

Anarctica is the last unconquered continent, a murderous expanse of howling winds, blinding whiteouts and deadly crevasses. On one edge of Antarctica is Wilkes Station. Beneath Wilkes Station is the gate to hell itself...

A team of U.S. divers, exploring three thousand feet beneath the ice shelf has vanished. Sending out an SOS, Wilkes draws a rapid deployment team of Marines-and someone else...

First comes a horrific firefight. Then comes a plunge into a drowning pool filled with killer whales. Next comes the hard part, as a handful of survivors begin an electrifying, red-hot, non-stop battle of survival across the continent and against wave after wave of elite military assassins-who've all come for one thing: a secret buried deep beneath the ice...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After a team of American scientists at Wilkes Ice Station discover what seems to be a spaceship in a four-million-year-old cavern below the ice, two of the divers disappear while checking out the craft. Lt. Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield and his highly trained team of Marines respond to the scientists' distress signal. By the time the leathernecks reach Wilkes, three days later, one of the scientists has killed another, six more members of the Wilkes team have disappeared in the ice cave and eight French scientists from a nearby station are for some reason at the U.S. base. Would the French government kill Americans to capture a frozen UFO? Probably: six of the French "scientists" turn out to be the members of the French special forces. From that discovery onward, this first novel offers nonstop thrills as Schofield and his team fight for their livesAand for those of the remaining American scientistsAagainst French and British commandos and a secret American spy group; against killer whales and strange aquatic mammals; and against time, for both the French and British commandos harbor "eraser" plans to wipe out all survivors in case of mission failure. Reilly's debut evokes a host of predecessors, including Jaws, The Andromeda Strain, The X-Files and the combat novels of Tom Clancy. It also echoes the work of Ian Fleming, as the outrageously heroic Schofield comes off as less a real Marine than a fantasy action figure on a par with Bond. There's not much that's original hereAeven the set-up is reminiscent of the classic SF film The Thing, about a saucer buried in Arctic iceAbut Reilly doesn't really need to be original, not at the pace at which he whips his story line past readers. Employing crude but effective prose, a nonstop spray of short, punchy paragraphs and cliffhangers galore, this is grade-A action pulp. (Sept.) FYI: Ice Station was previously published by Pan Macmillan in Reilly's native Australia, where it sold 30,000 copies.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Fans of Clive Cussler will enjoy this first novel by Australian author Reilly. Set in Antarctica, Ice Station pits a group of U.S. Marines against a host of unexpected adversaries. Buried deep in the ice, in a layer 100 million years old, is something that arouses the greed of governments around the globe. Their respective Special Forces units are unleashed in this inhospitable land in a race to claim the hidden treasure. The book moves along at a good pace, and as with all well-told military thrillers there are plenty of unexpected twists, turns, and betrayals. Reilly's characters are colorful and engaging, and his bad guys are more wrong-headed than evil. The laws of science are sometimes shunted aside to make way for improbable weaponry and impossible situations, but that's just part of the fun. Recommended for public libraries with large military fiction collections.APatrick Wall, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Spartanburg
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (September 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312971230
• ISBN-13: 978-0312971236
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (385 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #439,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Reilly is the international bestselling author of eight novels: The 6 Sacred Stones, 7 Deadly Wonders, Ice Station, Temple, Contest, Area 7, Scarecrow, and the children's book Hover Car Racer, and one novella, Hell Island. His books are published in more than eighteen languages in twenty countries, and he has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, I really enjoyed the ride! May 14, 2004

By Jackie Tortorella VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The things that irked other reviewers didn't bother me a bit. Sure it was unbelievable...geez...why pick up an action thriller if you want a documentary? Ice Station was definitely action-packed, and the characters were well drawn, especially for a first novel. I won't recount the story, as that's been done over and over, but will rather point out what I found enjoyable. The main character was likeable. The setting was exciting--I love arctic adventures. I felt like reading this book was a brief vacation from day-to-day life. It held my interest from beginning to end. I did notice the grammatical errors, but my purpose in reading it was to have a good time, and that I did! I notice that readers of this book also read Rollins--I'm certainly one of those. If you can set reality aside and allow your imagination to roll with the book, you won't be disappointed.

44 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an action book not literature. February 4, 2005

By G. E. Williams VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Usually, I like a book to challenge the way I think and feel. I like books to help me to be smarter or better. This is not one of those books. The author never pretends to be that kind of author. He is the kind of author you wish wrote the screenplays for action movies. He is a very young man, and writes the kind of stuff those appeals to him. Each of his books cover a very small period of time, usually less than a couple of days, because there is so much exciting action it would take a series of books to cover a week in one. Ice station is fun to read. The characters are really bad or really good the way people aren't, you always know who to hate and who to love. There are some great one liners that will make you laugh, and so much action you will finish this book in one reading. So if you want a fun action story that will not change your life, not tax your brain, but will keep you entertained... This is a book for you.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The key to understanding Matthew Reilly's books? March 20, 2008

By John Counsel

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I'm a non-fiction writer who also happens to be the father of 5 children aged from 38 to 18. I also happen to be Australian, like Reilly.

"Ice Station" was the first of Matthew Reilly's books that I read and, frankly, I was puzzled by it at first. I was exhausted by the pace and scope of the action, frustrated by the implausibility of much of that action and the lack of detailed settings and narrative embellishment, but impressed by his imagination and research.

My wife had several of Reilly's books, given to her by friends, which she refused to read because she found his style so irritating. I thought I'd suspend judgement and tackle them -- and I enjoyed them immensely, once I realised with which 'lens' his books need to be read.

The clue came during a family celebration at which four of my children, their spouses, boyfriends and children were present. During the course of the evening, game playing soon took priority on all available media -- PlayStation, Wii, PC et al -- and the penny dropped.

This was the "Sesame Street" and "gamers" generation, hallmarked by short attention spans, a demand for fast and furious action with a high degree of mental engagement and emotional disconnection, multiple layers of action that constantly escalates to new levels, no matter how implausible or over-the-top, caricatures rather than characters and sharp delineation between good and bad -- with regular splashes of uncertainty and treachery.

Does that sound like a snapshot of a typical Matthew Reilly novel?

In a sense, they're the embodiment of Marshall McLuhan's 1960s aphorism, "the medium IS the message"....

Now, I simply read a Matthew Reilly novel from the same frame of reference that I use to relate to my adult kids and, despite the initial superficiality of his style, I find them thoroughly enjoyable on their own merits.

The bottom line?

Reilly writes for his primary audience... his own generation. He is, after all, a product of that culture and he serves it well, on its own level. Shrewd marketing, indeed.

Baby Boomers need to make that paradigm shift to better understand and enjoy his work. It's worth the move.

John Counsel
Melbourne, Australia Read more ›

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what you expect... no, I mean it's *exactly* what you expect August 28, 2010

By Magin

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The reviewer pushed his dark and tousled hair away from his sweat-stained brow. He knew he was the best marksman in his class at Quantico, but the hard years in Special Forces X Branch hadn't dulled his instincts in the least. He was sharp. He was ready.

He looked around his oak and leather study at all the manly artifacts he had collected during his many expeditions to dangerous and exotic places. Child's play. This review was his toughest assignment yet.

How to capture a cast of one-dimensional characters? How to make each scene appear more contrived and unlikely than the last? How to fail at building momentum? What of the laughable dialogue, warmed-over cliches, and horrible stereotypes? How could he fit all that into just one novel... or even worse, one chapter?

More to the point, how could he create a review so utterly formulaic and predictable that readers would know precisely what would happen on the next page?

If only the reviewer had the talent of one Matt Reilly, who has made quite a pleasant career out of writing sophomoric macho fantasies that offer no suspense, no mystery, no character development, and no plot beyond the most rudimentary paint-by-numbers highschool schlock.

The reviewer sighed and turned from his desk, defeated. No mere mortal could hope to compete with Matt Reilly.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Very, very bad. A terrible waste of paper. June 26, 2000

By Mrs. S. Reilly

Format:Hardcover

This was without a doubt the worst book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. From the moment you pick it up to the moment you put it down you are continually assaulted by the most unrealistic, poorly researched, dribble you are ever likely to come across. The story struck me as some sort of high school writing assignment fleshed out to become a novel, and I have to wonder why any editor would give it the time of day. The characters have no depth, the action is so unrealistic that it is laughable and the attempts at plot twists leave you with your intelligence well and trully insulted, especially if you have any interest in the military. I found myself wondering if the author had bought himself a book on 'Special Forces of the world' and just plucked names at random without any real understanding of the military, it's weapons or it's people that is so vital in making a story like this work. When I bought this book I had high expectations having heard some favourable reviews on the radio but I'm affraid the only reason I forced myself to finish it was to see just how silly it could get and believe me, in this respect I was not dissapointed. I think Matthew Reilly should read a few novels by real military and science fiction authors and see how it should be done, but until then, please do not waste any more paper, not to mention inocent reader's time with any more books like this one.