Customer Reviews

Ice Station

5 star:		(152)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(75)

 

 

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.

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.

I was on the floor laughing by the time I finished this comic book. Reilly has done an outstanding job of spoofing all the Die Hard, Ah-nold, 007, Indiana Jones movies all in one book. His hero Schofield survives bullets, knives, killer whales, falls off 300 foot cliffs, mutant seven ton seals and a nuclear blast. As a techno-thriller genre it deserves zero stars, but as a spoof it gets five. This will make a great movie. Stick to screen plays, Reilly--novels aren't your talent.

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.

Wow - this book is dynamite. Terrific, absolutely non-stop action, action, action. Reflecting back on it, I thought I recalled one paragraph in there, along toward the middle, where not much was happening - but thumbing through again I never could find it. Ha! This book was a tremendous amount of fun to read, as I'm sure it was for the author to write. Mr. Reilly sure knows how to keep things perking right along - throwing in just about every conceivable plot twist, cliff-hanger surprise, stomach-churning thrills and spills, death-defying stunts and "risk everything" maneuvers. Our hero and his plucky allies (not all of whom are allies... another great bit of spice for the stew) definitely get put through the wringer. There were plenty of times I came to a new twist and went "Oh, no...." And plenty more times (like, right after the great hovercraft chase across the ice) when I wondered how he'd top what had already happened. "He can't top THIS..." Ha! But he *always* did. I am dismayed at the reviews where people condemn the book for not being a literary masterpiece, not another "War and Peace" or whatever. Come on! This is ENTERTAINMENT, not classic lit! This is the stuff comic books and movie serials used to be made of! This is Saturday Afternoon at the Movies.... but in a book. A really fun fun fun book! Heck, this is one of my top ten favorite reads this year (and yeah, I read a lot). Oh and by the way - I don't know if the "mag-hook" is real or a "sci-fi" invention, but I want one! Sounds like a really useful toy... er, I mean, TOOL! Guess I need to call the hardware store....

I cannot remember reading a book as bad as this one. I kept thinking it was going to get better, so I continued. It wasn't the writing. so much as the author's obvious reluctance or inability to do any research to verify any of his statements. His position seems to be that since he's writing fiction, he can simply make up everything, as it suits him. I began to suspect this when he started using the killer whales(Orcas) as villains to devour folks. In fact, they never, ever do that!It went downhill from there. He obviously has not even rudimentary knowledge of scuba, nitrogen saturation, etc and made no attempt to be realistic factually in any way.I have been a science fiction-fantasy fan for years, and the best is always rooted in truth as the starting place.

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.

Creative license is one thing. A writer of a "techno-thriller", however, has some reponsibility for accuracy. If you know nothing about the military, weapons, physics, biology and oceanography, and if you just don't care, read this book. If it won't bother you as the author "defines" basic concepts incorrectly, read this book. If, with your fiction, you expect a basic level of fact, look elswehere. If wide continuity gaps disturb you, look elsewhere. This book reads like a "B" movie where the hero shoots 26 times from a revolver, or the helicopter that lands is a Huey and the one that takes back off is a Jet Ranger. I don't know if the author simply doesn't know his subject or doesn't believe that it's important to get it right in a novel. If the publisher paid copy editors to fact check this book, it doesn't show. Willing suspension of disbelief is one thing, the willingness to accept glaring inaccuracy is another. Like him or not, Mr. Clancy has set the standard in this genre. Work at the level of Mr. Reilly's has not been acceptable in many years.

No exaggeration, this is the worst book I have ever read, and I read a lot of bad books. I think the original forward said something like "deer mr Jerry Bruckheimer, this iz my movie skript. I rote it at recess. pleeze make it a movie." What is most upsetting is that it had real potential. I think a technical advisor and a couple more cycles through the editor would have really turned this into a good, entertaining read. Instead, we get something that reads like the stories I used to write in my junior high school creative writing class.

Teacher: "Mr. Reilly, your assignment is to write a story using every silly action movie cliché at least twice." Student: "Even the really stupid ones that have been considered done-to-death since the mid 1980s?" Teacher: "Use each of those at least 10 times."

Other reviewers have mentioned his overuse of italicized words, so I won't get into that, but how many exclamation points do I need to tell me that something is supposed to be exciting? Shouldn't I be able to figure that out by myself? "Then Scarecrow pulled out his gun!! And a grenade with a five second fuse came bouncing around the corner! Then Scarecrow ran and saved his friends! And he said something witty!! And did 12 other things that would take at least 10 minutes of time to do! Then the grenade went off!!"

As far as accuracy goes, I am usually willing to forgive a lot, but is there actually anyone in the world who believes that killer whales would hunt people like this? Is there any part of the world that hasn't been subjected to "Free Willy"? I would not have been more shocked if it had been a group of baby chickens that had swam up out of the depths and started eating everyone. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop -- for the author to tell us that the whales were genetically modified or specially trained by the French, or that radiation had altered them, or anything. But no. He (and all of his proofreaders) just didn't know any better.

If you are under 14 years old, think jean-claude van damme is a great actor, or live in a plastic bubble, you will probably love this book. Otherwise, don't waste your time. I would have burned my copy, but the neighbor's cat had already dragged it off and buried it deep in his sandbox.

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