Rating: 
Summary: To the Shelf
Review: In my attic I have erected the "Shelf of Shame," upon which reside the lowest, most absurdly-plotted trash novels it has ever been my misfortune to read. I go there, from time to time, in the hope that through some form of sympathetic magic, I will absorb their peculiar vibrations, and so forewarned, will detect their literary kin lying in wait in bookstores, and be able to fend them off.My guard must have been down. I looked at the cover, I read the blurb - - Marines, hostile environment, mysterious events - - everything I look for in a pulp fiction adventure. If paperbacks cost less, you wouldn't feel so bad about throwing them across the room. In an attempt keep my investment from being a total loss, I compounded my original mistake by committing a second one: I kept reading. (Note: I was really violating my own rule here. In my experience, if they start bad, they never get better. I will say in my own defense, that I was only on page five at the time, and I had never before considered giving up on a book as early as this.) It appears that the man who wrote this book knows absolutely nothing about guns, the United States Marine Corps, the laws of probability, or the effects of hypothermia upon the human body. Although there are many bad books in my attic, I will create a special category for this one, since it is simultaneously the worst Ice-Survival / Science Fiction / Special Ops book ever published.
Rating: 
Summary: Ice Station sizzles with action it melts the ice!
Review: When I initially bought this book I had some reservations about a military story line, but that quickly altered as Matt Reilly provides a fast pace action with a variety of antgonists (human and non-human alike).Ice Station sort of turns into an Area 51 in the Antarctica for me.The hero certainly shows he can dish it out as well take it and this kind of action fills the book cover to cover. I already have my order placed for Matt Reilly's next book, "The Temple" and I think this style of writing would make for an excellent new movie hero that mixes James Bond with an Indiana Jones adventurer.I have Matt Reilly on my list of authors to look out for in the future.
Rating:
Summary: For James Bond/Dirk Pitt fans only.
Review: If you're a fan of James Bond and Dirk Pitt, you'll really like this book. The hero is sort of an amalgam of Bond and Pitt and Indiana Jones and several others. And he survives more "certain death" situations in one book that all the rest combined. Yes, some of it (ok, a lot of it) is totally illogical. But if you can suspend about 95% of your disbelief, it's quite a fun read. Those readers looking for a well-researched techno-thriller based on fact should pass on this one. They'll just be annoyed by all the impossible escapes and situations. So, if it's so illogical and unreal, why did I give it four stars?? Because I read it when I was home with a miserable flu. And for a few hours, this book made me completely forget about how bad I felt. Any book that can do that deserves four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Non-Stop Action
Review: I usualy ignore negative coments on book reveiws but the negative comments made about Ice Statin bother me. It is a great book and I couldn't put it down. Not only because of the action either. There is mystery, conspiracy gut renching surprises and much much more. Anyone who says there is no plot didn't read the book. The plot is very in depth and Matt Reilly thinks out and covers everything. Every scene in the book happens for a reason. Down to what the characters say, step on, pick up, look at, smell, hear, it all later fits into the story some how. Don't let the bad reveiws turn you away read it for yourself. I am excited and nervous about possibly seeing this book as a movie. Because if it does become a movie it could either match the book and be great, or it could stray from the book and be a huge disapointment. I can't wait to read Matt Reilly's "Temple"
Rating:
Summary: a good aeroplane read!
Review: piffle to those who trounced this book! what a good read, i couldn't put it down! I have been reading action novels trying to find a modern day replacement for Dirk Pitt for years and i think i have found it! This book had it all - action, heartache, thrills, spills and some scifi aspects aswell. If we give the writer a few more books to fill out the background to these characters i think Clive Cussler will have quite a competition on his hands!
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it -- no fun
Review: I have to agree with the negative reviews. *Everything* has been sacrificed in an attempt to make a fast-paced action book: there's no plot, character or realism. The book is full of contrivances that serve to keep the action becoming derailed but they ring very hollow. Lots of cliches; lots of impossible escapes. In a few scenes, you skip ahead because what you are reading is just so embarrassingly awful. Reilly can't write and is trying to turn an overambitious screenplay into a book and, ultimately, a movie. Just not fun. Skip this and his others; try Clancy or Coontz or Patrick Robinson instead.
Rating:
Summary: Adventures for the truly ignorant
Review: My first impression on reading this book was that it had to have been written by a 13 year old, on the premise that nobody could possibly have completed more than a year's high school and still remain totally ignorant of medicine, physiology, physics, paleontology, genetics, evolution, astronomy, chemistry, and probability. Sadly, I was mistaken. This book makes the most ludicrous misstatements of fact on such a regular basis that one tends to wince with sheer embarrassment for the author at almost every page. Even the most imaginitive fantasy novels follow a more consistent and believable set of rules than this supposed action novel. Not leaving it there, every time the plot runs into trouble, we find the most staggering application of "chance" to move into the next phase, at odds that would make a lottery win every day by the same person seem commonplace by comparison. This isn't just _deus ex machina_, folks ... it's the whole damned pantheon! If your enjoyment of a book can be reduced by totally incredible events and misstated facts, then this book is definitely NOT for you ... unless, of course, you are as lacking in knowledge as the author and publisher appear to be.
Rating:
Summary: Good mindless escapism
Review: The author of this book is in some ways a fascinating character. He loved action adventure movies such as Star Wars. He realized that in any film there are limits. You can do so much with special effects, you have so much budget. With a book though there are no limits. It was his ambition to write books that are like the most high produced action moves ever made. He wasn't able to get his first book "Contest" published so that he published it himself. That book became something of an icon and will be republished soon. Ice Station is his second book. As a read it is hard to put down. It contains non-stop action set in Antarctica. The main hero is an American Marine squad leader who with a band of colorful characters rather like a 1940's war movie has to battle killer whales, mutant walruses. French and British Commandos. One of the interesting things about the book is that it does not fall into the pattern of using one of the normal run of "bad guys" which tend to be Arabs or Colombian drug lords. The opposition comes from counties normally in the American alliance. Reilly's next book was a little disappointing as it was set in a historical period and the various inaccuracies and plot devices became a bit more apparent. This book on the other hand being set in Antarctica can be read with minimal reality jarring. It is a masterwork in the category of books to read when you need to make time go such as when you are on a plane or a bus and you are looking for pure entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Ice Station
Review: I couldn't wait to turn each page!! You really need to get a life if you don't enjoy this book -- it's total fiction and a great escape from those fiction writers who want to delude you that their writings actually reflect reality in a parallel universe. I bought copies of Ice Station for many of my friends and look forwrd to the release of Temple. How can I get a copy of Contest?? (Matt Reilly should change Scarecrow Schofield's name to Nathan, though... it would fit the character much better.)
Rating:
Summary: Warning!
Review: Don't buy this book. Don't buy "Temple" - Reilly's next book, either. As a New Zealander, I am well acquainted with the way Australians make the English language sing. They seem to have a natural aptitude for the highly colourful phrase that Brits, Yanks, and Kiwis don't have. Reilly must be of mixed Brit / Kiwi / American blood. He has the ability to take an exciting passage of a story and turn it into something turgid, dull, utterly lacking in wit, style, or substance. It could be, of course, that Matthew Reilly is, in fact, 15 years of age: his prose reads like a junior high school pupil's B-graded Creative Writing effort. The situations are unbelievable, the characters are dull, witless, and unbelievable, and the writing has no charm. The quote from the Daily Telegraph on the back of the Australian edition of "Temple" sums it up: "There is no denying it. Matthew reilly has really arrived"(sic) What they don't say is where he was going. Back to school, I hope, to learn how to write.
| 
