Ice Station

Rating:
Summary: Getting it, or not.
Review: One of the things I see about reviews concerning authors like Matthew Reilly and James Cobb is a preponderance of people saying "This was so inaccurate..." Newsflash, it's an action story, not a technical manual. Reilly even goes so far as to cite the consultants he has and to mention that if mistakes were made in technical accuaracy, he made them for the story. To that I say, heck yeah. Reilly turns in consistent page turners that have compelling characters in ridiculous situations time and again. THEY'RE FUN! And meant to be that way. So if you approach a book of this genre expecting to find that every bit and bauble of the real world will be accurately represented...well, you just flat out don't get the genre, nevermind this guy's writing. If you can let go of reality for a day or so and enjoy a fast paced read with fun characters, pick up Reilly. He always said his goal was to write books that moved at the breakneck speed of an action movie, and he has delivered on that promise time and again.

Rating:
Summary: can I rate it less than 1 star?
Review: Where to begin? The writer seems to feel that it is important to end every sentence with an exclamation point! or to italicize every other! word to give! it that extra! punch! What happened to using good writing style to ensure that the reader is properly motivated to turn the page? Never mind the fact that falling into antarctic water would pretty much kill a normal person within minutes, these guys are swimming around like they're in the tropics. Never mind the fact that there has never been a recorded instance of a killer whale attacking/eating a human, this pod is eating everyone in sight. Elite commandoes devise entertaining ways to kill their adversaries (the way the Penguin and Joker always tried to off Batman & Robin)instead of using their training to kill quickly and efficiently. Far-fetched can be good fiction but this was beyond trash.

Rating:
Summary: Full of Action
Review: Yeah, OK, not everything in the book is belivable but it IS fiction. Having said that, this book rips! I couldn't put it down. Just non stop action full of twists that makes it hard to stop reading. If you like Ice Station, check out Area Seven, the continuation of Scarecrow's adventures.

Rating:
Summary: Less than palatable
Review: I would have to agree with those people who bagged this book. It is absolute garbage. The initial opening was reasonably interesting, but after that it takes a very quick noise dive into the depths of serious BS.

One can only imagine that the author gets a rise form stories such as Rambo. Its main character, one Shane Schofeild alias `scarecrow', manages to almost single handily wipe out an entire unit of supposedly crack SAS troops, fall off a 300 foot ice cliff in to the freezing ocean, survive the waves and swim to an ice berg some 200 metres off shore, and then blow up a submerged French sub: just in a days work right? I must have missed the page where it said that `only kryptonite can kill this guy', and as for his wet suit, was that a blue jump suite with red under pants on the outside, and a red cape. If Rambo gets a credibility rating of -10 then this character takes the cake.

Beware members of the international community. Apparently you're at war with the US. Perhaps Tony Blare, John Howard and a few other countries leaders should have been told this fact before they sent troops to Iraq. (May be that's why the French and Germans didn't go ??).

Sorry, but in fear of chocking on my own vomit I gave up after 500 pages. You would have to be either a member of the white sheet, pointy hat brigade or think the sun shines out of the back side of the star spangled banner to think this book is any good.

My first and last read from Matthew J. Reilly.