Trvalo mi až překvapivě dlouho, než jsem se odhodlala k přečtení první knihy od dua Lincoln Child a Douglas Preston. Od té doby však, vždycky, když mám pocit, že potřebuju rapidně změnit žánr, odreagovat se, utéct čtecí krizi, nebo si jen spravit chuť po knize, která mi tak úplně nesedla, neváhám. Protože jejich knihy, jsou pro mě, sázkou na jistotu. Doteď vlastně sama nechápu, jak je možné, že dokáží z naprosto neuvěřitelných reálií, vytvořit příběh, který se ne jen zdá reálný, ale vlastně naprosto přirozený. Natož pak, jak se stane, že vás kniha o šutru, donutí tajit dech, a hltat stránku za stránkou. Nemluvě o tom, že v jejich podání ani obyčejný šutr, vlastně není, jen tak obyčejný šutr. Jednoduše, můžu jen konstatovat, že kdo umí, ten umí.

It's only been about a week since I read this book, but I'm already hazy on the details, so this will be vague.

Basically, this super-rich guy hires an engineering firm with a perfect record of doing the "impossible" to extract a meteorite from the ground of a Chilean island off of Cape Horn. In the wintertime. Without Chile's government officials finding out about it. Of course things go wrong.

This was an odd mixture of a book that I couldn't put down and a book that felt like it was creeping along. I could have done without a lot of the day-to-day engineering feats they pulled off. They didn't all add to the story's plot.

I was pretty conflicted about who the bad guys and good guys were. This isn't a very black-and-white book.

I saw where it was going. Overall, I think anyone who reads the back cover has a good idea what's going to happen. But there's a sudden twist in the very last sentence, and I even saw that coming from a little way out. Maybe because I've read both Bill Bryson's [book: A Short History of Nearly Everything] and Dan Brown's [book:Deception Point] recently. In fairness, without those, I would have been clueless and maybe a little more weirded out.

And that brings up the fact that I couldn't help comparing this book with Deception Point. The plots weren't all that similar, but they do both involve unique meteorites. I would recommend Deception Point instead of this one. I read it much more quickly, heavy foreshadowing and all, and just overall enjoyed it more.

This book wasn't bad, it just wasn't gread. I've only read one other Preston/Child book, [book:Thunderhead], and I would recommend it instead of this one too. I enjoyed it. I will keep reading these guys, though.

Not the best by Preston and Child, but still a fun read. I still prefer the Pendergast series by far.

My opinion:
To some degree all [most] adventure novels are predictable. Such as the protagonist usually survives.
In King Solomon's Mines, one of the greatest adventures novels ever written, you never feared for the life of Allan Quartermain because he is writing the story after the fact. However, Haggard still took you on a journey thats ending was certain, but You didn't know the events that might take place. [You had a general idea.]
The Ice Limit
At no point in this entire novel was I shocked. As soon as they mentioned the "Deadman's switch", I KNEW that the mission was going to be a failure.
You can write that on a check and take it to the bank.
As soon as the captain mentioned the story of her ancestor, I knew the ship was going to sink and I knew they would be stranded on an Ice island.
The other "twist", the Commandante pursuing the ship. 100% going to happen. Under no circumstances was that ever not going to happen. The surprise fact he was his son, dumb. Out of place. A pure Macguffin.
And the ending seed thing, not even worth bashing.

Credit:
Not badly written. The beginning is well written. You grow to like a lot of the characters. It takes a weird focus on Eli, who is a pompous arrogant, know-it-all. It seems like the author wants you to sympathize with him, but you don't. At least I didn't.
I think you generally get invested in the success of the mission. But you KNOW it isn't going to be successful, thus it kill most of your willingness to dive fully in.

I don't regret reading, but would never read it again.

I was hesitant to start this novel. I am a true fan of the Lincoln / Child team and their work. To be honest, I was hesitant to get involved again in their series, knowing that it might sideline my other planned readings. I'm afraid I might have been right. The story has a great deal of action and the characters each are unique and flawed. I really enjoyed some of the major characters. A few didn't quite develop as much as I hoped, but they still emerged from the tragedy (oops) changed. I am now going to have to roll into the Gideon Crew series to line up for the sequel to this novel.

Here we go...

Preston & Child recently revealed that they are writing a sequel to this book entitled "Beyond the Ice Limit." That announcement caused me to pick this book up again. Didn't disappoint on the second go-around.

no stars, only review
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I read another Preston and Childs book and really enjoyed the adventure. It was like a crazy roller-coaster ride with scientists. So I looked for early books in the series. Turns outs, it's not a series so much as it's a style.

This is the tale of a mysterious meteor located in an extremely isolated location, a scientist's obsession with interstellar meteors, and a rich man's ...uh...well, riches. The team heads down to Chile to retrieve the largest asteroid known to man, and encounters plenty along the way...some to be expected, perhaps even cliche, while there are enough surprises to keep you hooked.

I previously likened the archeologist to Daniel Jackson and I'm going to reiterate that here...this is not only something that Daniel would do, it's kind of what his specialty is.

Klappentext: "Ein geheimnisvoller Riesenmeteorit soll hinter dem Rücken der chilenischen Behörden mit Hilfe einer Crew ausgewählter Wissenschaftler und Techniker auf einer Insel im südlichen Eismeer geborgen und dann abtransportiert werden. Dass der Kapitän des speziell ausgerüsteten Schiffes eine Frau ist, mindert die zunehmenden Spannungen bei der gefahrvollen Expedition nicht. Bald erweist sich die in allen Mythen prophezeite Warnung, der Stein bringe Unheil, als nur zu wahr."

Die Thematik des weiblichen Kapitäns kam meiner Meinung nach in dem Roman etwas zu kurz. Der Mittelpunkt der Erzählung um McFarlane, einem verräterischen, versessenen Metroritenjäger und seinem Auftraggeber, dem strategisch brillanten Glinn, ist jedoch nicht minder interessant. In seinem Versuch, seine Theorie zu beweisen, dass es möglich sei, dass Meteoriten eines anderen Sonnensystems auf der Erde landen, wird das eine oder andere Gesetz übergangen.
Insgesamt eine leichte aber spannende Lektüre mit technischen, nautischen und astrophysischen Aspekten mit einer Spur Mystery, was von mir aber positiv bewertet wird.

I recently read Thunderhead (which I loved) so I wanted to keep going on the non-Pendergast Preston and Child books. This book moves more slowly than other books I've read by them. I think I struggled to care about the task that they were aiming to complete, but by the end I was intrigued enough by the characters and the mysterious meteorite, I ended up enjoying this book overall.

There were a couple of rather predictable moments, even more so if you've read anything else by Preston and Child, but those were the moments that helped pull me into the story so I appreciated them. I thought the little twist at the end was quite fun.