"The Ice Limit" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is a stand-alone novel set in the world of their Agent Pendergast novels. Characters from other stand-alones, such as "Thunderhead" become huge players in their series and EES, the company owned by Ice Limit's major character Eli Glinn, can be seen again later in the series as well. Hopefully that's the only thing to reappear in later books, though, as this adventure fell quite short of their usual mark of excellence. Sure, the characters were real, developed and enjoyable. And the science of the book was interesting and understandable. The plot moved along like the ship Rolvaag through the titular Ice Limit itself. What was missing was real dread, a sense of danger, a desire to see the characters suceed. Other flaws included a perfectly set-up history and myth left unevolved, far too many technical terms relating to parts of ships, and the lack of at least one character that I either loved or hated. It was more of a melancholy trip through the doldrums than a true excursion in to the high seas.