For Seller

By: Lisa Koosis

The waters near Isla Desolación are dangerous and unpredictable — littered with shipwrecks and circled by perilous currents. In these waters, blow the panteoneros, the dreaded cemetery winds that can steer an unsuspecting ship into a mariner’s nightmare such as the Screaming Sixties. The Screaming Sixties, a place “where both waters and wind can circle the globe together without striking land,” a place where the waves just build and build, growing sometimes to be 200 feet high.

And then, there is “The Ice Limit”, the Antarctic Convergence, the place where the ice begins…

One of the richest men in the world, Palmer Lloyd gets what Palmer Lloyd wants — and what he wants is the largest meteorite ever to strike the earth’s atmosphere. Buried deep in Chilean soil, retrieval of this meteorite will require some of the most innovative engineering ever.

Eli Glinn is the man with all the answers. President of Effective Engineering Solutions, he has been called upon to carry out the most dangerous, the most challenging, the most impossible schemes the world has ever seen — and he has never failed.

And then there is Sam McFarlane. Disgraced as a scientist, unwilling or unable to be held within the structured halls of academia, McFarlane has always wanted to validate his pet theory — that interstellar meteorites have found their way into the earth’s atmosphere.

Together, the trio (and a multitude of supporting characters) set out to get this meteorite at all costs — even if it means coming perilously close to “The Ice Limit”.

From the promise in Relic to the more-polished Thunderhead, it has been obvious that Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child were a duo to watch. Strong on imagination and suspense, each book improved, taking their writing to new levels.

With “The Ice Limit”, they’ve come into their own.

“The Ice Limit” finds Preston and Child in an ideal position somewhere just north of Michael Crichton and south of Indiana Jones. And though “The Ice Limit” gets off to a somewhat slow start, this is adventure fiction at its best.

“The Ice Limit” is scientifically intriguing and certain to bring out the hidden scientist in anyone. Could this be the McFarlane’s much-awaited interstellar meteorite — or is it something beyond the wildest ramblings of our collective imagination?

“The Ice Limit” is fresh in concept and in execution, and has one of the most innovative chase scenes I’ve ever read.

The characters — much improved over those in previous novels — are dynamic and layered, with rich histories and quirks and multi-leveled motivations. But characters aside, this is a novel that works on many planes. Complete with danger, intrigue, and the prize of a lifetime, “The Ice Limit” will keep you holding your breath straight through to the end. And what an ending it is.

The prose is fresh and immediate, the pacing (at least once you pass through the beginning) is perfect, and the tone suspenseful.

So many books deliver as promised up until the end, when they fall painfully, frustratingly flat. When you’ve invested so much time and heart into a novel, there is nothing worse than a disappointing ending.

Lincoln and Child do not disappoint. If anything,like the waves in the Screaming Sixties, the tension grows and grows and grows, until it is almost unbearable.

“The Ice Limit”, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, pushes it to the limit of adventure fiction.

The only question that remains is…

Do you dare to follow?

Lisa is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Creative Writers