Product Description

Anarctica is the last unconquered continent, a murderous expanse of howling winds, blinding whiteouts and deadly crevasses. On one edge of Antarctica is Wilkes Station. Beneath Wilkes Station is the gate to hell itself...

A team of U.S. divers, exploring three thousand feet beneath the ice shelf has vanished. Sending out an SOS, Wilkes draws a rapid deployment team of Marines-and someone else...

First comes a horrific firefight. Then comes a plunge into a drowning pool filled with killer whales. Next comes the hard part, as a handful of survivors begin an electrifying, red-hot, non-stop battle of survival across the continent and against wave after wave of elite military assassins-who've all come for one thing: a secret buried deep beneath the ice...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34894 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 528 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312971236
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
After a team of American scientists at Wilkes Ice Station discover what seems to be a spaceship in a four-million-year-old cavern below the ice, two of the divers disappear while checking out the craft. Lt. Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield and his highly trained team of Marines respond to the scientists' distress signal. By the time the leathernecks reach Wilkes, three days later, one of the scientists has killed another, six more members of the Wilkes team have disappeared in the ice cave and eight French scientists from a nearby station are for some reason at the U.S. base. Would the French government kill Americans to capture a frozen UFO? Probably: six of the French "scientists" turn out to be the members of the French special forces. From that discovery onward, this first novel offers nonstop thrills as Schofield and his team fight for their livesAand for those of the remaining American scientistsAagainst French and British commandos and a secret American spy group; against killer whales and strange aquatic mammals; and against time, for both the French and British commandos harbor "eraser" plans to wipe out all survivors in case of mission failure. Reilly's debut evokes a host of predecessors, including Jaws, The Andromeda Strain, The X-Files and the combat novels of Tom Clancy. It also echoes the work of Ian Fleming, as the outrageously heroic Schofield comes off as less a real Marine than a fantasy action figure on a par with Bond. There's not much that's original hereAeven the set-up is reminiscent of the classic SF film The Thing, about a saucer buried in Arctic iceAbut Reilly doesn't really need to be original, not at the pace at which he whips his story line past readers. Employing crude but effective prose, a nonstop spray of short, punchy paragraphs and cliffhangers galore, this is grade-A action pulp. (Sept.) FYI: Ice Station was previously published by Pan Macmillan in Reilly's native Australia, where it sold 30,000 copies.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Fans of Clive Cussler will enjoy this first novel by Australian author Reilly. Set in Antarctica, Ice Station pits a group of U.S. Marines against a host of unexpected adversaries. Buried deep in the ice, in a layer 100 million years old, is something that arouses the greed of governments around the globe. Their respective Special Forces units are unleashed in this inhospitable land in a race to claim the hidden treasure. The book moves along at a good pace, and as with all well-told military thrillers there are plenty of unexpected twists, turns, and betrayals. Reilly's characters are colorful and engaging, and his bad guys are more wrong-headed than evil. The laws of science are sometimes shunted aside to make way for improbable weaponry and impossible situations, but that's just part of the fun. Recommended for public libraries with large military fiction collections.APatrick Wall, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Spartanburg
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Rollicking, think-and-you-missed-it military action-adventure pits a lone Marine against highly trained hostile troops, a secret government organization, killer whales, Stealth fighters, mutant monsters, and an entire submarine in a multinational race to claim what might be an alien spaceship frozen in the Antarctic ice. Marine Reconnaissance Platoon leader Shane ``Scarecrow'' Schofield's day in hell begins when his 12-person team (which includes two women) take two ice-skimming Hovercraft to answer the distress call: American scientists are missing after investigating a huge metallic object in a cave 1,500 feet below the South Polar Wilkes Ice Station. Though a solar flare has made radio communications nearly impossible, word has gone out to a distant French ice station that the object may be of extraterrestrial origin. Before Scarecrowso-called because his hideously disfigured eyes have been equipped with supernaturally acute visioncan investigate a murder victim in the ice station's freezer, a French rescue team starts shooting at the Americans. The blood-splattering, ultraviolent play of high-tech weaponry, unforeseen catastrophes and death-defying escapes (12-year-old American math whiz Kirsty and her cuddly pet seal Wendy become convenient targets for villainous aggression) are only the beginning as killer whales rush in where the French fear to swim. Then Scarecrow learns that if the French fail to get the spaceship, they will ``erase'' the station from existence, because an even larger British SAS team, lead by Scarecrow's former mentor, Brigadier General Trevor Barnaby, is hot on their heels. Worse, a secret US government intelligence cabal has planted double-agents in Schofield's team with orders to kill everyone so that spacecraft's location will remain a secret. A fabulous Hovercraft chase ensues, followed by even more spectacular movie-style stunts (with a genuine cliff-hanger, just for fun). Alistair MacLean meets the X-Files, in a first novel by Australian writer Reilly thats as silly and satisfying as a wide-screen Hollywood blockbuster. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Well, I really enjoyed the ride!
The things that irked other reviewers didn't bother me a bit. Sure it was unbelievable...geez...why pick up an action thriller if you want a documentary? Ice Station was definitely action-packed, and the characters were well drawn, especially for a first novel. I won't recount the story, as that's been done over and over, but will rather point out what I found enjoyable. The main character was likeable. The setting was exciting--I love arctic adventures. I felt like reading this book was a brief vacation from day-to-day life. It held my interest from beginning to end. I did notice the grammatical errors, but my purpose in reading it was to have a good time, and that I did! I notice that readers of this book also read Rollins--I'm certainly one of those. If you can set reality aside and allow your imagination to roll with the book, you won't be disappointed.

This is an action book not literature.
Usually, I like a book to challenge the way I think and feel. I like books to help me to be smarter or better. This is not one of those books. The author never pretends to be that kind of author. He is the kind of author you wish wrote the screenplays for action movies. He is a very young man, and writes the kind of stuff those appeals to him. Each of his books cover a very small period of time, usually less than a couple of days, because there is so much exciting action it would take a series of books to cover a week in one. Ice station is fun to read. The characters are really bad or really good the way people aren't, you always know who to hate and who to love. There are some great one liners that will make you laugh, and so much action you will finish this book in one reading. So if you want a fun action story that will not change your life, not tax your brain, but will keep you entertained... This is a book for you.

Can I have a mag-hook for Christmas, pleeease???
Wow - this book is dynamite. Terrific, absolutely non-stop action, action, action. Reflecting back on it, I thought I recalled one paragraph in there, along toward the middle, where not much was happening - but thumbing through again I never could find it. Ha! This book was a tremendous amount of fun to read, as I'm sure it was for the author to write. Mr. Reilly sure knows how to keep things perking right along - throwing in just about every conceivable plot twist, cliff-hanger surprise, stomach-churning thrills and spills, death-defying stunts and "risk everything" maneuvers. Our hero and his plucky allies (not all of whom are allies... another great bit of spice for the stew) definitely get put through the wringer. There were plenty of times I came to a new twist and went "Oh, no...." And plenty more times (like, right after the great hovercraft chase across the ice) when I wondered how he'd top what had already happened. "He can't top THIS..." Ha! But he *always* did. I am dismayed at the reviews where people condemn the book for not being a literary masterpiece, not another "War and Peace" or whatever. Come on! This is ENTERTAINMENT, not classic lit! This is the stuff comic books and movie serials used to be made of! This is Saturday Afternoon at the Movies.... but in a book. A really fun fun fun book! Heck, this is one of my top ten favorite reads this year (and yeah, I read a lot). Oh and by the way - I don't know if the "mag-hook" is real or a "sci-fi" invention, but I want one! Sounds like a really useful toy... er, I mean, TOOL! Guess I need to call the hardware store....