Product Description

A breathtaking discovery at the top of the world . . .
A terrifying collision between modern science and Native American legend . . .
An electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lincoln Child.


Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle lies Alaska’s Federal Wildlife Zone, one of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth. But for paleoecologist Evan Marshall and a small group of fellow scientists, an expedition to the Zone represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the effects of global warming.

Everything about the expedition changes, however, with an astonishing find. On a routine exploration of a glacial ice cave, the group discovers an enormous ancient animal, encased in solid ice. The media conglomerate sponsoring their research immediately intervenes and arranges the ultimate spectacle—the creature will be cut from the ice, thawed, and revealed live on television. Despite dire warnings from the local Native American village, and the scientific concerns of Marshall and his team, the “docudrama” plows ahead . . . until the scientists make one more horrifying discovery. The beast is no regular specimen—it may be an ancient killing machine. And they may be premature in believing it dead.

In this riveting new thriller, Lincoln Child weaves together a stunning Arctic landscape, a terrifying mythic creature, and a pervasive mood of chaos—and fear. With Terminal Freeze, Child demonstrates why he has become a major bestselling author, and why his novels electrify and enthrall so many.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26117 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-24
• Released on: 2009-02-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385515511
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Book Description
A breathtaking discovery at the top of the world...
A terrifying collision between modern science and Native American legend...
An electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lincoln Child.

Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle lies Alaska’s Federal Wildlife Zone, one of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth. But for paleoecologist Evan Marshall and a small group of fellow scientists, an expedition to the Zone represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the effects of global warming.

Everything about the expedition changes, however, with an astonishing find. On a routine exploration of a glacial ice cave, the group discovers an enormous ancient animal, encased in solid ice. The media conglomerate sponsoring their research immediately intervenes and arranges the ultimate spectacle--the creature will be cut from the ice, thawed, and revealed live on television. Despite dire warnings from the local Native American village, and the scientific concerns of Marshall and his team, the “docudrama” plows ahead... until the scientists make one more horrifying discovery. The beast is no regular specimen--it may be an ancient killing machine. And they may be premature in believing it dead.

In this riveting new thriller, Lincoln Child weaves together a stunning Arctic landscape, a terrifying mythic creature, and a pervasive mood of chaos--and fear. With Terminal Freeze, Child demonstrates why he has become a major bestselling author, and why his novels electrify and enthrall so many.

Amazon Exclusive: An Essay by Lincoln Child

When people ask why I write thrillers, I frequently give this answer: when I was in nursery school, my parents once gave me an empty notebook. As you might expect, I filled the first few pages with childish scrawls. But then I turned to the last page and drew something so frightening, I could never ever bring myself to look at it again.

That’s basically what I’ve been trying to do ever since: write a story so scary, even I wouldn’t dare read it.

Whether I’ve accomplished that in Terminal Freeze is your call to make. But while putting the novel together, I was careful to choose elements that increased my personal uneasiness factor. A forbidding and dangerous landscape, far from the safety and comfort of civilization. A deserted army base, unused for half a century, full of dead-ends and dark forgotten corners. And that most atavistic of terrors: a vicious enemy, as deadly as it is mysterious, that stalks and kills with impunity--and an apparently limitless appetite for death.

So I hope you’ll consider Terminal Freeze my contribution to that time-honored literary genre, the Campfire Tale From Hell. We’ve all heard them: the Thing hiding in the bedroom closet; the hook-wielding lover’s lane murderer. They tend to stay with you into the cold light of day, and they can be damnably hard to forget. If I’ve managed to even approach the level of fear that kind of story evokes, then I’ve done my job as a storyteller.

That childhood notebook of mine is now long gone. And yet I often think of it still, and wonder if--even today--I might have a little difficulty turning over that final page.

(Photo © Kramer Images)

From Publishers Weekly
In this taut, suspenseful SF thriller from bestseller Child (Deep Storm), an obscure scientific expedition in Alaska's remote Federal Wilderness Zone stumbles on the frozen body of what appears to be a saber-tooth tiger in a cave, though only the eyes are clearly visible through the ice. When news of the find reaches the cable television network sponsoring the expedition, Emilio Conti, a legendary documentary filmmaker, rushes to the scene, where he plans to film the thawing of the animal on live TV. After the frozen creature disappears, Conti suspects sabotage, until horribly eviscerated corpses begin to pile up at the military base hosting the expedition. Paleoecologist Evan Marshall suspects that the prehistoric beast is responsible—and that the initial identification of it as a saber-tooth was mistaken. While the story line of a horrific monster picking off a shrinking group of survivors in a confined area is nothing new, Child's superior writing raises this above the pack. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Praise for Lincoln Child’s New York Times bestselling DEEP STORM

“Few writers do it better than Child.” Booklist

“Fast paced . . . Page-turning action.” Denver Post

“Lincoln Child has a well-earned reputation for writing solid thrillers.” Tampa Tribune

“Clever . . . A sci-fi mystery thriller.” San Jose Mercury News

“Child whips up a tasty thriller.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Lincoln Child’s novels are both thrilling and tantalizing, always managing to stay one step ahead of readers’ expectations.” Vince Flynn

“Child’s thriller will be remembered as one of the best of the year. Highly recommended.” Library Journal

“Child delivers a well-crafted and literate science-fiction thriller.” Publishers Weekly

“Top-notch science fiction.” Texas Star

“Harrowing and brilliantly conceived.” Clive Cussler

“Child combines the page-turning action of a thriller with science-fiction tropes.” Rocky Mountain News

“This is a page turner for sure, and the conclusion is a wild and crazy shocker.” Kingston Observer

“You won’t want to stop reading until the last word.” Chatham Courier

“A tale of growing paranoia and fear.” Mystery News

“The plot is as fast-paced as a riptide, and the ending will have the readers’ hearts drumming in their chests.” Free Lance-Star

“A fascinating story that grabs you and won’t let go.” Spectrum

“A slick, savvy, intelligent thriller with a scary, sticks-in-your-brain climax.” Steve Berry

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Customer Reviews

Here We Go Again...
I've been a fan of Lincoln Child's work (solo, and paired with Douglas Preston) ever since I read "The Relic" more than ten years ago. The fact that I've purchased and read all of the books they've published since then might be the reason why I'm becoming disillusioned with their work now. Child long ago discovered a formula that works for him (and his writing partner), and is very faithful to it. Whether you will like "Terminal Freeze" depends entirely on how you feel about that formula.

Some examples? Well, like most of their stand-alone books (outside the Pendergast series), "Terminal Freeze" has a mysterious treasure, one which experienced readers of Lincoln and Child know they shouldn't get attached to. That treasure might be pirate gold ("Riptide"), a rare meteorite ("Ice Limit"), or the strange creature in "Terminal Freeze", but it's always gone by the end of the book. I often feel a bit bad for their heroes, who go through hell and never seem to have much to show for it.

And Child is also very fond of using obsession as a plot device. Good luck finding a Child/Preston book that doesn't have at least one character who is obsessed to the point of insanity with SOMETHING. Naturally, that obsession is guaranteed to cause all sorts of hijinks as it's gradually revealed over the course of the book. In "Terminal Freeze", it's a sign of how formulaic Child's work has become that I picked out one particular character as the book's requisite obsessed nutjob the moment he was introduced. And I was right.

The rest of the formula involves a group of people (usually a mix of scientists and military/police types, often depicted in very stereotypical ways) trapped in an isolated place (museum basement, arctic base, aboard a doomed ship, island, etc) with a mysterious and deadly creature/force. Storms are frequently added to heighten the isolation and/or level of desperation. References to the unheeded wisdom of native peoples is possible ("The Relic", "Terminal Freeze", "Wheel of Darkness"), and since it IS the 21st century maybe we should be moving beyond using them as a plot device like that? By the end of the book, most of the stereotypes (and the obsessive loony) will be dead, and the hero figures out enough of the mystery to prevail.

Does this formula appeal to you? If it does, "Terminal Freeze" is the book for you. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Child's work; if I wasn't, I wouldn't care enough to take the time to write this review. It is a fun read, and Child's imagination produces genuinely creepy monsters. He (and Preston) are good writers, but I hope they shake things up a bit and introduce some new elements to their future books.

This is a fun book to read...
This is my first Lincoln Child book and I almost didn't read it because a lot of the other reviews said that it didn't have a lot of action and it wasn't his best work. I remember reading the same type of comments for `Blasphemy' by Douglas Preston. I'm glad I ignored the detractors both times! I really, really enjoyed this book! The premise was too good to pass up and, for me; this was the perfect book at the perfect time. I was looking for a quick, bloody, and exciting read. I found it.

Mr. Child has blended science, adventure, suspense (tons of it actually), slight humor, horror, history, mystery, and machismo in a way that all of these genres work together in harmony. If this was one Lincoln Child's "slow" books I'm extremely interested to see what his "better" books are like.

Enjoyable
I had pre-ordered this book and forgot all about it until it showed up in my mailbox. I started it on my lunch break at work, and it was supposed to last me a whole week, but I ended up taking it home and finishing it that night :-)

The setting is a huge military facility in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. A group of scientists are doing studies on global warming when they come across a large creature frozen in ice. A large media crew (which subsidized the scientific expedition) comes to make a documentary about it. The creature thaws and is still alive, and terrorizes the base.

Terminal Freeze borrows from The Relic and Deep Storm. The creature was created supposedly for the same reason as the monster in The Relic - when a population becomes too large and it needs to be reduced. The creature is just like the creature from The Relic - very strong, intelligent, and fast. The chase at the end is similar as well (although in Terminal Freeze, the "bait" doesn't survive). On Deep Storm, the scientists were stuck in a large government facility deep under water. In Terminal Freeze, the scientists were stuck in a large government facility 1/2 under ice.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It didn't creep me out nearly as much as The Relic did, but it did keep me on edge.