Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Ice Station

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michael

very fast action paced.

Reviewed in Australia on 26 June 2020

I enjoyed this book very much.great work Matthew.

2 people found this helpful

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Penelope Dennis

For action-movie fans only

Reviewed in Australia on 1 March 2021

So sorry. I tried - I really did and I made it to nearly a third of the way through. But it was all just gung-ho blood and guts, non-stop action with lashings of killer whales and so little characterisation that I really didn't care who lived or died. Not for me.

One person found this helpful

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From Australia

Bit disappointing

Reviewed in Australia on 30 September 2020

Ice Station is one of Aussie Reilly’s most popular books and I had high hopes as I loved the only other title I’ve read of his, The Contest. But…

Ice Station is a true action thriller. There really is no mystery to who the baddies are and the plot and characterisation is basic. Instead Reilly relies on capturing the reader’s attention by including continual action cliffhanger scenes. It doesn’t take much thought process, to be honest; it’s basically the equivalent of a James Bond movie minus the sex (although all the female characters do find the lead character incredibly attractive apparently).

Like Bond, you need to forget any sense of realism when reading Ice Station. Set in a research station in Antarctica, this book is completely over the top with our hero, US Marine Shane ‘Scarecrow’ Schofield, taking on man eating orcas, vampire walruses, French commandos brandishing crossbows and some evil sounding grenades, collapsing icebergs, an English SAS unit with a penchant for torture and a super sekrit all powerful group willing to kill all and sundry to protect the US’s interests, to name just a few obstacles, all while trying to solve a riddle of an alien spacecraft. Yeah…After a bit you just have to go with it and stop asking any questions…

You’d think with all this action, there wouldn’t be any chance for the book to get boring. But…It does because the book is too long. I think I would have enjoyed it much more if Reilly had wrapped things up in 300 odd words. At over 500, things tended to drag and become repetitive, even the action.

Actually Reilly’s tendency to repeat himself didn’t help with the silly word count. As in, he tended to write scenes like, ‘Scarecrow looked down into the freezing pool of water where killer whales were circling. Killer whales with sharp teeth and powerful jaws. He had to hold on. If he didn’t hold on, he’d fall into the pool. He would fall directly into the pool, where he would have no chance against the killer whales in there, with their powerful jaws and their sharp teeth. The pool's water was freezing and he could see shadows moving around in it. He knew the shadows would be formed by killer whales. He had to hold on or he'd end up falling into the pool with the whales.’ Okay, these aren't real quotes but this is the style Reilly adopted. And after noticing how Reilly repeated himself, I couldn’t stop noticing. At least 100 words could have been shaved off with tighter editing in this respect alone.

I also thought that after about the hundredth time of Scarecrow managing to get him and his mates out of a tight spot, the tension evaporated. Maybe with a shorter book, with less crazy scenarios, I would have been inclined to be more worried about Scarecrow’s fate than I did. I knew he’d make it -- somehow, no matter how absurd the resolution.

There's a lot of cliches with the supporting characters too. The beautiful but perhaps evil woman, the foul mouthed tougher than nails soldier, the weedy wisecracking scientist who somehow makes it through as many scraps as Scarecrow. There's even the obligatory genius preteen character with a faithful animal companion (in this case, a seal).

I listened to the audio version and Sean Mangan, the narrator, managed to do a pretty good job. There was this annoying musical score that played in the background occasionally which drove me mad though.

This book has spawned several sequels and I was planning on listening to the whole series but… I will admit, I do not feel tempted to bother just at the moment. I think, for now, I’m pretty over Scarecrow and co's theatrics and, all in all, the book didn’t hold any of the charm of The Contest.

Um… 2 ⅕ out of 5?

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From other countries

Quillion

Fun but lacks credibility

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a military action adventure and boy does the author keep the pace going! The book is like a continuous Bond film action sequence. This isn't really a good thing as you need gaps in the action to develop decent characterisation and plot, which this book seriously lacks.

As a Brit I didn't like the fact the SAS are the bad guys in this book.

The book is filled with inconsistencies. For example at one point our hero loses radio contact because he has lost his helmet, which has the radio attached. Then a moment later he receives a radio message through his earpiece! At another point he escapes from some handcuffs using some det cord the bad guys missed in a search and then pulls out a stun grenade and a crossbow that were still in his pockets! So they missed those in the search too! Really?

Annoyingly the author refers to all sorts of imaginary military hardware such as the "maghook and "nitrogen charges" etc. Why? The book would have been so much better if he had decently researched accurate hardware.

It was fun in a rather teenage way, but I doubt I will continue the series. There are far better military action books out there.

7 people found this helpful

Sharp

Entertaining, but a bit too much

Reviewed in the United States on 11 November 2016

Verified Purchase

A lot of action but perhaps too many "but all of a sudden" moments. Stripping out a couple of these would've made the plot a bit more believable.

One person found this helpful

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