Despite the submarine cover art and the rather awkward title, this is no by-the-numbers military thriller: rather, it's a full-blooded, multidimensional adventure story set in the frozen wilds of Alaska, both atop the ice and underneath it. And it's one heck of a fun ride. Matthew Pike is a Fish and Game officer cataloging bear populations in the remote Brooks Range--but he's also an ex-Green Beret, which comes in handy when trouble drops out of the sky in the form of a crashed bush plane, a cryptic survivor, and some very nasty and well-equipped pursuers. Meanwhile, an American submarine stumbles on an abandoned research station buried under the Arctic ice cap, unleashing a race to conceal the horrors that took place there and to capture the priceless scientific secret still locked within.

James Rollins invokes the polar environment so vividly you can hear the wind shriek and feel the ice forming on your nose, and the scientific/medical puzzles at the story's heart may remind you of Michael Crichton's best. The characters, while mostly familiar hero or villain types, are crisply drawn and in some cases quite sympathetic, but it's the nonstop action that carries you along. During several climactic chase scenes, you may find yourself laughing in pure delight--or gasping for breath--as Rollins keeps finding ways to ratchet up the tension one more notch. Ice Hunt is an escapist's delight. --Nicholas H. Allison


From Publishers Weekly
While Clive Cussler maintains the gold standard in action lit, Rollins has a firm grasp on the silver. Some astonishing threat or daring feat explodes into print on nearly every page, but that's the author's weakness as well as his strength, because in Rollins's books character and even plot take a backseat to sheer action. Rollins set his last novel, Amazonia, in steaming jungles; here he does a 180 and tells a tale of brutal cold, above and beneath the North Pole ice cap. An experimental American sub comes across an abandoned Soviet polar station encased in an iceberg. Meanwhile, a Russian admiral, the son of the man who once ran the station, is preparing to alter world history by exploding a nuclear weapon at the polar cap, melting it and flooding the globe. And Fish and Game warden Matt Pike, a former Green Beret, comes across a downed aircraft in the Alaskan mountains and rescues the sole survivor, who says he's a journalist on his way to the American polar station; immediately, Matt and the survivor are relentlessly pursued by black-clad Russian special forces. Eventually all parties, including Matt's estranged wife, end up at the abandoned polar station or the nearby American station; Russians and Americans, including Delta Force, battle fiercely over the privilege of exposing or forever hiding the secret of the Russian station, and in turn they must combat the prehistoric predators who roam the Russian station in search of warm meat. The plot is preposterous from the get-go, and Rollins's characters, though fully drawn, have about as much effect on the novel's course as riders on a roller-coaster-which is what this novel is, and a first class one at that if maximum mayhem is desired.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Matt Pike, Alaskan park ranger and former Green Beret, stumbles into a covert operation when he rescues a reporter from an airplane crash. This action-packed adventure features a secret WW II-era Russian research station beneath the polar ice cap and a race between the Americans and the Russians to destroy the experimental evidence within it, all while falling prey to prehistoric creatures in the deep. Ron Dreyer's performance excels when narrating dialogue and action, but the many descriptive passages are not as strong, and mispronunciations occur periodically. Dreyer's deep voice switches from one character to another effortlessly. For the most part, American and Russian accents, male and female voices are convincing. Tempo and pace vary to fit the fast-paced suspense. S.S.R. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
At an abandoned World War II-era Russian base beneath the Arctic ice, U.S. scientists find a treasure trove of biological and geological discoveries and a horrific scene of tragic experiments. As they struggle to determine the nature of the atrocities that occurred at the facility, the U.S. military finds itself pulled into a quickly escalating but entirely covert war for control of the top-secret station. Haplessly caught in the midst of it all, an Alaskan park ranger and his Inuit ex-wife find themselves hunted by more than just Russian commandos; a type of creature long since dismissed as myth stalks the tunnels of the station in an all-too-real incarnation. All the while, the maniacal head of the Russian forces, bent on the rebirth of civilization, relentlessly pursues a plan to destroy the world. Rollins delivers another fantastic tale of action and adventure. New readers will be delighted and established fans will find exactly what they have come to expect: a fun and fast-paced story that is full of suspense. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Buried deep in the earth's polar ice cap - carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States - is a secret place, the site of a remarkable abandoned experiment that could have frightening ramifications for the planet. The brain trust of the former Soviet Union who created the seventy-year-old Ice Station Grendel would like it simply to melt from human memory. But that becomes impossible when an American undersea research vessel, the Polar Sentinel, inadvertently pulls too close to the hollowed-out iceberg... and one of the crew sees something alive inside. Something that never should have survived." "It is a discovery that sends shock waves through the intelligence communities of two powerful nations, as American and Russian scientists, soldiers, and unsuspecting civilians are pulled into Grendel's lethal vortex of secrets, violence, and betrayal. To preserve the silence - to prevent others from uncovering the terrible mysteries locked behind submerged walls of ice and steel - no measures will be too extreme. For within the station, experiments have blurred the line between life and death. It was a place never meant to be found." One man already knows too much: Matthew Pike, a former American Special Forces operative, living in seclusion in Alaska on the edge of the Arctic Circle. On the run after rescuing the survivor of a plane crash no one was meant to observe, Pike is relentlessly drawn into the eye of the gathering storm - even as a Russian nuclear attack submarine draws silently nearer to the men and women on the Polar Sentinel. The covert battle over Grendel is spinning out of control, and the future of all human life on Earth will be altered - or destroyed - once its nightmarish truths are revealed.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

While Clive Cussler maintains the gold standard in action lit, Rollins has a firm grasp on the silver. Some astonishing threat or daring feat explodes into print on nearly every page, but that's the author's weakness as well as his strength, because in Rollins's books character and even plot take a backseat to sheer action. Rollins set his last novel, Amazonia, in steaming jungles; here he does a 180 and tells a tale of brutal cold, above and beneath the North Pole ice cap. An experimental American sub comes across an abandoned Soviet polar station encased in an iceberg. Meanwhile, a Russian admiral, the son of the man who once ran the station, is preparing to alter world history by exploding a nuclear weapon at the polar cap, melting it and flooding the globe. And Fish and Game warden Matt Pike, a former Green Beret, comes across a downed aircraft in the Alaskan mountains and rescues the sole survivor, who says he's a journalist on his way to the American polar station; immediately, Matt and the survivor are relentlessly pursued by black-clad Russian special forces. Eventually all parties, including Matt's estranged wife, end up at the abandoned polar station or the nearby American station; Russians and Americans, including Delta Force, battle fiercely over the privilege of exposing or forever hiding the secret of the Russian station, and in turn they must combat the prehistoric predators who roam the Russian station in search of warm meat. The plot is preposterous from the get-go, and Rollins's characters, though fully drawn, have about as much effect on the novel's course as riders on a roller-coaster-which is what this novel is, and a first class one at that if maximum mayhem is desired. (July 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile

Matt Pike, Alaskan park ranger and former Green Beret, stumbles into a covert operation when he rescues a reporter from an airplane crash. This action-packed adventure features a secret WW II-era Russian research station beneath the polar ice cap and a race between the Americans and the Russians to destroy the experimental evidence within it, all while falling prey to prehistoric creatures in the deep. Ron Dreyer's performance excels when narrating dialogue and action, but the many descriptive passages are not as strong, and mispronunciations occur periodically. Dreyer's deep voice switches from one character to another effortlessly. For the most part, American and Russian accents, male and female voices are convincing. Tempo and pace vary to fit the fast-paced suspense. S.S.R.
© AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews