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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ice Station - adults playing with Action Man?, 30 Jun 2000
By A Customer
When I wish to read a good story, I pick up a book. When I want to watch pyrotechnics, special effects and unrealistic stunts, I go and watch a movie. Never mind that the action shown in the movie is completely unbelievable. After all, hey, that's Hollywood, not life. Their job is to take a decent book or screenplay, take out all the story, and pour in computer animation, fake explosions and stunts. With Ice Station, Matthew Reilly apparently attempts to write a movie on paper (I have been wondering if he was making whooshing and banging noises with his mouth while writing). A reader gets all the important elements of the story just by reading the back cover. The rest of the book is padded up with action that would be grossly exaggerated even for stories made up by a seven-year-old boy playing with Action Man toys. Although the initial theme is interesting (albeit somewhat over-used: how many books have we seen already about the discovery of an ancient alien spacecraft on Earth?), subsequent development gets duller and duller. Coupled with several factual errors, physical impossibilities (e.g., a diving bell that implodes under water pressure: this cannot happen because the main characteristic of this device is that inside and outside pressure is the same) and astronomically small probabilities of events happening as described, this makes the book and the author one I won't be reading again. I held on to the end only because I was stuck in an airport and had nothing better to do. I give it one star because there seems to be no way to give it zero.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Insults the intelligence, 12 Jun 2005
I was a little more charitable about Reilly's novel Contest (check out my review folks), because the interesting alien scenario compensated to a fair degree for the simplistic and stilted use of language. Here though, Reilly's literary limitations are as exposed as the Ross ice shelf. Paper-thin clichéd characters engage in impossibly far-fetched adventures, with plot-holes big enough to drive a military hovercraft through. The only saving grace is that the comic-book style action hurtles along at breakneck pace with virtually every chapter ending with a cliff-hanger. It's an undemanding page-turner that, just maybe, would make a reasonable "leave-your-brain-at-home" potboiler to take on a long flight or something. Think of Clive Cussler for those with attention-deficit disorder and you'll get some idea of Reilly's driving force. The simplistic prose makes The Sun (or whatever is the US equivalent of a trashy tabloid) appear like Shakespeare. Reilly clearly has an aversion to adjectives - unless they are "icy", "big", "huge", "enormous" or "gigantic". He also peppers his prose with idiotic 1960's style Batman sound effects - "Snap-twangggg!" as a cable breaks; "Sprak!" as another skull gets splintered; or "craaaaaack" as our hero cops a blow to the nose. Most irritating of all, however, is Reilly's gross over-use of italics, to hammer home a point with the subtlety of a radioactive mutant elephant seal (and yes, believe it or not, that IS a spoiler!). If you come across this book in your library, please make sure it is placed in the "teen-read" section. Had I read this when I was about 12, I would probably have given it 3 or 4 stars. I hate myself for actually finishing this book. In fact I hate it so much that I must just hurl it across the room one final time; "weeeeeeeeeee......KER-THUMP!!!!"
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unintentionally hilarious, 12 May 2008
If Matthew Reilly is a 14 year old boy, then congratulations are in order for a great effort, one which I am sure other 14 year old boys will get hours of enjoyment from. If (as I suspect), he is an adult then oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
I helped myself to this book from the shelves of the library in the school where I work. It is telling that the librarian, who 'advises' me on which books to read, was absent on the day I chose this one.
Unintentionally hilarious in many places (the scene of killer whales attacking marines for the first time had me laughing out loud on the bus), I cannot believe anyone could read it as a serious tale. Others have mentioned the unlikelihood of one man taking on the elite from several countries but it's not the same as reading it yourself, you'll be shaking your head in wonderment as you plod through this one.
Another oddity is the author's quite bizarre habit of writing in Italics to stress the impact or horror of an occurrence, ON ALMOST EVERY OTHER PAGE!
Sometime if the event is even more amazing and unbelievable and (frankly ridiculous) then he will...
DROP A LINE AND THROW AN EXCLAMATION MARK ON THE END FOR GOOD MEASURE!
Finally, I can only assume the book was never edited prior to being published. It's overly long and degenerates into farce the further it goes along. I had no feelings for any of the characters, forgot what happened to several (at one stage hero had a love interest of sorts, but I missed what became of her, and when I realised I had finished the book I had no desire to go and find out).
I'll never get those lost hours back, but you can save losing them in the first place. Avoid like the plague.
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