Black Ice

This was unexpectedly excellent, I didn't really have any expectations going in but whew, what a ride. It begins with an Antarctic expedition in disarray with one of a pair of explorers wishing to throw in the towel and the other wanting to push on even though they're out of food.

After a botched air rescue results in the aircraft crashing and another person trapped on the ice a scientific base 300 miles away is contacted and coaxed into a risky rescue mission. Whilst the rescue mission is ultimately successful it turns out that one of these explorers is a bit of a delusional sociopath with little to no regard for anyone but himself.

As the story progresses his actions puts everyone at risk resulting in destruction of the scientific show more base and a race back across 300 miles of unforgiving Antarctic ice to the rescue beacon previously used to call in the ill fated air rescue.

It's quite an action packed survival adventure and the above doesn't even give a true indication of how much of a douchebag the explorer in question is. The guy seems to be living in a delusional world of his own, caring for nothing but promoting his own exploits.

Overall, an excellent page turning thriller. show less

Gripping adventure with a standout villain in Julian Fitzgerald, a character that the reader will grow to hate in no time. Dickinson creates a fascinating world at the edge of the ice with a careful eye for details both technical and natural. The reader can almost fill the chill in their bones with the near-death escapades of the characters in this book. The descriptions of the arctic wasteland and their dangers are really intriguing to read, its almost like a science-fiction tale in how other-worldly it is. The story packs allot of adventure, starting off with the initial expedition, followed by the shift to the drilling station Capricorn, and then once again to the frigid wilds. Likewise the story shifts gears from survivalist show more adventure to suspense and back. The cast of characters are fairly good, they are exactly what you need them to be for the story to work and nothing more nor less, although Fitzgerald is by far the most memorable for his never-ending selfishness and his utter lack of care or concern for his fellow man. One aspect of the book that sadly got lost is the discovery of new life in the underground lake. After a pretty enticing tease as to what might be down there, the book never manages to get back to it. A gripping page-turner that easily entertains on a slow weekend; just don't read it when its cold outside. show less

World-famous English explorer Julian Fitzgerald and a Norwegian colleague Carl Norland aim to be the first men to cross Antarctica at its widest point on foot. When things go wrong and they are forced to call for help the only chance of rescue is by land from a private scientific research base nearly 500 kilometres (300 miles) away. The base leader Lauren Burgess and her small team put their work on hold and race the clock to see if they can save the explorers before the long winter sets in and any form of rescue will be impossible.

This book had a strong sense of its setting. The isolation, vast distances, extreme weather and the razor-thin line between humans taming nature and becoming its victims are all extremely well depicted. I show more would like to have seen some exploration of the idea that perhaps it’s an inhospitable place for a reason and we should leave it alone but I admit that’s a personal bias. I did get a bit sick of everyone being talked about in heroic terms though, especially the two explorers. My take on people who do extreme things just because they can is more ‘arrogant fool’ than hero, especially when they expect other people to risk their own lives to save their sorry arses.

The story is quite compelling although it would have been more so with a bit tighter editing. However there are several suspenseful story arcs and some genuine surprises. Although marketed as a thriller it was far more subtle and introspective than the all-guns blazing kind of book that the ‘thriller’ term would suggest but I was nevertheless very keen to find out what happened in the end.



Where the book fell down for me was in the character development. I can’t really go into much detail without giving away huge spoilers but I think the characters lacked any real depth. The impact of this on the book was to have people at several key points engage in behaviour that I don’t think was at all realistic in the circumstances. Probably the best character was the narcissistic Julian Fitzgerald whose degeneration into paranoia did seem fairly credible given the things he was experiencing and doing but the rest were all a bit too unselfish for me to really believe in.

Overall though I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would at the outset (the first 30-40 pages are a bit slow) and as it’s the first book I’ve read specifically for a reading challenge (i.e. I would never have read it but for the need to read something set in Antarctica) I’m quite chuffed with this outcome. show less

A Thriller of a ride through Antartica. Scientist Lauren Burgess is working the dream of a lifetime trying to delve into the secret pristine depths of a hidden lake that was discovered many years earlier by her Father. Lauren and her select team will weather the Arctic winter in seclusion while drilling through the ice to take one small sample of this lake. Everything was going smoothly until Lauren has to help rescue the egocentric explorer Julian Fitzgerald, his teammate and a plane wrecked journalist. With the dynamics of the small arctic enclave disrupted, things go from bad to worse as Fitzgerald is willing to go to any lengths to portray himself as a hero.

What a great book- even though he clearly chracterizes the dangers of Antartica, it still made me want to visit the Beagle Channel & also glide across the Ice under the sun and feel the artic wind on my face and cross crevasses on a snowmobile. I really hope i get to visit Antartica one day! This is a must read if you enjoy adventures in the Artic!

An examination of how not to lead under intense survival conditions. Troubles were easily predictable and certainly many of them could have been avoided by firmer control by the expedition's leader.