Fire and Ice

"Not sure I like Liam but I enjoyed the book"

I downloaded the “Fire and Ice” the first book in Dana Stabenow’s Liam Campbell series, to help bridge the gap while I wait for the Brilliance Audio version of “Killing Grounds”, book 8 in the series Kate Shugak series, to come out in January 2014 to get another slice of Alaskan life.

What I got was something quite different from the Kate Shugak series, even down to the writing style but something that gave me another view on what Alaska can mean to people.

Liam Campbell is a newly-demoted State Trooper, who steps off the plane at the remote town he has been exiled to, and steps into a storm of violence, eccentricity, lust and death.

The story is well-plotted, seasoned with humor and show more chaos, stuffed with larger-than-life characters that we know will be in all the future books and it gives a vivid view of what it feels like to take on the potentially lethal task of “herring spotting” from a light plane in an overcrowded sky.

Stabenow’s books are never just about finding out who killed whom. They are an exploration of why people live the way they do and what it is about Alaska that drives particular behaviors.

In this book Alaska is being shown as a place where people go to make a new start. It’s also shown as place with all the usual problems of violence against women, alcohol addiction, child abuse and the pressures of a small town to make you behave “appropriately”.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to like Liam Campbell, the man with a tragic past and a grief-filled present. Then I realized that this was what Stabenow intended. I couldn’t like Liam because he doesn’t like himself. His distaste for himself at first appears to be a reaction to things he couldn’t control but feels accountable for: death’s on his watch, a tragedy in his family; things that would damage any man. As the book progresses we realize that the fundamental source of internal disgust is that he is a man who has betrayed himself and everyone he loves and he can’t forgive himself for that. The problem was, I couldn’t forgive him for it either.

There are some signs that Liam is on a journey of redemption. In future books, I hope to see something about him that will make me care. I’d like to see his self-pity and self-absorption replaced by some passion for making a difference by actually doing his job. Perhaps the reason Stabenow keeps Campbell out of his uniform for most of the book, is to signal his failure to engage and to become who he should be.

The sex scene at the beginning of the book caught me by surprise. It is graphic without being gratuitous but it goes way beyond anything you’d find in a Kate Shugak novel. The scene is actually well written – it describes arousal without being arousing. It is necessary because the sexual attraction between Campbell and the Wy is central to how Liam came to be where he is. I like the fact that Stabenow sets this up so that we understand that lust does not explain or excuse Liam’s actions any more than alcohol explains why someone is a drunk.

I enjoy Marguerite Gavin as the narrator of the Kate Shugak series. I wish someone else had been chosen to read the Liam Campbell series. I think a male reader would have been more appropriate and would have made a clearer separation between Liam and Kate. She didn’t distract me from the book, but she didn’t add to it either. show less

Ms. Stabenow is a wonderful writer. Her knowledge of Alaska is from her own perspective, having lived there all her life. And she uses that knowledge exceptionally well. Admittedly, I am not as crazy about the Liam books as I am about her Kate Shugak mysteries, but that is a personal preference which has nothing to do with whether the Liam books are good. They are very very good. This is the first in the Liam series, and I highly recommend you read all of them. I have, and they are right up there on my all time favorites list.

The characters in all of Ms. Stabenow's works are quirky, to say the least. They are the kind of people you would expect in a dangerous land like the wilds of Alaska - strong, determined, and sometimes weird beyond show more measure! Another thing I really like about the book is the fact that her heros and heroines are in no way perfect. Liam is a recovering alcoholic, riddled with self doubt and wanting badly to turn his life around. Moving from the "big city" of Anchorage to a small fishing village, Liam is immediately drawn in to the weirdness of an Alaska fishing village - the odd ducks, alcoholics, and various and sundry detritus of society who are more comfortable in the wilds than in civilization. And nobody writes these characters better than Dana.

The story grabs you from the first and doesn't let go. Overall, Highly recommended. Then go buy all her other books too - they are well worth the read! show less

Ms. Stabenow is a wonderful writer. Her knowledge of Alaska is from her own perspective, having lived there all her life. And she uses that knowledge exceptionally well. Admittedly, I am not as crazy about the Liam books as I am about her Kate Shugak mysteries, but that is a personal preference which has nothing to do with whether the Liam books are good. They are very very good. This is the first in the Liam series, and I highly recommend you read all of them. I have, and they are right up there on my all time favorites list.

The characters in all of Ms. Stabenow's works are quirky, to say the least. They are the kind of people you would expect in a dangerous land like the wilds of Alaska - strong, determined, and sometimes weird beyond show more measure! Another thing I really like about the book is the fact that her heros and heroines are in no way perfect. Liam is a recovering alcoholic, riddled with self doubt and wanting badly to turn his life around. Moving from the "big city" of Anchorage to a small fishing village, Liam is immediately drawn in to the weirdness of an Alaska fishing village - the odd ducks, alcoholics, and various and sundry detritus of society who are more comfortable in the wilds than in civilization. And nobody writes these characters better than Dana.

The story grabs you from the first and doesn't let go. Overall, Highly recommended. Then go buy all her other books too - they are well worth the read! show less

A little heavy on the background which I guess is not unexpected for a first book in a series. I like the Alaskan setting and Stabenow has created a likeable cast of characters. I would be happy to read the next one (in print or on my Kindle, probably not in audio).

Begun in fire, ending in ice. The poet was wrong; ice was a better destroyer than fire, particularly if you were in the mood for vengeance.

An early scene colored this story badly for me. The actual story, a crime fiction, I eventually liked. Characters seemed true to their place and time, but mostly unlikeable. The Alaskan setting was very nicely done; I really liked the herring fishing segments. Do not know that I would go out of my way to follow up with more of this series, though.

Liam Campbell is an Alaskan State Trooper posted to SW Alaska to recover from family deaths and a non starting rescue attempt that resulted in the death of a native family. It does not improve when he is quickly involved in three killings before he can get his uniform cleaned, pressed and wearable. Good start to a new series about Alaska from, always fun to read, Dana Stabenow.

Liam Campbell, Alaskan State Trooper, arrives to his new post in Nevwenham via air. Upon his departure from the airplane he steps into a murder scene. A pilot/spotter has died by the prop of an airplane shredding his head and body. The plane owned by Wy Chouinard, his old girlfriend had been sabotaged. Who was supposed to be the victim?

Before he can even begin an investigation he is pulled away to a second shooting. Then another.

This is a well-paced murder mystery with lots of suspects and victims. The characters are carefully drawn and you feel as though you are right there with them. Another great Alaskan read by Dana Stabenow.
57