Beneath the Dark Ice

En la Antártida, se ha estrellado una avioneta, descubriendo con su colisión un laberinto de cuevas ancestrales. Tras este suceso, un grupo de científicos, encabezado por Tom Hendsen, especializado en biología y combustibles fósiles, y 28 boinas verdes, se trasladan a la zona del impacto. Pero horas después se ha perdido el contacto con este grupo. Tras estos sucesos, el gobierno estadounidense decide enviar un grupo más especializado para determinar qué ha sucedido exactamente con los desaparecidos, así como para seguir investigando la posible existencia de fuentes de combustible fósil. Este grupo lo conforman Aimee Weir, una bióloga, alumna de Hendsen, un petrobiólogo, una espeleóloga, un arqueólogo, dos doctores, y show more cinco soldados HAWC, una unidad de élite capitaneada por Alex Hunter, un supersoldado con el nombre en clave Arcadia. Sin embargo, no estarán preparados para lo que encontrarán a su llegada a la Antártida.

‘Proyecto Arcadia’ (Beneath the Dark Ice, 2009), del australiano Greig Beck, es una espectacular aventura, frenética, que no da respiro al lector en ningún momento, de modo que sus 300 páginas se leen de un tirón. Mezcla de ciencia ficción, tecnothriller, terror y aventura, abunda sobre todo en esta última. Tiene toques de ‘En las montañas de la locura’, de Lovecraft, y también de Jules Verne y H.G. Wells, así como ciertas reminiscencias de películas como ‘Depredador’ o ‘Alien’. Añadir también, que esta es la primera novela de una serie protagonizada por Alex Hunter.

En definitiva, acción, aventuras y algo de terror, en una historia muy disfrutable. show less

Technothriller gun-porn for people who like ancient monsters.

Does it sound like it's up your alley? Then good, this one's pretty decent at what it does. Plenty of action, some political commentary, but what it really has a lot of is super-competence and/or super-powers for its main character.

Alex is a freak of nature thanks to that bullet in his brain. Woo!

Now let's keep him in charge of his team of crack commandos and watch as the scientists they're protecting die in horrible ways deep in the ice. Woo!

Like I said, if this is your cup of tea, it's pretty decent.

If you like more ideas in your SF or you want more magic in your gun-fantasy or if you want sheer terror in your horror, you might want to look a little further afield. This book show more covers a lot of rather a lot of familiar territory. Even the main characters fit the mold perfectly. There's not a lot of surprises to behold. At all.

But it's Gun-Porn! Woo! It's all about setting the right expectations. :) show less

For the first 3/4 this is a fairly decent action-adventure. Sure, there is a "monster" in it, but it is still relatively believable. The last 1/4, however, got annoying with the "history lessons" the author was trying to impart. A collection of people are trying to escape caverns and monsters and Russian assassins and yet they stop to read hieroglyphs and tell the story of the people who were there thousands of years before. Well, a) these modern people are fleeing for their lives and b) they have no food or water and c) they have already watched half their team get murdered and/or eaten... sorry, they are not going to be interested in some foolish story about ancient peoples. Nor am I. It is supposed to be action-adventure, not an show more anthropological history lesson.

As an action-adventure, it wasn't too bad - just enough running around and just enough killing to keep you reading. None of the characters are fully fleshed (i.e. any one of them are disposable as snacks for the monster, and you won't really care). And the main character (Alex) has super powers so... well, why not, lots of action heroes have super-human powers and we still read about them.

I'll read more with Alex as the center piece since it is just some brain fluff to pass the time. Nothing unexpected, nothing thrilling, but nothing glaringly obnoxious either... show less

Beneath the Dark Ice was on my Amazon recommendations list for ages. Clearly it ticked a lot of boxes for my likes and being written by a fellow Aussie was another big tick. Needless to say, when I was in a bookstore that hadn't been swallowed by a bank, I bought a copy.

For anyone who has read James Rollins' Subterranean, or drowned themselves in HP Lovecraft at any stage in their life, will see some similar ideas in this techno-thriller. Mix a super soldier and his team, his long time enemy, a band of scientists and a world beneath ours and you have the makings of a fine thriller.

So why only 3 stars? Well, I'm not a fan of exposition. Sorry, let me rephrase: you know how everyone loved Steig Larson's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? Well I show more hated it; because I didn't need the first 50 pages of the book to describe flowers, home renovations and nautical exploits. Greig's book is fast paced and doesn't flounder in blocks of boring detail like Larson, but he does use a style of exposition in his writing that I don't enjoy.

This was Greig's first book, so I expect his work will be tighter in the subsequent books (which are rated higher on goodreads). His super soldier, Alex Hunter, is definitely setup for another adventure. How Greig will top the story in this novel I don't know though. show less

I'm a big fan of action/adventure novels, especially when there's even a hint of romance thown in. This book fits that criteria, though lest anyone think it might be too "sappy" for the typical male, I will stress that the hint of romance is exactly that, a mere hint. No love scenes, just the indication that a relationship is possibly being born. So, having gotten that out of the way, lets move on to the overall story.

Suspension of disbelief is a necessary part of all fiction enjoyment. It's particularly necessary in this type of no-holds barred, way over-the-top action-driven story. I never cease to be amazed by reviewers who nitpick at the lack of precise reality in a story like this. Before buying this book I read one reveiw that show more made much mention of the weapons used and how inacurate some of the details about them were. After having read the book, I'm left marveling that the weapons were the thing that hung that reviewer up. This story, and most of its characters, are utterly unrealistic. Some of it is so far into the world of fantasy that it would require a complete mental breakdown to buy into it. While giving my husband a very general rundown of the plot, he burst out in laughter before I even got to the part about the Jules Vernesque underworld the characters find themselves in. So, if you're one of those people who gets annoyed by little things like imaginary weapons or people accomplishing feats that are beyond the most remote edge of reasonable, I would suggest you look elsewhere for something to read.

I have none of those issues. As I mentioned to my husband after his laughter died down, I place books like this into two categories. Either the fantastic unreality is interesting enough that I ignore the impossibility of it and buy into the fantasy or I keep reading for the sheer pleasure of laughing at the lunacy. For a while, I though this book was going to fall into the second category. There were certainly times when I found myself rolling my eyes and chuckling to myself. But in the end, I wound up buying into the story more than I thought I would. I liked some of the characters, cliched as they were, and was rooting for them to survive even when I knew it was highly unlikely that they would. After it was all said and done, I was content with spending a few hours of my time reading this book. I liked it enough to go ahead and get the next book in the series.

All in all, it is a decent enough foray into the genre. I've read better and I've certainly read much worse. It's pure fluff, but I don't think it was intended to be anything more than that. As long as you don't take it too seriously, you should enjoy the ride. It's predictible, filled with plot devices and lines that are nothing new. But it was fun, none-the-less. show less

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Beneath the Dark Ice
Series: Alex Hunter
Author: Greig Beck
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 321
Format: Kindle Digital Editions











Synopsis: A plane full of rich folk crash into Antarctica. Rescue teams of medical and military groups have all disappeared without a trace. So the United States sends in a team of scientists guarded by an elite of the show more elite military team. Potential oil reserves are involved so the Russians gets involved. Mainly with mercenaries who have a grudge against one of the Elite of the elite. There is also a monster and a whole "pre-historic" world under the ice. Almost everybody dies and a lot get eaten. We also learn who Alex Hunter is and that maybe Amygdala [from the Batman comics] isn't so out of the realm of possibility. My Thoughts: Passionate about Books recommended this to me and I am glad she did. This was a lot of fun with a great amount of people getting eaten by a monster. I just love it when people get eaten in stories. Dinosaurs are my favorite way but monsters will do in a pinch. The titular hero, Alex Hunter, while the main character, is not a dominating main character. The whole story was about him and the scientist chick. The side characters, while fodder, felt as much a part of the necessary story as those two. We get a brief shotgun blast of info about Hunter and why he is pretty much superhuman now. Having read some Batman comics, I am aware of the amygdalia so Beck's discussion wasn't news to me. I did roll my eyes however. Come on, getting shot in the head turns you into a superhuman? I think I'd take my chances with outerspace radiation [Fantastic 4], nuclear spiders [Spiderman] or even a gamma bomb [the Hulk]. My only other eye roll quibble was how fast the linguistics scientist decoded the picturegrams that were 10K years old. So if you can deal with those two issues, everything else is just fine. The writing was a little unpolished but not in a "I'm an indie and I don't give 2 ***** because I'm an AUTHOR" way. I think this might have been Beck's first book? If so, that would certainly explain it. I'm definitely hooked and will be reading more of this series as I can. " show less

The Antarctic is a fantastic setting for mysteries and thrillers and this is no exception. Scientists, USA elite special forces, monsters of various types and a few Russian villains for good measure. Oh! And did I mention and ancient civilization?

I believe this Is the first of Greig Beck's novels and I cannot wait to read more of his work. Looks like another quality Australian author.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention the fantastic work of Sean Mangan whose reading of this story made my journeys to and from work more enjoyable. Well done Sean.