Dark Rising

It's been 8 years since I read the first book in the series, Beneath The Dark Ice, which I remember was quite an action packed page turner so when I stumbled across this, the second in the series I thought it'ld be worth a look.

Pleasingly, it's similar to the first, but not just a rehash in a different setting as some books of this genre can tend to do. In this installment we have an Iranian regime attempting to refine uranium for their nuclear weapons program, only instead of actually managing that feat they instead stumble into a method of spawning a black hole, and in doing so destroy their lab and everyone in it. It's here we get a glimpse that there's more than just destruction going on as mangled bodies are seemingly flung across show more to the other side of the planet.

This is where Alex Hunter and his team enters as America & Israel are rather concerned about the concentrated gamma ray burst that this experiment produced and as such dispatch a team to identify what is being done in the Iranian desert and secure the technology.

From there the story gets a little more interesting as a secondary villain is introduced through the aforementioned, sharing the spotlight with the Iranian regime for Bad Guy of the story.

Overall it was an action filled adventure with a scoop of scifi, also featured a strong female lead character who was more than just the cliche. I now see in my eight absence another 2 novels have been written after this so I think I'll be checking those out too. show less

A good page-turner. I didn't expect it be both horror and thriller, but the horror was well done with just one well-drawn monster.

This ambitious novel draws from all of the genres that I love. The story begins as a kind scientific thriller, when a black hole is created in a secret lab in a Middle Eastern desert. The US calls on superhuman Alex Hunter, think Wolverine meets Indiana Jones, to lead a team of the nation's best military agents to assess and destroy this threatening technology. To complicate matters, Israel has sent two agents to assist the US on the mission, and to steal the secrets behind their mysterious Arcadian project.

The opening section of this novel shifts between different points of view during each chapter, and because of this, the story was a bit hard for me to immediately become engrossed in. Once the main objective and characters are show more established, the book becomes a very fast and action packed read, and the last third of the story really builds a great page turner pace.

By drawing on influences from some of the best military and science fiction traditions, Greig Beck has crafted a wonderfully entertaining, thrill ride of a novel. show less

Clicky-clack mind rending silent scream. Super hero becomes more super.

I think the monster from this book, from the other side of a black hole, is related to the monster living under the ice in book one - well, they both click and clatter and are ginormous and have reaching tentacles/limbs; one mimics you and then sucks you dry, the other skips the mimic part and gets right to the juicies.

There is a bit of a plot here though - stopping the BAD extremists from, SURPRISE, the middle east. The monster is just a side serving of excitement, not the main course (though it does take up a lot of story space).

Over all, it is fast paced and reasonably believable. I think it might be just a bit better than book one, because the plot seemed to show more make more sense (well, assuming you believe humans can/would try to create a black hole). show less

Grieg Beck has a similar writing style to Matthew Reilly - convoluted plot, non-stop action and great excitement. I found this book much more engaging than the first and was sorry when I reached the end. Can't wait for another Alex Hunter adventure.

A bit far fetched even for a stupid action packed read.

3.5