Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

read book

Fire and Ice: The Fall Begins

by Nathan Young (Goodreads Author)

4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 · rating details · 3 ratings · 1 review

Danny Patterson never promised that he was a good man, and despite his experiences living in Leigh Park, he is actually quite vulnerable. But with Stacy Ryan at his side, he is finally beginning to find some closure. He has fought for what he believes in on many occasions, however when he finds himself the prey of Alistair Carter and a sinister group known only as The Rogu...more

Paperback, 178 pages

Published March 20th 2012 by Xlibris Corporation

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-13 of 13)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 29, 2012 Sadie Forsythe rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was alright, I guess. This was a Firstreads win and one of the joys of the giveaways is that you chance winning something completely outside your normal reading area. From Fire and Ice's blurb I wouldn't have thought this one was too far outside of mine, but I think (and I could of course be wrong) this book has a fairly specific target audience, that of the young English male. For the record I'm a 35 year old, American female.

I think the book would be most enjoyed by this particular group o...more It was alright, I guess. This was a Firstreads win and one of the joys of the giveaways is that you chance winning something completely outside your normal reading area. From Fire and Ice's blurb I wouldn't have thought this one was too far outside of mine, but I think (and I could of course be wrong) this book has a fairly specific target audience, that of the young English male. For the record I'm a 35 year old, American female.

I think the book would be most enjoyed by this particular group of people for a few reasons. First, despite living in England for several years I didn't have enough of an intuitive understanding of what Leigh Park is, and therefore didn't have the automatic knowledge that the authors presumes readers will possess. Apparently people coming out of the area will naturally be exceptionally tough by virtue of growing up there. If it had been set in Camden, NJ or East St. Louis, IL I might of understood this, or if I was English and familiar with Leigh Park's reputation. But it isn't and I'm not, so I was a little too slow on the uptake in the beginning. I didn't initially grok why Danny was such a good fighter and shot without having been trained in any way. It didn't make much sense to me. He felt too good at everything.

Now I'm not saying all books need to be targeted to an American audience or anything so horribly nationalistic, especially since I was IN ENGLAND when I won it...well within the geographic confines of what I would consider it's targeted readership (again I could be wrong about this). I just could have done with an info-blurb or something in the beginning that others probably wouldn't have needed. [Unless, of course, Danny's exceptional skill isn't meant to be the result of growing up on a run down, gang infested council estate, but then I would have to take exception to it for other reasons.]

Secondly, there are quite a few descriptions of the specifications and capabilities of cars and guns in the book, often right in the middle of otherwise intense scene. It broke up the action. Here is an example:

The SA-8OA1 was the standard issue assault rifle and light support weapon of the British Army. Manufactured jointly between BAE systems and Heckler & Kock, it entered service in 1987. It had an effective range of 450 metre's when fired with an aperture iron sight whilst later variants of the rifle were kitted out with telescopic SUSAT sights. Gas operated and using rotating bolt mechanism, the SA-8O fired the 5.56 x 45 mm NATO cartridge fro a 30-round detachable STANAG magazine and had a fully automatic rate of fire of between 610-775 rounds per minute.

Now, as a woman, I honestly just don't care. 'He had a big gun' would have been enough for me, but if I was a young man or a gun enthusiast (who knew what half of that meant) I might be thinking 'right on.' But I'm not, so what I was saying to myself was, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa I don't care about a history lesson. I'm interested in what he does with that gun.'

I don't think I was the intended demographic for this novel, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy any of it. I appreciated the friends loyalties to one another. For some reason I really liked Ade. I'm not even certain why, but I did. I enjoyed the small normal moments, like stopping for a cup of tea (though Carter did anomalously enter the tea area to drink coffee on occasion, shock/horror) or enjoying a good bacon sarni. This went a long way toward providing the reader a peek into their lives and humanizing them. I also appreciated the fact that it didn't have a cookie cutter happy ending, which would have been really unrealistic in this circumstance. As the first in a series the book definitely ends on a clanger that makes you want to know what is coming next and looks to focus on far more than one man's fight to save himself and his loved ones.

There is some repetition in the writing. I seem to recall someone, probably Danny, sinking into 'dark darkness,' the word instantly being used three times in one paragraph, and slight three times in two sentences. There isn't anything inherently wrong in these examples, but such things always drag me out of the fantasy and force me to notice the words on paper.

In the end, while I openly expect that others will whole-heartedly love this book, the best I can say is that it was OK. (Which should technically be a two star according to GR's rating system, but I didn't have the heart. ) I couldn't help wondering why it focused on Danny (view spoiler)(less)

like · see review

Apr 27, 2012 Adele symonds marked it as to-read

Apr 26, 2012 Ali added it

Apr 22, 2012 Stuart Thom marked it as to-read

Apr 21, 2012 Rose Cimarron marked it as to-read

Shelves: c-e-b, hunt

Apr 18, 2012 Faye marked it as to-read

Apr 11, 2012 Dee marked it as to-read

Apr 04, 2012 Roisin McKavanagh marked it as to-read

Apr 02, 2012 Kazimiera pendrey marked it as to-read

Apr 01, 2012 Charlotte Phillips marked it as to-read

Apr 01, 2012 Mandy Hitt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 01, 2012 Alice Briggs rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 01, 2012 Shahrun marked it as to-read

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

Popular Shelves

to-read

11 shelves

hunt

1 shelf

c-e-b

1 shelf

About Nathan Young

Nathan Young is a writer from Havant in the United Kingdom.

His first novel - Fire and Ice: The Fall Begins, is the culmination of five years’ hard work and is set to be the first in a series of three books following the character of Danny Patterson, a twenty year old man from Leigh Park who is drawn into a fierce battle for survival as he seeks revenge for the murder of his best friend.

Nathan cur...more

More about Nathan Young...

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Fire and Ice: The...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Fire and Ice: The Fall Begins
avg rating	preview: Fire and Ice: The Fall Begins Goodreads rating: 4.33 (3 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13563181-fire-and-ice?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332981103l/13563181.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13563181-fire-and-ice?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Fire and Ice: The Fall Begins by Nathan Young[/url]