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Arctic Rising

(Arctic Rising #1)

Tobias S. Buckell (Goodreads Author)

3.25 · Rating details · 1,065 ratings · 194 reviews

Global warming has transformed the Earth, and it's about to get even hotter. The Arctic Ice Cap has all but melted, and the international community is racing desperately to claim the massive amounts of oil beneath the newly accessible ocean.

Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. Soon Anika finds herself caught up in a plot by a cab ...more

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Hardcover, 1st Edition, 299 pages

Published February 28th 2012 by Tor Books

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Mar 01, 2013 Elizabeth Arnold rated it liked it

I really wanted to give this book more stars. Just look at the positives:
1) Really great near-future world depiction. In many ways, it reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series, with the focus on terraforming, multinational corporations, and green terrorists.

2) Kudos to the author for the heavy focus on first nations people and the way in which global climate change would affect them disproportionately. It's not every day you read a espionage thriller peopled almost entirely with char I really wanted to give this book more stars. Just look at the positives:
1) Really great near-future world depiction. In many ways, it reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series, with the focus on terraforming, multinational corporations, and green terrorists.

2) Kudos to the author for the heavy focus on first nations people and the way in which global climate change would affect them disproportionately. It's not every day you read a espionage thriller peopled almost entirely with characters who are not white Westerners.

3) Our heroine is very cool, and happens to be gay. The author handles this in the best way possible, which is to say she's just a human being who happens to be gay, and it doesn't play into the story other than to subvert our spy novel expectations of her falling into bed with every covert agent who helps her along the way!

4) Great predictive analysis of global politics in a climate-changed future, as well as wonderful and colorful descriptions of the experimental societies that pop up in the future "wild west" of a warmer Arctic. There is an entire episode involving tough-as-nails, radically democratic women defending their cooperatively-owned strip club set in the Arctic's Vegas that seemed entirely lifted from the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold."

5) Like most great Science Fiction, this book is partially predictive and partially proscriptive. Not-so-subtly hidden in the novel are criticisms of an economic system that doesn't accurately gauge the true market cost of global warming, potentially utopian/dystopian political systems that could arise, different forms of environmental advocacy and action, including green terrorism, the morality of violence, including planned violence against a few to save the many, and the ethics of torture, debating the torture of one to save the many.

So. . .reading all the positives, why not 4 or 5 stars? There were a couple of major problems I just couldn't overcome:

1) I found the pacing to just be. . .off. I don't read a ton of thrillers, but I know enough to know they are supposed to be full of action to keep the reader turning pages. There is a weird problem with this novel. It simultaneously has action-packed sequence following action-packed sequence (such that the reader doesn't have time to catch their breath) and is also somehow plodding. I usually can polish a novel like this off in a night. This one took me over half a year to finish because I kept putting it down and not WANTING to pick it back up. It was the OPPOSITE of a page-turner. It is very unusual for me to not finish a book, but this one felt like a chore. I don't know enough, technically, about writing, to say what caused this, but I just know it didn't keep me engaged. It felt choppy and rushed, but also boring and slow, if that makes any sense?

2) Similarly, the author created all these awesome character whom I should have loved, but I just didn't care about them at all. I seriously loved the idea of our heroine, but at the end of the day, didn't care if she lived or died. The side character/Caribbean spy Roo held more appeal for me, but even he didn't get my blood racing. I couldn't even muster up any hate for the villians. They just all seemed like cardboard cutouts.

If all of this seems harsh, let me compare another novel I read recently: "Earth Unaware" by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. Both feature near future worlds with familiar (but still futuristic) technology. Both feature global politics, multinational corporate power, and green renegades. (In Card's version, the asteroid miners are the corollary to the Arctic traders and manufacturers). "Arctic Rising" is almost 250 pages on my Nook; "Earth Unaware" was over 400. Both feature major characters of color who are, if not disenfranchised, then definitely somehow outsiders in the new power structure.

Here's the difference: "Earth Unaware" made me CARE. I immediately fell in love with the characters. I cared what happened to them. I cried at their losses and death, and rejoiced in their triumphs. I also cared what happened to this Earth. . .even at the distance of deep space, and breathlessly rooted for the hero's race back to Earth from space to carry to humanity proof of the coming Formic invasion. . .would he make it in time?! In "Arctic Rising" I was sort of nonplussed at the prospect of a nuke on the loose in the Arctic, not finding myself particularly interested in whether or not the heroes stopped the plot. In "Earth Unaware" I couldn't stop reading because of the tension. I don't know, technically, what the difference is in the authors' writing. If I could unlock that mystery, maybe I'd be a bestselling author! ...more

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Oct 12, 2013 John Carter McKnight rated it it was amazing

Arctic Rising needs to be a movie, right now. It's brilliantly vivid, breakneck-paced, nail-bitingly suspenseful, with visually striking and well-defined characters, and would look amazing on the big screen.

As a novel, it's still a winner. I love the characters: the African lesbian pilot protagonist, the Caribbean dreadlocked spy, the gorgeous blonde drug capo and her subtly snarky Russian bodyguard, the strip club run as a worker-owned capitalist co-op, and above all the world-weary, elderly s ...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Kenyon Harbison rated it liked it

This is a fairly mediocre, though also quite readable, "eco-thriller" set in the near future. The ice caps have melted. A semi-country named Thule exists at the North Pole, built on the last of the ice, which they keep artificially-frozen. The "Artic Tigers" like Canada, Russia, rule the roost because global warming has given them tons more arable land while taking it away from other countries, and because they control so much of the newly-explorable oil/gas fields.

The main character, whose nam This is a fairly mediocre, though also quite readable, "eco-thriller" set in the near future. The ice caps have melted. A semi-country named Thule exists at the North Pole, built on the last of the ice, which they keep artificially-frozen. The "Artic Tigers" like Canada, Russia, rule the roost because global warming has given them tons more arable land while taking it away from other countries, and because they control so much of the newly-explorable oil/gas fields.

The main character, whose name I have already forgotten (I'll call her "Main Character"), is an African lesbian pilot of derigibles for the UN, who observes shipping lanes. When she is shot down after detecting nuclear radiation on a freighter (where it should not be), shananigans ensue. A kindly female drug dealer ("Drug Dealer"), whose name I have also forgotten, and whose character is never at all clear (except that she is hot for Main Character, for reasons that are also unclear), helps Main Character get to Thule. There Main Character will have a momentous appointment/encounter either with nefarious government agents, or with a nefarious do-gooder corporation-gone-rogue, or both, etc. This happens after Main Character goes awol/rogue, which she does mainly as a plot device, harnessed in the service of letting us watch the shanigans, rather than because it makes the slightest bit of sense either objectively, or for her character as previously sketched. Hopefully you get the point. Numbers. Paint. By. Creaky wheels visibly turning.

I read this book because it was profiled on NPR, and I needed a book, and it was a Kindle impulse purchase, a "kinpulse purchase" if you will. To be clear, it is not a bad book. It is not mind-bendingly badly written and boring (see my review of Death Comes to Pemberly) by any means. It is in fact quite readable, and you'll finish it, and enjoy it. But it has a LOT of this "tell you" rather than "show you". Why does Drug Dealer like Main Character? Well, the answer is, because Author tells you she does! Seriously. That's about the extent of the exploration of the basis for that relationship. Main Character actually wonders in the book why Drug Dealer likes her. Rule of Thumb: whenever a main character wonders why something is happening to him or her, that is a giant flashing red light telling you the Author doesn't have a clue either, so he put it in the mouth of his main character to "solve" that problem. Why does co-head of Do-Gooder, Inc. go nuts? Nobody knows. Too many years of fighting the system, etc., etc.

Two kinds of people are going to give this book five stars, because they will be willing to "excuse its flaws": 1) people who think having a gay main character who just is gay without that being an issue is wonderfully groundbreaking in fiction (I actually published a short story along those lines in 2004, and multiple movies and TV shows have gone to this natural and commonsensical progression, which is how gay characters should always have been written in the first place); and 2) people who think the book is "important" and "speaks to serious issues," "might help the conversation" on global warming (these people will uniformly talk about "global warming," not the more correct "anthropogenic global warming"). These topics are good, and valid, and are true, or at least important, or both. But they don't make this a great novel. Not by a long shot. ...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Lelia Taylor rated it really liked it

Shelves: full-reviews

Arctic Rising
Tobias S. Buckell
Tor Books, February 2012
ISBN 978-0-7653-1921-0
Hardcover

In a not very distant future, global warming has succeeded in melting nearly all of the Arctic icecap and the results are what we should probably expect. Massive oil fields previously buried are now available for the taking and a new global economy has grown up around the remnants of the ice. Countries and corporations vie for top dog position with Canada having a territorial edge and a world much like the Ameri Arctic Rising
Tobias S. Buckell
Tor Books, February 2012
ISBN 978-0-7653-1921-0
Hardcover

In a not very distant future, global warming has succeeded in melting nearly all of the Arctic icecap and the results are what we should probably expect. Massive oil fields previously buried are now available for the taking and a new global economy has grown up around the remnants of the ice. Countries and corporations vie for top dog position with Canada having a territorial edge and a world much like the American Wild West has developed. True to human nature, men and women are there for the jobs, the pay, the hard work and the freewheeling atmosphere. Law and order exist in an overbearing sort of way side-by-side with the usual criminal activities and tiny new countries have sprung up that give allegiance to no one but themselves.

All this open water has also created new places to dump waste, nuclear and otherwise, and the United Nations Polar Guard monitors the Northwest Passage for hints of radioactive materials. Anika Duncan pilots an airship in the fleet and, when she detects radiation coming from a ship, she flies lower to investigate with devastating effects. Within hours, she’ll be hunted as a criminal herself and must go on the run, searching for answers. Anika can only trust a mercenary spy and an unusual drug lord and the three have journeys that are intense enough to keep the reader up at night and wondering, along with our heroes, whether there really is a nuclear weapon in the wrong hands.

Also interrupting the reader’s sleep is the parallel story of a benevolent corporation that has developed a method of cooling the planet. Unfortunately, their wondrous product is the target of the greed of others who want to control this potential weapon of incredible destruction and also to the warping of their own good intentions. Eventually, it becomes plain that there is a connection to the answers Anika is searching for and the ultimate mystery becomes not whether the new Arctic community, and the planet, will survive but how and at what price.

Although this is billed as ecological science fiction, it’s also a mystery and a thriller of the highest order. Not being entirely on the global warming bandwagon, I was a bit concerned that the message would be heavy-handed, almost overbearing, but that’s not the case. Buckell makes his point about where humanity is headed in a very palatable fashion and I appreciate that. When it comes to political agendas in fiction, I prefer that the author make his case within the entertainment and let me come to my own conclusions and Buckell has done that. Amongst all the history and science and foretelling of the future, one phrase still sticks in my mind and it’s enough for me:

“this is how you could pass over the last of the polar bear’s territory, all four hundred of them”

Anika is a kickbutt protagonist with a really interesting background. She’s smart and determined and very brave and her pals, Vy and Roo, are no less intriguing. Some of the ethical choices they have to make are heartrending and their strong but compassionate characters become very evident. I have no idea whether Buckell intends a follow-up but I would be delighted to see these three in another adventure. I also think Arctic Rising would make a terrific action-adventure movie in the Bourne tradition.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, March 2012. ...more

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May 15, 2012 Jim added it

Arctic Rising is a bit of a change from other Tobias Buckell books I’ve read. While it’s definitely science fiction, it’s near-future SF with a strong “thriller” feel. (The genre, not the Michael Jackson song. There are no dancing zombies in this book.)

The protagonist is Anika Duncan, an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard who gets shot down after discovering a nuclear missile being smuggled into the Arctic. She soon finds herself in the middle of a global power struggle. The Gaia Corporation Arctic Rising is a bit of a change from other Tobias Buckell books I’ve read. While it’s definitely science fiction, it’s near-future SF with a strong “thriller” feel. (The genre, not the Michael Jackson song. There are no dancing zombies in this book.)

The protagonist is Anika Duncan, an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard who gets shot down after discovering a nuclear missile being smuggled into the Arctic. She soon finds herself in the middle of a global power struggle. The Gaia Corporation have devised a plan to reverse global warming, but the technology can also be used as a deadly superweapon. (And I can’t say what the technology is without spoiling things, which sucks, because it’s pretty darn cool.)

I like the extrapolation Buckell has done on a world where the icecaps continue to melt and the oceans continue to rise. He’s done his research, and it shows. (Some aspects of the book should be familiar to anyone who reads his blog.) The dwindling ice caps create a rush to tap previously inaccessible oil reserves, leading to a proliferation of arctic settlements and colonies. Those settlements in the arctic have a bit of a science fiction feel as well, which was fun. Yes, I’m reading the book through more of an SF lens than a thriller one.

This was a pretty fast read, with colorful characters, a bit of dangerous romance, international intrigue, spies, guns, all leading to a desperate, high-stakes climax.

If you’re familiar with Buckell’s work, this book has some of his trademarks: awareness that there’s more to the world than the United States; significant nonwhite characters (Anika is neither white nor straight); sailing ships written by someone who’s actually lived on one; and lots of action.

Given that climate change is a hot political topic right now, I suspect some readers will denigrate the book as leftist liberal propaganda, and that’s unfortunate. I’ll admit there were a few points early on where I felt like the message started to overtake the story. But then I started wondering if this was due to the fact that in the U. S., any mention of climate change has become so highly politicized. In other words, it’s not that Buckell is preaching; it’s more that political groups have been screaming and squawking and flat-out lying at me about global warming issues for so long that it affected my reading of the book, which is unfortunate.

Overall, Arctic Rising does exactly what a lot of good science fiction does: examines the current science and research, makes predictions about the future, and writes a rousing story about that future. ...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Michael Cummings rated it really liked it

*** DON'T READ THE GOODREADS SYNOPSIS OF THIS BOOK. IT IS A SPOILER AND GIVES MOST OF THE BOOK AWAY. ***

Tobias Buckell, known for his Caribbean influenced science fiction Xenowealth series and additions to the Halo universe, brings us his first new novel in four years with "Arctic Rising". In the very near future, the Arctic ice cap has all but melted as rising global temperatures change the dynamics and balance of power in the world. Tundras are now prairies, and the once ice locked islands of *** DON'T READ THE GOODREADS SYNOPSIS OF THIS BOOK. IT IS A SPOILER AND GIVES MOST OF THE BOOK AWAY. ***

Tobias Buckell, known for his Caribbean influenced science fiction Xenowealth series and additions to the Halo universe, brings us his first new novel in four years with "Arctic Rising". In the very near future, the Arctic ice cap has all but melted as rising global temperatures change the dynamics and balance of power in the world. Tundras are now prairies, and the once ice locked islands of the Arctic circle are now the coveted centers of commercial and shipping success.

Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard, patrolling these northern shipping lanes by air when events kick off in the novel. Readers are propelled through this eco-thriller as the stakes are raised and the balance of power is at risk.

Buckell's book seems somewhat apropos this year, when in the dead of winter we are looking at 70 degree days during a time of year when we usually measure the day by how deep the snow is. At its heart, "Arctic Rising" is a thriller set in the backdrop of a world where global warming has already started to wreak severe havoc, destroying tropical islands in floods while at the same time opening the northern reaches of Canada and Russia to more temperate activity.

When the book excels as a thriller, it really excels. Buckell has a gift for writing down the play by play action of a fight scene, whether that fight is in the scrub of Greenland, or between armed groups in a disintegrating floating city. Sadly, its not without its flaws - the info dumps, when they happen, are a force to be reckoned with, and occasionally someone takes a sip of the monologue draught.

Buckell always does a great job of breaking us out of the northern European descent perspective of the world, giving us a better rounded view of the world. His characters aren't just white Americans - they're Nigerian, Caribbean, and Canadian, and they come from a culture and history that you can almost feel.

I would love to learn a little bit more about the world Anika and friends live in, though. If the Arctic is melting, what about the Antarctic? What's going on south of the equator? Maybe a future book will give us that glimpse. For now, I'd recommend this near future thriller for the fast paced zeppelin ride that it is.
...more

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Jan 06, 2013 C.E. Murphy rated it it was amazing

I've just finished Tobias Buckell's absolutely terrific ARCTIC RISING, which is one of those rare books that I enjoyed so much that I dearly wish I'd written it, but am also not flailing with regret that I didn't nor would ever be able to write it. Instead I just enjoyed the hell out of it and am chomping at the bit for the sequel.

It's near-future SF, set after the melting of the Arctic ice cap. More accessible and adventure-oriented than Kim Stanley Robinson's brilliant Science trilogy, it is e ...more

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Oct 08, 2014 Chuck rated it did not like it

This book is bad, just plain bad. The story is lame, on the level of what you might find in a cliched Hollywood thriller, and it is poorly told. The author has little sense of character. Not only are they cardboard and one-dimensional, but they aren't consistently imagined. There's a lot of violence as well, some of it totally unrealistic, again like a Hollywood movie. For example, the heroine and her lover beat the living crap out of a guy with brass knuckles. They are described hitting him in ...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, queer-characters, cyberpunk, pocmaincharacters, post-apocalyptic

Climate change meets action adventure! After years working in war zones, Anika Duncan is happy to have found a peaceful job piloting airships for the UN. Then her ship is shot down while patrolling arctic waters, and she realizes it's part of a conspiracy with global consequences.

The action in this is top-notch: easy to follow but inventive and absolutely thrilling. Anika is a great, unique character, with a strong moral center and a lot of guts. And the plot itself is a lot of fun, with twists ...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Geoffrey Allan Plauché rated it liked it

Shelves: environmentalism, science-fiction, techno-thriller

I have previously read and reviewed Tobias S. Buckell's Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin , both of which I enjoyed. On the other hand, I am skeptical of alarmist claims about global warming. So it was with some ambivalence, a mixture of excitement and trepidation, that I began reading my advance review copy (ARC) of Buckell's latest novel -- his first foray into techno-thrillers -- Arctic Rising (Tor, 2012). Though he had me worried a time or two, I was pleasantly surprised and glad I read ...more

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Feb 23, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it liked it

Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/b...

After global warming has ravaged the earth and the polar ice caps have almost entirely melted, the world is a dramatically different place. With the recession of glaciers and ice that had previously covered inaccessible regions of Canada, Norway, Finland, Greenland, Iceland and other northern regions, a slew of rich natural resources are ripe for the taking. With a rush to move up north to mine the jewels, oil, an Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/b...

After global warming has ravaged the earth and the polar ice caps have almost entirely melted, the world is a dramatically different place. With the recession of glaciers and ice that had previously covered inaccessible regions of Canada, Norway, Finland, Greenland, Iceland and other northern regions, a slew of rich natural resources are ripe for the taking. With a rush to move up north to mine the jewels, oil, and other precious natural commodities, the power balance and economics of the world shifts dramatically, and UN peacekeepers are enlisted to monitor and protect the exploited north.

Anika Duncan is one such UN worker, a pilot for the Polar Guard, charged with flyovers of the northern polar region and monitoring any abnormal behavior. Anika and her partner Tom are on a routine flyby, when they notice an uncleared freighter with abnormal – radioactive – cargo. The freighter fires on their ship, killing Tom and nearly drowning Anika. Angry and hungry for answers, Anika cannot let the mystery ship go and delves into the mystery of the freighter and its mysterious cargo in order to avenge her friend and prevent a catastrophe and corporate conspiracy of global proportions.

Arctic Rising explores a future world in which our ecosystem is irrevocably changed, and is essentially an eco-thriller with a politically astute and socio-economic edge. One thing I love about Buckell’s work is his attention to detail and his keen integration of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, and Arctic Rising is no exception. Heroine Anika is from Nigeria (the bi-racial daughter of a religious father and a Nollywood actress mother); the bubbly secondary character Vy is a Southern homegrown American girl with apple pie appeal (despite being the most successful drug dealer in the Northern region); Roo, a freelance spy, is from the (now submerged) Caribbean island region. There are gay characters, there are characters of varying race, social standing, and native background, and in a genre that is somewhat homogenous (especially in contemporary sci fi), this is really goddamn cool.

Of course, at its core, Arctic Rising is really a thriller – an ecological thriller with a political and socially conscious edge, that toes the line between science fiction and realism. Mr. Buckell excels in his envisioning of the repercussions of a world where the ice caps have almost completely melted, and I loved the extrapolation of this premise. This vision is brutally and painstakingly realized; it is a world where the lower lying islands and regions have been wiped out, where an entire new world order has been built around the resources of the north with new oil rigs being set up each day and tightened immigration and work permit laws. Beyond the worldbuilding implications, I also loved the tightly written action scenes in Arctic Rising, from interrogations, to high speed boat chases, to blow-by-blow fistfights, and more. My only problems with the book were with some of the less even pacing points – in between the action, there is a lot of exposition-ladling and some generous info-dumping. The story is also incredibly contained, only looking at the cross section of the northern region without exploring what is happening at other ends of the world (how are the regions of South and Central America handling the rising waters and temperatures, for example?).

These criticisms aside, I truly enjoyed reading Arctic Rising and recommend it to anyone hungering for a scifi thriller with an eco-bend. ...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Stefan rated it really liked it

Shelves: far-beyond-reality-review, science-fiction

Whether you call it climate change or global warming, by the time Tobias Buckell’s long awaited new novel Arctic Rising gets started, the results are obvious: the Arctic ice cap has melted down, and the Northwest Passage has opened completely for shipping. Companies are rushing into areas like Greenland to take advantage of the abundant natural resources that are much more easily accessible now all that pesky ice is no longer in the way.

At the same time, nuclear electricity generation has become ...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Craig rated it really liked it

This near-future techno-(or eco-)thriller is a very good novel, both extremely thought-provoking and very fast-paced. I believe Ian Fleming's work (or perhaps the films based upon them) must have been a strong influence; in fact, Bond is mentioned a time or two in the text. I was unconvinced that the protagonist (a gay African woman) could have accomplished some of the things that she does in the story, but that may just be personal bias on my part. The world is extrapolated in an intelligent, i ...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Jared rated it liked it

This was a fine book, but I think just not my bag. I've enjoyed Buckell's short fiction, and really like the way he isn't bound to the male/white/hetero protagonist template. However, I'm just not big on the techno thriller style of science fiction. I tried to get into it, and Anika was an interesting character with more depth than expected, but the book was just too much of a blockbuster movie style romp for my tastes. I finished it even though my interest really faded in the last hundred pages ...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Jessica Thomas rated it really liked it

What's not to love? A beautiful half-British, half-Nigerian female protagonist kicking ass across the arctic in a near future setting that beautifully paints a fascinating scenario of the social, environmental, economic and political impacts of climate change. Tore through this novel on the beach in St. Thomas with a sunburned nose to show for it! ...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Bill rated it really liked it

Talk about your nonstop thrill ride. The action starts on, like, page 5 and doesn't end until p. 335. And, unlike the lion's share of thrillers out there, the action was all somewhat plausible--and the doomsday scenario all too probable.

And big ups for the mixed-race heroine and her Carib secret agent sidekick. They didn't make me cringe once. ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Corey rated it really liked it

This was a well-thought out and written science fiction novel about what it would be like in the future with the global warming trend. The reason I didn't give this book five stars is because it had a few holes in the plot, but other than that, Arctic Rising was suspenseful and fun to read. ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Colin rated it really liked it

Shelves: queer, speculativefiction, fiction

Finally a new book from Tobias Buckell! Readers will definitely see the influence of Paolo Bacilagupi in this one. I enjoyed the politics, the kick-ass dyke protaganist, and the setting, though it wasn't as rich as some of his others. ...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Ken rated it it was amazing

http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2012/04... ...more

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Aug 16, 2013 George Harris rated it liked it

Starts off as a pretty good action thriller, but the last 1/4 or so seems muddled. Points for good ethnic and gender diversity without seeming forced.

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May 01, 2014 edifanob rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-books, 2014-reads

One gets exactly what is promised in the description.

A satisfying read with intelligent and emotional characters in a believable setting which hopefully will not come true.

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May 07, 2017 Gary Lynch rated it liked it

Tobias Buckell's 2012 novel, Arctic Rising, starts off like a ride on a wild roller coaster that keeps getting more and more thrilling. For the first 100 pages he made it almost impossible to put down. I would have given it 5 stars if he had held that pace to the end, but sadly, he couldn't.

We find ourselves in the mid-21st century where the ice cap over the north pole is almost gone, heretofore untouchable oil reserves are creating a new aristocracy and a new country which calls itself 'Thule', ...more

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Dec 31, 2019 Lucas Wyman rated it really liked it

I chose “Arctic Rising” by Tobias S. Buckell because after reading the back cover I, an action/adventure reader, was very intrigued. In the book, Anika, the main character, gets caught up in a war between people who are battling for and against climate change. Buckell masterfully keeps you guessing about what will happen next through multiple storylines that you want to connect but can’t find a way so you have to read the whole book. While Buckell ties all the storylines well together in the end I chose “Arctic Rising” by Tobias S. Buckell because after reading the back cover I, an action/adventure reader, was very intrigued. In the book, Anika, the main character, gets caught up in a war between people who are battling for and against climate change. Buckell masterfully keeps you guessing about what will happen next through multiple storylines that you want to connect but can’t find a way so you have to read the whole book. While Buckell ties all the storylines well together in the end there are still many things he leaves untouched such as each characters life after everything that has happened. Buckell not only uses climate change as a tie in to modern day issues he also used the issue of gay rights and the threat of nuclear war.
Although this was a Cli-Fi novel and the events that occurred were due to climate change “Arctic Rising” had very few details addressed to climate change and most were in the beginning of the book. For example the opening sentences are, “Centuries ago, the fifty-mile-wide mouth of Lancaster Sound imprisoned ships in its icy bite. But today, the choppy polar waters between Baffin Island to the south of the sound, and Devon Island on the north, twinkled in the perpetual sunlight of the Arctic’s summer months, and tons of merchant traffic constantly sailed through the once impossible-to-pass Northwest Passage over the top of Canada.” This was one of the only mentions of climate change in the first few chapters of the book. Many of the characters had short conversations of how climate change had affected their past but those were the only moments about the book that directly addressed climate change. Most of the book is focused towards the people and what they are doing as opposed to climate change even though in the end they are fighting climate change.
Even though there is little information about climate change in the book, if you are an action/adventure lover who is also passionate about climate change, this book is for you.
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Oct 02, 2017 John Nordin rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Ah some more good semi-plausible sifi. The globe has warmed, the arctic has melted and the scramble for minerals is on. The UN has blimps policing the area including one piloted by our heroine. Of course she is kick-ass, African, frizzy haired, can kill while handcuffed and is slowly lesbian. Or maybe the author just wanted to introduce it to us slowly. Anyway. She's shot down after detecting something that shouldn't have been there but was that the evil companies, the maybe-evil environmentalis ...more

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Jun 02, 2018 Marius rated it liked it

Gave this book a shot as a fellow person from the Caribbean and I would describe it as post-colonial novel of the near future. as a collection of ideas it actually is fairly interesting. But the book's writing in terms of style, language and character development needed work and editing. it was interesting enough that I would give this author more chances in the future but this book while interesting in spots is just alright overall. ...more

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Aug 15, 2019 Marco rated it it was ok

Great worldbuilding, but dialogues, characters, and the overall plot are basically ridiculous (unnatural/unrealistic/full of holes). The author often dabbles in overrhetoricism, while technical details are quite unsatisfactory — this last issue being definitely detrimental to the evaluation of a techno-thriller.

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Jul 27, 2017 Sara rated it liked it · review of another edition

Loved the politics of this and the premise. I was intrigued by the characters--I would have enjoyed more development of them, but instead this was mostly focused on action. That's not a criticism, just an observation of the style. I could imagine this as a Hollywood action film. ...more

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Apr 20, 2018 Tracey rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018

Not my usual read as this is pretty well non stop action. That does make it an easy read. I was attracted to it by the themes of climate change and energy resources; I am glad to say that these were handled as the serious and complex subjects that they are.

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Aug 08, 2020 Brown Robin rated it liked it

An engaging thriller about climate change. The Bondian elements of the story worked for me, and the pace is juggernautish. This should have been a bestseller than put Buckell on the book buyers' radar. ...more

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Aug 19, 2020 Veronica rated it it was ok

I expected more from this novel. The plot was so so but got so confusing at time, I just gave up on sorting out who is who. The characters I found were somewhat flat. This novel tried to cover as many genres as could be worked out.

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About Tobias S. Buckell

Tobias S. Buckell

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Born in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.