Sub-Zero!

by Robert W. Walker

WAR AGAINST THE WEATHER!

The world has struggled with deadly winters for decades--killer storms has taken thousands of lives. Now in the year 2020, it is in the grip of a new Ice Age, all because man had altered the weather to suit his own needs, not realizing the terrifying forces he had unleashed...

Chicago is in the throes of a death freeze. Tim Crocker and Joanna Sommers, investigative reporters, are on the trail of a killer... a killer who has them trapped inside an ice-bound skyscraper.

Thrills and chills, with a touch of dark humor, Sub-Zero will free you down to the marrow...

Genres: Thriller, Science Fiction, Suspense

Unknown Binding

First published June 1, 1979

About the author

Aka Geoffrey Caine, Glenn Hale, Evan Kingsbury, Stephen Robertson

Master of suspense and bone-chilling terror, Robert W. Walker, BS and MS in English Education, Northwestern University, has penned 44 novels and has taught language and writing for over 25 years. Showing no signs of slowing down, he is currently juggling not one but three new series ideas, and has completed a film script and a TV treatment. Having grown up in Chicago and having been born in the shadow of the Shiloh battlefield, near Corinth, Mississippi, Walker has two writing traditions to uphold--the Windy City one and the Southern one--all of which makes him uniquely suited to write City for Ransom and its sequels, Shadows in White City and City of the Absent. His Dead On will be published in July 2009. Walker is currently working on a new romantic-suspense-historical-mainstream novel, titled Children of Salem. In 2003 and 2004 Walker saw an unprecedented seven novels released on the "unsuspecting public," as he puts it. Final Edge, Grave Instinct, and Absolute Instinct were published in 2004. City of the Absent debuted in 2008 from Avon. Walker lives in Charleston, West Virginia.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd little novel. It's set in a near-future Chicago that's suffering a new ice age with various elements of a disaster book, a serial killer story, and a science fiction tale of an experiment gone wrong kind of jumbled together. It may sound like a good idea, but it never gels, like a tuna and pumpkin casserole topped with Roquefort cheese. It's pretty poorly edited; we're told on the cover that the setting is the year 2000 and the title is Sub-Zero, but on the inside it's 2020 and the title has grown an exclamation point. When two big errors like those are on the cover, you know the text is going to have problems. It's a bit on the misogynistic side, too. For example, the way that we're introduced to a character on page 99: "Jackie was a thin girl with no breasts to speak of but a smile large enough to make up for any deficiencies." Huh? Yea for dental hygiene? It's not too terribly written, and it does come to something of a reasonable ending with most of the loose ends tied off (except what exactly was that nuclear reactor doing in the basement of the office building...?), but I can't really recommend it.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could we be engineering a new ice age? I'm not sure of the answer...although the author has created a strong argument for it...but you also have to bear in mind that this is now 2020..the year that this was suppose to happen. This book was written in 1979...and we are all still here with not a single "walking Popsicle" among us. The story was good and showed that the author had spent some time researching his subject. The only really bad thing I can say about the book was that it seemed to have come directly from his typewriter/computer...making it's way to the printer bypassing the editor/proofreader entirely. If you like a few laughs with your "end of civilization" mystery...then you will enjoy this one.

[Grace Harwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my opinion there are two major problems with this: (1) There is no cohesive plot to the story, with a profusion of two dimensional and stereotypical characters confusing any attempt to relay it; and (2) the completely unacceptable number of typos in my (Kindle) edition which are just irritating. The premise of a number of characters trying to survive the next ice age is enough in itself to provide an interesting backdrop to a story if done well. Sadly the author does not do it well and confuses the issue with an overly complicated and nonsensical murder mystery twist. The result is anything but chilling, it just doesn't really make sense. You know that you are reading a poor story when you end up rooting for the murderer to just get on with it and doff the "hero" in (in this case the ultra-irritating weather-man/god Mark). Sub-zero? Sub-standard more like it. Should never have been published in my view.

[Mole Mann]

Similar premise to Colleen McCullough's Creed for the Third Millennium (a new ice age at the turn of the third millennium). Might get it eventually.

[Stephanie Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a cheesy story, a few of the parts didn't really come together well, but man, was it a fun ride!

[Giselle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Minimal plot, badly written, very bad editing. Don't bother.