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The Ice
Antartica, international scientific community, geography and wildlife, the Antartic Treaty and the industrial pressures on its wilderness for the pursuit of the natural resources under the ice.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 13, 2016
Can I give this book 3 1/2 stars? It'll never become a classic but it was a good read. I could even see it being turned into a movie. Occasionally the story line strains credibility, especially near the end when the author is trying to wrap up loose ends, but overall the good outweighed the mediocre.
March 1, 2016
The Ice, Louis Charbonneau, RDC-M, #5-91, 1992. ovel about Antarctica and the stuggle of environment and ecology vs. mineral rights, oil companies and international greed. Very good.
December 25, 2021
“. . .the blanket of snow that lay over the penguin rookery stirred. . .as if a thick white comforter were disintegrating.”
Kathy McNeely is a marine biologist at the Antarctica, nicknamed “The Ice”, whose specialty, along with her Russian counterpart Aleksei Aleksandravich Volkov, is the studying of penguins and their behavior. This time she is stationed at the McMurdo station up at The Ice to study the effects of a recent oil spill from the Chinese ship “Kowloon” has had on the environment, and the local penguins in particular.
While she is there, she once again runs into the adventurer Brian Hurley, with whom she has had a previous fling. An affair which had gone bad due to Kathy’s insecurities. Hurley is up at the Antarctica preparing for a journey to, and then across, the Harsook Glacier. It is this meeting that rekindles the feelings that the two once had for each other, and which will be important later on in the novel.
Then penguins are suddenly showing up, again, covered in oil, and while this is alarming to the American-Russian research team (called “Operation Second Chance”) it does little to excite the U. S. Navy’s McMurdo station and the research team’s liaison to the National Science Foundation (NSF). So, for all intents and purposes, the team will be on its own for the rest of the novel.
Because the soon to either expire, or be renewed, Antarctica treaty between all of the nations up on The Ice, tensions are high at the various research teams. Tensions are also high up at The Ice due to a suspicious series of accidents and malicious rumors that are occurring. These incidents and rumors have attracted the attention of the editor of the Los Angeles Times ’ editor, and so he sends the acclaimed reporter Michael Davis up to The Ice to nose around, and to write a series of articles about these incidents.
Meanwhile, the oil company TERCO, under the control of the unctuous Ron Kusic, is doing a lot of shady investigative resource explorations up at The Ice, and since a lot of this violates the Antarctica treaty, and because he’s more interested in corporate profits than environmental preservation, he has a lot of interest in keeping his secrets and mistakes, well, secret. In charge of getting all that needs to be done, and to keep the corporate secrets secret, it’s up to the corporate weasels Rupert Merrill and Len Sears to do their best to keep them, and to do so they will do anything, including murder.
The corporate dirty tricks continue with sabotage, attempted murder, murder, corporate malfeasance, mixed with romance, danger, and scientists who go above and beyond the call of duty.
The Ice is an eco-suspense thriller that has an expansive point-of-view through the various main characters (Kathy McNeely, Brian Hurley, Ron Kusic, Michael Davis, etc.) so that we can get a panoramic view of the story. Through each character we get bits and pieces of the puzzle, just enough to keep the suspense growing, until the exciting ending in which all of the character's stories come together.
Louis Charbonneau (1924-1917) was a long-time writer of science fiction and westerns, so he was used to describing environments that either don’t exist, or no longer exist, and still make them seem real. In The Ice he actually made The Ice the novel’s main character; there’s not a page that goes by in which we don’t feel the cold, the harshness, the danger, and the isolation of Antarctica’s environment. Being an old science fiction reader, it was his constant ladling in of details about The Ice’s alien, for me, environment, and the science of its ecology that kept me reading. He mixed such things in smoothly and not into large infodumps that would kill the momentum of the story.
I can see why The Ice probably didn’t make the bestseller charts; there isn’t enough graphic sex, violence, or melodrama. This is a thriller for adults with an attention span longer than a gnat’s life cycle. There is also an ending that that doesn’t really do justice to rest of the novel, but what can you do, the bad guys don’t always get what they deserve, but we know that don’t we.
This would have made a good mini-series back in the nineties when it was published, as Louis Charbonneau clearly shows the contrasts between the scientists, who are trying to do something good, and the corporate suits, who are more interested in their empty-headed whores and power grabs. Libertarians will probably hate this, as it doesn’t make making-money-for-money’s sake, or the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, seem very honorable.
However, I liked The Ice , because as an old-time science fiction fan, Antarctica seemed as alien as any distant planet. I also liked it because the main characters were rarely stereotypes; Charbonneau gave most of the main characters enough depth to make them likable, or unlikable, on their own terms.
Oh, and lets give kudos to Wendell Minor, who gives this book a great wraparound cover.
Kathy McNeely is a marine biologist at the Antarctica, nicknamed “The Ice”, whose specialty, along with her Russian counterpart Aleksei Aleksandravich Volkov, is the studying of penguins and their behavior. This time she is stationed at the McMurdo station up at The Ice to study the effects of a recent oil spill from the Chinese ship “Kowloon” has had on the environment, and the local penguins in particular.
While she is there, she once again runs into the adventurer Brian Hurley, with whom she has had a previous fling. An affair which had gone bad due to Kathy’s insecurities. Hurley is up at the Antarctica preparing for a journey to, and then across, the Harsook Glacier. It is this meeting that rekindles the feelings that the two once had for each other, and which will be important later on in the novel.
Then penguins are suddenly showing up, again, covered in oil, and while this is alarming to the American-Russian research team (called “Operation Second Chance”) it does little to excite the U. S. Navy’s McMurdo station and the research team’s liaison to the National Science Foundation (NSF). So, for all intents and purposes, the team will be on its own for the rest of the novel.
Because the soon to either expire, or be renewed, Antarctica treaty between all of the nations up on The Ice, tensions are high at the various research teams. Tensions are also high up at The Ice due to a suspicious series of accidents and malicious rumors that are occurring. These incidents and rumors have attracted the attention of the editor of the Los Angeles Times ’ editor, and so he sends the acclaimed reporter Michael Davis up to The Ice to nose around, and to write a series of articles about these incidents.
Meanwhile, the oil company TERCO, under the control of the unctuous Ron Kusic, is doing a lot of shady investigative resource explorations up at The Ice, and since a lot of this violates the Antarctica treaty, and because he’s more interested in corporate profits than environmental preservation, he has a lot of interest in keeping his secrets and mistakes, well, secret. In charge of getting all that needs to be done, and to keep the corporate secrets secret, it’s up to the corporate weasels Rupert Merrill and Len Sears to do their best to keep them, and to do so they will do anything, including murder.
The corporate dirty tricks continue with sabotage, attempted murder, murder, corporate malfeasance, mixed with romance, danger, and scientists who go above and beyond the call of duty.
The Ice is an eco-suspense thriller that has an expansive point-of-view through the various main characters (Kathy McNeely, Brian Hurley, Ron Kusic, Michael Davis, etc.) so that we can get a panoramic view of the story. Through each character we get bits and pieces of the puzzle, just enough to keep the suspense growing, until the exciting ending in which all of the character's stories come together.
Louis Charbonneau (1924-1917) was a long-time writer of science fiction and westerns, so he was used to describing environments that either don’t exist, or no longer exist, and still make them seem real. In The Ice he actually made The Ice the novel’s main character; there’s not a page that goes by in which we don’t feel the cold, the harshness, the danger, and the isolation of Antarctica’s environment. Being an old science fiction reader, it was his constant ladling in of details about The Ice’s alien, for me, environment, and the science of its ecology that kept me reading. He mixed such things in smoothly and not into large infodumps that would kill the momentum of the story.
I can see why The Ice probably didn’t make the bestseller charts; there isn’t enough graphic sex, violence, or melodrama. This is a thriller for adults with an attention span longer than a gnat’s life cycle. There is also an ending that that doesn’t really do justice to rest of the novel, but what can you do, the bad guys don’t always get what they deserve, but we know that don’t we.
This would have made a good mini-series back in the nineties when it was published, as Louis Charbonneau clearly shows the contrasts between the scientists, who are trying to do something good, and the corporate suits, who are more interested in their empty-headed whores and power grabs. Libertarians will probably hate this, as it doesn’t make making-money-for-money’s sake, or the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, seem very honorable.
However, I liked The Ice , because as an old-time science fiction fan, Antarctica seemed as alien as any distant planet. I also liked it because the main characters were rarely stereotypes; Charbonneau gave most of the main characters enough depth to make them likable, or unlikable, on their own terms.
Oh, and lets give kudos to Wendell Minor, who gives this book a great wraparound cover.
November 26, 2020
This was a fast-moving adventure set in Antarctica. We have romance, intrigue, a dangerous setting, and a mix of characters that provide interesting reading.
January 1, 2008
The Ice - I had to add this one to the book reviews. It's from 1999 which is 8 years ago when "global warming" and "holes in the ozone" were just starting up. Had some interesting views on the environmental movement and the scientists that are in the far, wild areas of the world studying under extreme conditions.
And it was a good adventure story, had all the necessary mystery, danger, cliff hanger and boy meets girl elements. I found I looked forward to going back to the Antartic to check out the next crisis. Character development was good. And the description of Antartica, the wild life and surviving it such extreme elements was quite interesting.
This is a one-time read for me. However, once I thaw out, I think I will pick up another Charbonneau novel.
And it was a good adventure story, had all the necessary mystery, danger, cliff hanger and boy meets girl elements. I found I looked forward to going back to the Antartic to check out the next crisis. Character development was good. And the description of Antartica, the wild life and surviving it such extreme elements was quite interesting.
This is a one-time read for me. However, once I thaw out, I think I will pick up another Charbonneau novel.
September 12, 2011
Learn many about living and surviving in Antarctica such as the first thing to do if caught in a storm, should be wearing sunglasses for the glare of the snow could cause extreme pain and diminished vision to unprotected eyes, weather are unpredictable, there will be safety strings attached from cabin to cabin in case of weather that doesn't allow clear view of path one still can travel from one cabin to another by tracing it, oil that covers penguin coat are deadly it is just like sending a naked man into Antarctica, and last but not least huskies are such a pet ^^~
January 28, 2012
An early global warming novel,which takes place in Antarctica. We need the concept of global warming to survive the unbelievable cold. How little nations have done to reverse global warming in the years since this book was written.
July 19, 2016
Brrr ... it's cold! I enjoyed this read from start to finish. Not only did I enjoy it, but I learned a lot more about the Cold Continent and the political games being played there.
June 28, 2013
This is a very fun read. Enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews