Ice Limit: A Tale of Meteorite Hunters and Shocking Revelations

Okay. I’ve been around the block with fallen futuristic utopias and dark fantasies lately. I wanted to read something more grounded this time around. So I went into my stash of books and found a thriller by Lincoln Childs which was surprising. I didn’t know I even had it and thoroughly enjoyed another book of his called Deep Storm. So I gave it a go. It is called “The Ice Limit” which is co written by both Lincoln Childs and Douglas Preston.

So what is it about? The story focuses on Sam MacFarland, a disgraced meteorite hunter who gets an unusual job offer out of the blue. New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to find, extract, and display the supposedly almost mythical “worlds largest meteorite” to display in his museum. He hires Sam among a whole team of scientist and engineers to find and extract this meteorite. There is only one catch. It is set in the arctic on the southern top of Chile, therefore they must smuggle it out. So they go under the disguise as iron core miners.

There’s two problems that arise during this expedition. First, a certain authority figure in Chile is not convinced of their purpose and is not fully supportive of Chilean property being smuggled away. Second the meteorite is not exactly what they expected. Instead of a huge chunk of rock, they find a bright red marble like object. It is a unknown element and has a specific gravity of about around 120 or so. It is believed to be a interstellar meteorite from another galaxy. And by the way, it produced what seems to be great electrical storms when its touch by anyone.

So the good and bad. Well I’ll start with the good. It’s a pretty darn good thriller. Research was done to support what theories are proposed in the story, which is always good. Its unpredictable, tending to focus more on the human and morale conflicts of the story rather that running with the evil rock scenarios. And its just all around fun.

The bad? Characters are not as engaging as one could hope, but engaging enough as one could hope, but engaging enough. And detail could be expanded in just a couple action scenes. I mean these authors are very good but they tend quicken pace where lacking details and diminish the tension. But then again, that might just be me.

And the in between. This is so huge, that I love it and hate at the same time. The end of this book is where we learn the truth about the meteorite. We learn what is and what the hell is going on. And let me just say the revelation of what is going on, is such a mind blowing twist, that I was stunned. Something this huge could lead to endless possibilities. And then I saw the words “The End” And this book doesn’t have a sequel. I can’t just buy the next book. I just only dwelled on what the events of this book could possible lead to. This book is like that great TV show. It’s fresh, new, exciting and you like the characters. Then in the season finale the climax is so huge, that the world is at stake. Then the show is cancelled and you just never know. That’s what this cliffhanger does. You’ll love it and hate it at the same time.

Overall, it’s a great book. It has a amazing (yet sadly a cliffhanger) ending. Its grounded in the real world. And it’s a very fun thriller. So if you’re looking for something that’s just a good read, then read this. Its worth the read.

4 smoothies out of Four.

Overall Rating : A Tale of Meteorite Hunters and Shocking Revelations