Ice Station

Shane Schofield, Book 1

By: Matthew Reilly

Narrated by: Sean Mangan

At a remote ice station in Antarctica, a team of U.S. scientists has made an amazing discovery. They have found something buried deep within a 100-million-year-old layer of ice. Something made of metal. Led by enigmatic Lieutenant Shane Schofield, a team of crack United States Marines is sent to the station to secure this discovery for their country. They are a tight unit, tough and fearless. They would follow their leader into hell. They just did...©2002 Matthew Reilly (P)2002 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Critic reviews

"Some of the wildest and most sustained battles in an action thriller in a long time...non-stop action, lots of explosions--and a little bit of conspiracy." ( Chicago Tribune)

Great fun

perfect action packed audio book for long drives in australia. keeps you alert and hanging for the next twist.

Explosive, fast-paced, Matthew Reilly.

This an explosive fast-action story set in Antarctica. This is Matthew Reilly' s first story featuring the character Simon "Scarecrow" Schofield. It is read by Sean Mangan who reads most of Matthew Reilly's books and gives his usual polished performance. Scarecrow and his team are sent as the forward team to secure an Ice Station in Antarctica and help rescue a research team. They find a lost secretly built stealth plane and have to fight for their lives against Killer Whales and Elephant Seals and corrupt army, navy seals and SAS teams that want to get their hands on the plane and to keep it's secrets for themselves. This is an excellent listen that I recommend to anyone who loves a good action novel.

The action never stops

I was really looking forward to reading this after I had finished Reilly's first book "The Contest". I must say, he lives up to his fast paced reputation with this one. But I didn't like it as much as his first. I didn't get what I thought I would. Scientists discover an alien spaceship under an ice shelf in the antarctica so they send in the army to inspect it. Throughout the whole book I was just waiting for the aliens to come out and start killing people. Alas this never happened, and it just turned into a battle to see which country could claim it. The Hero of the book Scarecrow seems almost superhuman with his ability to sustain injuries and keep killing everyone. He does some unbelievable things, but you move on anyway just to see how he'll get out of his next problem. It was like everything was against him, Killer whales, Sea lions, submarines, fighter jets, hovercrafts, navy seals, SAS and even his own country!! Reilly does have a great imagination even if it sometimes gets away from him. But he manages to sort of string it back to reality in the end. And his typical narrator Sean Mangan does the job we all appreciate him for, the voice of Matthew Reilly's stories. Well done to him. So the whole thing was just slightly too far fetched for me but it was lots of fun, it got straight into the action and never stopped. I look forward to Reilly's next one, "The Temple".

Too many scenes were interrupted

which made me mad, reduced my enjoyment.

STORY BRIEF:
U.S. researchers in Antarctica discover something buried in an ice cave. They believe it is an alien spaceship. Divers were killed while looking at it. They don’t know why. They send out a distress signal. Other countries hear the call and want the spaceship. So they send military groups to fight for it. Lieutenant Schofield is the first to arrive with a group of marines. His goal is to protect the researchers and the discovery. An enemy military group soon arrives with better weapons and more men. Their intent is to kill everyone.

The most frequently used weapon is Schofield’s mag gun. It shoots a grappling hook and a magnetic end with a long cable attached. The author used this gun in many different and creative ways.

Some good guys are killed, but it has a happy ending for other good guys.

OPINION:
This feels like 50 scenes of pulse-pounding action, fast and furious fighting. It was crisis after crisis even at the end. A lot of them were imaginative. This should appeal to video game lovers (those of them who like to read). In many scenes Schofield is about to be killed, but he finds some little thing or something unexpected which gets him out of it. It reminded me of MacGiver.

This was exciting, but I don’t want to read any more. I want more than chase, defend, attack. I want characters and other things. I prefer the Jack Reacher books over this.

INTERRUPTING SCENES:
This author did something that made me so mad and too many times. It’s a cheap trick/device. He interrupts scenes at the moment of realization or crisis - at the worst time for the reader. He doesn’t need to do that. This is already nonstop suspense. Here’s an example. A is wounded and in a hospital bed. B enters the room with a knife planning to kill A. A secretly switches on a microphone. Scene switches to C on another floor talking to a guy. Scene switches back to B smashing the microphone. Scene switches to C, still talking. Scene switches to A who is bloody but won the fight with B. The A scene was split into three pieces, and it was a short scene. (As an aside we missed the best part - how did wounded A win the fight with B?)

Here’s another example, Schofield finds a transmitter and wonders what it’s for. Then all of a sudden he realizes the answer. But the scene switches to something else without telling the reader what he realized.

If the author had not used these tricks I would have given the book more stars. But I cannot like something when I’m frustrated and mad over and over again.

SUSPENDING DISBELIEF:
I don’t mind suspending disbelief - for fun. And you need to do that A LOT. But there was one thing that really bothered me and I really needed an explanation. Large elephant seals are eating humans. A bad guy injures A and throws him into the ocean. So why does an elephant seal grab A in the water, put him back on the deck, and then leave? He saved A’s life. I’d be willing to accept this if you give me an explanation. Did he like A’s smell or something? What?

NARRATOR:
He was very good except for his accent on two words - on almost every page. It was distracting. Most of the characters are Americans, and they don’t talk like that. He said “been” (like it rhymes with green) and “again” (like the word “gain”). I’m not sure what his accent is but it doesn’t sound like U.S. marines. It was unsettling. I think the narrator should have changed his pronunciation just for those two words.

GENRE: action suspense

SPOILER answers the question: Are aliens in this story?

CAUTION SPOILER:
All the fighting and suspense is among the various military groups. There are no aliens in this story.

McGyver strikes again

Would you try another book from Matthew Reilly and/or Sean Mangan?

I probably won't try another book from this author. The hero is more of a McGyver type rather than a credible character, & there were too many common technical errors in the action for my liking.