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Fiction Review by The Gravedigger
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01.06.04
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The newest book by James Rollins (AMAZONIA, SUBTERRANEAN) is my least favorite of his, mostly because it's so unexceptional and also because it is WAY to similar to Matthew Reilly's ICE STATION.A secret Russian lab, dating from the early 1940's, is found inside an 'ice island' (floating glacier) in the Arctic ocean along with the dead bodies of everyone who once worked there. A U.S. exploration crew is sent, aboard a new scientific submarine, to investigate the complex-and discover that's it's also the den of these prehistoric mammals, who are evolutionary between wolves and whales. The scientists who were originally there discovered the creatures preserved in the ice-and also found out that they were able to hibernate and come back to life when they were unthawed.This also leads to another discovery-that the Russian base had also experimented on humans, trying to trigger this hibernation ability by using enzymes taken from the prehistoric creatures.As far as characters-there's the former Green Beret park ranger who's been estranged from his Inuit ex-wife since their child drowned three years before. There's also a deaf woman scientist and the submarine commander she's in love with. Throw in a dog and a cast of one-dimensional characters and you've got a good grasp of the novel.The prehistoric animals are interesting-never saw those in a book before-but as I said, they reminded me way too much of the mutant killer walruses in the book ICE STATION, which also took place on a hidden experimental lab.If you're interested in checking out Rollin's stuff read his first few novels, not this one.
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - 0 votes cast total
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