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villyidol's review
2.0
When contact to a research base in Antarctica is lost, the crew of an icebreaker is sent to investigate. What they find are some prehistoric creatures that start attacking the ship.
For a considerable amount of time, though, the struggle is between the multicultural crew of the ship, because some of them are following their own agenda. And there's also another force involved, with which a confrontation is looming.
The creatures themselves are a little disappointing. Most of them are simply shot by someone at some point, and I couldn't shake the feeling that the author was trying to make this appear more challenging than it ultimately was. There's one very big one that makes it a little harder for our heroes, and of course a lot of people are dying in the process, but ultimately the fight against the beasts turned out to be a little disappointing.
I also think that the author should have made more of the generally very interesting setting. But for me it wasn't much more than the backdrop for the ultimately not very interesting action.
My reading-buddy Cathy pointed out that the book is a bit slow for a creature feature. And that's true as well.
It's really hard for me to find some redeeming qualities in this one. The most interesting thing were probably the circumstances in which I read this (on a flight that couldn't go to its planned destination and during my first days in a country that barely has any internet connection, which made a GR buddy-read pretty difficult, and that also doesn't exactly have cold weather at any point of the year).
Well, whatever the reasons, I just bounced off of this one. And hard.
For a considerable amount of time, though, the struggle is between the multicultural crew of the ship, because some of them are following their own agenda. And there's also another force involved, with which a confrontation is looming.
The creatures themselves are a little disappointing. Most of them are simply shot by someone at some point, and I couldn't shake the feeling that the author was trying to make this appear more challenging than it ultimately was. There's one very big one that makes it a little harder for our heroes, and of course a lot of people are dying in the process, but ultimately the fight against the beasts turned out to be a little disappointing.
I also think that the author should have made more of the generally very interesting setting. But for me it wasn't much more than the backdrop for the ultimately not very interesting action.
My reading-buddy Cathy pointed out that the book is a bit slow for a creature feature. And that's true as well.
It's really hard for me to find some redeeming qualities in this one. The most interesting thing were probably the circumstances in which I read this (on a flight that couldn't go to its planned destination and during my first days in a country that barely has any internet connection, which made a GR buddy-read pretty difficult, and that also doesn't exactly have cold weather at any point of the year).
Well, whatever the reasons, I just bounced off of this one. And hard.
cathepsut's review
4.0
Scary name for a book. I went into this with extremely low expectations. Low-and-behold, good writing! Not as fast paced or suspenseful as my previous two creature horror reads though.
Creatures from the Triassic survived and adapted. We messed with them and now they are messing back....
Have a look here, after you found out what the big bad monster is:
https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2014/06/12/nh-notes-discovery-of-a-marine-reptile-fossil-trackway/
In the last third of the book my interest started to flag a bit. The monsters were nicely monstrous and really TSTL (probably why they should have gone extinct in the first place), but still—the pacing was a little too sedate every now and then.
And the addition of a crazy woman relatively late in the book brought a wacky element to it that didn‘t really gell well with the rest of the story. I would have preferred if the author had just escalated the actual monster story instead.
Also there was a little too much thinking towards the end, when all I wanted was action and blood splatter. I really don‘t want to know the main character‘s relationship history at that point. I wanted to see him kill things. Which he did, eventually, in funny and creative ways, he was “someone who’s shown courage verging on idiocy in the face of danger.”
Bottom line, it was entertaining, I liked the main character, a little too slowly paced here and there, more focus on the monsters would have been nice. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I would read something else by the author.
Creatures from the Triassic survived and adapted. We messed with them and now they are messing back....
Have a look here, after you found out what the big bad monster is:
https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2014/06/12/nh-notes-discovery-of-a-marine-reptile-fossil-trackway/
In the last third of the book my interest started to flag a bit. The monsters were nicely monstrous and really TSTL (probably why they should have gone extinct in the first place), but still—the pacing was a little too sedate every now and then.
And the addition of a crazy woman relatively late in the book brought a wacky element to it that didn‘t really gell well with the rest of the story. I would have preferred if the author had just escalated the actual monster story instead.
Also there was a little too much thinking towards the end, when all I wanted was action and blood splatter. I really don‘t want to know the main character‘s relationship history at that point. I wanted to see him kill things. Which he did, eventually, in funny and creative ways, he was “someone who’s shown courage verging on idiocy in the face of danger.”
Bottom line, it was entertaining, I liked the main character, a little too slowly paced here and there, more focus on the monsters would have been nice. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I would read something else by the author.
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