Product Description
The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for millions of years on a frigid, desolate island off the southern tip of Chile. At four thousand tons, this treasure seems impossible to move. New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum. Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition. But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die. A frightening truth is about to unfold: The men and women of the Rolvaag are not taking this ancient, enigmatic object anywhere. It is taking them.
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Amazon.com Review
Billionaire Palmer Lloyd is accustomed to getting what he wants--and what he wants for his new museum is the largest meteorite on earth. Unfortunately for Lloyd, it's buried on an inhospitable Chilean island just north of the Ice Limit in the most brutal, unforgiving seas in the world. Fortunately for Lloyd, he knows people--people like Eli Glinn, the hyper-focused president of Effective Engineering Solutions, Inc.; Glinn's nonconformist, genius of a mathematician, Rachel Amira; and the uncannily able construction engineer, Manuel Garza. Lloyd's also tapped the brilliant but disgraced meteorite hunter, Sam McFarlane, and the exceptional supertanker captain, Sally Britton, whose career was unshipped by intemperance and a reef. Of course, such a team has a hefty price tag: Lloyd's broad features narrowed. "And that is... " "One hundred and fifty million dollars. Including chartering the transport vessel. FOB the Lloyd Museum." Lloyd's face went pale. "My God. One hundred and fifty million... " His chin sank onto his hands. "For a ten-thousand-ton rock. That's... " "Seven dollars and fifty cents a pound," said Glinn. EES's plan is to obtain mining rights to the island, secure the allegiance of various Chilean functionaries via blinding sums of money, disguise a state-of- the-art supertanker as a decrepit ore rig, mine the rock, slip it into the ship, and zip back to New York to thunderous notoriety. Unforeseen, however, are a rogue Chilean naval captain, seas to make Sebastian Junger boot, and a blood-red meteorite of undetermined pedigree and a habit of discharging billions of volts of electricity for no apparent reason. Like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's earlier collaborations (Relic, Thunderhead, and others), The Ice Limit tools along swiftly, blending nicely drawn characters (excepting, regrettably, the book's true protagonist, the meteorite), a reasonably exciting narrative, and enough graspable science and plausible-seeming theories to bring readers happily up to speed and keep them climax-bound. Not the authors' best effort, certainly, but a fine diversion nonetheless. --Michael Hudson
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 Ice LImit ( sinnerarity )
Different characters for Preston and Child, but some of them intersect in later Agent Pendergrast books.
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 Authors Spent Too Much Time Showing How Smart They Are ( bsnyder )
The storyline for this was OK. Unfortunately, too much time was spent with the authors talking about this or that obscure threory. From interstellar meteors to how life was seeded on the planet. Now, I'm an engineer, and I love to read about theories and new ideas. It's just that so much time was taken up with that in this book that it took away from the story itself.
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 To the end of the earth ( barbthejavamaster )
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are "masters at scaring the hell out of people," claims a newspaper blurb on the back cover of the book. However, this book isn't so much scary (at least not after the fourth or fifth read) as it is suspenseful. A four thousand ton meteorite has been discovered at a remote location between Chile and the South Pole, and an eccentric billionaire has decided to spare no expense to retrieve it. The characters are very well fleshed out and readers should note the Eli Glinn and his engineering firm make occasional appearances in the authors' other novels.
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 Below their own normally high standard ( alu69 )
PLOT: Billionaire Palmer Lloyd wants the largest meteorite on earth for his new museum in New York. Too bad that this meteorite is extremely large, very heavy and on top of that buried deeply on a Chilean island just north of the Ice Limit surrounded by the brutal forces of nature. Luckily with enough money Lloyd can hire the best: Eli Glinn (president of Effective Engineering Solutions), Rachel Amira (mathematician genius) and Manuel Garza (construction engineer) as well as Sam McFarlane (brilliant meteorite hunter) and Sally Britton (supertanker captain). As soon as the salvage mission begins, the team must battle various obstacles, as well as defend their lives.
I am a huge fan of the writer duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. So far all of their former books were entertaining, thrilling and also a bit scary. Overall always a great mixture between mystery and science. As a result their books are way above the average. At least until I read this one.
This is about the planning of the salvage, overcoming the (technical) obstacles, about developing a romance and the forces of nature. The initial idea is ok and the book starts well but the story development is slow and the tension is not constantly rising. As a result the whole story lacks pace and suspense. On top of that there is no real mystery and no horror at all. It is more an adventure story than anything else. Too bad it is neither really thrilling nor entertaining. Therefore this is the first Preston/Child book that did not keep me glued to my seat and made me want to read for hours.
The best part of the book is the very last sentence. Here the book stops with a BANG! The ending gives the whole story a completely new twist. Now I wished to read more but exactly when the story finally gets intriguing the book ends.
Bottom line:
The book is not really bad because the initial story is ok and the writing style is good (as usual). Unfortunately, overall the book is a bit boring. I would recommend reading their previous novels instead because they are just so much better! Especially "The Relic" and "Riptide" kept me awake for long hours and chilled me to the bone.
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Another good thriller by the pair
I love books on tape, but unfortunately this was an abridged version. It was noticible that some of the story was left out and even though I got the basic idea of the story I felt like I was missing out on... something. Still, it was an enjoyable story and the end (which incorporated the major plot point) was truly great. I think I would have been better off reading the actual book (this tape also contained some "sound effects," which did not enhance the recording but detracted from it) and would recommend that anyone interested in the story read the book. Normally I'm an advocate of books on tape, but not when they detract from an overall good book (rating given based on story, not on the audiobook quality itself).
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