Beyond the Ice Limit: Review

Beyond the Ice Limit (2016) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is the creepiest book that I have read for Carl's R.I.P. XI Event, so it's fitting that it will be the last book logged for that reading event. The book is the unexpected sequel to Preston & Child's Ice Limit and it takes place five years after the tragic ending of that adventure. In the first story, Eli Glinn, the head of Effective Engineering Solutions, took a team to a remote island off the coast of South America to recover a gigantic meteorite--the largest that had ever been. He was in the employ of New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd who wanted to add the space rock to his collection of unique items.The mission ended in disaster when their ship, the Rolvaag, was attached by a rogue Chilean ship and went down in a vicious storm in the freezing waters and taking its unique cargo to the ocean floor. One hundred and eight crew members perished, and Eli Glinn was left paralyzed.


Now, five years later, Glinn is heading up a mission back to the site of the disaster. Reports he has been given show that the meteorite was much more than just a rock from space--it was a seed. And the thing has sprouted and is growing, reaching up through the watery depths like a giant tree. This time, it's not just a billionaire's rock collection at stake--but the survival of Earth itself. Gideon Crew has been added to the team to give them the benefit of his nuclear expertise, because it looks like the only thing that will take out the newly dubbed Baobab is an atomic blast. It's not as easy as dropping a nuke on the thing though (of course!). The Baobab has extensive roots under the sea floor and they will have to make sure they get all of it the first time.

The creature isn't just a mindless organism out to reproduce itself. It becomes apparent that there is an intelligence driving its actions and the creature isn't going to go down without a fight.

I haven't read a lot of Preston and Child's work (I'm a weenie when it comes to suspense thrillers), but I have to say that every one I've read has been well done and dragged me right in--in spite of myself. Beyond the Ice Limit was no different. And it made no difference that I hadn't read the earlier book. It may have helped fill in some of the backstory, but the authors give enough background information and context clues that this novel can easily be read as a stand-alone. It is an action-packed thriller and it would make a spine-tingling SF/suspense movie. Lots of scientific exploration and speculation and plenty of gruesome alien critter  vs. humans action. I'm not going to spoil it--but let's just say I was extremely reluctant to go to sleep after listening to installments of the latter half of this audio novel. It was very interesting to see how the creature modified its attacks as it learned more about the humans--just as our heroes had to modify their reactions. My biggest quibble with the authors is that they killed off two of my favorite characters in the story--a strong female character (the only one we really get to know; and this is no spoiler because she's gone VERY quickly in the book) and a very sympathetic character who also happens to be a book-lover. Overall, another excellent action thriller by Preston and Child. ★★★★