Beyond the Ice Limit: A Gideon Crew Novel

I've read almost all of Preston and Child's books, and I can honestly say this their absolute worst. Don't know if it's because they wrote this primarily at the insistent behests of their fans who demanded a sequel to Ice Limit, but this was truly a lame effort. Beyond the Ice Limit is like a book version of a C- level horror film. Just really bad. Too much repetitive emphasis on the utterly stupid concept of the humans trying to escape the fate of these electronic worms who were doing the bidding of the apparently animated and malevolent meteorite (That, by itself, was a pretty stupid concept). It would have been so much more interesting if they'd tied the work of the meteorite hunter character to the nature and presence of the big meteorite siting at the bottom of the ocean, but no... He ended up being a more tangential character who could have played a much bigger role in the plot development, but didn't. Cabinet of Curiosities is my favorite of all the P&C books. Beyond the Ice Limit paled so badly in comparison that it may as well have been written by a first time writer with a high school level of writing and research skills. Lame from start to finish. This book was just pitiful. I had to force myself to finish reading it. P&C should be ashamed of this book. Their worst "effort" by far.

This review is from: Beyond the Ice Limit: A Gideon Crew Novel (Gideon Crew Series Book 4) (Kindle Edition)BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT: A GIDEON CREW NOVEL is the unusual sequel to THE ICE LIMIT. Unusual in that instead of following closely on the heels of its predecessor, this one took Preston and Child 16 years to publish. Also unusual in that it is subtitled a Gideon Crew Novel even though Gideon Crew did not exist when the first novel appeared. I have avoided the Gideon Crew novels up to now due to mixed reviews, but having just read and greatly enjoyed THE ICE LIMIT, thought I'd give this one a try. I'm still not sure about Gideon Crew who plays a fairly large role here, but is not well described or fleshed out. The same is not true for the crew of THE ICE LIMIT, all of whom (that is all of whom survived) are back and play major roles in this sequel. Finally, BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT is an unusual sequel in its being completely self-contained: it works as well as a stand alone novel as it does as a sequel to THE ICE LIMIT.Eli Glinn and EES charter another ship to return to the far South Atlantic because the meteorite that is not a meteorite that they retrieved from Isla Desolacion is growing, and poses a clear and present danger. So Glinn and crew return to destroy the thing before it gets any larger. The sci-fi angle is clearer in this sequel as it becomes clear that the red meteorite is somehow alive. And the tension ratchets up a few notches as the sci--fi veers off into horror territory about three quarters of the way through, and once again it looks like the infallible Eli Glinn has badly underestimated the difficulty of this project and many deaths result.Typical tight Preston and Child prose and pacing and and interesting idea are somewhat diminished by an ending that feels both rushed and if not deus ex machina, at the least not playing fair with the audience. Despite this, it was an enjoyable read, and if you have read aTHE ICE LIMIT, I'm pretty sure you are going to want to read this.Recommended.JM Tepper

Normally I give any book written by Preston and\or Child a five star rating, but this one was tough to get through. I read "The Ice Limit" years ago and loved it, but the sequel was not up to par with the original. I don't think I would ever hire Eli Glinn to plan and execute any engineering project. That man has the most incredible case of "Murphy's Law" I have ever seen. Anything and everything goes wrong on this expedition! The story goes on and on and on and I was beginning to think it would just end abruptly and a third Ice Limit novel would be forthcoming to wrap things up. Next time leave well enough alone.

While this book was okay on it's own, it was lacking, for me, the intensity and originality of "Ice Limit" . Mind controlling aliens are just not as interesting as the struggles against the massive "meteorite" and weather conditions of the first book .

What the heck? Who wrote this? It did not feel like a Preston/Douglas novel.POSSIBLE SPOILER.......Firstly the concept of these worms were not very well thought out. I mean, if they crawl up your nose, why not block or hold your nostrils shut so they can't get in there. There was never any mention about them crawling in to any other orifices. Nose seems to be it then blocking nostrils should work. Making a hole through your sinuses and crawling up to situate themselves between the dura and the brain and Then have people walking around like nothing happened. Yeah.... NO! Not very believable. That somehow people were controlled by these worms... Again NO! Can't suspend disbelief about these worms.Secondly this idea of no sleep and dispensing stimulants. It would be a lot more logical to sleep in shifts. One sleeps and another one watches to make sure no worms crawl up the sleeping person's nose. And again, block the nostrils!Thirdly why kill of characters in each book? This is not Game of Thrones. Keep the characters and build on them.I could continue but there were so many things wrong that I would be here typing on my Kindle all evening. Instead I will simply say that this was Not a good book!

I really enjoyed “The Ice Limit” ten odd years ago or more; it was a fantastic example of the snappy, short-chapter airport novel genre, out Dan Brown-ing Dan Brown.However, the formula is no longer novel and we want content.This tries, it really does, but for some reason, the dreadful lack of technical understanding on display here ruins the aspects that were so enjoyable in TIL, and the new, science-fictiony stuff, well, let’s say that few people who don’t routinely write science fiction write it well when they try.The first of the novels involving Gideon Crew that I’ve read, I think it will be the last. To be honest, the last from these authors, I think. “Riptide” was bad enough, but this has ruined a book in TIL that I did enjoy.Since it fulfils the “light and easy, no effort” criterion, I don’t think it deserves just one star, but it doesn’t merit more than two.

A more than competent follow-up to The Ice Limit. I had been looking forward to the conclusion of the series and enjoyed the pace and story development. The links to the previous books were well made but I was left wanting a little more, I cannot put my finger on it exactly but there was just something not quite right to warrant a full five stars. If, like me, you enjoy Preston and Child then you are sure to enjoy this book. I hope that one or two of the characters appear in future books.

Brilliant follow up to The Ice Limit, and also fits in very nicely as the fourth book in the Gideon Crew series.Good fun, brilliantly gruesome in places it had me feeling quite queasy at times!Recommended to all Preston/Child fans and for those who want something pacy, clever and gripping all in equal measure.

This book managed to get me doing something I've not done in a long time.... read in bed at night and fight off sleep for as long as possible.... I usually get half a page in, feel the eyes getting heavy and I'm gone but with beyond the ice limit I didn't give in to sleep... and once the paranoia element got thrown into the mix after the isolation.... sold! There's a lot of rubbish out there, I'd just finished something I personally would shelve in that category, thankfully though there's quite a bit of Preston and Child out there too, brilliant read

Thoroughly enjoyed this grand finale to Ice Limit. Gripping from start to finish and really struggled to put it down. I can only highly recommend both Ice Limit and this story to adventure readers. Well placed and believable.