Reviews

Beneath the Dark Ice by Greig Beck

vineela0705's review against another edition

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3.0

Beneath the Dark Ice is a good read. An action-packed thriller, The Thing meets Journey to the center of the Earth, with a rescue cum scientific expedition chased by a primordial squid.


It is sufficiently terrifying and thrilling enough to complete the book without giving myself a break. The Aztlan legends were interesting and the ancient creatures, even more so.


PS: Since this is the first installment of the super soldier series, I'm pretty confident we'll learn in the beginning of the next book that Alex and Aimee would have had a go at a relationship, but have broken up already. Happens in every single series. Why does it have to be so?

house_full_of_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

skippen's review against another edition

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2.0

Beneath the Dark Ice is one of the most ridiculous books I have ever read with the most predictable plot with the cardboard cut-out characters and standard plot I have read in years. Yet, I did finish it.

Meet our protagonist Alex Hunter. Alex was shot in the head with a bullet. He did not die. No, it unlocked the abelites of his brain, and now he is faster, stronger, has enhanced senses and reflexes, and is now a better person. His only weakness? Anger. What does anger do? Well, it makes him stronger. After that introduction, I probably should have stopped, but I didn't because he is tasked with taking a team of the Hawks (SEALs basically) to rescue a team of scientist who disappeared after a crash in Antarctica that has exposed a cave under the ice. It got me at cave.

Captain America, aka, Alex, leads his team into the cave with a team of his men, and a handful of scientists. Two women, two men. The women are smart and beautiful, the men have one kind fella that is innocent, and of course our self-centered scientist our for themself. They make there way to the cave and find no evidence of of the previous expedition, but find signs (and smells) of a predator.

I will say no more of the plot. With that, you can guess every beat. Oh, wait, there is also a rival Russian team sent after them (and Alex's nemesis who only wants to kill him as he was the one who put that bullet in his head in the first place).

This book is clearly a first novel. The writing goes from ok to atrocious, and frankly, I am surprised it was published in this state. A solid editor and some effort could have made this much better without much work. The plot is predictable, and like all books and movies likes this, every scientist on the team knows everything about every discipline that is called to be explained or know at all times.

This book is not good. But, I read it all because it was set in a cave, and it was just good enough to keep going, but, truly, it is terrible, badly plotted, logic fails it (they all really should have just died in the cave as caves that are unexplored with everyone not a caver but one).

Should you read it? Not really, but if the back of the book intrigues you, and you have nothing better to do, maybe? I have read worse books in my life. This one amused me enough to finish it. I will not be following Alex Hunters other adventures at this time.

cooperc879's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

carilius's review against another edition

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1.0

Bueno, seamos serios, si es que se puede con este libro. Se pasa por el forro a los SEAL, a los SAS, a las fuerzas especiales rusas, a las francesas. Solo falta decir, que pase el siguiente.

jol69's review against another edition

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3.0

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. Pure unreal military thriller - reminiscent of Matthew Reilly. Not literature but for a bit of fun and escapism it hits the mark.

gossamerwingedgazelle's review against another edition

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Perhaps exciting, but too unrealistic.

midici's review against another edition

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2.0

*2.5 stars

I get that this book is just meant to be an entertaining thriller, but it was still pretty bad. Mostly because it did not know what sort of story it wanted to be.

It's about scientists who accidentally discover a lost city! No, a lost ecosystem and a lost city! Except it's actually about a group of elite soldiers, one of whom is an actual super soldier (though if his treatment is so effective why they don't give every soldier super powers is unexplained). And the soldiers have a grudge match with some other Russian soldiers! There is a subpar romance with the main female scientist and super soldier that is doomed to failure "because she can never truly know him." There's a lot of running away from the giant squid monster. There's several parts about one archeologist managing to determine that this city is the precursor to several ancient civilizations and was more advanced than all of them put together and he can magically read entire histories of their hieroglyphics despite the fact that they're totally new and never previously discovered.

It's a mess. I mean, I enjoyed it, kind of, but it was a mess.

mialeyden's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

elisra's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0