Terminal Freeze (Jeremy Logan, #2)

by Lincoln Child

A group of scientists sponsored by a major media conglomerate are sent on an expedition to Alaska's Federal Wilderness Zone, one of the most remote places on Earth. When the group makes an astonishing find, an ancient animal encased in solid ice that appears to a giant cat, the parent company quickly plans the ultimate spectacle, the animal will be cut from the ice, thawed, and revealed on live television. Ignoring the dire warnings of a local Eskimo group, the scientists make one more horrifying discovery: the beast is no cat ... it's an ancient killing machine. And it may not be dead.

• ISBN10: 0385515510
• ISBN13: 9780385515511
• Publish Date: 27 February 2009 (first published 1 January 2009)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Doubleday Dell
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

After impressing me with [b:Deep Storm|1420345|Deep Storm|Lincoln Child|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183457980s/1420345.jpg|1410754] last year, Lincoln Child sort of missed the boat with Terminal Freeze. While there was nothing bad about it, it suffered from being a retread of [b:Relic|67035|Relic (A Pendergast Novel)|Douglas Preston|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170665293s/67035.jpg|23046], Child's thriller debut with Douglas Preston. He even seems to recognize this when he refers to Frock and his Callisto Effect theory. Swap out Relic's natural history museum for a military base in Alaska, change some character names and throw in a documentary team from a television channel, and you've got Terminal Freeze.

Creativity isn't terribly high on my list of requirements for a good book, so this isn't the whole of my complaints. As long as a book is well-written and has interesting characters, I tend to overlook the fact that it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Terminal Freeze, however, lacks the punch and pizazz that Relic and other Preston/Child books have. It is completely without any element of surprise. I heartily recommend not reading any synopsis, including the book jacket's inside flap, because it lays out the entire plot. There aren't any game-changers, no moments of "Ah ha, gotcha!" After Child did such a good job taking Deep Storm in an unforeseen direction several times, I'm really disappointed he didn't do that here.

The next Preston/Child collaboration is out in two months, and I'm hoping that it's more interesting than this one was.