TWO BOOKS WITH ICE IN THE TITLE

Icebound by Dean Koontz: Originally published in 1976 as Prison Of Ice, this was re-issued in 1995. After having read about it's original publication under a pen name (David Arton) I realized why I don't remember this book from the 70s, when I first started reading Koontz. Of course, at the time, he was writing straight horror, and this is an adventure-suspense novel in the vein of Alistair MacLean, and quite a good one at that. A group of scientists get trapped on an iceberg that's set to blow up at midnight in the middle of an Arctic storm. Throw in an attempted murder, and you have all the ingredients for a cliff hanger; and even out of his normal genre Koontz does not disappoint. Though I will admit, for the first quarter of the book, I was waiting for something Koontz-like to happen before just sitting back and enjoying the ride...







Fire Ice by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos: "A Novel From the NUMA Files - A Kurt Austin Adventure": Whew, that's a lot of copy for the cover of a book! Well, when a single author starts writing "with..." you know he's got himself a franchise and is too busy doing something else and has no time to actually write...or he's dead. Don't know what the case is here, but now this novel's protagonist isn't Dirk Pitt, who's most likely retired, and a younger group of operatives now populate the novel(s).
So, what is fire ice? It's apparently a name for methane hydrate, of which there's huge pockets under the ocean, and if it escapes from under the earth's crust, can cause earthquakes,tidal waves and possibly volcanic-like explosions. Sort of like lighting your farts like you did in college, only underwater! And much, much worse! So the self-proclaimes Czar of Russia has figured out how to attac the U.S. with these underwater sea farts; and it's up to our intrepid hero, along with his sidekick & helf from a Russian agent, to save the day. Actually not a bad book, but if I recall, no crusty old salt named Cussler shows up in this one. But a decent enough read if you're a fan of his NUMA books.