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Meltdown
In his spellbinding new novel, oceanographer James Powlik combines cutting-edge science with a storyteller's gift for drama. A heart-pounding action thriller, races across the frozen expanse of the Arctic Ocean as a team of scientists fights to stop a radioactive plague--and a deadly mystery beneath the sea.
Dr. Carol Harmon has taken her environmental research vessel, the, deep into one of the most forbidding places in the world, the ceaselessly shifting Arctic ice scape. When two of her crew are ravaged by what appears to be radiation poisoning, Carol needs help fast--so she calls on the person she trusts most.
Brock Garner is an oceanographer, a former Naval officer, and a man who has never quite stopped loving his ex-wife, Carol. Answering her call from across the globe, Brock flies from one ice-bound pole to the other. But by the time Garner arrives, a frightening scenario is taking Deep beneath the ice, something is leaking deadly radiation. Worse yet, the greatest danger the global seas have ever faced may be only part of a bigger cataclysm. A disaster of untold proportions is looming--the world's first man-made Ice Age. A life-and-death battle is about to be unleashed...not just for the Arctic, but for the very future of Earth.
Brilliantly imagined, unfailingly gripping, is a taut, action-packed adventure infused with real-life science. A novel that crackles with spine-tingling authenticity, it is a thrilling, rollicking roller coaster of a read.
The clouds parted and the black surface of the Arctic Ocean came into view.
Before the plane stretched the long corridor of water opened by the vessels, flanked on either side by fractured pieces of floating ice.
"What the hell is?" one of the flight engineers suddenly said. He pointed toward the sea roughly half the distance to the horizon.
Then the others saw a distortion in the surface. Seconds later, the sea itself rose up, flicking along its length like a carpet being shaken. The ocean rolled and exploded upward, flinging huge chunks of ice aside. For a moment, the water seemed suddenly to be speeding up at them, then just as suddenly it passed below, streaking to the east and falling away behind the bombers.
The captain thought he knew what he had seen, but could not fully com-prehend it. Then he thought of the ships below them and wondered if they could see the massive wall of water rising up from the ocean.
In the time it took him to reach for his radio, the damage was already done....
Dr. Carol Harmon has taken her environmental research vessel, the, deep into one of the most forbidding places in the world, the ceaselessly shifting Arctic ice scape. When two of her crew are ravaged by what appears to be radiation poisoning, Carol needs help fast--so she calls on the person she trusts most.
Brock Garner is an oceanographer, a former Naval officer, and a man who has never quite stopped loving his ex-wife, Carol. Answering her call from across the globe, Brock flies from one ice-bound pole to the other. But by the time Garner arrives, a frightening scenario is taking Deep beneath the ice, something is leaking deadly radiation. Worse yet, the greatest danger the global seas have ever faced may be only part of a bigger cataclysm. A disaster of untold proportions is looming--the world's first man-made Ice Age. A life-and-death battle is about to be unleashed...not just for the Arctic, but for the very future of Earth.
Brilliantly imagined, unfailingly gripping, is a taut, action-packed adventure infused with real-life science. A novel that crackles with spine-tingling authenticity, it is a thrilling, rollicking roller coaster of a read.
The clouds parted and the black surface of the Arctic Ocean came into view.
Before the plane stretched the long corridor of water opened by the vessels, flanked on either side by fractured pieces of floating ice.
"What the hell is?" one of the flight engineers suddenly said. He pointed toward the sea roughly half the distance to the horizon.
Then the others saw a distortion in the surface. Seconds later, the sea itself rose up, flicking along its length like a carpet being shaken. The ocean rolled and exploded upward, flinging huge chunks of ice aside. For a moment, the water seemed suddenly to be speeding up at them, then just as suddenly it passed below, streaking to the east and falling away behind the bombers.
The captain thought he knew what he had seen, but could not fully com-prehend it. Then he thought of the ships below them and wondered if they could see the massive wall of water rising up from the ocean.
In the time it took him to reach for his radio, the damage was already done....
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 14, 2012
This book is a fantastic combination of suspense, adventure, and non-fiction as it is told through researchers in the Arctic. The characters, dialogue and plot wove together various elements to keep it realistic, interesting. About halfway through, the characters are faced dramatic race against time and they must be decisive and innovative to survive. Great read!
February 19, 2023
Ich habe das Buch in der deutschen Übersetzung gelesen. Deshalb eine deutsche Rezension:
Zuerst einmal, das Buch erinnert mich stark an Dan Browns "Meteor". Beides sind Thriller, die in der Arktis und auf einem Forschungsschiff spielen, mit vielen Geheimnissen und Fragen, die aufgestellt werden.
Doch kann ich "Meteor" mehr weiterempfehlen: Die Handlung in "Meltdown" steigert sich mysteriös zu einer Katastrophe, ausgelöst durch eine Verschwörung. Doch dann entwickelt sich das Buch immer mehr zum romantischen Drama. Die ausgezeichnete realitätsgetreue Atmosphäre des ersten Teils wird zerstört durch einige unwirkliche Glücksfälle und Ereignisse.
Charaktere sind in Genüge vorhanden, doch sie wirken auch, von ihrer ausgearbeiteten Vergangenheit abgesehen, recht oberflächlich in Charakter und Rolle im Buch.
Das Buch hat in meiner Version etwas über 500 Seiten, viele Handlungsstränge, die sehr parallel verlaufen und insgesamt wirkt das Buch gestreckt.
Jedoch muss ich sagen, dass die Wahl des Titels sehr passend ist.
Insgesamt hat mich diese deutsche Übersetzung des Buches nicht wirklich überzeugt. Das Buch ist auf Unterhaltung ausgelegt, nicht etwa auf eine tiefe Botschaft. Es wirkt gestreckt und leicht inkohärent in der Umsetzung. Es fehlen Plot Twists und eine gewisse Ungewissheit zum guten Mystery-Thriller. Dramatisch wirkende Heldenhandlungen gegen Ende des Buches wirken surreal.
Zuerst einmal, das Buch erinnert mich stark an Dan Browns "Meteor". Beides sind Thriller, die in der Arktis und auf einem Forschungsschiff spielen, mit vielen Geheimnissen und Fragen, die aufgestellt werden.
Doch kann ich "Meteor" mehr weiterempfehlen: Die Handlung in "Meltdown" steigert sich mysteriös zu einer Katastrophe, ausgelöst durch eine Verschwörung. Doch dann entwickelt sich das Buch immer mehr zum romantischen Drama. Die ausgezeichnete realitätsgetreue Atmosphäre des ersten Teils wird zerstört durch einige unwirkliche Glücksfälle und Ereignisse.
Charaktere sind in Genüge vorhanden, doch sie wirken auch, von ihrer ausgearbeiteten Vergangenheit abgesehen, recht oberflächlich in Charakter und Rolle im Buch.
Das Buch hat in meiner Version etwas über 500 Seiten, viele Handlungsstränge, die sehr parallel verlaufen und insgesamt wirkt das Buch gestreckt.
Jedoch muss ich sagen, dass die Wahl des Titels sehr passend ist.
Insgesamt hat mich diese deutsche Übersetzung des Buches nicht wirklich überzeugt. Das Buch ist auf Unterhaltung ausgelegt, nicht etwa auf eine tiefe Botschaft. Es wirkt gestreckt und leicht inkohärent in der Umsetzung. Es fehlen Plot Twists und eine gewisse Ungewissheit zum guten Mystery-Thriller. Dramatisch wirkende Heldenhandlungen gegen Ende des Buches wirken surreal.
January 26, 2024
3.5 rounded up
1) I didn't realize this one was a sequel to Sea Change until I started reading it (good thing I read Sea Change first!)
2) Carol's character development was wonderful - she was written beautifully, far better than expected.
3) I have to admit, I stopped reading for a couple days when I got to the middle of this one, even though my grandfather worked in the oil industry, my buds work in the oil industry, and my husband works IT for the oil industry. There was a huge technical infodump, which could have been fun, but it wasn't written in an excited "look at the results of my research" kind of way. It was very dry. Once you get beyond that, the action does pick up again, but I feel like it could have been trimmed down with respect to the 50-100 page infodump. (I wasn't keeping count, it was just a good chunk of the middle)
4) I was a little disappointed that, in spite of the differences between this one and Sea Change, the ultimate resolution was really similar.
Really the only reason I'm rounding up is Carol.
Oh, and if it's important to you - the dog lives.
1) I didn't realize this one was a sequel to Sea Change until I started reading it (good thing I read Sea Change first!)
2) Carol's character development was wonderful - she was written beautifully, far better than expected.
3) I have to admit, I stopped reading for a couple days when I got to the middle of this one, even though my grandfather worked in the oil industry, my buds work in the oil industry, and my husband works IT for the oil industry. There was a huge technical infodump, which could have been fun, but it wasn't written in an excited "look at the results of my research" kind of way. It was very dry. Once you get beyond that, the action does pick up again, but I feel like it could have been trimmed down with respect to the 50-100 page infodump. (I wasn't keeping count, it was just a good chunk of the middle)
4) I was a little disappointed that, in spite of the differences between this one and Sea Change, the ultimate resolution was really similar.
Really the only reason I'm rounding up is Carol.
Oh, and if it's important to you - the dog lives.
October 14, 2020
I like this book but it sometimes got a little too technical for me. However, it was an interesting story and characters.
January 7, 2014
This sequel to Sea Change was not as exciting as the first book... and the hints of a third book seem to have not gone to fruition. Still, this had its moments of genuine excitement, though all in all, the book was bogged down with too much technical and military detail. It made it just a bit too slow-moving for my taste... But the continued character development was strong, even if the plot was not as fascinating as Sea Change.
February 10, 2013
A lot of gadgets and techno babble. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, the hero is courageous and good-looking, so is his ex-wife, the heroine. How much do you want to bet that they get together again at the end of the book? Entertaining brain candy, probably works well on the beach.
I read a German translation that had the odd editorial mistake. And the front cover has a leaking oil drum. At no point in the book an oil drum makes an appearance, leaking or otherwise. D-oh!
I read a German translation that had the odd editorial mistake. And the front cover has a leaking oil drum. At no point in the book an oil drum makes an appearance, leaking or otherwise. D-oh!
August 27, 2011
a different kind of thriller - a little slower paved, with tons of science mixed in, it' about a mysterious source of underground radiation in the arctic that is killing the native population, the animals and also some of the crew of a research vessel. Most of the book details their work to find out what it is, track it, and try and contain it, and eventually bury it. Good for the more scientifically inclined.
July 30, 2011
I found the premise of this book interesting...Not a great thriller, but good.
August 5, 2015
What can I say? I love terrifying biological thrillers.
October 3, 2013
Absolutely loved it and like some other reviews that I have read, the science jargon didn't bother me in the least. I guess I thrive on learning something new from what I read. Loved it!!
May 30, 2024
4.5/5!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews