The Ice is a fierce book, full of politics and grief over what humans are doing to the earth. I found it a hard, and not completely engaging read. I didn't expect a sympathetic story but there was no real gentleness. I'm not sure that's the best way to describe it but I'm not sure how to make it better.

I went to Alaska a few years back a, in May, just as the ice opened up for tourists. I saw killer whales and a glacier calving close up and it was astonishingly beautiful and blue. A memory for ever.
This book reminded me that my experience may not be available for my grandchildren as the ice is melting fast and the water is too warm for the creatures who inhabited it.
But that aside, I was not as gripped by the story as I expected to be. It was rather long winded and very male ego dominated. A good thiller should appeal to all. The quotes especially were too one-sided in their joy of hunting etc for me.
But, if you don't know the Artice and havexnever been, you should read this and learn what we are doing to this fragile world. The initial scenes on the tourist boat are especially poignant for polar bears.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

I loved The Bees so was expecting a lot from this title which I felt it didn't quite deliver. An eco-thriller about how friendships experience flux and betrayal over time but let down a bit by the bigger story.

The Ice is set in the near future with a strong environmental message. It was a nuanced exploration of friendship and greed, with a wonderful Arctic setting. The complex characters were engaging and I found myself unable to stop reading. I would definitely recommend this one.

I was really looking forward to reading The Ice but I ended up frustratingly disappointed. The book had promise and an interestingly different storyline but I was just confused and disinterested. I felt like the plot would really drag me in but there was so much dialogue on a subject that I’m not familiar in that I ended up distracted and unable to focus. I really wanted to read it and there’s no way I would DNF but it was a real struggle for me.
Saying that, the book is ok. The plot *is* interesting and *is* well written but I found reading it to be a slog. The reveal of what happened was well paced and the final courtroom scene was very interesting as it helped explain some of the political/environmental issues that I hadn’t managed to follow. The characters in this book however, are all unlikeable. I didn’t warm to any of them and maybe that’s partly why I struggled to really focus and enjoy the book.
Also ... I just noticed that I took me 3 days to read this book... I felt like it’d been at least a week! :/

The Ice turned out to not quite be the book I’d hoped for but it is still interesting and no doubt others will enjoy it.

I really enjoyed Laline Paull’s first book, The Bees. I thought it was quirky and inventive. So I was surprised when I started reading The Ice at how different in style it felt, almost as if it was the work of another author. The only thing the two books seem to share is an ecological message, in this case, focused on climate change and its affect on weather and sea levels.

The Ice is set in some near (but unfortunately all too believable) future in which global warming is causing freak weather events and has resulted in the melting of the polar ice cap, making the Trans Polar Route for shipping an actuality rather than a future possibility (as at present). In the book, the opening up of this route has brought economic opportunities for interested parties but territorial consequences for adjoining countries. For some of the vested interests, ecological considerations are very low on their list of priorities. Money and power is everything.

The picture of the world created in The Ice is one of high finance, arms dealing, surveillance, black ops, mercenaries and conspicuous consumption by rich and powerful individuals. As well as a thriller revolving around the truth about the death of Tom Harding, it’s a story of greed, ruthlessness, betrayal and how power and money can corrupt. However, it’s also about friendship, truth and redemption.

I’ll admit I found it a little hard at times to engage with the lead character, Sean Cawson, principally because he seemed to embody some male fantasy that all women want to have sex with him or would drop everything (no pun intended) to meet his needs at a time to suit him. However, the author did make me believe in the strength of his friendship with Tom, his grief at his death and the psychological impact of it on him, even years later.

Because it switches back and forth in time, sometimes without any indication in the chapter headings, the story was difficult to keep track of at some points. I also found it a little slow to begin with but felt the pace built up in the last third of the book to a gripping and shocking climax. I found the excerpts from the journals of Arctic explorers between chapters really fascinating.

I received a review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers 4th Estate in return for an honest review.

First Class Global Warning:
I found "The Ice" by Laline Paull a difficult book to classify. On one level it's an environmental warning on another a thriller. One thing is certain it's a novel which stands out from the crowd. Excellently researched, with a free flowing narrative, the book forces the reader to consider how Environmental and Global Capital issues, already the subject of much debate, may develop in years to come. But not decades in the future, simply years.
Set in 2018/2019, The Ice, is a novel which deals with big issues. We are introduced to a world in which Global Warming has accelerated at a faster pace than expected: eliminating Arctic sea-ice and thus freeing hitherto unused sea lanes for shipping. The continued turbulence in the Middle East means the arctic sea lanes pose a safer and more economic route for the transportation of goods. Capitalism is pre-eminent and freely flows to enrich the few, un-tempered by national boundaries and with only token recognition of International Laws and Treaties. Mother Earth is exposed to exploitation by the greed of the wealthy. Such is the background to the novel.
The storyline itself is intriguingly original. It is focussed on an Inquest held to consider the likely cause of death of a leading Environmentalist, Tom Harding, whose body is recovered four years after the accident in which he died. His closest friend, Sean, survived the accident but is called to recount the tragic events which lead to the accident and Tom's death. It proves a harrowing experience for Sean. Both men were part of a Consortium who owned Midgard, a tourist resort for the mega rich, but Sean and Tom bought in for entirely different motives: one for profit and one to manage the loss of ice in the Arctic. The novel explores their friendship and their relationship with other members of the Consortium.
The novel opens quite sedately on a cruise ship but gathers pace and intrigue the further into the novel you get. This is an exceptional read. It deals with not just topics but emotions and virtues. Family and Friendship, ethics, morality and love are what make us human and the novel examines human motivation at different levels. This is a book which deals with current issues projecting them slightly into the future and uses a formula which succeeds in making this an outstanding example of the power of contemporary literature to successfully address the problems which we ignore at our peril. A must read book. Excellent.

Sadly I just couldn't get into this and I abandoned it at 100 pages

Set in the very near future, the Arctic ice caps have melted due to global warming and tourists are willing to pay vast sums to see the last polar bears. But when a particularly vociferous group force a captain to make a detour on his cruise ship the tourists get more than they bargained for – an iceberg calves in front of them and a body is revealed. It turns out to be that of Tom Harding, an environmentalist, who died in an accident 3 years previously and his friend and business partner Sean Cawson has to revisit the events that led up to the death. Thus we have revealed to us an implausible tale of corporate greed, the arms trade, corruption and general skulduggery set against the beautiful landscape of the Arctic. The corporate people are all bad and the environmentalists are all good and have right on their side, and few of them come across as well-rounded characters. The intrigue failed to convince me and in fact I started skipping large chunks as basically I didn’t care about what happened. An ecological thriller? An environmental thriller? Whatever it might be, the book failed to thrill me in any way, and although the descriptive writing is good and the Arctic atmosphere portrayed to good effect, the characterisation let the novel down and the plot was convoluted and uninteresting. A reasonably clever premise for a story, to be sure, but ultimately not a book that drew me in.

Laline Paull spung to fame with her novel The Bees. Her follow up, The Ice (review copy from 4th Estate) is an interesting but ultimately flawed near-future story about friendship and betrayal, set in the harsh environment of the Arctic.

Sean Cawson is a businessman who has had a life-long fascination with the Arctic and with the great explorers of the past. Together with his oldest friend, a famous environmentalist called Tom Harding, he purchases an old whaling station in the Arctic Circle and converts it into a boutique hotel and retreat for the super-rich. But tragedy occurs almost as soon as the project is finished and open for businss: Harding is killed in a freak accident. Cawson is seriously injured, but survives. Three years on, Harding's body is recovered, and the ensuing inquest is the frame for the novel to explore Cawson and Harding's friendship and the circumstances that led to the accident.

There is a strong thread running through the book of climate change and its impacts. The melting of the Arctic sea ice has opened up new trade routes and opportunities for tourism, but at an ecological price. The tensions between Cawson and Harding come from the right way to respond to that. To Harding, the need to protect the environment and prevent further damage is paramount. To Cawson it is an inevitability that society must change and adapt to, albeit in a sensitive way. There was the scope here for an interesting and nuanced exploration of this dilemma in the book, but unfortunately Paull dodges this, choosing a fairly simplistic environmental message.

Paull's novel is a story of Great Men doing Great Things. She is trying to draw linkages between the big beasts of the corporate world and the explorers of the past (and Paull's research into the history of Arctic exploration is one of the real strengths of the book, shining through strongly). In both cases ambition, resolve and resilience are required in order to thrive and prosper. To Paull, the world of business is no less harsh and unforgiving than the Arctic. One mis-step or poor judgement can lead to ruin, and only the boldest will succeed.

But this approach makes the novel feel tired. Ulitmately, The Ice is the story of Cawson's mid-life crisis, as he comes to question his assumptions and path in life. The female characters in the novel are particularly poorly served, fulfilling little more than stereotypical set dressing: the hysterical ex-wife, the rebellious teenage daughter, the femme fatale, the kooky Chinese business partner. Much of this is down to Paull's close narrative focus on Cawson. We see the world and the people in it through his eyes. While some of those judgements change as Cawson changes, Paull doesn't (as some other writers might) clearly show us that these are his perceptions of more sophisticated and fully-formed characters.

The Ice is interesting and ambitious, but just doesn't quite succeed for me.

Goodreads rating: 3*

The premise for this book, as with Laline Paull's 'The Bees', is the real seller - unique and original, I couldn't wait to read it. Unlike 'The Bees', I found the pace slow to start, and at one point I was tempted to stop reading completely. The story did pick up halfway through, and from then on I was gripped, though at times I found the political messages a touch too preachy and heavy-handed, and the ending for me felt very jarring. The twists and turns of the story were what kept this book alive and I would recommend it to others.

This novel has the feel of a 1970s political thriller complete with mercenaries, gun running and dubious defence investors. I had expected a different novel and was slightly disappointed as I had hoped for a large part of the book to be based in the Arctic (I liked the pre-chapter references to previous Arctic adventurers). Instead the. use of flashbacks and prolonged court scenes interrupted the flow of the novel and left me feeling dissatisfied.

With thanks to Netgalley and Harper CollinsUK, 4th Estate for a review copy.

‘The Ice’ by Laline Paull is a climate change thriller which takes place partly in the Arctic and partly in a courtroom in Canterbury. Sean and Tom met as students when Tom attended a meeting of the exclusive Lost Explorers’ Society and Sean was a waiter. They became friends because of their shared fascination for the Arctic. Both go on to forge careers revolving around the Arctic; Tom becomes an environmental campaigner, Sean a businessman. Their friendship, agreements and arguments are key to this novel. When, in chapter one, Tom’s body is revealed by an iceberg calving from a glacier it is the catalyst for all that follows.
Tom was known to be dead, having died in an accident in an ice cave on Svalbard three years earlier, an accident which Sean survived. An inquest is called, Sean’s business partners fly in to give evidence and to support Sean who is seeing visions of Tom around every corner. It becomes clear that Sean, now divorced and living with one of his investors, Martine, is not hands-on with his business in Svalbard. Midgard Lodge is an exclusive retreat where businessmen and politicians can meet to do deals. Sean’s upfront motivation is to encourage the capitalists to see the Arctic surrounding them, the polar bears, whales and glaciers, and convert them to environmentalism. With this in mind, he recruited Tom to the business. His partners however - the odious Joe Kingsmith and irritating Radiance Young - set my alarm bells ringing very early on. What exactly goes on at Midgard Lodge and why doesn’t Sean, supposedly the CEO, find out? And how could Tom not ask more questions before signing his contract?
There are some big topics touched on here: the opening of shipping channels over the North Pole, the political and military ramifications, the melting of the ice, the wealthy tourists who demand to see the polar bear they were promised in the holiday brochure, business executives who take the money and avoid asking difficult questions because that’s the easiest and most convenient thing to do. To reduce it to essentials, this is a novel about greed and love. How greed can destroy everything: not just business, but friendships, families and ultimately the ice.
I enjoyed ‘The Ice’ but was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied. A day after I finished reading it, I realized why: it feels like it started out as a thoughtful novel about climate change, but at a later draft was turned into a thriller. The environmental message seemed preachy at times, the business sections were factual and dry, both of which took the edge off the suspense. Told from Sean’s viewpoint, the lack of Tom’s voice for me made the novel weaker. Perhaps it would have been more thrilling if various viewpoints had been juggled so the lies, risks, double-crossing and betrayals happen in real time, rather than the past.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

The Ice is set in the not- too- distant future, when the Polar sea ice has melted, allowing new trade routes to be established. With this new trading capacity comes corruption, and even more environmental threat.
Entrepreneur Sean Cawson has built a hunting lodge near the Midgard glacier for retreats for the rich and famous. There has been a price to pay in order to keep the competing superpower governments happy, and his friend and co-investor is killed in an accident when the glacier shifts.
Four years on, when Tom’s body re-surfaces, Sean must give evidence at the inquest.
If the purpose of this book is to highlight the environmental catastrophe which will ensue when the sea ice melts, then it works. The possibility is chillingly portrayed, but at times it wins out over the story. Sean is a self- absorbed pleasure seeker and it is difficult to like him or many of his fellow characters.
As the novel moves on, the pace of the plot does too, and by the end I realised I had not only enjoyed it, but it had provided plenty of food for thought.
With thanks to HarperCollins UK and Netgalley

Hmmm… This is a book that doesn't know if it's a thriller (the second to feature the same solar eclipse from the same location I've read in about two months!), or if it's, you know, one of those general books about locations and characters and themes. In other words, it doesn't have the conviction to try for both. And at times it fails to convince – there's a cameo here from a really snooty, up-himself UK government lackey who thinks the 75-minute ''Nanook of the North'' is a long film, and – more horrendously – that he can sway people with Cobra beer. Cobra beer?! What next, the ambassador spoiling us with half a packet of Rolos surrounded by six months' worth of pocket fluff? And in amongst the worthy, intelligent topic of misappropriation of the earth's newest wilderness (the Arctic, sans the ice now it's all melted), you get cheesy brand names spoiling the writing like the world's worst product placement. (Finally, Canterbury Cathedral admission costs – a heck of a lot – so people won't just amble in like our characters do.) Those deviations from common sense aside, this is still perhaps worth a read – it's a worthy entertainment without being anywhere near as preachy as other people may have written it. But it is too long, with too much that is guessable alongside characters doing silly things they'd only do in an airport novel. If you don't expect too much from this then treat it as that, then, an airport novel – just offset your carbon emissions while you're doing so.

Another very original, thoughtful book by Laline Paull, which is so different to The Bees but which drew me into the lives, dilemmas and values of its characters, and made me ponder the values of our world, where a sense of entitlement can trump good sense, respect of the natural world and blur the demarcations of ownership and stewardship. Beautiful writing and enthralling story about profound issues.

This near-future re-imagining of our world is a bleak affair. Polar ice caps melt at an alarming rate due to the Arctic's viable function as prime real estate. Cruise ships battle for dominance on the once tranquil waters. Wildlife is in sharp decline, as hordes of tourists overrun their homes in a bid to steal their share of this ever declining world.

These tourists came to be horrified by polar bears in their natural environment, but more is uncovered than they bargained for when the body of missing Tom Harding is discovered. Back in Britain Sean Cawson must deal with both the discovery of his friend's body and the repercussions this could have on his business ventures, on the other side of the globe.

This initially gripped me due to the bleak image it projected of Earth's near future, which was sharply opposed by segments from travel journals of infamous 19th and 20th Arctic explorers. The trepidation and awe experienced by the first discovers is used to further explore the impact commercialisation has had on our planet, where nothing is left to explore and all wonder at our beautiful planet has been lost. In this way, the vast and majestic landscape became more than a mere backdrop, but came to the fore as almost a central character in this tale.

This was also an interesting insight into the mind of one who has dually gained and lost so much. His friend's death acts as a catalyst for Sean, allowing him to revalue all he holds dear and reassess his claim to the majestic ice he once saw for nothing more than its monetary value. The character's growth as new truths become accepted allows the reader to investigate the current-day destruction of our planet and how accurate this projected future could one day become.

Whilst I appreciated the nature of the novel's focus, I can't say I found this an entirely gripping read. It's slow pace allowed for the intrusion of deep thought but it also felt a little bogged down by the political message it was preaching, at times.

Set in the not too distant future the story centralizes around Sean Carson, a self-made entrepeneur and Tom Harding, a passionate environmentalist. Initially brought together by their love of the Arctic, The Ice follows the two men over a 30 year friendship, both before and after Tom passed away.
The bulk of the plot follows the inquest in to Tom's death. With Sean and the supporting cast taking the stand the full twisted take of Tom's death and Sean's deception becomes clear.

As for genre... I'm not entirely sure where it would fall. Definitely adult but speculative fiction? political thriller? murder mystery?

For me the story was a slow burner, with most of the action beginning at 90%. It wasn't until I was most of the way through that I realised that the inquest was the main focus of the plot. Although the chapters jumping back to the lead up to Tom's demise was a good break up for me.

Sean Carson, the main character, is the typical workaholic, nearly alcoholic, rich bloke with a failed marriage, a daughter who hates him and a girl friend who is half his age... pretty standard.
It took me a long way into the book to develop any feelings for any of the cast; main or supporting. For me they were all pretty stereotypical;
The tormented unhappy business man
The rich boy environmentalist
The jack ass super rich old guy
The bitchy mistress
The sex-hungry european
The teenager with daddy issues
And a couple of scorned ex's

Joe Kingston (the jack ass super rich old guy) was my favorite character, he was hideous. Although the most predictable character, by far, he was the most entertaining and added some fire to the cast.

I found that the plot focused so much on the environmental climate change issue that it over shadowed what was ultimately the main story line. I would have definitely enjoyed the book a bit more if there was less focus on climate change and more focus on character building or plot expansion. At times it felt although I was reading a Greenpeace manifesto. Dont get me wrong im all for preventing global warming, I just don't want it continually rammed down my throat when im trying to read. On the other hand, I am more aware and feel although I understand the struggles that the people fighting to protect our Earth are going through.

This isn't the type of book I would usually read. I am usually head first into a fast paced fantasy with minimum love and maximum blood OR speculative/dystopian, end of the world chaos. In a lot of ways this would technically fall into the speculative fiction category although in a slower more educational way. This read was a lot slower than I was used to, I carried on reading because I utterly and genuinely enjoyed Lalaine's writing style. I could read her write about anything and still be interested. What made me appreciate the book more was the massive amount of research and care it clearly has taken to write the book.

I enjoyed her writing style sooooo much I rushed out and bought her other book THE BEES before I had finished this, and I cant wait to read it, I have heard great things.

I found the subject matter in this book fascinating and that kept me reading as unfortunately I did find that it dragged a little throughout and became a little too complex with too many issues being introduced and it then slightly overwhelmed the main thread of the story.

I enjoyed the character of Sean, as a wealthy businessman, even if he wasn't particularly likeable, and how his friendship with Tom, the explorer led them to such exotic locations and dangerous expeditions. When Toms' body is discovered in a glacier 3 years after his death, the inquest follows which opens up a can of worms as to the nature of the expedition they were on.

I found the storyline a little confusing when it kept jumping backwards and forwards and just as you were settled on one timeline, it shifted again and another new element was brought into the equation and I would have loved more on Tom and Sean and their relationship - the highs and the lows - as I found the endless speculating and meetings quite flat to read about.