Steven Barnes & Larry Niven are powerhouse science fiction writers and when they join together you are sure to get a good story! Spider is a fascinating character and I would have liked to have heard more about her background, she is the true star of the story with Carver being more of a secondary character. All in all an enjoyable read that I would recommend!

Excitement, adventure, danger, spy-craft, cool technology, and sheer suspense. Although the last page of Ice Vegas left me wanting more, it had a very satisfying ending. I offer my deep appreciation to Larry Niven and Steven Barnes for writing this wonderful novel. I hope to read much more by both! And I am also thankful to the authors and publisher to sharing an advanced electronic review copy of this work.

My thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advance copy of this work of speculative fiction about the Earth one hundred years from now, an Earth that seems to have the same problems in many ways, but an Earth full of wonder, excitement, and hope.

I have been reading science fiction for almost as long as I have been reading. As such my childhood was spent going through boxes at flea markets, tag sales, and library book sales looking for titles to sate my curiosity and my need for books. Larry Niven has long been a name I have followed, from the awe of Ringworld to the humor of how Superman and Lois Lane might have children. Niven has always created a future that one had never thought of, full of awe, wonder, and human characters. Steven Barnes is also I writer I have long enjoyed, from his first novels, to his tie-in work, and his many collaborations with Larry Niven and other writers. As they said about Reese's Peanut Butter cups they are two tastes that taste great together. This book is no exception. Ice Vegas by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes is a story of the future, about unlimited energy, space elevators, undersea factories, cities under the ice, greed and a bit of murder.

One hundred or so years from now, a former president of the United States is visited by an old woman. An old woman who is far more than she looks. Spider is the last of a group known as Purple, made and created to be the ultimate killers. Spider can present as a preteen boy, an old woman, a professional office worker or even a magician's assistant. With a lot of bodies in her wake. Spider is tasked to assassinate a powerful tech man, one with lots of money, and nothing in the way of scruples. As the ex-President talks, Spider remember past missions that have involved this person, taking deep under water, into low orbit, and even under the ice of Greenland. To a place called Ice Vegas, a city where energy is free, the people are left alone, and anything can be bet on. A place that might be Spider's downfall.

A story that seems very much like a fix-up novel set in the early days of the cyberpunk movement. The writing features various points of view, first person, second person, even narration from an octopus. The novel starts in the present moves to the past, and back again. Some might be a bit confused, but the book really does come into its own. The places are fascinating, under the sea, on a space elevator anchored in Namibia and going to high orbit. Even the idea of Ice Vegas is interesting, and can explain why a certain president want to own Greenland for his very own. Spider is a good character, one who grows, and becomes better, though Spider does some nasty things to get there. The action is good, the plot makes sense. And the science is fun.

A book that was a bit of a flashback in some ways, a cybernetic cyberpunk feel, with modern feelings on oligarchs, privacy and even an octopus added to the story. A lot of fun, and a world I would like to read more about, from two authors I have long enjoyed.