Arctic Fire by Paul Byers
Source: review copy from author
Links: Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, Author’s website
Wealthy entrepreneur Nigel Cain has devised an efficient new way to bring the earth’s most precious resource to the masses – clean water – by transporting massive man-made icebergs from the frigid arctic and delivering them literally to the doorsteps of millions.
Gabriel Pike works at a small engineering firm that has been awarded the task of giving the final safety approval to pilot the first gigantic block of ice into New York harbor.
A consummate showman, Cain has built a fabulous 5-Star hotel and casino high atop the iceberg so his celebrity guests and media elite can cover this spectacle from beginning to end. Pike is whisked away from his work-a-day world and dropped into the lap of luxury where he’s expected to simply rubber-stamp his inspection.
A brutal winter storms ravages the iceberg and exposes structural inconsistencies and hidden agendas that fill Pike with serious doubts about the true intentions of the project. But a grisly double homicide on the ice puts the inspections on the back burner and sends Pike’s life spiraling out of control when he’s accused of being the jealous murderer in a lover’s triangle.
But Pike soon discovers that there is far more at stake than just his life. He uncovers a conspiracy more heinous than anything he could have imagined – a plot that will level a city, change the political face of America, and whose shockwaves will be felt around the world. Fate rests in his hands – if he can survive long enough to take action…
This is a fun adventurous story that is full of conspiracy theories and action. There is a very interesting theory on the fate of the Titanic that sounds outlandish, and yet plausible. That seems to be the key theme: outlandish yet plausible, and it all twists together to create a very interesting story.
The book started out a little jerky as we are introduced to each character, but once they all converge on the boat the story smooths out. It proceeds easily until BAM! everything goes crazy near the end of the story. After that I felt a bit lost because the plausibility factor slipped a little, but it was certainly exciting. The twist is something that begs to be discussed, not reviewed, because it’s a doozy.
Overall, this is an exciting book that contained a lot of science that was smoothly explained and stood just on the right side of plausible. It had a crazy twist that I could have done without, but it was still quite exciting. The story ended well with most loose threads wrapped up neatly, yet not too obviously. I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy cutting-edge stories featuring science and crazy twists.
Challenges read for:
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Self-Published Reading Challenge
2013 TBR Double Dog Dare
