Matthew Reilly’s: Ice Station

I usually try to find new authors for my reviews, or at least find some of their newer works (though this is certainly not always the case). Still, this time I am revisiting one of my favorite authors of action and thriller novels, Matthew Reilly, and I am taking a look at the second novel he has ever written (and the introduction to his first series): Ice Station. Ice Station introduces readers to Shane Schofield, a United States Recon Marine who goes by the callsign “Scarecrow.” Schofield is an action hero if I have ever seen one. He is smart, cool headed, and more than a little mysterious, all of which adds up for a slightly stereotypical, yet incredibly fun action novel. After a diving team at Wilkes Ice Station is killed, Schofield leads a team of Recon Marines to investigate the distress signal. Once there, they meet some peculiar characters, and it becomes very clear that nobody is to be trusted. Right from the get-go Reilly throws tons of action at you, with massive shootouts, dangerous chases, and conspiracies run rampant. As a reader, I definitely grew to like Schofield’s team, but there were definitely times where I felt the ensemble was a little transparent. That being said, I thought Schofield, himself, was portrayed greatly. In fact, Schofield quickly became one of my favorite thriller protagonists: you can’t not like the guy. The writing, from a technical standpoint, serves its purpose in detailing the story well enough. Mainly, Ice Station is Reilly’s kickoff to one of the most full-throttle action/thriller series in fiction today. I am a little ways into book two, and the improvement Reilly shows as a writer is drastic. Nonetheless, that is a story for another review. Ice Station isn’t the greatest action novel I have read, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I still hold Reilly’s Seven Deadly Wonders (book one of the Jack West Jr. books) as my favorite action-adventure novel, which may better please those who are looking to jump into the better writing right away (I did a separate review for this book quite some time ago). That being said, Ice Station serves as a fun novel that is setting the stage for much greater things in the Shane Schofield series. If such a foray into the adventures of Reilly’s mysterious Marine interests you, pick up a copy of Ice Station.