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Arctic Rising #1
Arctic Rising
Global warming has transformed the Earth, and it's about to get even hotter. The Arctic Ice Cap has all but melted, and the international community is racing desperately to claim the massive amounts of oil beneath the newly accessible ocean.
Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. Soon Anika finds herself caught up in a plot by a cabal of military agencies and corporations, which goes further than she ever imagined.
Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. Soon Anika finds herself caught up in a plot by a cabal of military agencies and corporations, which goes further than she ever imagined.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 28, 2012
24 people are currently reading
1887 people want to read
About the author
Tobias S. Buckell
215 books464 followersBorn in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 199 reviews
March 1, 2013
I really wanted to give this book more stars. Just look at the positives:
1) Really great near-future world depiction. In many ways, it reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series, with the focus on terraforming, multinational corporations, and green terrorists.
2) Kudos to the author for the heavy focus on first nations people and the way in which global climate change would affect them disproportionately. It's not every day you read a espionage thriller peopled almost entirely with characters who are not white Westerners.
3) Our heroine is very cool, and happens to be gay. The author handles this in the best way possible, which is to say she's just a human being who happens to be gay, and it doesn't play into the story other than to subvert our spy novel expectations of her falling into bed with every covert agent who helps her along the way!
4) Great predictive analysis of global politics in a climate-changed future, as well as wonderful and colorful descriptions of the experimental societies that pop up in the future "wild west" of a warmer Arctic. There is an entire episode involving tough-as-nails, radically democratic women defending their cooperatively-owned strip club set in the Arctic's Vegas that seemed entirely lifted from the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold."
5) Like most great Science Fiction, this book is partially predictive and partially proscriptive. Not-so-subtly hidden in the novel are criticisms of an economic system that doesn't accurately gauge the true market cost of global warming, potentially utopian/dystopian political systems that could arise, different forms of environmental advocacy and action, including green terrorism, the morality of violence, including planned violence against a few to save the many, and the ethics of torture, debating the torture of one to save the many.
So. . .reading all the positives, why not 4 or 5 stars? There were a couple of major problems I just couldn't overcome:
1) I found the pacing to just be. . .off. I don't read a ton of thrillers, but I know enough to know they are supposed to be full of action to keep the reader turning pages. There is a weird problem with this novel. It simultaneously has action-packed sequence following action-packed sequence (such that the reader doesn't have time to catch their breath) and is also somehow plodding. I usually can polish a novel like this off in a night. This one took me over half a year to finish because I kept putting it down and not WANTING to pick it back up. It was the OPPOSITE of a page-turner. It is very unusual for me to not finish a book, but this one felt like a chore. I don't know enough, technically, about writing, to say what caused this, but I just know it didn't keep me engaged. It felt choppy and rushed, but also boring and slow, if that makes any sense?
2) Similarly, the author created all these awesome character whom I should have loved, but I just didn't care about them at all. I seriously loved the idea of our heroine, but at the end of the day, didn't care if she lived or died. The side character/Caribbean spy Roo held more appeal for me, but even he didn't get my blood racing. I couldn't even muster up any hate for the villians. They just all seemed like cardboard cutouts.
If all of this seems harsh, let me compare another novel I read recently: "Earth Unaware" by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. Both feature near future worlds with familiar (but still futuristic) technology. Both feature global politics, multinational corporate power, and green renegades. (In Card's version, the asteroid miners are the corollary to the Arctic traders and manufacturers). "Arctic Rising" is almost 250 pages on my Nook; "Earth Unaware" was over 400. Both feature major characters of color who are, if not disenfranchised, then definitely somehow outsiders in the new power structure.
Here's the difference: "Earth Unaware" made me CARE. I immediately fell in love with the characters. I cared what happened to them. I cried at their losses and death, and rejoiced in their triumphs. I also cared what happened to this Earth. . .even at the distance of deep space, and breathlessly rooted for the hero's race back to Earth from space to carry to humanity proof of the coming Formic invasion. . .would he make it in time?! In "Arctic Rising" I was sort of nonplussed at the prospect of a nuke on the loose in the Arctic, not finding myself particularly interested in whether or not the heroes stopped the plot. In "Earth Unaware" I couldn't stop reading because of the tension. I don't know, technically, what the difference is in the authors' writing. If I could unlock that mystery, maybe I'd be a bestselling author!
1) Really great near-future world depiction. In many ways, it reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series, with the focus on terraforming, multinational corporations, and green terrorists.
2) Kudos to the author for the heavy focus on first nations people and the way in which global climate change would affect them disproportionately. It's not every day you read a espionage thriller peopled almost entirely with characters who are not white Westerners.
3) Our heroine is very cool, and happens to be gay. The author handles this in the best way possible, which is to say she's just a human being who happens to be gay, and it doesn't play into the story other than to subvert our spy novel expectations of her falling into bed with every covert agent who helps her along the way!
4) Great predictive analysis of global politics in a climate-changed future, as well as wonderful and colorful descriptions of the experimental societies that pop up in the future "wild west" of a warmer Arctic. There is an entire episode involving tough-as-nails, radically democratic women defending their cooperatively-owned strip club set in the Arctic's Vegas that seemed entirely lifted from the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold."
5) Like most great Science Fiction, this book is partially predictive and partially proscriptive. Not-so-subtly hidden in the novel are criticisms of an economic system that doesn't accurately gauge the true market cost of global warming, potentially utopian/dystopian political systems that could arise, different forms of environmental advocacy and action, including green terrorism, the morality of violence, including planned violence against a few to save the many, and the ethics of torture, debating the torture of one to save the many.
So. . .reading all the positives, why not 4 or 5 stars? There were a couple of major problems I just couldn't overcome:
1) I found the pacing to just be. . .off. I don't read a ton of thrillers, but I know enough to know they are supposed to be full of action to keep the reader turning pages. There is a weird problem with this novel. It simultaneously has action-packed sequence following action-packed sequence (such that the reader doesn't have time to catch their breath) and is also somehow plodding. I usually can polish a novel like this off in a night. This one took me over half a year to finish because I kept putting it down and not WANTING to pick it back up. It was the OPPOSITE of a page-turner. It is very unusual for me to not finish a book, but this one felt like a chore. I don't know enough, technically, about writing, to say what caused this, but I just know it didn't keep me engaged. It felt choppy and rushed, but also boring and slow, if that makes any sense?
2) Similarly, the author created all these awesome character whom I should have loved, but I just didn't care about them at all. I seriously loved the idea of our heroine, but at the end of the day, didn't care if she lived or died. The side character/Caribbean spy Roo held more appeal for me, but even he didn't get my blood racing. I couldn't even muster up any hate for the villians. They just all seemed like cardboard cutouts.
If all of this seems harsh, let me compare another novel I read recently: "Earth Unaware" by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. Both feature near future worlds with familiar (but still futuristic) technology. Both feature global politics, multinational corporate power, and green renegades. (In Card's version, the asteroid miners are the corollary to the Arctic traders and manufacturers). "Arctic Rising" is almost 250 pages on my Nook; "Earth Unaware" was over 400. Both feature major characters of color who are, if not disenfranchised, then definitely somehow outsiders in the new power structure.
Here's the difference: "Earth Unaware" made me CARE. I immediately fell in love with the characters. I cared what happened to them. I cried at their losses and death, and rejoiced in their triumphs. I also cared what happened to this Earth. . .even at the distance of deep space, and breathlessly rooted for the hero's race back to Earth from space to carry to humanity proof of the coming Formic invasion. . .would he make it in time?! In "Arctic Rising" I was sort of nonplussed at the prospect of a nuke on the loose in the Arctic, not finding myself particularly interested in whether or not the heroes stopped the plot. In "Earth Unaware" I couldn't stop reading because of the tension. I don't know, technically, what the difference is in the authors' writing. If I could unlock that mystery, maybe I'd be a bestselling author!
October 12, 2013
Arctic Rising needs to be a movie, right now. It's brilliantly vivid, breakneck-paced, nail-bitingly suspenseful, with visually striking and well-defined characters, and would look amazing on the big screen.
As a novel, it's still a winner. I love the characters: the African lesbian pilot protagonist, the Caribbean dreadlocked spy, the gorgeous blonde drug capo and her subtly snarky Russian bodyguard, the strip club run as a worker-owned capitalist co-op, and above all the world-weary, elderly spook of uncertain allegiances.
Arctic Rising is a grand spy adventure, a cautionary tale about the winners of global warming and the prices they may be prepared to pay to keep their power, a nifty bit of anarcho-capitalist utopianism, with a dash of classic Bond-villainy.
Every scene from the quietest to the most explosive is utterly vivid in Buckell's prose, but one just burned itself into my soul. There's a torture scene that's entirely unlike anything I've ever read: it's just heart-shattering, and manages to convey so much about patriotism, morality, fear, rage, compassion and uncertainty in deft, subtle imagery. After it, the story takes a completely surprising plot turn - in short, the characters' actions and choices have immediate dramatic consequence. It's a brilliant little bit of work.
The ending veers a bit too far into Moore-era Bond for my taste, given the rest of the work, but the author hangs a lantern on it, at least. It's a completely contained story, which is a shame: I would love, love, love more of these characters.
As a novel, it's still a winner. I love the characters: the African lesbian pilot protagonist, the Caribbean dreadlocked spy, the gorgeous blonde drug capo and her subtly snarky Russian bodyguard, the strip club run as a worker-owned capitalist co-op, and above all the world-weary, elderly spook of uncertain allegiances.
Arctic Rising is a grand spy adventure, a cautionary tale about the winners of global warming and the prices they may be prepared to pay to keep their power, a nifty bit of anarcho-capitalist utopianism, with a dash of classic Bond-villainy.
Every scene from the quietest to the most explosive is utterly vivid in Buckell's prose, but one just burned itself into my soul. There's a torture scene that's entirely unlike anything I've ever read: it's just heart-shattering, and manages to convey so much about patriotism, morality, fear, rage, compassion and uncertainty in deft, subtle imagery. After it, the story takes a completely surprising plot turn - in short, the characters' actions and choices have immediate dramatic consequence. It's a brilliant little bit of work.
The ending veers a bit too far into Moore-era Bond for my taste, given the rest of the work, but the author hangs a lantern on it, at least. It's a completely contained story, which is a shame: I would love, love, love more of these characters.
March 27, 2012
This is a fairly mediocre, though also quite readable, "eco-thriller" set in the near future. The ice caps have melted. A semi-country named Thule exists at the North Pole, built on the last of the ice, which they keep artificially-frozen. The "Artic Tigers" like Canada, Russia, rule the roost because global warming has given them tons more arable land while taking it away from other countries, and because they control so much of the newly-explorable oil/gas fields.
The main character, whose name I have already forgotten (I'll call her "Main Character"), is an African lesbian pilot of derigibles for the UN, who observes shipping lanes. When she is shot down after detecting nuclear radiation on a freighter (where it should not be), shananigans ensue. A kindly female drug dealer ("Drug Dealer"), whose name I have also forgotten, and whose character is never at all clear (except that she is hot for Main Character, for reasons that are also unclear), helps Main Character get to Thule. There Main Character will have a momentous appointment/encounter either with nefarious government agents, or with a nefarious do-gooder corporation-gone-rogue, or both, etc. This happens after Main Character goes awol/rogue, which she does mainly as a plot device, harnessed in the service of letting us watch the shanigans, rather than because it makes the slightest bit of sense either objectively, or for her character as previously sketched. Hopefully you get the point. Numbers. Paint. By. Creaky wheels visibly turning.
I read this book because it was profiled on NPR, and I needed a book, and it was a Kindle impulse purchase, a "kinpulse purchase" if you will. To be clear, it is not a bad book. It is not mind-bendingly badly written and boring (see my review of Death Comes to Pemberly) by any means. It is in fact quite readable, and you'll finish it, and enjoy it. But it has a LOT of this "tell you" rather than "show you". Why does Drug Dealer like Main Character? Well, the answer is, because Author tells you she does! Seriously. That's about the extent of the exploration of the basis for that relationship. Main Character actually wonders in the book why Drug Dealer likes her. Rule of Thumb: whenever a main character wonders why something is happening to him or her, that is a giant flashing red light telling you the Author doesn't have a clue either, so he put it in the mouth of his main character to "solve" that problem. Why does co-head of Do-Gooder, Inc. go nuts? Nobody knows. Too many years of fighting the system, etc., etc.
Two kinds of people are going to give this book five stars, because they will be willing to "excuse its flaws": 1) people who think having a gay main character who just is gay without that being an issue is wonderfully groundbreaking in fiction (I actually published a short story along those lines in 2004, and multiple movies and TV shows have gone to this natural and commonsensical progression, which is how gay characters should always have been written in the first place); and 2) people who think the book is "important" and "speaks to serious issues," "might help the conversation" on global warming (these people will uniformly talk about "global warming," not the more correct "anthropogenic global warming"). These topics are good, and valid, and are true, or at least important, or both. But they don't make this a great novel. Not by a long shot.
The main character, whose name I have already forgotten (I'll call her "Main Character"), is an African lesbian pilot of derigibles for the UN, who observes shipping lanes. When she is shot down after detecting nuclear radiation on a freighter (where it should not be), shananigans ensue. A kindly female drug dealer ("Drug Dealer"), whose name I have also forgotten, and whose character is never at all clear (except that she is hot for Main Character, for reasons that are also unclear), helps Main Character get to Thule. There Main Character will have a momentous appointment/encounter either with nefarious government agents, or with a nefarious do-gooder corporation-gone-rogue, or both, etc. This happens after Main Character goes awol/rogue, which she does mainly as a plot device, harnessed in the service of letting us watch the shanigans, rather than because it makes the slightest bit of sense either objectively, or for her character as previously sketched. Hopefully you get the point. Numbers. Paint. By. Creaky wheels visibly turning.
I read this book because it was profiled on NPR, and I needed a book, and it was a Kindle impulse purchase, a "kinpulse purchase" if you will. To be clear, it is not a bad book. It is not mind-bendingly badly written and boring (see my review of Death Comes to Pemberly) by any means. It is in fact quite readable, and you'll finish it, and enjoy it. But it has a LOT of this "tell you" rather than "show you". Why does Drug Dealer like Main Character? Well, the answer is, because Author tells you she does! Seriously. That's about the extent of the exploration of the basis for that relationship. Main Character actually wonders in the book why Drug Dealer likes her. Rule of Thumb: whenever a main character wonders why something is happening to him or her, that is a giant flashing red light telling you the Author doesn't have a clue either, so he put it in the mouth of his main character to "solve" that problem. Why does co-head of Do-Gooder, Inc. go nuts? Nobody knows. Too many years of fighting the system, etc., etc.
Two kinds of people are going to give this book five stars, because they will be willing to "excuse its flaws": 1) people who think having a gay main character who just is gay without that being an issue is wonderfully groundbreaking in fiction (I actually published a short story along those lines in 2004, and multiple movies and TV shows have gone to this natural and commonsensical progression, which is how gay characters should always have been written in the first place); and 2) people who think the book is "important" and "speaks to serious issues," "might help the conversation" on global warming (these people will uniformly talk about "global warming," not the more correct "anthropogenic global warming"). These topics are good, and valid, and are true, or at least important, or both. But they don't make this a great novel. Not by a long shot.
April 24, 2012
Arctic Rising
Tobias S. Buckell
Tor Books, February 2012
ISBN 978-0-7653-1921-0
Hardcover
In a not very distant future, global warming has succeeded in melting nearly all of the Arctic icecap and the results are what we should probably expect. Massive oil fields previously buried are now available for the taking and a new global economy has grown up around the remnants of the ice. Countries and corporations vie for top dog position with Canada having a territorial edge and a world much like the American Wild West has developed. True to human nature, men and women are there for the jobs, the pay, the hard work and the freewheeling atmosphere. Law and order exist in an overbearing sort of way side-by-side with the usual criminal activities and tiny new countries have sprung up that give allegiance to no one but themselves.
All this open water has also created new places to dump waste, nuclear and otherwise, and the United Nations Polar Guard monitors the Northwest Passage for hints of radioactive materials. Anika Duncan pilots an airship in the fleet and, when she detects radiation coming from a ship, she flies lower to investigate with devastating effects. Within hours, she’ll be hunted as a criminal herself and must go on the run, searching for answers. Anika can only trust a mercenary spy and an unusual drug lord and the three have journeys that are intense enough to keep the reader up at night and wondering, along with our heroes, whether there really is a nuclear weapon in the wrong hands.
Also interrupting the reader’s sleep is the parallel story of a benevolent corporation that has developed a method of cooling the planet. Unfortunately, their wondrous product is the target of the greed of others who want to control this potential weapon of incredible destruction and also to the warping of their own good intentions. Eventually, it becomes plain that there is a connection to the answers Anika is searching for and the ultimate mystery becomes not whether the new Arctic community, and the planet, will survive but how and at what price.
Although this is billed as ecological science fiction, it’s also a mystery and a thriller of the highest order. Not being entirely on the global warming bandwagon, I was a bit concerned that the message would be heavy-handed, almost overbearing, but that’s not the case. Buckell makes his point about where humanity is headed in a very palatable fashion and I appreciate that. When it comes to political agendas in fiction, I prefer that the author make his case within the entertainment and let me come to my own conclusions and Buckell has done that. Amongst all the history and science and foretelling of the future, one phrase still sticks in my mind and it’s enough for me:
“this is how you could pass over the last of the polar bear’s territory, all four hundred of them”
Anika is a kickbutt protagonist with a really interesting background. She’s smart and determined and very brave and her pals, Vy and Roo, are no less intriguing. Some of the ethical choices they have to make are heartrending and their strong but compassionate characters become very evident. I have no idea whether Buckell intends a follow-up but I would be delighted to see these three in another adventure. I also think Arctic Rising would make a terrific action-adventure movie in the Bourne tradition.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, March 2012.
Tobias S. Buckell
Tor Books, February 2012
ISBN 978-0-7653-1921-0
Hardcover
In a not very distant future, global warming has succeeded in melting nearly all of the Arctic icecap and the results are what we should probably expect. Massive oil fields previously buried are now available for the taking and a new global economy has grown up around the remnants of the ice. Countries and corporations vie for top dog position with Canada having a territorial edge and a world much like the American Wild West has developed. True to human nature, men and women are there for the jobs, the pay, the hard work and the freewheeling atmosphere. Law and order exist in an overbearing sort of way side-by-side with the usual criminal activities and tiny new countries have sprung up that give allegiance to no one but themselves.
All this open water has also created new places to dump waste, nuclear and otherwise, and the United Nations Polar Guard monitors the Northwest Passage for hints of radioactive materials. Anika Duncan pilots an airship in the fleet and, when she detects radiation coming from a ship, she flies lower to investigate with devastating effects. Within hours, she’ll be hunted as a criminal herself and must go on the run, searching for answers. Anika can only trust a mercenary spy and an unusual drug lord and the three have journeys that are intense enough to keep the reader up at night and wondering, along with our heroes, whether there really is a nuclear weapon in the wrong hands.
Also interrupting the reader’s sleep is the parallel story of a benevolent corporation that has developed a method of cooling the planet. Unfortunately, their wondrous product is the target of the greed of others who want to control this potential weapon of incredible destruction and also to the warping of their own good intentions. Eventually, it becomes plain that there is a connection to the answers Anika is searching for and the ultimate mystery becomes not whether the new Arctic community, and the planet, will survive but how and at what price.
Although this is billed as ecological science fiction, it’s also a mystery and a thriller of the highest order. Not being entirely on the global warming bandwagon, I was a bit concerned that the message would be heavy-handed, almost overbearing, but that’s not the case. Buckell makes his point about where humanity is headed in a very palatable fashion and I appreciate that. When it comes to political agendas in fiction, I prefer that the author make his case within the entertainment and let me come to my own conclusions and Buckell has done that. Amongst all the history and science and foretelling of the future, one phrase still sticks in my mind and it’s enough for me:
“this is how you could pass over the last of the polar bear’s territory, all four hundred of them”
Anika is a kickbutt protagonist with a really interesting background. She’s smart and determined and very brave and her pals, Vy and Roo, are no less intriguing. Some of the ethical choices they have to make are heartrending and their strong but compassionate characters become very evident. I have no idea whether Buckell intends a follow-up but I would be delighted to see these three in another adventure. I also think Arctic Rising would make a terrific action-adventure movie in the Bourne tradition.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, March 2012.
Read
May 15, 2012Arctic Rising is a bit of a change from other Tobias Buckell books I’ve read. While it’s definitely science fiction, it’s near-future SF with a strong “thriller” feel. (The genre, not the Michael Jackson song. There are no dancing zombies in this book.)
The protagonist is Anika Duncan, an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard who gets shot down after discovering a nuclear missile being smuggled into the Arctic. She soon finds herself in the middle of a global power struggle. The Gaia Corporation have devised a plan to reverse global warming, but the technology can also be used as a deadly superweapon. (And I can’t say what the technology is without spoiling things, which sucks, because it’s pretty darn cool.)
I like the extrapolation Buckell has done on a world where the icecaps continue to melt and the oceans continue to rise. He’s done his research, and it shows. (Some aspects of the book should be familiar to anyone who reads his blog.) The dwindling ice caps create a rush to tap previously inaccessible oil reserves, leading to a proliferation of arctic settlements and colonies. Those settlements in the arctic have a bit of a science fiction feel as well, which was fun. Yes, I’m reading the book through more of an SF lens than a thriller one.
This was a pretty fast read, with colorful characters, a bit of dangerous romance, international intrigue, spies, guns, all leading to a desperate, high-stakes climax.
If you’re familiar with Buckell’s work, this book has some of his trademarks: awareness that there’s more to the world than the United States; significant nonwhite characters (Anika is neither white nor straight); sailing ships written by someone who’s actually lived on one; and lots of action.
Given that climate change is a hot political topic right now, I suspect some readers will denigrate the book as leftist liberal propaganda, and that’s unfortunate. I’ll admit there were a few points early on where I felt like the message started to overtake the story. But then I started wondering if this was due to the fact that in the U. S., any mention of climate change has become so highly politicized. In other words, it’s not that Buckell is preaching; it’s more that political groups have been screaming and squawking and flat-out lying at me about global warming issues for so long that it affected my reading of the book, which is unfortunate.
Overall, Arctic Rising does exactly what a lot of good science fiction does: examines the current science and research, makes predictions about the future, and writes a rousing story about that future.
The protagonist is Anika Duncan, an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard who gets shot down after discovering a nuclear missile being smuggled into the Arctic. She soon finds herself in the middle of a global power struggle. The Gaia Corporation have devised a plan to reverse global warming, but the technology can also be used as a deadly superweapon. (And I can’t say what the technology is without spoiling things, which sucks, because it’s pretty darn cool.)
I like the extrapolation Buckell has done on a world where the icecaps continue to melt and the oceans continue to rise. He’s done his research, and it shows. (Some aspects of the book should be familiar to anyone who reads his blog.) The dwindling ice caps create a rush to tap previously inaccessible oil reserves, leading to a proliferation of arctic settlements and colonies. Those settlements in the arctic have a bit of a science fiction feel as well, which was fun. Yes, I’m reading the book through more of an SF lens than a thriller one.
This was a pretty fast read, with colorful characters, a bit of dangerous romance, international intrigue, spies, guns, all leading to a desperate, high-stakes climax.
If you’re familiar with Buckell’s work, this book has some of his trademarks: awareness that there’s more to the world than the United States; significant nonwhite characters (Anika is neither white nor straight); sailing ships written by someone who’s actually lived on one; and lots of action.
Given that climate change is a hot political topic right now, I suspect some readers will denigrate the book as leftist liberal propaganda, and that’s unfortunate. I’ll admit there were a few points early on where I felt like the message started to overtake the story. But then I started wondering if this was due to the fact that in the U. S., any mention of climate change has become so highly politicized. In other words, it’s not that Buckell is preaching; it’s more that political groups have been screaming and squawking and flat-out lying at me about global warming issues for so long that it affected my reading of the book, which is unfortunate.
Overall, Arctic Rising does exactly what a lot of good science fiction does: examines the current science and research, makes predictions about the future, and writes a rousing story about that future.
February 20, 2012
*** DON'T READ THE GOODREADS SYNOPSIS OF THIS BOOK. IT IS A SPOILER AND GIVES MOST OF THE BOOK AWAY. ***
Tobias Buckell, known for his Caribbean influenced science fiction Xenowealth series and additions to the Halo universe, brings us his first new novel in four years with "Arctic Rising". In the very near future, the Arctic ice cap has all but melted as rising global temperatures change the dynamics and balance of power in the world. Tundras are now prairies, and the once ice locked islands of the Arctic circle are now the coveted centers of commercial and shipping success.
Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard, patrolling these northern shipping lanes by air when events kick off in the novel. Readers are propelled through this eco-thriller as the stakes are raised and the balance of power is at risk.
Buckell's book seems somewhat apropos this year, when in the dead of winter we are looking at 70 degree days during a time of year when we usually measure the day by how deep the snow is. At its heart, "Arctic Rising" is a thriller set in the backdrop of a world where global warming has already started to wreak severe havoc, destroying tropical islands in floods while at the same time opening the northern reaches of Canada and Russia to more temperate activity.
When the book excels as a thriller, it really excels. Buckell has a gift for writing down the play by play action of a fight scene, whether that fight is in the scrub of Greenland, or between armed groups in a disintegrating floating city. Sadly, its not without its flaws - the info dumps, when they happen, are a force to be reckoned with, and occasionally someone takes a sip of the monologue draught.
Buckell always does a great job of breaking us out of the northern European descent perspective of the world, giving us a better rounded view of the world. His characters aren't just white Americans - they're Nigerian, Caribbean, and Canadian, and they come from a culture and history that you can almost feel.
I would love to learn a little bit more about the world Anika and friends live in, though. If the Arctic is melting, what about the Antarctic? What's going on south of the equator? Maybe a future book will give us that glimpse. For now, I'd recommend this near future thriller for the fast paced zeppelin ride that it is.
Tobias Buckell, known for his Caribbean influenced science fiction Xenowealth series and additions to the Halo universe, brings us his first new novel in four years with "Arctic Rising". In the very near future, the Arctic ice cap has all but melted as rising global temperatures change the dynamics and balance of power in the world. Tundras are now prairies, and the once ice locked islands of the Arctic circle are now the coveted centers of commercial and shipping success.
Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard, patrolling these northern shipping lanes by air when events kick off in the novel. Readers are propelled through this eco-thriller as the stakes are raised and the balance of power is at risk.
Buckell's book seems somewhat apropos this year, when in the dead of winter we are looking at 70 degree days during a time of year when we usually measure the day by how deep the snow is. At its heart, "Arctic Rising" is a thriller set in the backdrop of a world where global warming has already started to wreak severe havoc, destroying tropical islands in floods while at the same time opening the northern reaches of Canada and Russia to more temperate activity.
When the book excels as a thriller, it really excels. Buckell has a gift for writing down the play by play action of a fight scene, whether that fight is in the scrub of Greenland, or between armed groups in a disintegrating floating city. Sadly, its not without its flaws - the info dumps, when they happen, are a force to be reckoned with, and occasionally someone takes a sip of the monologue draught.
Buckell always does a great job of breaking us out of the northern European descent perspective of the world, giving us a better rounded view of the world. His characters aren't just white Americans - they're Nigerian, Caribbean, and Canadian, and they come from a culture and history that you can almost feel.
I would love to learn a little bit more about the world Anika and friends live in, though. If the Arctic is melting, what about the Antarctic? What's going on south of the equator? Maybe a future book will give us that glimpse. For now, I'd recommend this near future thriller for the fast paced zeppelin ride that it is.
January 6, 2013
I've just finished Tobias Buckell's absolutely terrific ARCTIC RISING, which is one of those rare books that I enjoyed so much that I dearly wish I'd written it, but am also not flailing with regret that I didn't nor would ever be able to write it. Instead I just enjoyed the hell out of it and am chomping at the bit for the sequel.
It's near-future SF, set after the melting of the Arctic ice cap. More accessible and adventure-oriented than Kim Stanley Robinson's brilliant Science trilogy, it is exactly the kind of climate change book that I want to see on bestseller lists, getting international attention, and generating discussion about the world he's portrayed and the futures we're looking at.
That sounds very high-falutin', so let me also say it this way: when the worrisome McGuffin was revealed, I actually gasped out loud. That's how involved I was in the stakes Tobias had set up, and in the characters he'd developed. I couldn't tell you the last time a book made me gasp like that. I not only liked the main character and the supporting cast very much, but *loved* the portrayal of the bad guy, whom I found utterly believable.
You all know climate change is a hot topic for me, having grown up in Alaska where the effects have been achingly visible. Tobias is Caribbean, and is, I suspect, similarly motivated on the topic: low-lying island countries, like Alaska, already seeing the effects of climate change. The future as he's envisioned it seems painfully possible to me, for good and for ill. A very good book!
It's near-future SF, set after the melting of the Arctic ice cap. More accessible and adventure-oriented than Kim Stanley Robinson's brilliant Science trilogy, it is exactly the kind of climate change book that I want to see on bestseller lists, getting international attention, and generating discussion about the world he's portrayed and the futures we're looking at.
That sounds very high-falutin', so let me also say it this way: when the worrisome McGuffin was revealed, I actually gasped out loud. That's how involved I was in the stakes Tobias had set up, and in the characters he'd developed. I couldn't tell you the last time a book made me gasp like that. I not only liked the main character and the supporting cast very much, but *loved* the portrayal of the bad guy, whom I found utterly believable.
You all know climate change is a hot topic for me, having grown up in Alaska where the effects have been achingly visible. Tobias is Caribbean, and is, I suspect, similarly motivated on the topic: low-lying island countries, like Alaska, already seeing the effects of climate change. The future as he's envisioned it seems painfully possible to me, for good and for ill. A very good book!
October 9, 2014
This book is bad, just plain bad. The story is lame, on the level of what you might find in a cliched Hollywood thriller, and it is poorly told. The author has little sense of character. Not only are they cardboard and one-dimensional, but they aren't consistently imagined. There's a lot of violence as well, some of it totally unrealistic, again like a Hollywood movie. For example, the heroine and her lover beat the living crap out of a guy with brass knuckles. They are described hitting him in the face and in the ribs. Now they would really mess you up, breaking bones and knocking teeth out. However, a little while later, it turns out that this guy is an ally, at least for the moment, and he's cooperating with them, seemingly no worse for wear. That's nonsense. And if all that isn't enough, the author punches all of the cultural hot buttons. For example, not only is the protagonist a woman, but she's a black African and a lesbian as well. Please, spare me.
I read this book because it was recommended by Goodreads based upon other books I've read. This is the second time I've been burned in that regard. I really am going to have to be careful in evaluating those recommendations.
I read this book because it was recommended by Goodreads based upon other books I've read. This is the second time I've been burned in that regard. I really am going to have to be careful in evaluating those recommendations.
May 22, 2012
Climate change meets action adventure! After years working in war zones, Anika Duncan is happy to have found a peaceful job piloting airships for the UN. Then her ship is shot down while patrolling arctic waters, and she realizes it's part of a conspiracy with global consequences.
The action in this is top-notch: easy to follow but inventive and absolutely thrilling. Anika is a great, unique character, with a strong moral center and a lot of guts. And the plot itself is a lot of fun, with twists and turns and cool world-building that builds up to an explosive climax (or four). There's a little too much monologuing during some of the action scenes, but overall this was a load of fun to read.
The action in this is top-notch: easy to follow but inventive and absolutely thrilling. Anika is a great, unique character, with a strong moral center and a lot of guts. And the plot itself is a lot of fun, with twists and turns and cool world-building that builds up to an explosive climax (or four). There's a little too much monologuing during some of the action scenes, but overall this was a load of fun to read.
February 28, 2012
I have previously read and reviewed Tobias S. Buckell's
Crystal Rain
and
Ragamuffin
, both of which I enjoyed. On the other hand, I am skeptical of alarmist claims about global warming. So it was with some ambivalence, a mixture of excitement and trepidation, that I began reading my advance review copy (ARC) of Buckell's latest novel -- his first foray into techno-thrillers --
Arctic Rising
(Tor, 2012). Though he had me worried a time or two, I was pleasantly surprised and glad I read it.
Arctic Rising is set in the near future -- the Earth is warmer and the Arctic Circle is largely ice-free year-round. States and corporations are racing to take advantage of the new oversea North Pole trade route and the untapped resources made accessible by the receding ice. As you might expect, this is a situation ripe for political conflict, and environmentalists are none-too-happy with the change in climate either.
Buckell handles the environmental angle fairly gracefully. The global warming issue mainly shows up as background, for the setting, and as a plot device. Speaking of the plot, don't read the GoodReads description of the book if you prefer to avoid major spoilers.
For the most part he avoids thumping you over the head with an ideological bludgeon. The one time I got really worried he was going to spoil the book for me was about 3/4ths of the way through when the co-founders of a green energy corporation go off on a talking point–ridden tag-team duologue, but let's just say that the impact was lessened by the way they were subsequently portrayed.
Unlike many environmentalists I've encountered, Buckell has no difficulty recognizing that global warming would be harmful to some but also beneficial to others; that, contrary to the frequent warnings of doom and gloom, it wouldn't be all bad. Sea levels would rise. But rising temperatures would open up more arable land in the north. While already hot regions might get detrimentally hotter, colder climes would get warmer as well and benefit from longer growing seasons. Resources previously buried under tons of ice would become open to exploitation. Moreover, once people have adjusted to the warmer temperatures, a return to colder temperatures of previous decades would result in winners and losers as well. There are no neutral climate changes; any anthropogenic alteration of the Earth's climate will have both positive and negative consequences.
As Arctic Rising opens, we are introduced to our sole viewpoint character -- one Anika Duncan, a mixed-race Nigerian airship pilot for the chronically underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. As the story progresses we gradually learn more about her colorful past as a child soldier and later a mercenary pilot. When offered her dream job by the UN, prior to the start of the action, Anika had jumped at the chance for a safer, less eventful career doing what she loved.
And things were nice and quiet for Anika… until a hunch leads her to take a second look at a freighter. When something radioactive in the ship sets off her neutron scatter camera, Anika, thinking they are just nuclear waste dumpers, orders them to prepare for boarding. But the crew respond by blowing her and her co-pilot, Tom, out of the sky and into the still-frigid waters of the Arctic. Something bigger than nuclear waste dumping is going on here.
Buckell launches us into a brisk thriller pace in the opening chapters and doesn't let up. Who were the attackers? Who is behind them? And what secrets were they trying to protect? Anika is determined to find out. But her life and career start to unravel as mysterious forces try to destroy her evidence and silence her for good. The plot takes us through some twists and turns. Anika's decisions are complicated by a number of characters whose motives and allegiances are uncertain.
Along the way Buckell introduces a diverse supporting cast of characters that lend Anika their aid. Among the most notable is Prudence Jones, who will remind Buckell fans of badass Pepper. Buckell even gives a nod to Nanagada. Prudence, or Roo (oddly), is a former MI6 operative of Caribbean descent turned freelance spy. He and other intelligence contractors for the Caribbean nations make clever use of the internet and social networks to perform first-rate work on a budget. And then there's Violet, the bar owner and drug dealer with an interesting past of her own and a romantic interest in Anika that has gone reluctantly unrequited on Anika's part.
What make Arctic Rising a techno-thriller are mainly the near-future setting and the central maguffin that I don't want to spoil for you. Suffice to say that it's a game-changing piece of technology that is linked to the environmental premise of the setting and that has disturbing military applications. There are few other technological advances in the book that stand out aside from the ubiquity of wireless key fobs for starting vehicles and internet-connected glasses with heads-up displays (HUDs). It would certainly be cool to have some of those "Google Goggle Goggles." Oh, and a lie detector with the disturbing ability to image your brain.
Buckell mishandled one aspect of technology in the novel for me though, an old piece of technology at that. As a gun owner who immersed myself in gun culture for a time when I bought my first guns, it bugged me to keep seeing characters with military training refer to the ammunition storage-and-feeding devices for small arms as clips instead of magazines. The pistols and rifles handled by characters in the novel use magazines, not clips.
That quibble aside, Arctic Rising is a fast-paced, entertaining novel that I would recommend even those who are skeptical of global warming read. Buckell is for the most part not heavy handed with the environmentalism. It's a fun read. And the pay off at the end is particularly worth it.
[Read the full review.]
Arctic Rising is set in the near future -- the Earth is warmer and the Arctic Circle is largely ice-free year-round. States and corporations are racing to take advantage of the new oversea North Pole trade route and the untapped resources made accessible by the receding ice. As you might expect, this is a situation ripe for political conflict, and environmentalists are none-too-happy with the change in climate either.
Buckell handles the environmental angle fairly gracefully. The global warming issue mainly shows up as background, for the setting, and as a plot device. Speaking of the plot, don't read the GoodReads description of the book if you prefer to avoid major spoilers.
For the most part he avoids thumping you over the head with an ideological bludgeon. The one time I got really worried he was going to spoil the book for me was about 3/4ths of the way through when the co-founders of a green energy corporation go off on a talking point–ridden tag-team duologue, but let's just say that the impact was lessened by the way they were subsequently portrayed.
Unlike many environmentalists I've encountered, Buckell has no difficulty recognizing that global warming would be harmful to some but also beneficial to others; that, contrary to the frequent warnings of doom and gloom, it wouldn't be all bad. Sea levels would rise. But rising temperatures would open up more arable land in the north. While already hot regions might get detrimentally hotter, colder climes would get warmer as well and benefit from longer growing seasons. Resources previously buried under tons of ice would become open to exploitation. Moreover, once people have adjusted to the warmer temperatures, a return to colder temperatures of previous decades would result in winners and losers as well. There are no neutral climate changes; any anthropogenic alteration of the Earth's climate will have both positive and negative consequences.
As Arctic Rising opens, we are introduced to our sole viewpoint character -- one Anika Duncan, a mixed-race Nigerian airship pilot for the chronically underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. As the story progresses we gradually learn more about her colorful past as a child soldier and later a mercenary pilot. When offered her dream job by the UN, prior to the start of the action, Anika had jumped at the chance for a safer, less eventful career doing what she loved.
And things were nice and quiet for Anika… until a hunch leads her to take a second look at a freighter. When something radioactive in the ship sets off her neutron scatter camera, Anika, thinking they are just nuclear waste dumpers, orders them to prepare for boarding. But the crew respond by blowing her and her co-pilot, Tom, out of the sky and into the still-frigid waters of the Arctic. Something bigger than nuclear waste dumping is going on here.
Buckell launches us into a brisk thriller pace in the opening chapters and doesn't let up. Who were the attackers? Who is behind them? And what secrets were they trying to protect? Anika is determined to find out. But her life and career start to unravel as mysterious forces try to destroy her evidence and silence her for good. The plot takes us through some twists and turns. Anika's decisions are complicated by a number of characters whose motives and allegiances are uncertain.
Along the way Buckell introduces a diverse supporting cast of characters that lend Anika their aid. Among the most notable is Prudence Jones, who will remind Buckell fans of badass Pepper. Buckell even gives a nod to Nanagada. Prudence, or Roo (oddly), is a former MI6 operative of Caribbean descent turned freelance spy. He and other intelligence contractors for the Caribbean nations make clever use of the internet and social networks to perform first-rate work on a budget. And then there's Violet, the bar owner and drug dealer with an interesting past of her own and a romantic interest in Anika that has gone reluctantly unrequited on Anika's part.
What make Arctic Rising a techno-thriller are mainly the near-future setting and the central maguffin that I don't want to spoil for you. Suffice to say that it's a game-changing piece of technology that is linked to the environmental premise of the setting and that has disturbing military applications. There are few other technological advances in the book that stand out aside from the ubiquity of wireless key fobs for starting vehicles and internet-connected glasses with heads-up displays (HUDs). It would certainly be cool to have some of those "Google Goggle Goggles." Oh, and a lie detector with the disturbing ability to image your brain.
Buckell mishandled one aspect of technology in the novel for me though, an old piece of technology at that. As a gun owner who immersed myself in gun culture for a time when I bought my first guns, it bugged me to keep seeing characters with military training refer to the ammunition storage-and-feeding devices for small arms as clips instead of magazines. The pistols and rifles handled by characters in the novel use magazines, not clips.
That quibble aside, Arctic Rising is a fast-paced, entertaining novel that I would recommend even those who are skeptical of global warming read. Buckell is for the most part not heavy handed with the environmentalism. It's a fun read. And the pay off at the end is particularly worth it.
[Read the full review.]
April 4, 2012
Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/b...
After global warming has ravaged the earth and the polar ice caps have almost entirely melted, the world is a dramatically different place. With the recession of glaciers and ice that had previously covered inaccessible regions of Canada, Norway, Finland, Greenland, Iceland and other northern regions, a slew of rich natural resources are ripe for the taking. With a rush to move up north to mine the jewels, oil, and other precious natural commodities, the power balance and economics of the world shifts dramatically, and UN peacekeepers are enlisted to monitor and protect the exploited north.
Anika Duncan is one such UN worker, a pilot for the Polar Guard, charged with flyovers of the northern polar region and monitoring any abnormal behavior. Anika and her partner Tom are on a routine flyby, when they notice an uncleared freighter with abnormal – radioactive – cargo. The freighter fires on their ship, killing Tom and nearly drowning Anika. Angry and hungry for answers, Anika cannot let the mystery ship go and delves into the mystery of the freighter and its mysterious cargo in order to avenge her friend and prevent a catastrophe and corporate conspiracy of global proportions.
Arctic Rising explores a future world in which our ecosystem is irrevocably changed, and is essentially an eco-thriller with a politically astute and socio-economic edge. One thing I love about Buckell’s work is his attention to detail and his keen integration of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, and Arctic Rising is no exception. Heroine Anika is from Nigeria (the bi-racial daughter of a religious father and a Nollywood actress mother); the bubbly secondary character Vy is a Southern homegrown American girl with apple pie appeal (despite being the most successful drug dealer in the Northern region); Roo, a freelance spy, is from the (now submerged) Caribbean island region. There are gay characters, there are characters of varying race, social standing, and native background, and in a genre that is somewhat homogenous (especially in contemporary sci fi), this is really goddamn cool.
Of course, at its core, Arctic Rising is really a thriller – an ecological thriller with a political and socially conscious edge, that toes the line between science fiction and realism. Mr. Buckell excels in his envisioning of the repercussions of a world where the ice caps have almost completely melted, and I loved the extrapolation of this premise. This vision is brutally and painstakingly realized; it is a world where the lower lying islands and regions have been wiped out, where an entire new world order has been built around the resources of the north with new oil rigs being set up each day and tightened immigration and work permit laws. Beyond the worldbuilding implications, I also loved the tightly written action scenes in Arctic Rising, from interrogations, to high speed boat chases, to blow-by-blow fistfights, and more. My only problems with the book were with some of the less even pacing points – in between the action, there is a lot of exposition-ladling and some generous info-dumping. The story is also incredibly contained, only looking at the cross section of the northern region without exploring what is happening at other ends of the world (how are the regions of South and Central America handling the rising waters and temperatures, for example?).
These criticisms aside, I truly enjoyed reading Arctic Rising and recommend it to anyone hungering for a scifi thriller with an eco-bend.
After global warming has ravaged the earth and the polar ice caps have almost entirely melted, the world is a dramatically different place. With the recession of glaciers and ice that had previously covered inaccessible regions of Canada, Norway, Finland, Greenland, Iceland and other northern regions, a slew of rich natural resources are ripe for the taking. With a rush to move up north to mine the jewels, oil, and other precious natural commodities, the power balance and economics of the world shifts dramatically, and UN peacekeepers are enlisted to monitor and protect the exploited north.
Anika Duncan is one such UN worker, a pilot for the Polar Guard, charged with flyovers of the northern polar region and monitoring any abnormal behavior. Anika and her partner Tom are on a routine flyby, when they notice an uncleared freighter with abnormal – radioactive – cargo. The freighter fires on their ship, killing Tom and nearly drowning Anika. Angry and hungry for answers, Anika cannot let the mystery ship go and delves into the mystery of the freighter and its mysterious cargo in order to avenge her friend and prevent a catastrophe and corporate conspiracy of global proportions.
Arctic Rising explores a future world in which our ecosystem is irrevocably changed, and is essentially an eco-thriller with a politically astute and socio-economic edge. One thing I love about Buckell’s work is his attention to detail and his keen integration of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, and Arctic Rising is no exception. Heroine Anika is from Nigeria (the bi-racial daughter of a religious father and a Nollywood actress mother); the bubbly secondary character Vy is a Southern homegrown American girl with apple pie appeal (despite being the most successful drug dealer in the Northern region); Roo, a freelance spy, is from the (now submerged) Caribbean island region. There are gay characters, there are characters of varying race, social standing, and native background, and in a genre that is somewhat homogenous (especially in contemporary sci fi), this is really goddamn cool.
Of course, at its core, Arctic Rising is really a thriller – an ecological thriller with a political and socially conscious edge, that toes the line between science fiction and realism. Mr. Buckell excels in his envisioning of the repercussions of a world where the ice caps have almost completely melted, and I loved the extrapolation of this premise. This vision is brutally and painstakingly realized; it is a world where the lower lying islands and regions have been wiped out, where an entire new world order has been built around the resources of the north with new oil rigs being set up each day and tightened immigration and work permit laws. Beyond the worldbuilding implications, I also loved the tightly written action scenes in Arctic Rising, from interrogations, to high speed boat chases, to blow-by-blow fistfights, and more. My only problems with the book were with some of the less even pacing points – in between the action, there is a lot of exposition-ladling and some generous info-dumping. The story is also incredibly contained, only looking at the cross section of the northern region without exploring what is happening at other ends of the world (how are the regions of South and Central America handling the rising waters and temperatures, for example?).
These criticisms aside, I truly enjoyed reading Arctic Rising and recommend it to anyone hungering for a scifi thriller with an eco-bend.
March 7, 2012
Whether you call it climate change or global warming, by the time Tobias Buckell’s long awaited new novel Arctic Rising gets started, the results are obvious: the Arctic ice cap has melted down, and the Northwest Passage has opened completely for shipping. Companies are rushing into areas like Greenland to take advantage of the abundant natural resources that are much more easily accessible now all that pesky ice is no longer in the way.
At the same time, nuclear electricity generation has become even more indispensable due to the dwindling fossil fuel reserves, and illegal dumping of its toxic waste is rampant. Anika Duncan is an airship pilot with the United Nations Polar Guard who monitors the Northwest shipping lanes for possible offenders. When she approaches a ship with suspiciously high radiation readings, it suddenly opens fire on her airship. After she is rescued, she tries to investigate the incident, but it looks like everyone is trying to cover up what happened — including even her superiors. This sets off a far-reaching plot that will involve the highest levels of power and affect the future of the Arctic and the Earth’s climate…
Please read the entire review here on my site Far Beyond Reality!
At the same time, nuclear electricity generation has become even more indispensable due to the dwindling fossil fuel reserves, and illegal dumping of its toxic waste is rampant. Anika Duncan is an airship pilot with the United Nations Polar Guard who monitors the Northwest shipping lanes for possible offenders. When she approaches a ship with suspiciously high radiation readings, it suddenly opens fire on her airship. After she is rescued, she tries to investigate the incident, but it looks like everyone is trying to cover up what happened — including even her superiors. This sets off a far-reaching plot that will involve the highest levels of power and affect the future of the Arctic and the Earth’s climate…
Please read the entire review here on my site Far Beyond Reality!
March 23, 2012
This near-future techno-(or eco-)thriller is a very good novel, both extremely thought-provoking and very fast-paced. I believe Ian Fleming's work (or perhaps the films based upon them) must have been a strong influence; in fact, Bond is mentioned a time or two in the text. I was unconvinced that the protagonist (a gay African woman) could have accomplished some of the things that she does in the story, but that may just be personal bias on my part. The world is extrapolated in an intelligent, imaginative, and convincing manner, and I thought it was a most worthwhile read. An unfortunate drawback is that the dust-jacket copy on the front flap gives away way, way too much of the plot.
April 10, 2012
This was a fine book, but I think just not my bag. I've enjoyed Buckell's short fiction, and really like the way he isn't bound to the male/white/hetero protagonist template. However, I'm just not big on the techno thriller style of science fiction. I tried to get into it, and Anika was an interesting character with more depth than expected, but the book was just too much of a blockbuster movie style romp for my tastes. I finished it even though my interest really faded in the last hundred pages.
If you're looking for a great techno thriller you could do worse than Arctic Rising.
If you're looking for a great techno thriller you could do worse than Arctic Rising.
September 28, 2012
What's not to love? A beautiful half-British, half-Nigerian female protagonist kicking ass across the arctic in a near future setting that beautifully paints a fascinating scenario of the social, environmental, economic and political impacts of climate change. Tore through this novel on the beach in St. Thomas with a sunburned nose to show for it!
February 11, 2013
Talk about your nonstop thrill ride. The action starts on, like, page 5 and doesn't end until p. 335. And, unlike the lion's share of thrillers out there, the action was all somewhat plausible--and the doomsday scenario all too probable.
And big ups for the mixed-race heroine and her Carib secret agent sidekick. They didn't make me cringe once.
And big ups for the mixed-race heroine and her Carib secret agent sidekick. They didn't make me cringe once.
March 18, 2012
This was a well-thought out and written science fiction novel about what it would be like in the future with the global warming trend. The reason I didn't give this book five stars is because it had a few holes in the plot, but other than that, Arctic Rising was suspenseful and fun to read.
March 23, 2012
Finally a new book from Tobias Buckell! Readers will definitely see the influence of Paolo Bacilagupi in this one. I enjoyed the politics, the kick-ass dyke protaganist, and the setting, though it wasn't as rich as some of his others.
August 16, 2013
Starts off as a pretty good action thriller, but the last 1/4 or so seems muddled. Points for good ethnic and gender diversity without seeming forced.
September 23, 2014
One gets exactly what is promised in the description.
A satisfying read with intelligent and emotional characters in a believable setting which hopefully will not come true.
A satisfying read with intelligent and emotional characters in a believable setting which hopefully will not come true.
January 12, 2025
Recensione originale: https://sonnenbarke.wordpress.com/202...
Tobias S. Buckell è un autore grenadiano che ha scritto questo che potremmo definire un eco-thriller, un romanzo post-apocalittico non troppo fantascientifico, nel senso che racconta una situazione che non è poi così lontana dagli scenari possibili. Infatti in questo romanzo siamo in una Terra in cui i ghiacci si sono sciolti quasi completamente, rimane solo una piccolissima zona coperta dai ghiacci al Polo Nord, chiamata Thule. Le potenze mondiali sono cambiate, ora per esempio la Groenlandia è ricchissima in quanto possiede molti minerali e terre fertili, non più coperte dai ghiacci.
In questo mondo, Anika è una pilota di aerei che fanno ricognizione intorno all’Artico, alla ricerca di eventuali trasportatori abusivi di scorie nucleari. Un giorno l’allarme dell’aereo che sta pilotando insieme al copilota Tom inizia a suonare quando incrociano una nave. La nave farà fuoco su di loro e da lì inizia l’azione del romanzo, che è anche un tantino troppo avventuroso.
Il libro è molto interessante per la prima metà circa, nella quale Anika cerca vendetta contro quelli che hanno sparato al suo aereo e che cercano in tutti i modi di intralciarla. Tuttavia a un certo punto diventa, come dicevo, perfino troppo avventuroso, nel senso che da una missione di vendetta diventa e questo secondo me nell’economia del romanzo ha poco senso.
Il romanzo inoltre soffre di una dicotomia che non va proprio bene per questo filone narrativo: è avvincente in alcuni punti e si trascina in altri.
Infine, quello che può essere un aspetto positivo è che Buckell cerca di essere iperinclusivo e di mostrare tutta la “diversità” possibile nel suo romanzo: Anika è nigeriana e lesbica, poi abbiamo la donna di cui è innamorata, un uomo originario dei Caraibi, eccetera eccetera. I recensori americani dicono che c’è una grande inclusione dei popoli delle “First Nations”. Boh, non è che sia una definizione che ha troppo senso al di fuori dell’America, ma comunque.
In conclusione, un romanzo dalle buone premesse, ma non proprio sviluppato benissimo (complici anche i molti refusi). Buckell ha scritto molti altri libri, magari un giorno leggerò qualcos’altro di suo, ma non nel breve periodo.
Tobias S. Buckell è un autore grenadiano che ha scritto questo che potremmo definire un eco-thriller, un romanzo post-apocalittico non troppo fantascientifico, nel senso che racconta una situazione che non è poi così lontana dagli scenari possibili. Infatti in questo romanzo siamo in una Terra in cui i ghiacci si sono sciolti quasi completamente, rimane solo una piccolissima zona coperta dai ghiacci al Polo Nord, chiamata Thule. Le potenze mondiali sono cambiate, ora per esempio la Groenlandia è ricchissima in quanto possiede molti minerali e terre fertili, non più coperte dai ghiacci.
In questo mondo, Anika è una pilota di aerei che fanno ricognizione intorno all’Artico, alla ricerca di eventuali trasportatori abusivi di scorie nucleari. Un giorno l’allarme dell’aereo che sta pilotando insieme al copilota Tom inizia a suonare quando incrociano una nave. La nave farà fuoco su di loro e da lì inizia l’azione del romanzo, che è anche un tantino troppo avventuroso.
Il libro è molto interessante per la prima metà circa, nella quale Anika cerca vendetta contro quelli che hanno sparato al suo aereo e che cercano in tutti i modi di intralciarla. Tuttavia a un certo punto diventa, come dicevo, perfino troppo avventuroso, nel senso che da una missione di vendetta diventa e questo secondo me nell’economia del romanzo ha poco senso.
Il romanzo inoltre soffre di una dicotomia che non va proprio bene per questo filone narrativo: è avvincente in alcuni punti e si trascina in altri.
Infine, quello che può essere un aspetto positivo è che Buckell cerca di essere iperinclusivo e di mostrare tutta la “diversità” possibile nel suo romanzo: Anika è nigeriana e lesbica, poi abbiamo la donna di cui è innamorata, un uomo originario dei Caraibi, eccetera eccetera. I recensori americani dicono che c’è una grande inclusione dei popoli delle “First Nations”. Boh, non è che sia una definizione che ha troppo senso al di fuori dell’America, ma comunque.
In conclusione, un romanzo dalle buone premesse, ma non proprio sviluppato benissimo (complici anche i molti refusi). Buckell ha scritto molti altri libri, magari un giorno leggerò qualcos’altro di suo, ma non nel breve periodo.
May 7, 2017
Tobias Buckell's 2012 novel, Arctic Rising, starts off like a ride on a wild roller coaster that keeps getting more and more thrilling. For the first 100 pages he made it almost impossible to put down. I would have given it 5 stars if he had held that pace to the end, but sadly, he couldn't.
We find ourselves in the mid-21st century where the ice cap over the north pole is almost gone, heretofore untouchable oil reserves are creating a new aristocracy and a new country which calls itself 'Thule', and which takes laissez-faire capitalism to new extremes.
Heroine Anika Duncan is a Nigerian immigrant, black, female, and lesbian (i.e. a little too trendy for my tastes), but she has an admirable tenacity that reminds me of Mark Watney in The Martian.
She works for a UN agency monitoring the northwest passage for ships trying to get rid of toxic waste (including spent nuclear fuel rods) by dumping them into the arctic. When she pays too much attention to one of these ships she finds herself catapulted into the cross hairs of some secret international conspiracy that seeks to kill her any any cost. And it has even infiltrated her employer (the UN) such that she can no longer trust anybody.
Anika starts out intelligent and resourceful and defends herself at from every threat: an admirable heroine. Toward the end, however, she morphs into a female Rambo, armed to the teeth and ready to wade into a born-in-Hollywood finale--with unceasing explosions, flesh wounds, high body counts, and Indiana Jones style escapes. She triumphs less on her own wits than on a fortuitous series of co-incidences and acts of altruism by people she has just met.
He spoiled an awesome start with a too weak finish.
We find ourselves in the mid-21st century where the ice cap over the north pole is almost gone, heretofore untouchable oil reserves are creating a new aristocracy and a new country which calls itself 'Thule', and which takes laissez-faire capitalism to new extremes.
Heroine Anika Duncan is a Nigerian immigrant, black, female, and lesbian (i.e. a little too trendy for my tastes), but she has an admirable tenacity that reminds me of Mark Watney in The Martian.
She works for a UN agency monitoring the northwest passage for ships trying to get rid of toxic waste (including spent nuclear fuel rods) by dumping them into the arctic. When she pays too much attention to one of these ships she finds herself catapulted into the cross hairs of some secret international conspiracy that seeks to kill her any any cost. And it has even infiltrated her employer (the UN) such that she can no longer trust anybody.
Anika starts out intelligent and resourceful and defends herself at from every threat: an admirable heroine. Toward the end, however, she morphs into a female Rambo, armed to the teeth and ready to wade into a born-in-Hollywood finale--with unceasing explosions, flesh wounds, high body counts, and Indiana Jones style escapes. She triumphs less on her own wits than on a fortuitous series of co-incidences and acts of altruism by people she has just met.
He spoiled an awesome start with a too weak finish.
January 4, 2020
I chose “Arctic Rising” by Tobias S. Buckell because after reading the back cover I, an action/adventure reader, was very intrigued. In the book, Anika, the main character, gets caught up in a war between people who are battling for and against climate change. Buckell masterfully keeps you guessing about what will happen next through multiple storylines that you want to connect but can’t find a way so you have to read the whole book. While Buckell ties all the storylines well together in the end there are still many things he leaves untouched such as each characters life after everything that has happened. Buckell not only uses climate change as a tie in to modern day issues he also used the issue of gay rights and the threat of nuclear war.
Although this was a Cli-Fi novel and the events that occurred were due to climate change “Arctic Rising” had very few details addressed to climate change and most were in the beginning of the book. For example the opening sentences are, “Centuries ago, the fifty-mile-wide mouth of Lancaster Sound imprisoned ships in its icy bite. But today, the choppy polar waters between Baffin Island to the south of the sound, and Devon Island on the north, twinkled in the perpetual sunlight of the Arctic’s summer months, and tons of merchant traffic constantly sailed through the once impossible-to-pass Northwest Passage over the top of Canada.” This was one of the only mentions of climate change in the first few chapters of the book. Many of the characters had short conversations of how climate change had affected their past but those were the only moments about the book that directly addressed climate change. Most of the book is focused towards the people and what they are doing as opposed to climate change even though in the end they are fighting climate change.
Even though there is little information about climate change in the book, if you are an action/adventure lover who is also passionate about climate change, this book is for you.
Although this was a Cli-Fi novel and the events that occurred were due to climate change “Arctic Rising” had very few details addressed to climate change and most were in the beginning of the book. For example the opening sentences are, “Centuries ago, the fifty-mile-wide mouth of Lancaster Sound imprisoned ships in its icy bite. But today, the choppy polar waters between Baffin Island to the south of the sound, and Devon Island on the north, twinkled in the perpetual sunlight of the Arctic’s summer months, and tons of merchant traffic constantly sailed through the once impossible-to-pass Northwest Passage over the top of Canada.” This was one of the only mentions of climate change in the first few chapters of the book. Many of the characters had short conversations of how climate change had affected their past but those were the only moments about the book that directly addressed climate change. Most of the book is focused towards the people and what they are doing as opposed to climate change even though in the end they are fighting climate change.
Even though there is little information about climate change in the book, if you are an action/adventure lover who is also passionate about climate change, this book is for you.
May 29, 2022
I’ve been trying to read more science fiction written by Caribbean authors. Tobias Buckell is of Grenadian descent who now lives in Canada. I’ve read his short stories which I liked more then this full novel.
Arctic Rising was written in 2010s and follows the adventures of Anika, a former Nigerian mercenary now a pilot protecting the Arctic. In a far future, global warming has resulted in shrinkage of the North Pole to just the Arctic Cap. During a routine flight, her copilot randomly checks on a ship and finds it has radioactive cargo. Before they know it, their ship has been fired on and they are fighting for their lives.
This felt more like a concept driven book with a huge nod to techno-thriller. It was fast paced but then plugs in politico-economic aspects that are rushed through which makes the plot and pacing lopsided. The characters ended up being flat despite having great backstories. This has great potential but it was too frenetic in its action which hampered the development of the vision of this world. The vision of the greed and development which takes place in Greenland, Canada and the Arctic is very realistic and is really the reason why I think most readers enjoy this one.
Not sure who to recommend this book, this would be for the beginner to intermediate science fiction reader who wants a different type of climate fiction novel that incorporates most of the world, not just G8 countries. If you like concept driven books, this one is worth a read despite pacing issues.
Arctic Rising was written in 2010s and follows the adventures of Anika, a former Nigerian mercenary now a pilot protecting the Arctic. In a far future, global warming has resulted in shrinkage of the North Pole to just the Arctic Cap. During a routine flight, her copilot randomly checks on a ship and finds it has radioactive cargo. Before they know it, their ship has been fired on and they are fighting for their lives.
This felt more like a concept driven book with a huge nod to techno-thriller. It was fast paced but then plugs in politico-economic aspects that are rushed through which makes the plot and pacing lopsided. The characters ended up being flat despite having great backstories. This has great potential but it was too frenetic in its action which hampered the development of the vision of this world. The vision of the greed and development which takes place in Greenland, Canada and the Arctic is very realistic and is really the reason why I think most readers enjoy this one.
Not sure who to recommend this book, this would be for the beginner to intermediate science fiction reader who wants a different type of climate fiction novel that incorporates most of the world, not just G8 countries. If you like concept driven books, this one is worth a read despite pacing issues.
October 3, 2017
Ah some more good semi-plausible sifi. The globe has warmed, the arctic has melted and the scramble for minerals is on. The UN has blimps policing the area including one piloted by our heroine. Of course she is kick-ass, African, frizzy haired, can kill while handcuffed and is slowly lesbian. Or maybe the author just wanted to introduce it to us slowly. Anyway. She's shot down after detecting something that shouldn't have been there but was that the evil companies, the maybe-evil environmentalists trying to kill off the evil climate change or something else? There is nukes, nice drug dealers, spies living on boats. A good evenings entertainment.
June 16, 2024
Good near-future climate thriller. It's an action movie waiting to be made. I like Buckell's characters. Anika was doing her job & everything went wrong- - really wrong.
I enjoyed the narrator. There are a lot of accents some may not be perfect but I don't have a good enough ear to critique their accuracy nor did I think they detracted from the book.
This book may not be for you if you don't like climate fiction, government malfeasance or questioning capitalism's "perfection". For me this book was a thriller & not a social statement.
I'm looking forward to reading Hurricane Fever.
I enjoyed the narrator. There are a lot of accents some may not be perfect but I don't have a good enough ear to critique their accuracy nor did I think they detracted from the book.
This book may not be for you if you don't like climate fiction, government malfeasance or questioning capitalism's "perfection". For me this book was a thriller & not a social statement.
I'm looking forward to reading Hurricane Fever.
June 2, 2018
Gave this book a shot as a fellow person from the Caribbean and I would describe it as post-colonial novel of the near future. as a collection of ideas it actually is fairly interesting. But the book's writing in terms of style, language and character development needed work and editing. it was interesting enough that I would give this author more chances in the future but this book while interesting in spots is just alright overall.
August 15, 2019
Great worldbuilding, but dialogues, characters, and the overall plot are basically ridiculous (unnatural/unrealistic/full of holes). The author often dabbles in overrhetoricism, while technical details are quite unsatisfactory — this last issue being definitely detrimental to the evaluation of a techno-thriller.
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