Meltdown

by James Powlik

Dr. Carol Harmon is a bio-acoustic scientist and CEO of the Nolan Group, a worldwide consortium of consulting agencies founded by her second husband, now deceased. She has taken her research vessel, the Phoenix , deep into the Arctic Ocean to track and monitor marine mammals and to study the effects of shipping on the larger members of that group, most specifically blue whales. What she finds is both distressing and exhilarating for a five huge blues frozen fast to the underside of an ice floe. What happens after two divers return from an exploratory foray beneath the ice is flat-out horrifying. Severe radiation sickness reduces the men to wriggling, blood-spewing wrecks in a matter of hours. The fact is that the entire region is radioactive to the point of being cooked, and as the arctic spring turns to summer, that hot ice will start to flow and likely bring about the first man-made ice age unless it's checked. Fortunately for Carol, Dr. Brock Garner, Carol's first ex and a world-class oceanographer in his own right, is but a radio call away. Nolan Group jets are dispatched and in short order Brock and his massive Ukrainian research assistant, Sergei Zubov, are on the Phoenix and on the case. Meltdown is James Powlik's second race-against-time-to-stop-global- environmental-disaster eco-technothriller. And as in 1999's Sea Change , the partnership works handily. With scientific and environmental technospeak galore (a drop too much, actually) and enough back-stabbing, political dirty-dealing, and military intrigue both foreign and domestic to fill a book twice its size, Meltdown will please Powlik's growing number of followers, Tom Clancy fans, and most anyone with a taste for fast-paced, fact-laced excitement. --Michael Hudson

Genres: Thriller, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fantastic combination of suspense, adventure, and non-fiction as it is told through researchers in the Arctic. The characters, dialogue and plot wove together various elements to keep it realistic, interesting. About halfway through, the characters are faced dramatic race against time and they must be decisive and innovative to survive. Great read!

[Tobias Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich habe das Buch in der deutschen Übersetzung gelesen. Deshalb eine deutsche Rezension:

Zuerst einmal, das Buch erinnert mich stark an Dan Browns "Meteor". Beides sind Thriller, die in der Arktis und auf einem Forschungsschiff spielen, mit vielen Geheimnissen und Fragen, die aufgestellt werden.
Doch kann ich "Meteor" mehr weiterempfehlen: Die Handlung in "Meltdown" steigert sich mysteriös zu einer Katastrophe, ausgelöst durch eine Verschwörung. Doch dann entwickelt sich das Buch immer mehr zum romantischen Drama. Die ausgezeichnete realitätsgetreue Atmosphäre des ersten Teils wird zerstört durch einige unwirkliche Glücksfälle und Ereignisse.

Charaktere sind in Genüge vorhanden, doch sie wirken auch, von ihrer ausgearbeiteten Vergangenheit abgesehen, recht oberflächlich in Charakter und Rolle im Buch.
Das Buch hat in meiner Version etwas über 500 Seiten, viele Handlungsstränge, die sehr parallel verlaufen und insgesamt wirkt das Buch gestreckt.
Jedoch muss ich sagen, dass die Wahl des Titels sehr passend ist.

Insgesamt hat mich diese deutsche Übersetzung des Buches nicht wirklich überzeugt. Das Buch ist auf Unterhaltung ausgelegt, nicht etwa auf eine tiefe Botschaft. Es wirkt gestreckt und leicht inkohärent in der Umsetzung. Es fehlen Plot Twists und eine gewisse Ungewissheit zum guten Mystery-Thriller. Dramatisch wirkende Heldenhandlungen gegen Ende des Buches wirken surreal.

[B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
1) I didn't realize this one was a sequel to Sea Change until I started reading it (good thing I read Sea Change first!)
2) Carol's character development was wonderful - she was written beautifully, far better than expected.
3) I have to admit, I stopped reading for a couple days when I got to the middle of this one, even though my grandfather worked in the oil industry, my buds work in the oil industry, and my husband works IT for the oil industry. There was a huge technical infodump, which could have been fun, but it wasn't written in an excited "look at the results of my research" kind of way. It was very dry. Once you get beyond that, the action does pick up again, but I feel like it could have been trimmed down with respect to the 50-100 page infodump. (I wasn't keeping count, it was just a good chunk of the middle)
4) I was a little disappointed that, in spite of the differences between this one and Sea Change, the ultimate resolution was really similar.

Really the only reason I'm rounding up is Carol.

Oh, and if it's important to you - the dog lives.

[Wilma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book but it sometimes got a little too technical for me. However, it was an interesting story and characters.

[Nile · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is very much an okay read but the fact that I DNF and the book has been on the "oh right I should finish that" pile for a few months says a lot.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sequel to Sea Change was not as exciting as the first book... and the hints of a third book seem to have not gone to fruition. Still, this had its moments of genuine excitement, though all in all, the book was bogged down with too much technical and military detail. It made it just a bit too slow-moving for my taste... But the continued character development was strong, even if the plot was not as fascinating as Sea Change.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of gadgets and techno babble. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, the hero is courageous and good-looking, so is his ex-wife, the heroine. How much do you want to bet that they get together again at the end of the book? Entertaining brain candy, probably works well on the beach.

I read a German translation that had the odd editorial mistake. And the front cover has a leaking oil drum. At no point in the book an oil drum makes an appearance, leaking or otherwise. D-oh!

[Kristin Lundgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

a different kind of thriller - a little slower paved, with tons of science mixed in, it' about a mysterious source of underground radiation in the arctic that is killing the native population, the animals and also some of the crew of a research vessel. Most of the book details their work to find out what it is, track it, and try and contain it, and eventually bury it. Good for the more scientifically inclined.

[Beth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the premise of this book interesting...Not a great thriller, but good.

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? I love terrifying biological thrillers.

[Shirley Bragg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it and like some other reviews that I have read, the science jargon didn't bother me in the least. I guess I thrive on learning something new from what I read. Loved it!!

[Lexie Sapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5!