I received this book for free through the Goodreads first reads program.

I will admit that I love books set in the arctic. Something about those people who are hardy enough to live on a remote outpost on the ice really fascinates me. This book grabbed me from the opening chapter, and kept my interest throughout.

When I first read the description of the book, the concept of a weather machine terrorizing the world seemed silly. But as I began to read the book, the scenario seemed so believable that it became scary. The explanations for what was happening in the book sounded plausible to me. I don't know enough to say that it was all scientifically accurate, but to me it sounded real. I now have one more thing to worry about, a mad scientist trying to destroy the earth through manipulation of weather systems.

Dry Ice fit my definition of a five star book. It was interesting, I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen, and after I finished the book, I was still thinking about it. ( )

Dry Ice by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson concerns weather control gone awry. In this novel the TESLA research station which is owned by Flint Agro-Chemical, an agribusiness company, is controlling the weather to their benefit - and the detriment of others. Greg Simpson, who designed the station and runs, has gone insane and rogue. After it is discovered that he is working secretly with the Pentagon, Flint wants him replaced with Tess Beauchamp, who has no idea what TESLA does. The only problem is that Greg is vindictive and when Tess arrives to take over, more of his evil plans come into play.

Dry Ice features some scientific facts and gruesomely described weather related disasters. This makes sense because Bill Evans is an award winning senior meteorologist for WABC, Channel 7 in New York City. Marianna Jameson has an experienced writer for the aerospace, defense, and software industries. Together, Evans and Jameson have written two other books: Category 7 and Frozen Fire.

I did enjoy Dry Ice but it also read like a science fiction channel disaster movie. Now this can be good; I've been known to love to distraction some made for television disaster movies in my time. On the other hand, I've also been known to cruelly mock them. Nevertheless, most of the descriptions of weather-related destruction wrought by the antagonist, Greg, felt like they'd be better appreciated as scenes in a movie - quick glimpses of what the bad guy has done with the science behind it glossed over. Additionally, many of the descriptive passages concerning the disasters were overdone in comparison with the rest of he novel.

While the writing is technically good (and since I had an ARC, I have to assume mistakes were corrected), I felt the characterizations were lacking. I really didn't connect with any of them. They were also very simple characters without any layers or nuance. It's quite clear who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. (And for some odd reason, all the women are good while the bad guys are all men. On one level I totally understand this, but in reality it seems a stretch.)

Although Dry Ice has been promoted as a book for weather geeks, I think real weather geeks are going to find it lacking. The disasters hit very quickly with pinpoint accuracy and some (of us) weather geeks like to follow the data, the build up, anticipating what the storm is capable of doing. We like the science. Also it should be noted that all the disasters are not weather related.

Recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

Disclosure: I received this novel through the Goodreads First Reads program.


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This was quite an exciting book. The characters were believable and the writing was quite fast paced.
The villain is an evil genius, and everyone must try to race to undo what he has done in order to save the world. ( )

This is a Reading Good Books review.

* In compliance with FTC guidelines, it should be noted that I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Bill Evans is a ten-time Emmy award winning meteorologist from WABC-TV New York City. His writing partner, Marianna Jameson is a former romance writer who crossed over to the genre of eco-thrillers and disaster novels. Together, they have written three books Category 7, Frozen Fire, and Dry Ice.

Dry Ice synopsis from Marianna Jameson’s website:

Flint AgroChemical’s newest installation, TESLA, is in the driest, coldest, darkest, most remote spot in the world: the high central plain of Antarctica. The scientists there have cracked the code to controlling the world’s weather. Upon being told he’s being replaced, the installation’s sociopathic lead researcher, Greg Simpson, hijacks this game-changing corporate weapon and turns it against the agro-industrial giant, and the world at large. International politics and corporate espionage collide with bleeding-edge science as Tess Beauchamp, TESLA’s new commander, reunites with ex-lover and TESLA’s resident bad boy, Nik Forde, to save the installation – and the planet – from imminent and epic destruction.

This is not your lazy afternoon light reading material. There are a bunch of technical terms, scientific aspects, explanations, and disaster situations. Some of it felt so real that it was scary. It has a steady pace, the scenes of destruction breaking up the monotony of the science. It reads like a disaster movie. In line of Twister, Deep Impact, 2012, and The Day After Tomorrow, Dry Ice is an action-packed novel that will have you shaking in between chapters.

The science part was very interesting to me. I am aware of the experiments done in the colder parts of the planet, like HAARP in Alaska. Although I am not sure if this is/will be possible in the future, it still terrified me. Even without outside forces controlling the weather, I have seen how destructive it can be and how powerful Mother Nature is. The authors did a great job in making this all easy to understand for the layman.

The writing was technically good but I found the emotion lacking. Yes, this is clearly in the science genre but provided that they are dealing with loss of life and home, I expected more reaction. There were some but it felt rather shallow, one dimensional. The differences between the heroes and villains were clear cut. The antagonist, Greg Simpson, had the most developed character, in my opinion. The rest were rather bland – very smart, very specialized, hand-picked people… that was it for all the good guys. It would have been a nice addition to the story if the reactions of the TESLA employees were also explored. It would have humanized the piece a bit more.

Greg Simpson is one of those characters that you really would LOVE to hate. (Another one in my list is Dolores Umbridge. Yes.) He really was despicable. How much do you have to hate someone that you stop caring about innocent lives? About the world? His narcissism was so extreme that he did not even think of how it could go wrong for him. I would like to think that the authors developed him more than Tess or Nik because they want the readers to really know Greg, and hate him. I think that sort of compensates the lack of character development for the others.

I was not expecting to like it but I did. I got into it and it found it very engaging. Do not let the science jargon scare you… there are a lot to learn in these pages.

Rating: 4/5.

Recommendation: Readers who do not shy away from science will like this. It is like a disaster movie in a book. ( )