Beneath the Dark Ice

By: Greig Beck

Narrated by: Sean Mangan

When a plane crashes into the Antarctic ice, exposing a massive cave beneath, a rescue and research team is dispatched. Twenty-four hours later, all contact is lost. Captain Alex Hunter and his highly trained squad of commandos are fast tracked to the hot zone to find out what went wrong - and to follow up the detection of a vast underground reservoir. Accompanying the team is an assortment of researchers, including petrobiologist Aimee Weir. If the unidentified substance proves to be an energy source, every country in the world will want to know about it - some would even kill for it. Once inserted into the cave system, they don't find any survivors - not even a trace of their bodies. Primeval hieroglyphs hint at an ancient civilisation, and an ancient danger. Spectres of the dead haunt the tunnels. Within hours, one of the party will die. To bring his team out alive, Alex will need every one of his mysterious abilities beneath the dark ice.

©2009 Greig Beck (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

I just could not connect

Would you try another book from Greig Beck and/or Sean Mangan?

Sean Mangan was absolutely fantastic, a new favorite reader of mine. Perfect on the narration in my opinion.

Any additional comments?

I love the idea(s) behind the book but I just could not connect with the story. I don't really know how to put it but I did not feel as though as was there in the cave with the characters, some of my favorite books make me feel as though I'm there myself. Details of creatures and the main characters was great but I'm not sure I felt the same way about the world the story is set in, I believe this is the area I felt distant from.

The author references the Spyderco Manix knife as one of the only folding knives that can be opened one handed yet this is just ridiculous as most

Surprise! No, I'm kidding, no surprises here

For the first 3/4 this is a fairly decent action-adventure. Sure, there is a "monster" in it, but it is still relatively believable. The last 1/4, however, got annoying with the "history lessons" the author was trying to impart. A collection of people are trying to escape caverns and monsters and Russian assassins and yet they stop to read hieroglyphs and tell the story of the people who were there thousands of years before. Well, a) these modern people are fleeing for their lives and b) they have no food or water and c) they have already watched half their team get murdered and/or eaten... sorry, they are not going to be interested in some foolish story about ancient peoples. Nor am I. It is supposed to be action-adventure, not an anthropological history lesson.

As an action-adventure, it wasn't too bad - just enough running around and just enough killing to keep you reading. None of the characters are fully fleshed (i.e. any one of them are disposable as snacks for the monster, and you won't really care). And the main character (Alex) has super powers so... well, why not, lots of action heroes have super-human powers and we still read about them.

The narration is fine. There is nothing particularly gory and I don't recall any swearing. No sex either. I'll read more with Alex as the center piece since it is just some brain fluff to pass the time. Nothing unexpected, nothing thrilling, but nothing glaringly obnoxious either...

Awesome story

If you could sum up Beneath the Dark Ice in three words, what would they be?

Awesome, riveting, and exciting

What about Sean Mangan’s performance did you like?

His descriptions of the creatures was perfect. The emotions of the characters and how he describes perfectly the affects of the sea monsters on their bodies.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Beneath the Dark Ice, of course!!

Any additional comments?

I will gift and suggest this book to my friends

WOW

Better than expected...initially thought the narrator was going to be the weak spot with this book BUT I am happy to say that after an initial hour or so of warming up to him he turned out to be fantastic. The story was also just superb, please give this story a chance it's not the canned sci-fi story the description leads you to believe.

A splendid thriller.

Full of suspense from start to end. some scientific details too much for me, but others might enjoy them more.

Wow what an adventure!

This was a great story. Tons of adventure, drama, fear and pulse raising action. Mix nicely with humor, science and a bit of hopeful romance for the two main characters. I would recommend this book. Sean Mangan's voice for this audio book was great too!

great story

This book is a great mix of suspense, imagination, and action. You fall in love with the characters as they encounter seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Great suspenseful delight!

Good story with twist even you won't always see coming. Narrorator did good job here.

Good Listen

Good plot, good characters and a very easy listen. Only criticism is that the narrator could have had a bit more emotion. Sounded very monotone at times. I loved the Russians!

I feel like something is missing

This book was really well written and interesting. It’s a very original idea (both Alex’s situation and the premise) and played out well in the structure of the book. The characters are interesting and likable but for some reason I just couldn’t get into this book. Maybe it focused a little too much on the history aspect rather than adding more action or maybe I was just distracted while I tackled it but I just felt like it didn’t pull me in.

Mr. Mangan's narration was great in both packing and characterization.