Arctic Rising

By: Tobias S. Buckell

Narrated by: Carolyn Michelle Smith

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.

Enter the Gaia Corporation. Its two founders have come up with a plan to roll back global warming. Thousands of tiny mirrors floating in the air can create a giant sunshade, capable of redirecting heat and cooling the earth's surface. They plan to terraform Earth to save it from itself—but in doing so, they have created a superweapon the likes of which the world has never seen.

Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. She’s intent on capturing a smuggled nuclear weapon that has made it into the Polar Circle and bringing the smugglers to justice. Anika finds herself caught up in a plot by a cabal of military agencies and corporations who want Gaia Corporation stopped.

But when Gaia Corp loses control of their superweapon, it will be Anika who has to decide the future of the world. The nuclear weapon she has risked her life to find is the only thing that can stop the floating sunshade after it falls into the wrong hands.

©2012 Tobias S. Buckell (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Buckell represents an important force behind the genre’s change. Buckell’s work deals with complex racial issues in a way worthy of the self-proclaimed ‘literature of ideas’: head-on, with no visible flinching, while still managing to give its readers a rollicking good time.” (The Seattle Times)

I wanted to like this book.

I had heard a review of Arctic Rising, and liked the idea of a suspense novel combating eco-terrorism in the newly ice-free Arctic. Set in the near future, it has a few new technologies, but is more a chase book than sci-fi. I wanted to like the book. Instead, I couldn't make myself finish it, which is pretty unusual for me. If a reader cannot truly master accents, she should just read the story straight. I spent the first few pages wondering where in the world the main character was from-- Japan? England? Africa? It was soon revealed that she was from Nigeria-- this worked some of the time-- again it would have been better read without the attempt. Her other female characters generally sounded like "Valley Girls" who one suspected were chewing gum at the same time and ready to say "ya know?" Other voices were inconsistent, making it hard to figure out who was talking.

In fairness, the story wasn't that great either. Meandered all over, a lot of talk, talk, talk. Wished I'd given it a pass.

Interesting story, shallow narration.

What disappointed you about Arctic Rising?

The narrator used voices and inflections that were way out of character for the story. It's a valley girl doing science fiction OMG!

Would you recommend Arctic Rising to your friends? Why or why not?

Get the book and do you own narration in you head.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The characters weren't differentiated enough to follow who was talking.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. Good story, to a point.

Any additional comments?

The story was interesting but lacked plausibility at time ..... a missile held upright with ropes?

Fiction concept was well thought out.

Buckell's story line holds your interest. The narration was not quite up to par. I would consider both author and narrator again.

wouldn't recommend

Unfortunately had to give up listening after about hour in to the story, mostly due to narrators accent. She was constantly switching to some jamaican/south american pronunciations which was very hard to understand and more so was taking away from story, which seemed to be very plain.

Mediocre

What would have made Arctic Rising better?

The story was good but the narration was stilted in parts and the accents were not always authentic enough to be believed. The Jamaican and African accents were spot on but the French, Russian and other accents all sounded the same. The narration was sometimes slow.

Would you recommend Arctic Rising to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend the book but not the audiobook due to the narration.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointing overall.