The novel Icebound was not originally published by Dean Koontz or called Icebound, it was instead published in 1976 under Koontz’s pseudonym, David Axton, and had its original title, Prison of Ice. I really enjoyed this novel. It kind of reminded me of the new movie Murder on the Orient Express because it had an attack, an investigation, and bringing the attacker to justice, even though it meant killing the killer.
In the novel, an Indiana man by the name Harry Carpenter and his lovely wife, Rita, lead a team of scientists to the Alaskan ice caps, where their initial plan was to use explosives to break off sections of an iceberg and to be able to monitor its progress as it moved through the ocean’s natural currents. They hoped to be able to
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find a way to safely bring the sections as fresh, clean, drinkable water to countries that recovering from drought. But as the team finishes the placing and detonating of the bombs, a massive tsunami arrives as a storm warning and breaks off part of the ice cap, leaving Harry and his team afloat on a giant iceberg. With the bombs beneath them and detonated to explode at midnight, the team is down to only eleven hours to get off the iceberg. Unfortunately, a powerful storm is blocking the way for nearby ships, there is a possible killer among the members of Harry’s team. Harry and his team had just completed burying sixty bombs in the ice just seconds before the tsunami struck them off their feet.
Harry immediately packed up his team, and headed back to camp to check on his other team members. However, due to the tsunami, the direction of the wind and setting on the compasses warned Harry that the ice had shifted, which suggested that they were now afloat on the ocean, on the same part of the iceberg with the explosives planted directly below their feet. Harry prayed that his wife was on a separate piece of ice and therefore safe, and he began searching for camp. Halfway there, a gigantic chasm opens in the ice, swallowing his snowmobile and the team’s …show more content…
drill. Further out on the ice, three of Harry’s men were finishing the preparation of a beacon that would allow them to monitor the movement of the ice once it separates from the rest of the iceberg. When the tsunami hit, Harry’s men were thrown off their feet, and one of the men, George Lin, falls over the side of the newly formed chasm. The other two men that were there at the time, Brian Dougherty and Roger Breskin, rescued George by lowering themselves into his location with ropes. All four of them return to camp to find out what the escape plan was. Back at the camp, Harry discovered his wife was still with them, and the eighth scientist were okay, but their camp got destroyed. They no longer had shelter, no sources of heat, not to mention, their food shortage. They find a cave to hide in and radio Gunvald Larsson, the final member of the group who remained at Edgeway Station to monitor the weather.
Gunvald promises to radio for help immediately. Soon they realized that their first priority was to quickly find a way to deactivate the bombs. Unfortunately, it took the men three days to set the bombs, therefore there was no way that they were going to be able to disable them, especially without their drill. Harry believed that if they could disable them all, they might be able to survive the blast. Four members of the team, plus Harry, returned to the bombs and began digging them
up. Harry and his team successfully dug up four bombs, but the drill they were using broke and they were forced to stop. The team wrapped up and headed back to the cave, however, upon their arrival to the cave, they realized that Brian was not with them. They returned to the area and Harry found Brian lying behind a fissure of ice. The rest of the team rejoined with Harry and Brian as they made their way back to the cave and warmed Brian up in one of the snowmobiles. When Brian was able to talk again, he told Harry and Rita that someone had clubbed him twice over the head and left him for dead, but that he does not yet know who it was that attacked him. Now aware of the possibility of an unidentified assassin, Harry told Pete what Brian had said and asked Pete for his help in keeping Brian safe until they were able get off the iceberg. Harry undergoes a full investigation to find who the assassin was and stop them ASAP. During the investigation, he was able to knock off the following suspects; himself, Brian, Pete, George, Rita, him, and him, but they didn’t know it at the time, but it meant Roger was left. Unfortunately, it appears that their chances of rescue are growing a lot slimmer with every passing moment as the two closest ships were being forced to turn back because of the quickly approaching storm. Fortunately there happened to be a Russian submarine in the area that got permission from their government to help in aiding the stranded scientists off the iceberg. When the submarine arrived at the iceberg’s location, the captain surveyed the iceberg to try to find a way to send some of his men to the iceberg and rescue the scientists. Unfortunately the storm has made the surrounding seas rough, so the only section that they could get close enough to was the one with the smooth surface. The submarine attempted to shoot at the iceberg with a missile to create a landing shelf, but this only resulted in a thin sheet of ice falling to the ocean, damaging a small section of the submarine’s hull. Suddenly, the iceberg changed direction and the submarine was forced dive deep into the ocean in order to allow the iceberg to cross over them. As they waited for the iceberg to pass over them, they discovered that the iceberg had a hole in the middle along with a very rough bottom. The captain had his radio man contact Harry and they discussed the possibility of the team diving down to the submarine. Harry agreed that this may be their only chance to get off the iceberg. The submarine dove under the iceberg and once more positioned itself beneath the hole in the iceberg. Then they sent up their aerial antenna with cases of special diving equipment attached. The Edgeway team doned the suits and began the treacherous swim more than seven hundred feet into the water to get safely to the submarine. During the dive, Roger Breskin pulled Harry’s mask from his face and attacked Brian. The other members of the team saw what was happening and they managed to stop Roger by removing his air hose completely from the suit so he couldn’t breathe. Harry’s team makes it to the submarine, minus Roger (a.k.a. the unidentified assassin), just seconds before the bombs went off.
• In the gym, the gym teacher announced that they were going to start a new unit. The new unit was volleyball.
The Novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski uses two characters of his own creation to construct the book in its entirety. The first contributor, Zampano, who is the author, who may or may not be trustworthy of the interpretation of The Navidson Record, because he is blind. Early on in his efforts to finish the book he dies under suspicious circumstances. At this point, Danielewski employees another to contribute, Johnny Truant, who composes the introduction and notes for the book. Zampano documents the Navidson Record which is about Will Navidson and his family. Navidson calls his brother Tom and a family friend, Billy Reston, to investigate a hallway that appears out of nowhere between two rooms. Once a labyrinth appears in the house,
In today’s world there are millions of people who grow up in situations that make them powerless. Poverty, violence, and drugs surround children from birth and force them to join the cycle. In L.B. Tillit’s Unchained a young boy named TJ grows up in this environment. With both his mother and father struggling with addiction, he is often left alone on the streets to fend for himself. He turns to a local gang for protection and a sense of place in Jr. High, but is quickly taken out of the life he knows when his father overdoses and dies. TJ is sent to live in a foster home where he learns to care for others and meets a girl and falls in love with her. However, when his mother regains custody of him, TJ is forced back into the gang where he uses violence and drug dealing to stay alive. With help from his foster care manager he soon realizes that he can make it out of his life and return to his foster home and the girl he loves. A central theme of Unchained is that people have the power to make decisions to determine their future.
Sahara Special, by Esme Raji Codell, is a shining piece of adolescent nonfiction that authentically and sensitively captures the Heart-Wrenching Life Story and Amazing Adventures of a two-time inner-city fifth grader. Inspiring and empathy inducing, Sahara Special exemplifies Russel’s guidelines for culturally and socially diverse literature as outlined in our textbook in many ways.
In the spring of 1805 the Lewis and Clark expedition decides to take off. But on there way a sudden storm approaches and n...
“The Cold Embrace” by Mary E. Braddon is a wonderfully tragic short story of a young man’s denial and guilt till the end of his life. Braddon accomplishes this by using Omniscient narration to not only showing us his guilt, denial, and struggle; but also able to present his spiral into a depression filled with delusions and guilt that eventually lead him to lose his mind and perish from outside a first person perspective.
“Why is it that almost 25 years later, the loss of Lane Frost is still so strong? I think it’s because Lane Frost was what I wanted to be. He was what every one of us wanted to be. Lane dedicated his life to excellence. Complaining was not a part of his life. He said if he won a world championship he was going to do something special with it, and he did. He was an uncommonly kind and gentle man. He was a champion in the arena, and a champion in life” (Michael 1).
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson The novel Snow Falling on Cedars, written by David Guterson, revolves around the.. around a racially charged court case involving an innocent Japanese man accused of the murder of a German fisherman. The author explores the human traditions of war and social division and the inevitability of decay, suffering and death, using the murder trial of Kabuo. Miyamoto as a focal point. Guterson investigates the way in which personal ethics can transcend the conspiring effects of ‘fate’.
Mary Oliver in her poem “First Snow” explores the appearance of nature during winter. Although the poem has no stanza break, it is clearly divided into two parts. First is presented the image of snow falling during the day and second part described the image of night when the snow stopped falling. Snow is compared to “such an oracular fever” which means it has ability to teach the reader to recognize the opposite truth.
Is society too egotistical? In Hunters in the Snow, Tobias Wolfe gives an illustration of the selfishness and self-centeredness of humankind through the actions of his characters. The story opens up with three friends going on their habitual hunting routine; their names are Frank, Kenny, and Tub. In the course of the story, there are several moments of tension and arguments that, in essence, exposes the faults of each man: they are all narcissistic. Through his writing in Hunters in the Snow, Wolfe is conveying that the ultimate fault of mankind is egotism and the lack of consideration given to others.
Have you ever seen snow before? That white fluffy stuff that covers the ground completely. Well if you have, I am sure you have overcome an obstacle in your life and have reached something “irreplaceable and beautiful” (102). Just like Sister Zoe had said when she saw that snow falling from the sky. This story was very enlightening because the way the author brought in herself and portrayed herself through the character Yolanda was very intriguing. She brought the subject to life in many ways. However, the author of “Snow” uses two specific elements, its symbolism and its character to prove how overtime one individual will be able to overcome obstacles. Not only does theses elements point this out but the narrator also makes an impact of the reader as well.
Nowadays, it is a very dangerous and risky adventure to take a ship to the Northern Sea. We are so advanced in technology, but still no one wants to risk their lives. The captain and his crew were traveling during the navigation season, but they were facing fog and icebergs on their way. They were stuck in ice and mist for a whole day. Finally, around two o?clock the fog and mist was gone and they could only see the endless ice surrounding them.
Winter in the Blood, a Native American novel written by James Welch, takes place on a cattle ranch in Montana, around 1970. On the surface, this is a story of a Blackfoot Indian sleepwalking through his life, tormented by visions, in search of a connection to his heritage. Welch's language is, at once, blunt and poetic, and the pictures it conjures are dreamlike and disquieting. Furthermore, the narrator of the novel is disheartened by the loss of his brother, Mose, and his father, First Raise ? the two most cherished people in his life. After struggling with guilt, sorrow, and alcoholism, the narrator overcomes these down falls through re-identifying with himself and his culture? specifically through the help of his grandfather, Yellow Calf.
The Iceman Cometh depicts a group of rock-bottom individuals who spend their days and nights at Harry Hope’s Saloon. They are in and out of drunken stupor and all they have left is their illusionary pasts and glorified pipe dreams for their future. The character Hickey is an important figure to this small community and they look forward to his annual visits, but this time he is very different and they are upset by his claims to renounce their pipe dreams in order to find peace. Eventually, Hickey realizes the only chance at peace is through death. While the bar inhabitants conclude Hickey’s insanity, Larry and Parritt are the only ones who see the truth in what he was saying. O’Neill’s play shows the paradox of the crazy truth and true craziness,
Many tales in Dutch mythology contain lessons or morals, but have you ever heard of one containing personification? The Ice King and His Wonderful Grandchild is a myth retold by William Elliot Griffis that dates back to the year 1918 (Dutch). This myth displays steam as a physical being with a similar name, Stoom, and the traits of steam. The Ice King and His Wonderful Grandchild also shows how important all the members of your family are, no matter how rambunctious they may be, and that it is important to be your own person no matter who your parents are.