Review and Giveaway: ARCTIC RISING, by Tobias Buckell

Today it's all about ice and heat, with Tobias Buckell’s scary-because-it-could-happen story of global warming and nuclear terrorism run amok. I love a good futuristic disaster tale, as long as it doesn’t preach at me, and Buckell knows how to tell a good story without being heavy-handed. Want a copy? Read on!

THE OFFICIAL BLURB: 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

MY THOUGHTS: Arctic Rising gets off to a fast start, as United Nations Polar Guard Anika Duncan, on dull security duty, finds herself doing a routine check of what at first looks like a normal ship transversing the area between the Arctic Circle and Canada--now melted. Only it's not a normal crossing at all, as she realizes when the crew of the ship pulls out an RPG and aims it at her slow-moving surveillance aircraft. From there on, the book rolls out like a good thriller with some hard-science overtones. In other words, it's a good read and doesn't get so caught up in the "sci" part of the sci-fi that the "fi" gets lost. There's a bit of heavy world building in the first two chapters, but then it starts rolling like a train headed downhill, and you might as well strap yourself in for the ride. And I loved that it had a woman in the hero role--smart and strong without just being a guy in a dress. Well played.

THE GIVEAWAY: Want to win Arctic Rising? Have you read a good book about environmental disaster? Four entries possible:  +1 for comment, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and +1 for Tweet or Retweet. Go!