Title: Kraken Rising | Series: Alex Hunter #6 | Author: Greig Beck (site)| Publisher: Momentum (site) | Pub. Date: 2015-10-22 | Pages: 446 | ISBN13: 9781760301293 | Genre(s): Thriller & Adventure | Language: English | Triggers: None | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Source: Received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher for review consideration.
Kraken Rising
The Arcadian returns to the dark ice in a reprisal of one of his first and most deadly missions. But this time the stakes couldn’t be higher.
In 2008, a top secret US submarine went missing on its test voyage off the coast of Antarctica. After years silent, its emergency beacon is suddenly activated, but strangely, the beacon is emanating from a point miles below the ice sheets of the frozen continent.
The race is on. The Chinese government, alerted at the same time as the Americans, is after the submarine’s secrets. And the Americans need to retrieve their technology, quickly and quietly, from a place now marked as an international forbidden zone.
With the reluctant assistance of petrobiologist Aimee Weir, Alex Hunter and his team of HAWCs return to the location of their first mission together. But only a few members of the team know the truth. A treacherous horror lies in wait for them, deep beneath the Antarctic ice. – Goodreads
Kraken Rising Review
I’ve read Greig Beck before, and liked him, so when I saw that Kraken Rising was available for review, I immediately leaped at the chance. He doesn’t disappoint. Beck gives a cast with some decidedly over-powered characters, but he plays them perfectly so that even though you know its completely unrealistic, you mostly don’t care, and settle in to enjoy the show.
With inspiration seemingly drawn from both classic and contemporary science fiction and fantasy (ie: The Lost World, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and the mech suits so popular in present work), there are elements that span the ages. Indeed, at one point I was reminded of the old movie The Blob!
The pace is perfect, and the beastly encounters are so well-described you wince as you read them. The Joshua subplot is interesting enough that it makes me want to read future work to see where the author is going to go with it.
Note, I did say “mostly” don’t care, earlier. Because, occasionally, even I – lover of mindless action and brainless heroics – rolled my eyes just a tad, especially near the end. Not enough to get me to stop reading – far from it – but enough to jerk me out of the scene a bit.
Overall, though, Kraken Rising was a non-stop thriller with lots of action and adrenaline-rush moments that I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes to see man versus monster in epic battle.
This book is available at: Thriftbooks | Kobo | Amazon | B&N
Lilyn G is the founder of Sci-Fi & Scary, and leader of the Coolthulhu Crew. She does book and film reviews for both genres the site focuses on. Her tastes run towards creature features, hard science fiction, and lots and lots of action. She also has a soft spot for middle-grade fiction that rears its head frequently.
Though no longer involved with Ladies of Horror Fiction due to other responsibilities and a too-full plate, she was one of the original 4 co-founders.
Feel free to chat her up on Twitter as long as you aren’t hitting her up to review your book.
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Thanks
I’ve just added this to my to read list.
Cool!
I love a bit of deep sea adventure and that looks great!
Its definitely good. I like the fact that even though I hadn’t read the first book (my introduction to Beck was Book of the Dead), he still gave me the perfect amount of information to keep me going without flashbacks galore.
that’s good – I don’t like to feel like I need to read it all – a good book should stand on it’s own really, even if part of a series.
Yep!
🙂