A review by mistylyn
Terminal Freeze, by Lincoln Child

3.0

Unfortunately, this book fell somewhat short for me. Ok, I take that back--it fell VERY short. Yes, the premise works: a team of geek scientists stumbling upon a creature frozen in time in the artic cold of the Alaskan tundra. In fact, I LIKED the plot line. What I didn't like, however, was the lack of character development. I just didn't buy Evan as ex military, and instead saw him as a spineless patsy. I honestly wished for the creature to rid us of him so Child could get on with the story. It wasn't just Evan, however, that fell short in the character department. NONE of the characters is ever explored quite enough for the reader to form any sort of affection or attachment. As the creature picks them off, I found myself thinking, "Yeah...so WHAT?" I didn't feel I was ever given enough information to invest in any of them. Child walks past opportunity after opportunity to delve more into the psyche/past/present of any number of interesting possibilities--Gonzales is a perfect example. We get one or two pages of shallow information about him, and I really wanted to know more. I've not read any of Child's other work, so perhaps this glossing over of characters in favor of plot is something stylistic--a choice he makes throughout his body of writing. I can promise you, however, that I will never know that unless told, as I don't foresee myself ever indulging in another of his novels.