Synopsis
As American and Russian astronauts take their positions aboard the shuttle Atlantis, terrorists seize the Kennedy Space Center and threaten to blow up the shuttle if their demands are not met, and it is up to the mission's injured former commander to stop them. 35,000 first printing.
Reviews
Terrorists seize Cape Canaveral at the time of a shuttle launch in a new technothriller from Anderson and Beason (the eco-disaster novel Ill Wind, 1995; etc.). Film rights to Ignition have already been sold, and, indeed, it seems to have been written for easy adaptation into a script: One action scene follows another, and the characters, all stereotypes, are minimally drawn. Mr. Phillips, a fastidious type, the sort often cast as the mastermind in James Bond movies, surrounds himself with several assassins, one of whom is, of course, a slinky female, another of whom, you guessed it, is a pathological explosives-expert. The members of the team demonstrate their ruthlessness at an Ariane launch in French Guiana, blowing up a rocket just after it's launched. Several months later, they capture the command complex at Cape Canaveral just prior to a shuttle launch, blocking out communications with Houston and feeding tapes of prior launches to the public, until they have the mission under their own control. Mr. Phillips even disappoints as a stereotype, since he merely lusts for a ransom in jewels rather than global dominion. He's opposed by the astronaut who had been scheduled to command the mission, ``Iceberg'' Friese, suffering now from a broken ankle, and his sometime lover, the former astronaut Nicole Hunter. Lots of gun battles and explosions ensue as Iceberg saves the world, a US senator is made to look oafish, and the fussy Mr. Phillips falls out of a helicopter. Iceberg is interesting enough to carry the reader along, perhaps, and Anderson and Beason portray Merritt Island and NASA's launch complex convincingly, virtues which, for some, may be enough to excuse the silly plot. Even Steven Seagal's standards are higher than this, but blowing up the Vehicular Assembly Building ought to look good on the screen. (Film rights to Universal) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Col. Adam "Iceberg" Friese was scheduled to pilot the next space shuttle, Atlantis, to dock with the Russian space station, Mir, until a freak accident just before the launch sidelined him. While his former girlfriend, Nicole, supervised the launch, Iceberg sneaked in a back gate and found his own front-row seat for the event. Meanwhile, Mr. Philips, a homicidal megalomaniac, and his fellow terrorists attack the launch site, holding hostage the astronauts, Nicole's launch team, and Atlantis until his demand for a fortune in precious gems is met. When Iceberg realizes that something is wrong, he goes to investigate, following the dead bodies back to the terrorists and, one by one, eliminating Mr. Philips's savage murderers while Nicole keeps the ringleader busy. Anderson and Beason have written a nail biter full of details about NASA and the Kennedy Space Center. This writing team, which admits to changing some details to preserve NASA security, has written several other high-tech action thrillers (e.g., Virtual Destruction, Ace, 1996). For all public libraries.?Grant A. Frederickson, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The latest effort of this popular team is not the first thriller set at Cape Kennedy with a space-program background, but it is the most ambitious. Ready to carry a joint U.S.-Russian crew to a rendezvous with the Mir space station, the shuttle Atlantis comes under attack by an adept and ruthless band of terrorists, organized by an unsuccessful junk-bond dealer trying to recoup his fortunes. The former mission commander, Colonel "Iceberg" Fries, has been sidelined by injuries but plays a key part in organizing a successful counterattack, in the process rescuing his former lover, astronaut turned launch controller Nicole Hunter. This yarn is in the classic mold of the novel that marries space advocacy to the techno-thriller, featuring lots of bloody action and exotic hardware at the expense of characterization, which is definitely subordinate. (Not to mention that some of the characterization is over the top: did two of the terrorists have to be a brother and sister who are bisexual and incestuous?) Readers will definitely keep turning the pages, but Anderson and Beason have--in Virtual Destruction and Assemblers of Infinity (1993), for instance--done better work. With a prepub movie sale and plenty of publicity in the pipeline, though, this one may fly higher. Roland Green
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