Not as good as the first book in the series. Too much happened in the last few chapters to assimilate, for me. I'm not very sure if I will read the next one, yet. 3 stars ( )

Ok, the first book of the series wasn’t the most original one but unfortunately this one is even worse. Moderately interesting characters doing moderately interesting things and having visions all the time about a moderately interesting mystic ancient empire. The forced mysticism is simply too much and worst happened what can happen with a book: I simply wasn’t interested that happens on the next page. I’ll read the third book just to see how all of this ends but I’m not raising high hopes to it. ( )

This is the second book in the Earthend Saga, picking up a week after the events of the first book, A Vision of Fire. Caitlin O’Hara is a psychologist who specializes in counseling troubled teens. In the previous book, she encountered teens who were being possessed by people from a prehistoric culture called Galderkhaan. Caitlin is trying to adjust to normal life after the events of the previous book, but her son starts behaving oddly, making her wonder of the Galderkhaani threat remains. Meanwhile, an archaeologist working for The Group makes some very interesting discoveries in Antarctica after a scientist disappears mysteriously.
This book definitely can only be read if you’ve read the first book in the series first. (It’s also probably best not to have a two year gap between reading the two books like I did.) That being said, it follows on nicely and we learn so much more about Galderkhaan in this book. It’s also nice that O’Hara finally becomes aware of The Group in this one. Gillian Anderson is perhaps best known for her work as Agent Scully on The X-Files and she left a tidbit or two in for her fans, such having a character say, “I want to believe.” If you’re in the mood for a series that incorporates fantasy, magic, and paranormal occurrences, you will likely enjoy this. However, The X-Files did it better. ( )

Of course I requested this from Netgalley because of Gillian Anderson. This was risky, of course, because the fact that someone is a terrific actor and seems kind of splendid in real life (based on interviews I've heard) doesn't all mean she can write a lick. Which may partly explain the presence of Jeff Rovin on the ticket; Amazon describes him as an established ghostwriter, so I wonder exactly what the partnership here was like.

It doesn't really matter whether they wrote it together or whether Gillian Anderson just lent her name. It's good. It's really good. Unique plot, interesting characters, sharp writing – I'm sold. I dislike trying to read a Netgalley which comes anywhere but first in a series, but I wanted to try this – and I did – and for the first time I stopped reading a book for another reason than bad ones. I stopped reading because I bought the first book in The EarthEnd Saga on Audible (read by Gillian Anderson!) and I want to listen to that before I come back to A Dream of Ice, so that I can fully appreciate it. So you could say I've abandoned this book – but just this once it's only for now. I'll be back. I'm looking forward to it.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ( )

Another heaping helping of crazysauce that had me going "Wait. Wait. WTF did I just read?" Time travel (sorta-kinda) and some kind of magnetic stones that make animals go crazy and spontaneous combustion and Antarctica and, oh yeah, the voodoo priestess from the previous book shows up at the end and offers vague warnings of danger and... Look, it's just crazy. It's not just the plot and the characters that are over-the-top, but there's also this pseudo-mystical angle where it feels like the book is trying to bee deep and profound, but just comes off as woo-woo New Age "spirituality".

You know how sometimes it's three a.m. and you can't sleep and you're flipping through channels and come across some weird sci-fi movie with an actor you like and so you watch it, but it's so chock full of every possible thing that it makes almost no sense and yet you're compelled to watch but when it's over you're left wondering if you had really watched what you just thought you watched? Yeah, this series is that movie in book form. ( )