Terminal Freeze
Encyclopedia
Terminal Freeze is a solo novel by Lincoln Child
. The novel was released on February 24, 2009.
, north of the Arctic Circle
. Evan Marshall, a paleoecologist
, is a team member from Northern Massachusetts University studying the effects of global warming
on a receding glacier near the fictional Mount Fear.
The expedition discovers a monstrous ancient animal, presumed to be a preserved example of Smilodon populator
, frozen in solid ice inside a lava tube
made into an ice cave
. The expedition's corporate sponsors, sensing huge publicity, decide to have the beast cut from the ice, thawed, and revealed live on television. Meanwhile, local Tunit
try to warn the scientists that they do not understand what they have found. Specific warnings are that the animal only exists to kill and that they (the Tunit) do not believe that it is dead. A fanatical documentary producer continues his attempt to capture the events of the discovery, even after the animal exceeds any expectations of its capabilities. (Tunit was the name assigned to the Dorset People in Greenland by the early Thule proto-Inuit. The last Dorset survivors died in 1902 and no Dorset People ever lived in Alaska, being resident in eastern Canada and Greenland.)
, where a group of scientists find a creature in ice, which then breaks free and attacks the scientists.
Lincoln Child
Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...
. The novel was released on February 24, 2009.
Plot
The events take place in AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, north of the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
. Evan Marshall, a paleoecologist
Paleoecology
Paleoecology uses data from fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. It involves the study of fossil organisms and their associated remains, including their life cycle, living interactions, natural environment, and manner of death and burial to reconstruct the...
, is a team member from Northern Massachusetts University studying the effects of global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
on a receding glacier near the fictional Mount Fear.
The expedition discovers a monstrous ancient animal, presumed to be a preserved example of Smilodon populator
Smilodon
Smilodon , often called a saber-toothed cat or saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of machairodonts. This saber-toothed cat was endemic to North America and South America, living from near the beginning through the very end of the Pleistocene epoch .-Etymology:The nickname "saber-tooth" refers...
, frozen in solid ice inside a lava tube
Lava tube
Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like...
made into an ice cave
Ice cave
The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave that contains significant amounts of perennial ice...
. The expedition's corporate sponsors, sensing huge publicity, decide to have the beast cut from the ice, thawed, and revealed live on television. Meanwhile, local Tunit
Dorset culture
The Dorset culture was a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. It has been defined as having four phases, with distinct technology related to the people's hunting and tool making...
try to warn the scientists that they do not understand what they have found. Specific warnings are that the animal only exists to kill and that they (the Tunit) do not believe that it is dead. A fanatical documentary producer continues his attempt to capture the events of the discovery, even after the animal exceeds any expectations of its capabilities. (Tunit was the name assigned to the Dorset People in Greenland by the early Thule proto-Inuit. The last Dorset survivors died in 1902 and no Dorset People ever lived in Alaska, being resident in eastern Canada and Greenland.)
Trivia
The story of this book is similar to The Thing from Another WorldThe Thing from Another World
The Thing from Another World , is a 1951 science fiction film based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell . It tells the story of an Air Force crew and scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who fight a malevolent plant-based alien being...
, where a group of scientists find a creature in ice, which then breaks free and attacks the scientists.