Arctic Rising [Hardcover]

Arctic Rising begins with somewhat of a bang when Anika Duncan is shot down in her airship after she and her partner attempt to investigate a ship that may be smuggling dangerous material. Anika survives the attack, but her partner, Tom, is injured, and after visiting him in the hospital, she returns home to recuperate. Relaxation is short-lived, however, when she receives a call bearing more bad news, plus she's asked to identify the men that supposedly attempted to shoot her down. Something else is in the works, though, something much worse than the dumping of hazardous materials. After taking a tour of the ship that attacked her, she finds a mysterious floating orb and smuggles it out, only to have to turn it over to higher officials. It turns out these orbs are part of a plan by the Gaia Corp. to stop warming and halt the melting of the Arctic ice. But, is this the best thing for the earth? Someone doesn't think so, and plans to use a nuclear weapon to stop Gaia. Anika Duncan, bent on revenge, will have to use every one of her resources to get justice, but will it cost her her life?

In a future world where global warming is no longer just a warning, and where the polar ice is melting at alarming rates, things have certainly changed, and the author wastes no time mining this scenario to create a fascinating setting for Arctic Rising. Anika, still young and a bit idealistic, wastes no time making the decision to go after the bad guys, especially after attempts on her life. She's no innocent though, and her background gave her plenty of backbone and bravery. After teaming up with a former mercenary,and a beautiful drug dealer, Anika pretty much stops at nothing to do the right thing, and this is what I really liked about her. The author has plenty of fascinating ideas on the environment, eco-terrorism, consumerism, and the possible future of our world, which are on prominent display here, but he also focuses on the humanity of his characters, even the "bad guys". You might want to cuddle up with a warm blanket while reading this one though, because even though the Arctic is warming, it'll still make you shiver, for more reasons than one. Fast-paced, exciting, and sometimes brutal, fans of sci-fi and ecologically focused thrillers will love this one. Definitely not to be missed!

I won't go into the story line. Enough has been written about that. Though I finished this book, it was a struggle and I will probably never again read a book edited by Paul Stevens. The mistakes were downright embarrassing! Since I was reading a library copy, I didn't underline all the typos, grammatical errors, or gibberish encountered, but I will give one example taken from page 297, sentence #6: 'Then he left them to hopped his down into the palatial main cabin, looking for tools...' Enough said.

Arctic Rising is the best James Bond novel I've ever read. Wait, what? Indeed Tobias Buckell's latest novel could be taken as an Ian Fleming experiment gone terribly... right. An ironic homage to Bond, based on gads of research into the nature of climate change and some of the more inventive solutions, Buckell has created a near term speculative novel that's as current as it is authentic. Believable? Let's not get greedy; I did say Bond after all.

Buckell's premise begins a few years in the future, where global warming has transformed the Earth. The Arctic Ice Cap has all but melted, and the international community is racing to claim the oil beneath the newly accessible ocean. Enter Gaia Corporation whose founders have come up with a plan to roll it all back using thousands of tiny mirrors floating in the air to redirect heat and cool the Earth's surface.

The protagonist is Anika Duncan, Buckell's first piece of Bond irony. She's a black lesbian, tough as nails, but far from a trained covert operative. She's an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. It's her job to ensure things run smoothly in the new Wild West. When a smuggled nuclear weapon makes it into the Polar Circle on Anika's watch, she winds up caught up in a plot to destroy Gaia Corporation and with it Earth's hope the future.

When I read the synopsis for Arctic Rising last winter, I was skeptical. I was aware of Buckell's relationship with Karl Schroeder and Paola Bacigalupi, two staunch environmental advocates, and of his own interest in environmentalism. It concerned me that Buckell was tackling climate change, and setting it in such a near future. The possibilities for political commentary, finger pointing, and hair shirt environmentalism were rife. My cynicism was completely unwarranted. Buckell uses well founded research to weave an argument not just for environmental reforms, but also against extremism and unilateral policy making. The end result is an even handed novel that will appeal (almost) equally to readers on both sides of the proverbial aisle.

In truth, Arctic Rising is far more of a thriller (see Bond) than other recent ecocentric novels like The Wind Up Girl (Bacigalupi) or Seed (Rob Ziegler). Buckell makes a few points here and there about the inevitability of climate change, and few more about how the world might go about solving them. Meanwhile, the focus remains on a breakneck story that would fit neatly into any host of genres. Anika has to save the world with the help of a few friends from an out of control corporate oligarchy bent on winning at any cost. And she might just fall in love on the way.

And therein lies the strength of Buckell's latest novel -- Anika. She embodies what makes Buckell such a dynamic voice in a sea of historical homogeny. The dashingly handsome white male, well trained and supremely confident, that so pervades this type of fiction, is absent. I mentioned Anika is a black lesbian. I should also mention she's completely believable in her sexuality and ethnicity. There's never a moment when I felt she was written by a man and despite numerous opportunities, she never turns into the Xena Warrior Princess action hero (thank God). She's a real woman in unreal circumstances. A third world native living in the developed world, I can't help but believe that Buckell's life experiences as a Caribbean man moving to the States pervade Anika. I know for sure that those values light up the page with their conviction.

Is the novel a little absurd? Well, yes. The major plot device involves millions of floating mirrors capable of redirecting the sun. A conspiracy surrounds it all that calls to mind Mel Gibson's Conspiracy Theory (1997), as unlikely as it is fun to imagine. Buckell balances that unreality with the truth of Earth's rising temperatures and the frenetic grab for natural resources that continues unabated throughout the world. That balance allows Buckell to take a stance on an issue, invite his reader to listen, and keep them there through a compelling and exciting story. Like Saladin Ahmed's recent debut, Throne of the Crescent Moon, Arctic Rising is a novel with a point of view. And that's something James Bond never seemed to have -- Ian Fleming, eat your heart out.

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