Freezing Point
by Karen Dionne
Jove Books, 2008http://www.karendionne.net
Codename: The Freezing Point Experiment
Always seeking new ways of communicating a good book's character, tone, plot and promise, Mick (once a postgrad researcher under the late Dr. Elwood Kadinsky) presents... a risky journey into unprecedented critical waters. The goal of this scientific expedition: to discover and document the substance, temperature, and valuable characteristics of Karen Dionne's Freezing Point.
1. Define the question
How can water be explosive? My mission to confirm the excited media reports began earlier this year in my humble Dublin kitchen. Using a portable high-tech device, I logged on to a worldwide communications network and accessed the launch party for Karen Dionne's debut novel, Freezing Point.
There I listened to a scientist debating the plausibility of Karen Dionne's notion to supplement the earth's fresh water reservoirs with melted polar ice. H2O, it turns out, is an extremely precious chemical compound. Substantial portions of the world's population- even in developed first-world economies like California- live endangered by the lack of a safe, reliable supply. Many authors and guests toasted Dionne's clarion novel on the subject. One guest was drinking champagne instead of fresh, clean water, but he didn't offer me a glass. The scabby bastard.
2. Gather information and resources (observe)
To further the scientific frontier, I poured my one remaining ice-cold beer and ensured that a copy of Dionne's tract was dispatched to Ireland forthwith. Water shortage and water contamination do comprise a global threat.
3. Perform experiment and collect data
Using the everyday tap water that I had been taking for granted for so long, I set out to see if I could generate a quality malt beverage in my garden shed. (Batch Codename: The Freezing Point Experiment.) This study coincided with a frigid stretch of weather, long and dark, and the chemical process of fermentation requires slow, arduous weeks stuck inside a bucket.
Fortunately, Karen Dionne's novel arrived and promised hours of engaging company. Freezing Point opens with an exciting account of environmentalist Ben Maki tagging along on a trawler off the Newfoundland coast. This ship, the Arctic Dawn, faces dangers Sebastian Junger never imagined. Instead of catching swordfish, this vessel tows home whole icebergs of pure Greenland glacier.
Ben purchases the trawler captain's patented concept for melting ice with microwave technology, planning to bring fresh water to impoverished nations. Though he evades a confrontation with misguided protesters from extremist ecoterrorist group Preserve Our Planet (POP), Ben is soon blindsided and bludgeoned by the slavering boss of the bottled water corporation with which he is affiliated. Soldyne CEO Donald Gillette is abrasive and conniving, though he drives a sweet '77 Eldorado. Whether the iceberg-melting technology will be used for the greater good or the greater greed all comes down to developments on one giant berg calving off the remotest, most inhospitable place on earth- Antarctica.
At the continent's fictional Raney Station, blonde researcher Zo Zelinski and a team of her fellow scientists are soon in peril. An ecological disaster is brewing, with assistance of mysterious mercenary-minded men and a creeping plague. As if sudden illnesses and gruesome deaths don't make Zo's life difficult enough, she also discovers that she is pregnant. Her husband is at Raney with her, but would not welcome this secret. Native American companion Dr. Ross Roundtree shares the knowledge, but Zo cannot risk taking him into her confidence. Someone among their small twenty-five conceals a secret agenda.... identity: unknown.
With scientific attention, Dionne steadily raises the temperature. In 300 fleet pages, that which was once solid cracks. Ben and Zo's ground itself becomes unstable, heaves and starts to flow madly away. Can they survive? Can they save millions of other lives?
4. Analyze data
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness classifies resistance to destruction. How hard are the forces against Ben and Zo?
Oddly, ecoterrorist Rebecca Sweet (the antagonist promised by the back cover) is barely evident within the book. Donald Gillette is a volatile reactor, but of simple composition and predictable effect. Freezing Point also features environmental hazards of extreme temperature, isolation, and incurable epidemic. Of most interest to this humble naturalist were the man-eating rats. Go Mickey! Go Mickey!
Study reveals that a guiding principle of this novel manner of publication is to "put your characters up a tree, then throw stones at them." Dionne's characters were always farther from friendly terra firma than can be distanced by a mere tree, and had more much worse than hurled olive stones. They were engaging subjects. Karen Dionne's methods merit praise.
One detraction: preliminary indications caused this investigator to theorize that Zo and her colleague, Ross Roundtree, would form a bond hot enough to challenge the icy wastes. She barely gives her husband a thought, but comments how handsome and masculine Ross looks. There may be chemistry there, but did Dionne deliver fizzle or fission?
Upon completing the book, I celebrated by extracting a test sample of my shed-based C2H5OH beverage, It was then experienced my eureka moment. The icy glass of Freezing Point in my hand was not completely full, but this thriller could sufficiently deliver a rush and a chill.
Question: How DO you say "mutant rapid diabetes-curing rats" in Czech?
5. Draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
Freezing Point is a refreshing, thought-provoking dialogue on an important ecological matter, colorfully illuminated with plastic explosives.
Answer: Mutant dravý cukrovka curing kuš.
Read Critical Mick's September 2009 interview with Karen Dionne
Yeah baby, kuš!
Sandra Parshall also interviewed Karen Dionne in September 2009. She and Poe's other Deadly Daughters are cooler than Mick.
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