Ice Claw

September 20, 2010
In Gilman's adrenaline-packed follow-up to The Devil's Breath (2007), teenage extreme sports enthusiast Max Gordon once again encounters dangerous killers and political conspiracies. This time, the action begins in the French Pyrenees, where Max, while competing in the Junior Xtreme competition, saves Sophie, a young environmental activist and parkour runner, from a beating at the hands of a motorcycle gang. Shortly thereafter, Max witnesses the assassination of a Basque monk and gets drawn into a conspiracy—along with Sophie, American student Bobby, and Max's best friend Sayid—that involves ancient prophecies, global warming, and disappearing animals. The pace is nonstop, combining sports action and combat, and the mystical additions to the adventure—mostly revolving around Max's ability to occasionally channel the power of animals—never overwhelm the fight scenes. The villains—especially the grotesque Tishenko and a street tough nicknamed Sharkface—are appropriately menacing and move the plot along nicely. Gilman writes a solid, occasionally thrilling action tale that manages to impart political, scientific, and geographic information without ever feeling like the dreaded "message" book. Ages 11–up.

May 1, 2010
Gr 6-10-Extreme sport meets "The Da Vinci Code" as British 15-year-old Max Gordon witnesses the shooting of Brother Zabala, a Basque monk, while snowboarding in the French Pyrenees. Before the monk dies, he gives Max a pendant and entrusts him with a cryptic message about an impending disaster. Thwarted in the Junior Xtreme competition by a teen thug he calls "Sharkface," Max and his injured friend, Sayid, focus their efforts on investigating the monk's mystical prediction. Plot twists abound, as Max rescues a girl named Sophie who is stalked by mystery men who may have something to do with her father, an endangered-animal protector. Someone is framing Max for Zabala's murder and he retreats to a chateau occupied by his American competitor Bobby Morrell's grandmother. Sayid helps Max decipher some of the magic square numbers in the monk's secret code, but the pair is separated when Sayid and Bobby are kidnapped. Another clue leads Max to Morocco, where he is bitten by a monkey and convalesces at Sophie's father's animal park. When it is learned that an evil Russian physicist named Tishenko is the mastermind of an environmental cataclysm and is after Zabala's code, it is a race against the clock for Max to save his friends and avert a large-scale disaster. Reluctant readers will live moment to moment in scenes describing extreme sport action and harrowing encounters with wild animals and assassins, undeterred by the convoluted plot and underdeveloped characters. Backstory about Max's parents, including his explorer father's slow recovery from an incident in Africa, refers to "The Devil's Breath" (Delacorte, 2008) and the door remains open for further episodes."Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2010
Grades 7-12 If youre looking for pulse-pounding adventure, its tough to do better than Gilmans Danger Zone series. The story follows the same model as The Devils Breath (2008): a maniacal evildoers catastrophic plans are thwarted by the ingenuity and tenacity of 15-year-old daredevil Max Gordon. This time out, an extreme sports competition leads to a chance rescuing of Sophie, a (maybe) teen femme fatale who ensnares Max in a plot involving endangered animals, astronomy, and a mysterious pendant that a monk hands over seconds before plummeting to a snowy doom. The omniscient point of view doesnt win Gilman many style points, yet does a lot for clarity, which is his strong suitfew authors are able to depict action scenes so lucidly. And thats a good thing, because they are literally nonstop: with the clock ticking, Max dashes from France to Switzerland to Morocco via speedboat, snowboard, paraglider, and even tiger. But its Maxs humanitynot only are injuries frequent, but in one scene he even cries from fearthat makes Gilmans research and storytelling come alive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)