Book Review: Antarctic Ice Beasts by Hunter Shea

The South Pole in winter is one of the deadliest places on Earth. The seven person crew of the US Freedom Base lives alone in months of utter darkness with no hope of help or rescue. A freak storm batters the walls and threatens to expose them to the deadly cold. All they can do is wait…and pray.

The ground quakes. An alien screech rips through the night. There’s something, or someone, lurking outside. Fists bang on the walls. Each tiny crack in the base spells death by hypothermia.

Untold horrors have come to Freedom Base…and they want in! 

My Review: 
The first thing that catches the attention is certainly the cover, and while I waited to receive my paperback copy, I wondered what the monster was. With those teeth anything was possible but the height made it look like a Sasquatch sized beast and that is what it turned out to be. Can I say how excited I was at the thought of a Yeti attack on an Antarctic base? I am a big fan of Yeti, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Skunk Apes...call them what you will, but anything with one of these beasts is something I want to read. I also love the isolation and danger of this kind of location for horror and creature feature books so I couldn't wait to get stuck into it.

At the US Freedom Base, a bad storm has even the seasoned vets on edge and it is only going to get worse in the coming hours. A bigger storm that could damage the base is on the way and Dallas fears that the base will not stand up to the onslaught. There are also strange and unsettling noises coming through the storm which concerns Jeanne but she is relieved that there is no damage to the base so far. When Dallas sees a hairless naked monster outside in the storm, nobody believes him until they see the evidence for themselves on the base cameras. A quick trip outside confirms that a pack of these Yeti creatures are outside the base. What is going to happen if they decide to attack? The answer is not long in coming...

The book starts off really well for me, setting the scene at the lonely and isolated base in the middle of a series of violent storms. The way each member of the team deals with the scary storms relentlessly attacking the base allows the reader to have sympathy for their situation and get to know the various men and women. I liked the way it showed just how dangerous an environment they were all working in and that disaster could hit at any time. I don't know about you but doing repairs out in the cold during a storm is not my idea of a fun job! The introduction of the Yeti creatures was also fun. It starts with one creature looking in the window and then our team have a close encounter with a pack of them outside that has them fleeing indoors to barricade the flimsy base to the best of their abilities and gather their makeshift weapons. The attack is not long in coming and I was enjoying reading about it.

It is when the team go back outside to approach the beasts and see what they want that it all went a bit pear shaped for me. The whole story just goes really weird at this point. The team and the beasts all just stand around in the snow for a while staring at each other with nothing happening. It was a bit strange! Then they attack, stop and stand around again, start attacking and then stop, taking prisoners this time. When the journey to where they are going is completed, the whole plot is full of weird things and hallucinations and alien demon things. I was left wondering what was actually meant to be going on. It really confused me. It went from a straight enjoyable creature feature for the first half into something that made little sense to me, was confusing and frustrating and had no satisfying ending of any kind. I just don't get it. It is like the recent Stephen King books where you are enjoying a good plot and then BAM it descends into weirdness that spoils it all. That is what I found with this one. It started out so well but for me it became very disappointing.

Read March 2019.
2.5 stars.