Naturally, I enjoyed the first volume of Whiteout that I can back for the second. Greg Rucka and Seve Lieber do something you don't usually see in sequels, though. They went an entirely different direction from the original.
This time a whole station full of Russians is killed and a stockpile of small nukes is stolen. Yeah, by treaty no weapons are supposed to be on Antarctica, but you know governments and their "just in case the other guy's doing it" mentality. The theives are also Russians. They're mercenaries out for the money the nukes will bring.
Chasing them are Stetko and a Russian spy dude, each with the mission of recovering the nukes but undermining the other. Carrie's supposed to get the nukes so that the US can hold it over the Russians. Naturally, Russian guy's supposed to get the nukes to prevent embarrassment to his government.
The mercenaries may be quite good at their jobs but they don't know enough about surviving in Antarctica. By the time Carrie and spy guy catch up to them the ice and snow has already killed several, leaving only 3 guys. Carrie and spy guy get stuck in a storm along the way of the chase and have a nice two page sex scene to kill the time. Naturally, Carrie decides not to hijack the nukes from spy guy and lets him take them, even though the sex was just for fun, not attachment. Of course, he did save her life, too. A couple of times, come to think of it.
Like the original, this was a very enjoyable book. It's characters are well developed and fun to follow. Only Carrie and Delpy, the pilot, carry over from the previous book, so Rucka and Lieber develop a whole cast of new characters for this story. They do so quickly and well. As this read was a library book, I may well buy it later so it can be paired with first on the shelves.
At Heroes Convention on June 9th I sat in a panel with Rucka and Lieber where they discussed this series. It was fascinating hearing there thoughts on the books. You did catch that this is a different type of story. That was a clear point that was made. What was very nice to hear is that there is a final story for this character. It is basically written and Rucka just needs to get the script to Lieber and start the process. of getting it made.
ReplyDeleteAny insight at the Heroes Con as to what type of story the new one will be? Are they repeating one of the types from the first two or going with a third genre?
ReplyDelete