We’re talking about maybe changing careers and opening a bar in some tropical resort. Maybe you and Rita want to think about going into business with us. We could sit around all day, swilling down rum drinks with funny little paper umbrellas in them. It sure beats frostbite, high explosives, and underwater life-or-death battles with psychopaths. The most serious problem we face here is humidity.
As ever, Pete.
[4]
JANUARY 26
PARIS, FRANCE
In their suite at the Hotel George V, a bottle of Dom Perignon stood in an ice bucket beside the bed.
They were in each other’s arms, as close as two people could get without actually melting together and becoming a single entity, generating enough heat to keep an entire Arctic outpost warm for a long winter, when they were startled by a clatter beside the bed. They had been rescued by the Pogodin more than a week ago, but their nerves were still wound too tight. He sat up, and she fell off him, and they both turned toward the sound, but they were alone in the room.
“Ice,” she said.
“Ice?”
“Yes, ice. Shifting in the champagne bucket.”
He glanced at the bucket on its silver-plated stand, and the ice shifted again.
“Ice,” she repeated.
He looked at her. She smiled. He grinned. She giggled as if she were a schoolgirl, and he roared with laughter.
A NOTE TO THE READER
I receive over ten thousand letters a year from readers, and a significant number urge me to reissue more of my early books that have been out of print for some time. Many do more than urge. They make ominous references to voodoo curses and hit contracts placed with guys named Slash. They suggest that it would be a good idea to reissue those books before my face gets rearranged—although I might welcome some rearrangement, especially if it involved more hair. They threaten to kidnap me and force me to watch reruns of The Partridge Family twenty-four hours a day until I go stark, raving mad.
I’m charmed that readers care so much about my books that they want to read everything. I have already allowed a number of out-of-print books to come back into circulation, including Shadowfires, The Servants of Twilight, and The Voice of the Night, which were originally all published under pen names.
Icebound was originally published as Prison of Ice, under the name “David Axton,” in a much rougher form. I have revised it and updated the technological and cultural references while trying not to get carried away and alter the entire storyline and feel of it.
This book was meant to be something of a homage to Alistair MacLean, that master of the adventure-suspense novel, whose books include The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, and Ice Station Zebra. As a reader, I loved those books, and I wrote the original version of Icebound to see if I could pull one off.
In adventure-suspense of this type, the elements that count above all others are tension, pace, and plot—preferably a plot with a series of surprises and escalating physical challenges for the characters. The characters themselves generally have to be straightforward, and certainly less complex than those who appear in most of my books.
As always, I try to get the technical and background details correct—though when writing about submarines, for instance, it isn’t my intent to layer on the technological detail as heavily and brilliantly as Tom Clancy. In the MacLean-style adventure, a degree of authenticity must be sacrificed to speed.
I hope you liked Icebound, though I sort of hope you like the new books more. After all, this is the only book of its type I’ve written, and if readers wanted another, I’d have nothing to offer to protect myself from being subjected to those reruns of The Partridge Family.
—DEAN KOONTZ, May 1994
About the Author
DEAN KOONTZ, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives with his wife, Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie, in southern California.
Correspondence for the author should be addressed to:
Dean Koontz
P.O. Box 9529
Newport Beach, CA 92658
By Dean Koontz
FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE
ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN
FALSE MEMORY
SEIZE THE NIGHT
FEAR NOTHING
MR. MURDER
DRAGON TEARS
HIDEAWAY
COLD FIRE
THE BAD PLACE
MIDNIGHT
LIGHTNING
WATCHERS
STRANGERS
TWILIGHT EYES
DARKFALL
PHANTOMS
WHISPERS
THE MASK
THE VISION
THE FACE OF FEAR
NIGHT CHILLS
SHATTERED
THE VOICE OF THE NIGHT
THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT
THE HOUSE OF THUNDER
THE KEY TO MIDNIGHT
THE EYES OF DARKNESS
SHADOWFIRES
WINTER MOON
THE DOOR TO DECEMBER
DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART
ICEBOUND
STRANGE HIGHWAYS
INTENSITY
SOLE SURVIVOR
TICKTOCK
THE FUNHOUSE
DEMON SEED
Correspondence to the author should be addressed to:
Dean Koontz
P. O. Box 9529
Newport Beach, CA 92658
ICEBOUND
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Ballantine mass market edition published 1995
Bantam mass market edition / September 2000
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1995 by Dean R. Koontz
Cover art copyright © 2000 by Franco Accornero
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.
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Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
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