The Ice Curtain

Book Description

It was just another murder. Another Mafia shooting on a dark Moscow street. But for Gregori Nowek, the new Siberian delegate, this killing was personal. To find out who ordered his best friend shot,

Nowek must recover a vast cache of diamonds that vanished somewhere between Siberia’s mines and Moscow’s vaults. Plunged into a world of glittering gems and dangerous lies, Nowek races to find the diamonds before the world learns they’re gone.

His search will take him back to the place he knows best...Siberia. There, in a gem-filled chasm deep in the earth, are secrets guarded by the murderous greed of the diamond cartel and kept by a beautiful woman trapped behind her own curtain of ice. Caught in a staggering conspiracy, Nowek will risk his life to find the truth...and to bring an astounding act of deception into the light of day.

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A thriller that explodes with taut suspense and raw emotion, The Ice Curtain pulls us into a murder mystery that is at once compelling and deeply moving. With the skill of a master storyteller, the bestselling author of Siberian Light breathes life into a haunting and unforgettable landscape, weaving a dazzlingly original story of murder, deceit...and diamonds. The Ice Curtain The Iron Curtain is down, and Russia has become a smuggler¿s paradise. Hidden behind a curtain of ice in Siberia¿s far north is the richest diamond mine on earth, a motherlode of treasure so vast it could break the back of the world¿s oldest - and wealthiest - cartel. A cartel that will buy the enemies it can...and eliminate the ones it cannot. Against this turbulent backdrop, Gregori Nowek searches for the truth behind the murder of his best friend - shot in cold blood on a dark Moscow street. In a violent land where a twenty-dollar bill can buy or end a life, half a billion dollars in rough diamonds have vanished, lost between Siberia¿s mines and Moscow¿s vaults. The brutal murder of his best friend tests everything Nowek believes as a Russian, and as a man. In a dark realm of glittering diamonds, corrupt politicians, biznessmen, and cops caught up in the chaos of modern Russia, Nowek must find the missing diamonds before the world finds out they¿re gone. At stake is the future of Russia itself. Nowek¿s search will take him back to the place he knows best...Siberia, where the reason for his friend¿s murder is buried inside a gem-filled chasm beneath eternal ice and snow. It is a secret guarded by the vastness of Siberia, the diamond cartel, and a beautiful young woman who, like the dazzling gems, is trapped in a grim city walled off from the world behind a curtain of ice. Dangerously stubborn and committed to the truth, Nowek risks his life to vindicate a friend, to secure Russia¿s future, and to bring an astounding act of deception into the light of day. With haunting images and a powerful sense of character and place, The Ice Curtain is riveting entertainment. Deeply atmospheric and unfailingly gripping, it delivers top-notch suspense from its opening scene to its unforgettable climax. From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Craftsman.......2006-02-28

This is a well paced, well crafted book about diamonds and deceit. This is the second book by Robin White that I have read, it will not be the last.

Briefly, the IMF is coming to inspect 4 millon carats of diamonds that are pledged for a loan. The problem is the diamonds have been leaking out of Russia for over a year and the supposed diamond cache is missing. Now the bodies start dropping over dead.

Mr. White writes from a vast knowledge of Russia and sets his story against an authentic background. The tone and texture of the novel captures the Siberian cold, the heartless Gulag and the great warmth of the Russian heart.

This is a fabulous book.

Robin White knows Russia.......2003-10-28

I won't dwell on plot since the professional reviews have done that. Rather, I'd like to focus on White's ability as a writer to construct an intricate plot built around his experiences and knowledge of Russia, especially Siberia. In each of his books, we learn quite a bit about the Russian political landscape, and about Siberia in particular. While his plots are top notch, his characters are well fleshed-out and "typically Russian". In every successful novel set in Russia, there is an ambience which distinguishes it from any other type of novel. It's that feeling of hope without hope, that bleakness of landscape paralleling the Russian soul, which nevertheless survives all the stronger for the strife it has been subjected to. Robin White is the master of that landscape and I await his next effort with much anticipation.

First-class.......2002-03-03

Why are there some authors and books that seem to be admired by writers, yet have not found a wider audience, even with two solid books. Robin White is such a writer. No fancy review here...just the promise that no one who enjoys intelligent thrillers would be disappointed with Ice Curtain. Belongs in a class of Robert Wilson (Small Death in Lisbon, Company of Strangers) Craig Shelton (River Sorrow) who are turning out first class thrillers but to my knowledge have fallen short of the top 15.

This book is excellent-- tight,intelligent, warm-hearted, cynical yet hopeful, smart, yet tragic. Not the Demille thrill a minute, but a compelling, readable pace. Russia is the true character here. Read it. You'll pass it along. You'll be putting your imprimatuer here next.

Excellent Russian thriller.......2002-02-06

In 1999 Irkutsk, Siberia, Siberian Delegate Arkady Volsky persuades his friend, former geologist Gregori Nowek to accompany him to Moscow. Arkady plans to demand that the Chairman of the State Diamond Committee Petrov pays the Mirny miners for their work. In Moscow, Gregori is late for the meeting in which Petrov tells Gregori he has not sold any diamonds recently due to a feud with the western cartel. Arkady threatens to ruin Petrov through his connection to Yeltsin.

Gregori arrives in time to see Arkady assassinated. He is arrested for his friend's murder. FSB major Izrail Levin has evidence proving Gregori's innocence, but instead cuts a deal. In order to remain free, Gregori must cooperate on the homicide investigation that soon takes them to an icy conspiracy involving diamonds and potentially cold deaths.

In spite of the climate, Robin White's latest Russian thriller, THE ICE CURTAIN, is a heated tale that never slows down. The story succeeds because the key characters feel genuine and make the conspiracy appear so matter of fact real. Anyone who enjoys a conspiracy tale or a solid police procedural will gain immense pleasure from this novel and want to read Mr. White's previous Russian story, SIBERIAN LIGHT.

The Etched City
Average customer rating:

Hard to get through

Good start, but otherwise painful read.

Wierdly marvellous debut

A fabulous, steam-punk journey through a dreamscape

"No one can kill all the people all the time."
The Etched City
K.J. Bishop
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553382918
Release Date: 2004-11-23

Amazon.com

Australian author K.J. Bishop's impressive first novel, The Etched City, draws deep from the well of dark fantasy to create a bruised and battered realm which invites comparison with Stephen King's Dark Tower series and China Mieville's twisted imaginings.

Set first in the dustbowl wasteland of the Copper Country, Bishop introduces the battlefield sawbones Raule and her gunslinging companion Gwynn. The duo's relationship of necessity is cemented as they flee the justice of "The Army of Heroes," a force created to put down a rebellion in which they were active participants. Wanted and destitute, they make for the uncharted Telute Shelf to find new lives amid the sprawling metropolis of Ashamoil. Gwynn's ruthless knack for violence sends him to the top of the town as an enforcer for the Horn Fan Cartel and its bustling slave trade. Raule, meanwhile, heads to the bottom where she tries to erase her brutal past through ministrations to the city's forsaken. Between the opposite poles of Gwynn and Raule is a languid tale wandering through a sideshow menagerie of lovelorn mobsters, debased priests, brutal imperialists, sorcererous drug dealers, gangland warlords, and otherworldly artists that deftly examines the nature of violence, compassion, spirituality, redemption, and reality. --Jeremy Pugh

Book Description

Gwynn and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the losing side of a hard-fought war. Gwynn is a gunslinger from the north, a loner, a survivor . . . a killer. Raule is a wandering surgeon, a healer who still believes in just--and lost--causes. Bound by a desire to escape the ghosts of the past, together they flee to the teeming city of Ashamoil, where Raule plies her trade among the desperate and destitute, and Gwynn becomes bodyguard and assassin for the household of a corrupt magnate. There, in the saving and taking of lives, they find themselves immersed in a world where art infects life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles begin to bloom . . .

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Gwynn and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the losing side of a hard–fought war. Gwynn is a gunslinger from the north, a loner, a survivor…a killer. Raule is a wandering surgeon, a healer who still believes in just—and lost—causes. Bound by a desire to escape the ghosts of the past, together they flee to the teeming city of Ashamoil, where Raule plies her trade among the desperate and destitute, and Gwynn becomes bodyguard and assassin for the household of a corrupt magnate. There, in the saving and taking of lives, they find themselves immersed in a world where art infects life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles begin to bloom…

Customer Reviews:

Hard to get through.......2007-08-08

I began reading this book with high expectations, having seen so many great reviews on this site. The story begins well enough, and keeps the interest of the reader, but soon after it seems to become a lifeless excercise in how not to finish a story or keep the reader's attention. After a while, I didn't care what happened. I was bored. I've tried several times to finish the book, as I hate not finishing one after I begin it, but it's just plain hard! If you're looking for something to draw you in the way Mieville or Van derMeer can, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

Good start, but otherwise painful read........2007-07-28

I remember cracking into this book for the first 50 or so pages, about a pair of ex-revolutionaries stuck in "Copper Country," living on what they could scavenge from the dead. There was some actual plot development, interesting characters, and vivid imagery that put you right in the shoes of Gwynn and Raule as they struggled to stay one step ahead of the self-proclaimed Army of Heroes. It quickly got me hooked and wanting more.

Then they went to Ashamoil, and the rest of the book turned into a 200-250 page epilogue. Raule becomes a shadowy doctor who ends up shunted to the side for most of the book, and Gwynn ends up becoming a big shot in a criminal gang. They settle down in the city, and...that's it.

Do we get to see any of the history that made them the ex-revolutionaries on the run in the beginning? The ideals they fought for and how they transformed into mere survival? The Army of Heroes that rose up against them? We get none of this outside of a few allusions by Gwynn. Instead, we have several different subplots that just hang in a vacuum and never go anywhere, with no main plot to tie them up. It's as if the beginning of the book and Gwynn and Raule's journey through Copper Country never happened at all.

Without giving away the ending, I will tell you that the story concludes in a literal deus ex machina that made me want to throw the book out a window.

If you really want to read this, then get it from your local library. Just be prepared to be incredibly bored and then frustrated for the last 2/3 of the book.

Wierdly marvellous debut.......2007-06-02

Many of the novels I have read lately have disappointed me, so this book was a delight. I like reading first and second novels to see how fertile the soil of the first published efforts of an author are, like a slightly wild rose bush. Bishop's novel was the best first novel read I have experienced since reading Banks' The Wasp Factory. The blurring of fantasy and reality between the alternate twists of familiarity and fable found in both the characters and landscapes made this book a powerful journey which managed to maintain pace and not fade out at the end. The protagonists were interesting, the supporting characters possibly even more so, and the plot a nice twist on the classic redemptive road journey. This bodes well for the future, I shall keep my eyes peeled for forthcoming offerings from the fertile pen of this author.

A fabulous, steam-punk journey through a dreamscape.......2006-05-23

I am somewhat at a loss of words to describe this book. It follows two characters, one a physician and another a rogue, through their joint travels through a desert land to their arrival in a populous city, reminiscent of a river city in India. The geography of this story is not set on Earth; there are unfamiliar countries, landmarks, and histories. In fact the entire book reminded of nothing so much as a complex and long dream one might have. I very much enjoyed this book even though I am struggling to adequately describe it. It reads as a steam-punk novel with technology of the gas-light era; trains, paddleboats and guns being common, yet swords and horses are still everyday items. The novel is also strongly of the magic-realism school too. In many ways I think it is as if Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jack Vance sat down together and knocked out a highly enjoyable book together. The story-telling is compelling and pulls you along from page to page, the characterization is remarkable, the dialogue is superb (especially certain parts dealing with philosophy and religion), but overall the simple otherworldliness of the book will be the biggest draw for most readers. This is a complex and enjoyable novel, remarkable in that is a first effort.

"No one can kill all the people all the time.".......2006-02-17

In one of those few moments where I actually agree with Publisher's Weekly, there is no question that The Etched City bears a stylistic resemblance to Mieville's Perdido Street Station. Even so, this story of two ex-adventurers who come to the city of Ashamoil each seeking employment and finding something approximating redemption, is original enough in concept and delivery to make worthy of attention on its own,

Raule, a physician who spent much of her career as either a revolutionary or a bandit crosses the path of Glynn, an old companion of her marauding days, and a set of happenstances set them off together seeking a way out of the Copper Country deserts on into the cities of the plateau a thousand feet above the Salt Desert. In a series of narrow escapes they make there way to Ashamoil, a complex city of dreams, harsh reality, and more than its share of decadence.

Raule takes a position as doctor in a charity hospital, and Glynn assumes the job of a hired hand for one of the criminal masters of Ashamoil who, as often or not produces the victims that people the hospitals beds. Raule doctors and collects monstrous births, searching for her conscience amongst the unconscionable. Glynn takes up the life of a cavalier, a dandy killer, but his fascination with a woman who by virtue of her skill as an etcher captures his essence and things even darker.

Bishop does not dwell on Ashamoil the way Mieville does on New Crobuzon, but in both cases they draw worlds of baroque grotesquery where beauty frequently takes on unexpected forms. Ashamoil is the reflection of Raule's unnerving collection of failed births, and the source of Beth's etched imaginings. There is a dire sort of good humor to this story as well often reflected in the actions of characters on the periphery of the story, like the alcoholic priest who serves the hospital's dying, argues religion with Glynn, and then yields to the temptations of the flesh.

Sanity in this world comes with a high price, and most manage to evade it. The story climaxes in a combination of betrayal and an inexorable justice which is boh whimsical and chilling. Put aside any memories of Perdido and pick up this tale for its own quaint flavors. You won't be disappointed.

Etched in time: A history of the village of Roselle, Illinois

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Etched in time: A history of the village of Roselle, Illinois
Jill Gross
Manufacturer: Roselle Historical Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006RX0MM

Portraits etched in stone;: Early Jewish settlers, 1682-1831

Average customer rating:

Portraits etched in stone;: Early Jewish settlers, 1682-1831
David de Sola Pool
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007F6E1C

Average customer rating:

Etched City

Manufacturer: MACMILLAN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GRPJH6

Cugel's Saga
Average customer rating:

Super Reader

Cugel is my favorite character by Jack Vance

A rare fantasy gem

Absolutely hilarious!

so funny!

Cugel's Saga
Jack Vance
Manufacturer: Baen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Vance, Jack | ( V ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0671559176

Customer Reviews:

Super Reader.......2007-09-01

This might be getting to be too much of the same thing, as the Laughing Magician basically hits the reset button on Cugel, and Cugel has to repeat the journey of the previous book, at least in geographical terms. This annoys him, of course, so he has to try and come up with plots and plans to gain some measure of revenge. Plenty of screwups here, etc.

Because of this, I have never gotten around to the last book.

Cugel is my favorite character by Jack Vance.......2007-04-23

Cugel's Saga begins with "The eyes of the overworld" which is my favorite Jack Vance book, and I've read a lot of them. The title of the first book gave me no clue about what a blast it was. I actually didn't like the title, if it hadn't been Jack Vance, I wouldn't have got the book. Turns out, those eyes are an awesome and hilarious ploy!

"Cugel's Saga" is the second book of Cugel's involuntary travels, and it was no less of a page turner, save for the many moments I had to put the book down, cause I either couldn't stop laughing, or because I needed a moment to consider all the things I had been told between the lines. This is a little like Jack Vance's 1001 nights to me.

It's refreshing that Cugel lacks any morality pressed upon him from the outside, and all his episodes of victories and defeats turn out to be brilliant parables. Jack Vance is not some phony moralist, his stories embody something deeper. He shares his mind with us, but he doesn't seem at all concerned what exactly we will make of it.

These two books are as rich as any I've read. What you take away from reading them is up to you. Jack Vance is well beyond trying to get some sort of agreement for something from his readers. He just poses situations and actions and leaves the rest to you.

A rare fantasy gem.......2005-03-29

Vance smoothed and decorated a small niche of fantasy / sci-fi where overly-mannered, ceremonius language is put to comedic and adventurous use. Critics confuse Vance tales of lacking in plot. True, his books tend to lack subtle scheming and unforeen forces at work against the protagonist. However, the true plots are the rich settings themselves: Cugle is matching wits (often with negative results) with fantastic settings, creatures and customs that no rational person would conceive, let alone write about in brilliant tones. Cugles travels from episode, to episode, trying to get home.

Vance has thankfully chosen to render his artistry in a genre mocked and ignored by confused critics who dislike unfamiliarity.

I urge you to gather up this book, as well as the entire Dying Earth series, and without question read the "Demon Princes" series. You'll appreciate a true artist working in colors and hues rarely seen in fantasy or sci-fi.

One last recommendation: Michael Shea's "Incompleat Nifft" is a worthy homage to Cugel, with a hefty dose of Lovecraft. I highly recommend that book as well if you enjoyed The Dying Earth series.

Absolutely hilarious!.......2002-07-20

Set in the world of Vance's Dying Earth series, when the sun has all but sputtered out, this book, continues the story of Vance's anti-hero Cugel, a vain popinjay of a man who finds himself once again stranded half a world away from home by his arch-enemy Iocunnu (better known as the Laughing Magician because of his penchant for playing morbid jokes upon his enemies).

Vance's Dying Earth is a world of Machiavellian sorcery and science, where a person's every deed is viewed with suspicion - and a good deed even more so! Magicians and monsters vie with everyday mortals for power in the form of powerful runes, ancient amulets, otherworldly gems, etc. "Trust" and "compassion" are basically forgotten terms, as is "generosity" and "goodwill." How bad is this place? It can best be seen by the conversation between Cugel and the fiendish sorceror Fauculme (whom a suspicious Cugel ties up before even introducing himself):

Fauculme: How then is one to distinguish between enemy
and altruist?

Cugel: It is not an important distinction...

Cugel's adventures are absolutely hilarious, as he schemes and scams his way back home across a world of "dangers and woners abundant."

so funny!.......2002-02-13

this book is just so funny. i loved it. every page. every sentence. every bizarre character. i loved Cugel, who is not nice, or successfull, but so damn funny. Cugel is swept away far from his home by an evil wizard and tries to get home. and of course he tries to get rich, fool people and other things. i simply can not help finding it so funny. one of the best books i have ever read.
hmm. i know this wasn't a very descriptive review. but i'm counting on that you are reading all the other, long, reviews too. and i know that my english is that of a 12-year old swedish child.

Average customer rating:

Cugel's Saga
Jack Vance
Manufacturer: Grafton Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KKGRL6

Cugel's Saga: A Dying Earth Novel (A Panther Book)

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Cugel's Saga: A Dying Earth Novel (A Panther Book)

Manufacturer: Granada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000IHAESI

THE COMPLEAT (Complete) DYING EARTH: The Dying Earth; The Eyes of the Overworld; Cugel's Saga; Rhialto the Marvellous

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THE COMPLEAT (Complete) DYING EARTH: The Dying Earth; The Eyes of the Overworld; Cugel's Saga; Rhialto the Marvellous
Jack (pen name used by John Holbrook Vance) Vance
Manufacturer: Science Fiction Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MC3SV4

Average customer rating:

Cugel saga
Jack Vance
Manufacturer: J'ai lu
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 2290302147

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Cugels Saga
Rh Value Publishing
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0517496046
Release Date: 1985-08-07

Book Description

School vouchers. The Pledge of Allegiance. The ban on government grants for theology students. The abundance of church and state issues brought before the Supreme Court in recent years underscores an incontrovertible truth in the American legal system: the relationship between the state and religion in this country is still fluid and changing.

This, the first of two volumes by historian and legal scholar James Hitchcock, provides the first comprehensive exploration of the Supreme Court's approach to religion, offering a close look at every case, including some that scholars have ignored.

Hitchcock traces the history of the way the Court has rendered important decisions involving religious liberty. Prior to World War II it issued relatively few decisions interpreting the Religious Clauses of the Constitution. Nonetheless, it addressed some very important ideas, including the 1819 Dartmouth College case, which protected private religious education from state control, and the Mormon polygamy cases, which established the principle that religious liberty was restricted by the perceived good of society.

It was not until the 1940s that a revolutionary change occurred in the way the Supreme Court viewed religion. During that era, the Court steadily expanded the scope of religious liberty to include many things that were probably not intended by the framers of the Constitution, and it narrowed the permissible scope of religion in public life, barring most kinds of public aid to religious schools and forbidding almost all forms of religious expression in the public schools. This book, along with its companion volume, From "Higher Law" to "Sectarian Scruples," offers a fresh analysis of the Court's most important decisions in constitutional doctrine. Sweeping in range, it paints a detailed picture of the changing relationship between religion and the state in American history.

The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, vol. 1, Odyssey of the Religion Clauses.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Church and State

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The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, vol. 1, Odyssey of the Religion Clauses.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Church and State
Francis J. Beckwith
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Church and State, published by J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1658 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, vol. 1, Odyssey of the Religion Clauses.(Book Review)
Author: Francis J. Beckwith
Publication: Journal of Church and State (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State
Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Page: 182(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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