(English below)
Sur une île déserte au nord du Cap Horn est découverte la plus grosse météorite jamais tombée sur terre. Le riche entrepreneur américain Palmer Lloyd décide de se l'approprier et de la joindre à la collection du musée qu'il fait construire à New York. Mais jamais encore un objet aussi gros n'a été transporté par voie maritime. Pour y parvenir, il est prêt à sacrifier argent et vie humaine. Il fait appel à deux hommes, Mc Farlam, scientifique et chasseur de météorites, et Eli Glim, homme de terrain autoritaire et résolu.
Mais l'acheminement de cet objet interstellaire se révèle difficile. Il apparaît peu à peu qu'il possède des pouvoirs étranges et inquiétants. De nombreux membres de l'expédition succombent. Réussissant néanmoins à le charger sur le tanker, l'équipe de Lloyd est prise en chasse par un destroyer dirigé par un commandant chilien, qui souhaite récupérer la météorite pour le compte de son pays. Une course-poursuite s'engage alors à travers les glaces de l'Antarctique.

Reviews:
From School Library Journal
YA-Hired to locate a meteorite and transfer it to a billionaire collector's new museum, Sam McFarlane uses high technology and groups of experts to find, dig up, and begin shipping the gigantic rock. However, Commandante Vallenar of the Chilean Navy doesn't want it removed from his country. Action on the tanker reaches an intense strain as the crew and members of the recovery team struggle with both the meteorite and a killer storm, a panteonero, which threatens to overwhelm the ship. Gunfire from Vallenar's ship initiates a life-and-death chase as both vessels sail into the frigid waters off Tierra del Fuego. The meteorite, full of unknown properties and prone to sudden bursts of electrical charges, offers the biggest surprise of all, as the ocean stands ready to claim everyone and everything. This is a tempestuous adventure of high seas, high stakes, and high excitement. As characters enter the story, their personalities expand along with the intricate plot, taking on more intensity and power. The extreme hostility of the environment eventually proves to be the deciding factor. Like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm (Norton, 1997), this natural thriller is not to be missed.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The scene: a ship near Cape Horn off the Chilean coast. The cast: a well-paid but dedicated and courageous staff of technicians, including a female skipper and a scientist"each with a questionable past. The problem in this adventure by best-selling coauthors Preston and Child (Riptide): how to transport the biggest meteorite ever to a New York museum without attracting the attention of the Chilean authorities and the press? Add the further complication that the meteorite derives from a strange, unfamiliar element. At one point, the vessel is attacked and trapped by a Chilean ship. As the suspense builds, the various strands of the plot come together. Will the ship survive? What happens to the meteorite"if, indeed, it is a meteorite? The book is recommended with one reservation: if you don!t enjoy necessary technical passages, you may be bored. On the other hand, if you enjoy Clive Cussler, you!ll probably enjoy this novel.
-"Fred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
From this popular team comes another solid thriller. Billionaire Palmer Lloyd's hobby is buying up rare artifacts; the current object of his desire is the world's largest meteorite, buried on an island off the coast of Chile. Eli Glinn is the head of the high-tech engineering firm Palmer hires to figure out a way to bring the meteorite home to the U.S. Sam McFarlane is the down-and-out meteorite hunter, the expert whose own theory about the origins of the meteorite, if proven to be true, could spell disaster for everyone involved. It is no accident that this fits the description of a big-budget feature film. After all, Preston and Child have a history of writing novels that read like movies in prose form, with exciting stories, plenty of interesting characters (here we also have a boat captain who's a recovering alcoholic), and visually arresting set pieces. Most of the novel's action takes place either on Rolvaag, a huge tanker rebuilt to carry the enormous meteorite, or on Isla Desolacion, where Palmer's group tries to uncover, and move, the meteorite without losing too many lives in the process; both locations are perfect for the big screen. The characterizations here are rather deeper than those found in most of the team's previous thrillers--the players are more like people and less like stick figures--but, as always, the action is what keeps readers turning the pages. The authors' fans will appreciate their new novel, as will fans of such writers as Michael Crichton and Clive Cussler. David Pitt
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