ICEFALL, the first collaboration between veteran thriller author Jon Land and newcomer Michael Newman, is a winner on every level. When a novel is billed as a cross between Alien and The Avengers, my attention is officially grabbed. I was not disappointed.

The prologue is set 1,500 years ago in the Veyrion. This is where a team of superbeings known as “the Nine” are being sentenced to a mission to serve the Crown Arc on a faraway planet (Earth) that one day will require their help to save it from annihilation.

"When a novel is billed as a cross between Alien and The Avengers, my attention is officially grabbed. I was not disappointed.... ICEFALL is full of adventure, action and plenty of science fiction."

In the present, a sentient being named Chronar summons the Nine to awaken from the entombment in which they have existed in a Pakistani desert. Led by Jace, the young one, they will prepare for a battle for which they had been trained many years prior.

In Juneau, two Alaska State Troopers will have a night they will never forget. It begins with the petrified Amazon delivery driver they find, followed by the bodies that are seemingly rid of all their bones. This eventually will lead them to a town where nearly every resident is dead and the discovery of the tentacled monstrosities from another world that are responsible for all of this incomprehensible madness.

Meanwhile, Jace and the Nine have secured transportation to lead them out of the desert and point them in the direction of the Alaskan territory where the final battle awaits them. Under the tutelage of Chronar, and armed with weaponry such as the deadly kaelens that have never been seen before on this planet, they are ready for anything. In Alaska, the troopers escaped with the only two living residents in the town they came upon and were rescued by a small group of individuals who are well aware of the alien invasion at hand. They draw them into their number to try to figure out a way to thwart it.

Both groups will be directed to a base located in Anchorage where the combined efforts of the Nine and the brave human survivors from the recent alien attack will make their stand against an enemy whose might and size may be more than they can overcome. Teravalar, a boy who was prophesied to be there at this moment, will rise among these warriors to hopefully shift the balance of power in favor of those attempting to save planet Earth from Armageddon. If the Nine should fall, Teravalar will be mankind’s last hope.

ICEFALL is full of adventure, action and plenty of science fiction. It is also built on concepts and ideas that feel somehow prophetic and real even in its fictional guise. This is the summer novel that sci-fi fans have been waiting for and promises to deliver a reading experience worthy of otherworldly epics.