Date: March 12, 2025
Author: Robert Masello
Title: Blood And Ice
Day 1: Definition, per Google, of Albatross; “A very large oceanic bird…” Fun fact page 51: “Apart from the brief spells when an Albatross might alight to nest or mate on an Antarctic island, the bird lived its whole life in the air…”
Fun fact #2, page 52 “…no alcohol was allowed on U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ships.”
Day 2: This book is so exciting! I’ve already traveled in my imagination a long journey to the South Pole, aka Antarctica. Reading the sequence that takes place on the U.S. Coast Guard ice cutting ship I was mesmerized by the description of the storm. I could imagine that 100-foot wave coming directly at him, Michael. And the poor Albatross… It was a sad ending for my wing-ed friend.
So, now, Michael has just dove under an ice cap in actual diving gear, not a submersible and found the preserved body of a woman within a huge block of ice. Terrifying, right? The details are so riveting that I am having separation anxiety when my nose isn’t stuck in this book. Also, I was just reading up on the reviews found on the back cover and I saw whisperings of vampirism. Is the woman he finds in the submerged glacier really a vampire? Is that why her and her lover were tossed overboard of a ship in these exact waters? With a giant metal chain wrapped around them? Was it because the crew knew they had turned bloodsucker? I cannot wait to find out!
Day 4: Is it believable that there’s a piano at the South Pole? I used to play as a child and I remember it took like 3-4 men to move it, and the sucker was so heavy one of them threw out their back.
According to Mr. Masello, a vampire cannot whither away into death, though their bodies can be broken, resulting in death. Knowing that, does it make sense for someone that died having his throat torn apart by another vampire, (in a way quite reminiscent of a feeding zombie) to come back to life? Does the breaking of the body only matter if it happens after they are turned bloodsucker? The scene was depicted as though the victim’s throat fell into the ‘broken’ category of certain death. Or do they get one do-over? Like no matter how the original death occurs they get one more chance to life evermore? Or life until they are broken?
The conclusion was kind of slow. All the excitement happened in the beginning. It was like jumping into the deep end of a shark infested pool with a fresh bucket of chum, fighting your way through and emerging from the kiddy pool, quiet and unscathed.