Ice Lords

Ice Lords is a 2015 sci-fi action-adventure novel.

Synopsis

When a small group of researchers goes missing in Antarctica, a Coast Guard team is assembled to rescue them. Ryan Dawn, an average New York citizen, is unwillingly taken along on the rescue mission.

But when the team arrives, they discover a dark mystery on the frozen continent, one far bigger than the strange disappearance of the researchers. The Nemorator, an ancient and powerful lord over an army of fearsome Ice Lords, is in Antarctica as well. Little do they know, the Nemorator and his unstoppable army of Ice Lords are planning to do something that would end in the destruction of society, and leave nothing but an icy, cold planet of death and sorrow.

Behind the Scenes

On September 8, 2015, the book was released.

On February 27, 2018, a Forum post revealed a new cover for the book.

On August 30, 2020, a new cover was designed.

Q+A

Q: What was the inspiration for Ice Lords?

A: I began writing Ice Lords in 2014 when I was 9 years old. I honestly can't remember what exactly inspired the story, but the characters were partially inspired by the team of main characters from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Damon, one of the five members of the central Coast Guard team in Ice Lords, was originally named Rolax, a made-up name quite similar to that of Drax, one of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The aforementioned film had come out shortly before I started writing Ice Lords. Mooncrystals, an element that plays a large part in the novel, were inspired in part by the Power Stone in Guardians. Other than the characters, Ice Lords is quite different from the superhero space adventure of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Q: How long did it take to write the book?

A: It's hard to date it precisely since I wrote the book a while ago. I'd say it took a little under a year. I went back and started revising the book in 2019 and 2020, though, which adds to the time spent on the novel.

Q: What was the writing process for Ice Lords?

A: Ice Lords was actually written in two parts. I finished writing the first part, thinking it was the whole book, but a short time later decided to write a second part to the story. This was partially because the first part was too short to be a whole book, but mostly because I had plenty of other ideas and didn't want to be done with the story and characters of Ice Lords. The book is still divided into two parts, as it was when written.

Q: What were some of the revisions made five years after the book was written?

A: Since Ice Lords is a canon book within the Taylorverse, and since it's a published work, I wanted it to be as good as possible. My writing had improved in the 5+ years since I first wrote Ice Lords, and I also saw some things that needed correction. For example, in the original version, Antarctica experiences 24-hour night and day cycles like the rest of the world. In reality, Antarctica goes through half-year seasons of sunlight and darkness, so the light would stay pretty much the same no matter what time it was. (Clearly, I should have done some more research on Antarctica before I wrote a book that took place there.) There were other scientific details that needed some alteration to be accurate. Also, I polished up the writing some and provided some more explanation and clarity.

Q: Are there any Easter eggs hidden in Ice Lords?

A: Oh, certainly. (For those who don't know, Easter eggs in books or films are hidden references, jokes, or clues. They sometimes show connections between installments in a universe.) I love to put fun references and other Easter eggs into my books and films. In Ice Lords, one of the first Easter eggs is a reference to something that happened in my own life. Ryan Dawn gets his wallet stolen by a man holding an empty envelope at an airport—my mom had her phone stolen in a very similar situation, when a man in a train station with an empty envelope picked her phone from her pocket and hid it using the envelope.

One of the next Easter eggs is a reference to my film Enigma Island. Jane Rodgers tells Ryan about a time when she was on a mission to rescue the passengers of a shipwrecked boat on a small island in the Caribbean. The boat was discovered to be empty, with the letters EC and a symbol carved into the hull. Though Jane doesn't know it, EC stands for the Erebus Consortium, and the symbol is that of the Consortium (the symbol seen on Julia Ashton's journal in Enigma Island). Something happened to the passengers of that shipwrecked boat that involved the Erebus Consortium. Unbeknownst to the Coast Guard, the island where the boat was found was not far from the uncharted Enigma Island.

Another Easter egg is a reference to my film Suspect: Ruthless. When talking about the mooncrystals, Jane mentions that a tech corporation, Dawson Futures, first discovered signs of the crystals and introduced their findings to the scientific community. Dawson Futures is the tech company owned by Jagger Dawson in Suspect: Ruthless.

Yet another Easter egg is a member of the Wolf family in the book. Characters with the last name of Wolf have appeared in Ice Lords, Future, and Fallen Nation: Downfall. In Ice Lords, it’s Drake Wolf, a criminal psychopath and murderer. Drake Wolf mentions his descendants and says they might follow in his criminal footsteps. This ends up being true, since Alize Wolf in Future is a member of the criminal Zaarek Gang. Evor Wolf in Fallen Nation: Downfall isn’t a criminal, but he works for the Authorities. Clearly, the Wolf family line has some issues.