Ice Country (The Country Saga Book 2) by David Estes – – sci-fi

Ice Country is the second book in the Country Saga. Ice Country follows Dazz, a young boy who does what all young boys do - gets in trouble, dates girls, and gets in more trouble. Dazz lives in the part of the world covered in ice where it’s always cold. His dad died of the earth dwellers illness, which sent his mom into ruin. His brother, Wes, does most of the caregiving and his sister is looked after by neighbors.

Dazz finds himself in trouble when he gambles away all of his money and then some at a local gambling establishment. He’s forced to do work for the King, an unseen and unknown man of their realm. He finds out some of the things going on that we weren’t privy to in the previous book as he is part of a trading operation with the Heaters. Things really heat up when Dazz’s sister is kidnapped and he, his brother, and our heroes from the previous novel attempt to save her.

All in all, this book read pretty quickly. I didn’t like it as much as the first book, but I applaud Estes’ decision to go from the perspective of a male main character for an entire book. I think that there was something lacking in the plot; it didn’t really seem to go anywhere. Not much really happened, except we found out there are some other bad guys in the world and that’s who the next book is based off of.

I think it was a nice insight into Dazz as he will be continuing the journey, but I found liked Siena more. Dazz and Buff kind of reminded me a little of Tristan and Roc from the Moon Dwellers Saga, whereas the other characters seem to have more distinctions between them.