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Searching... Palmerston North Central Library | Thrillers and Adventure-Fiction Zone | SMI | Book. | PN364650073763 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
'An ambitious, cinematic thriller' Observer
'A talented storyteller' The Times
'A cinematic epic' Daily Mail
What if the only hope for survival becomes the greatest threat?
From the brilliant, bestselling author of Child 44 comes a suspenseful and fast-paced novel about a colony of global apocalypse survivors seeking to reinvent civilisation under the most extreme conditions imaginable.
The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist... Antarctica.
Cold People follows the journeys of a handful of those who endure the frantic exodus to the most extreme environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. Because as they cling to life on the ice, the remnants of their past swept away, they must also confront the urgent challenge: can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity's future? Can they build a new society in the sub-zero cold?
Original and imaginative, as profoundly intimate as it is grand in scope, Cold People is a masterful and unforgettable epic.
Praise for Tom Rob Smith
'A remarkable achievement' Jeffery Deaver
'Amazing' Lee Child
'Chilling, hypnotic and thoroughly compelling' Mark Billingham
'Truly original and chilling' Jojo Moyes
'Tom Rob Smith's mastery of suspense will make any reader's heart pound' Financial Times
'A thrilling, intense piece of fiction' Observer
'Ingeniously plotted... a high voltage story' New York Times
'Perfectly plotted, utterly terrifying' Daily Mail
'A mind-blowing, addictive plot that will have you on the edge of your seat' Stylist
'A powerful page-turner' GQ
'Taut and atmospheric' Irish Independent
'Masterly... read this and shiver' Telegraph
Genre:
| Apocalyptic fiction. |
| Science fiction. |
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
What lines, if any, shouldn't be crossed to save humanity from extinction? That question is at the heart of this stunning postapocalyptic thriller from bestseller Smith (Child 44). Twenty years after an alien invasion has decimated Earth's human population, those who remain have been struggling to survive in Antarctica, the only region not deemed off-limits by the invaders. While some focus on insuring that people have food and shelter, others have broader objectives; genetic engineers manipulate animal DNA, attempting to create versions of humans better capable of surviving in the intense cold. Some, like Echo, a teenager, appear basically human, despite their modifications, which in her case include scales instead of skin that change color to either retain or expel heat. But there are also monstrous creations, which may either point the way to a future for humanity or pose an existential threat. Echo and her family, along with those governing the remnants of humanity, face tough ethical choices as they try to ascertain the implications of what the genetic engineering has achieved for humanity's future. The central story line, a clever homage to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, unfolds in a way to ensure readers become attached to Echo and her family. Smith, the author of brilliant historical and psychological suspense novels, shows his range is even broader in this triumph of imagination and empathy. Agent: Mitch Hoffman, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Feb.)
Guardian Review
Cold People is Tom Rob Smith's fifth novel, but in the years since his bestselling debut, Child 44, he has also developed a parallel award-winning career as a screenwriter, and the influence of a more visual form is subtly felt throughout this cinematic speculative fiction about the future of humanity. The premise is classic disaster movie territory, almost to the point of cliche: an alien invasion threatens to wipe humanity from the face of the Earth. The planet's population is given 30 days to relocate to Antarctica, which will become a vast reservation for the remnants of the species; there they will either die out or adapt, depending on their willingness to work together. But the alien overlords are not the focus of Smith's interest here; they are no more than a device to effect this revolutionary reinvention not only of human society, but of humanity itself. Will this superior species, created by humans, save or destroy us? The "exodus" to Antarctica occurs in the summer of 2023, and the narrative is divided between the events of that year, chronicling the colonisation of a new society and seen largely through the eyes of a young couple, Liza and Atto, and a crisis point that occurs 20 years later, at the culmination of the project to genetically engineer a new generation of "ice-adapted" people bred to thrive in the harshest conditions. The most successful of these humanoid creatures is ready to be "integrated" into the community, but the dilemma remains: will this superior species, created by humans, save or destroy us? The answer, according to Yotam, the scientist who has "raised" the creature from birth, will depend on its capacity to love. "But how can I teach something I've been looking for my whole life?" Yotam wonders. Cold People is a vastly ambitious novel, tackling the weightiest questions of our time in a form that rarely loses the tension of a thriller, despite the complexity of its subject matter.
Kirkus Review
After aliens occupy Earth in 2023 and enact "the largest genocide ever committed," all human survivors are forced to live in Antarctica, where genetic engineering becomes key to their survival as a species. The survivors are given 30 days to make it to the frigid continent. Children younger than 14 and adults older than 45 must be left behind. In Hope Town, a ramshackle settlement one group of immigrants creates, the arts are "as important to survival as housing and food." But in McMurdo City, where billionaires and Nobel Prize winners reside, science rules. The fruits of the research there include "ice-adapted" children including Echo, a 6-foot-6 female with blue blood, lizardlike skin, and fat cells derived from the octopus. Increasingly, tension grows between those who have embraced the DNA modifications as a way of protecting their children from the subzero cold and those who believe that only an entirely new breed of human is capable of surviving in it. "Invaded by aliens, we have created aliens of our own," declares an unhappy geneticist. Part Frankenstein and part Nineteen Eighty-Four, the latest novel by the author of Child 44 (2008) is nothing if not ambitious. But after getting off to a great start, in which a family overcomes grievous odds to make it to Antarctica by supertanker only to get caught in an offshore logjam and risk missing the aliens' deadline, the novel loses its heart and narrative sweep to stiffly written scenes and didactic commentaries. Smith has no interest in the aliens, who are never seen or heard. There's little character development--Echo could have been sketched in by a computer. And an ordinary character's physical attraction to her is awkward to the point of icky. A dystopian novel that can be as cold as its setting. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A fleet of alien vessels appears in the skies above Earth. It's an invasion but with a twist: rather than wiping out humanity, the invaders give the people of Earth a month to relocate to Antarctica, where they will be allowed to live; those who don't get there in time will die. Only a small percentage of the world's population agrees to the terms. Flash forward 20 years: what's left of humanity is spread out among a few cobbled-together cities (built mostly from the cannibalized parts of ships and aircraft) and the old McMurdo Station, a research facility built in the 1950s that is now dedicated to the creation of a new form of human being, one that is genetically adapted to Antarctica's brutal conditions. The new novel by the author of Child 44 (2008) is a brilliantly conceived postapocalyptic story that tackles a well-worn subject (a desperate race to save humanity) from a new and absolutely captivating angle. Smith's near-future world is wonderfully imaginative and rigorously detailed, the kind of made-up place that feels viscerally real. A genuine treat for fans of postapocalyptic fiction.
Library Journal Review
Booker-longlisted Smith's ("Child 44" trilogy) latest spellbinding novel opens with scenes of a near-future alien invasion of Earth. Although the aliens have not come in peace, they declare that humans have 30 days to make their way to the continent of Antarctica, the only place they will be allowed to survive. A handful of well-written characters grapple with their place in this new world order, including Harvard medical student Liza, an impoverished Portuguese tour guide named Atto, and Israeli soldier Yotam. Alternating timelines offer insight into the growth of the new Antarctic colony, where many people manage to thrive despite immense challenges. The story takes a heightened, suspenseful turn when the main characters become entangled in a human genetic experiment gone awry, which may threaten the future of humanity. In flawlessly precise prose, Smith's latest combines a number of electrifying sci-fi set pieces with a breathtaking insight into the human instinct to love life and each other, no matter the cost. VERDICT A speculative masterpiece that will resonate with fans of Emily St. John Mandel, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Jeff VanderMeer.--Kelsy Peterson