Cold People

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Cold People is a zany, wildly gripping, dark futuristic fantasy that achieves escapist lift-off [and] recalls H.P. Lovecraft and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. . . .Wild, imaginative, [and] fast moving.” — Vogue, Most Anticipated Books of 2023 There was a fair amount of repetition. For example, the phrase: "everyone liked him" was used in reference to several different characters, through a few decades and time leaps. For one thing - I wanted to know about the aliens -what did they do with Earth - just wipe out humans and then leave? Why did they do what they did? Can anyone leave Antarctica? There was some mention of people leaving and never seen again - but did they die? or just resettle somewhere? and what about the animals? Yes, the Antarcticains were fishing but what about all the other earth animals? However, Cold People is a departure from his usual genres and whilst the writing is still fantastic, the story didn't grip me as much as his previous works. Part of this comes down to pacing - the flow of the story is frequently interrupted to explain futuristic developments - most of which can be inferred from context and are therefore unnecessary. Also, whilst the initial story of humanity's desperate bid for survival and journey to Antarctica is thrilling, the story falls off upon arrival with too many unnecessary characters, poor character development and a story that plods along with an obvious open-ended conclusion. If there's a book two, I'll be giving it a miss.

Now the Cold People- I feel that in the end - the scientists didn't really move 'humanity' along - yes, of course the Cold People are genetically different - not really 'human' at all - but in the end they are warlike, vicious, and have no problems wiping out a species/group that is weaker than them to control the entire Antarctic - seems very human to me.Unlike many other apocalypse stories, Cold People does not discuss the initial attempts to establish a means of survival on the ice but skips ahead twenty years. Why do you think Smith made the assumption that people would last that long? A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. If Cold People is about anything it is an exploration of humanity’s will to survive. In particular, what steps we might take if pushed, literally to an extreme. And what then happens when the cure might be worse than the disease. But it is unclear why the whole alien invasion was required. If this was the story Smith wanted to tell there were possibly more elegant and less contrived ways of getting there. What lines, if any, shouldn’t be crossed to save humanity from extinction? That question is at the heart of this stunning postapocalyptic thriller. . . . [a] triumph of imagination and empathy." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

They then sail to Antarctica in an oil tanker full of hundreds of thousands of people. Which then bumps into a cruise liner, which they zip line down to, then walk across a nuclear submarine on to the beach. I’ll let you digest that for a minute. I read The Farm by Tom Rob Smith in 2014 and I can still remember the gasp I made when I realised the predicament the main character was in. In 2014, I published my first ever Top 5 Books list and The Farm was proudly featured. If we are invaded by aliens from another planet, I certainly hope it doesnt go as it is depicted in this book. Then again I guess that our mistreatment of the planet and subsequent climate change wont matter. In a way we may just deserve the fate depicted, a different species only allowing mankind to live in the coldest continent on earth. Of course many of us would die, not all will be able to travel in the allotted time and many more will die, not being used to or unable to prepare for the extreme weather. The People: we’re introduced to a select few whose adventures we’ll follow, notably an American family on holiday in Lisbon, a boy the family meet there and an Israeli soldier (of course we’ll meet others as the story progresses) . The plotting style reminded me of Matthew Reilly, and I know you'll be thinking "that's probably because of Ice Station", but actually it's because of the action in The Great Zoo of China. Cold People felt cinematic in scale at times (oh the ships!) and if you enjoy Matthew Reilly, I think you'll enjoy this too.

Table of Contents

I adored this so much about this book and it does lean towards many different genres. The way people organise themselves, govern and also find new ways to manage and exist. Antarctica has research facilities so it is a given that there are going to be scientists and experiments involved, these are so intriguing and they start to add a more sci-fi and thriller edge to an already gripping story. 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. The final section of the novel examines this question in dramatic detail, and this reader was left with a very clear message that experimenting with genetic codes is fraught with moral and practical dilemmas. The time shift into the future diluted my compassion for Liza and Atto, they were just beginning a relationship and then suddenly they are like an old married couple – she’s busy saving people in the hospital wards and he’s off becoming the fisherman he always wanted to be, all while leaving their teenage daughter to stew in her own pubescent thoughts on her own journey of self-discovery. Although each chapter was headed with the place and time period, I would have preferred a more linear timeline. The 20-year gap in the storyline omitted facts about the struggles in the development of communities. There were some thought-provoking moral and ethical issues. The finale concludes with difficult decisions and erupts with conflict, danger and destruction.

Anyway, without going into all the details, he ends up on the ‘Cold People’ program, essentially the last remaining advocate for genetically modified things – I say things, because at this stage anything human like has been thrown into the proverbial katabatic winds. Cold People follows the perilous 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? Genetic engineering plays an enormous role in Cold People and is highly controversial in our world as well. Look up some of the modern uses of CRISPR and discuss some theories for its future applications. What do you make of these developments? Fascinating... a propulsive ride [that] unfolds at a galloping pace through a well-built world’ Christian Science Monitor Fascinating . . . a propulsive ride [that] unfolds at a galloping pace through a well-built world.” — Christian Science Monitor

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I don't know how to rate this book and am open to the argument that 2 stars is too low. The problem was...hmmm....it was well written and I read it in a few sittings but ...I didn't like the story. Is that fair? I don't know. Next came Child 44, later made into a movie on the big screen starring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace. I gave this 4 stars in my review and went on to become the first Australian blogger to interview Tom Rob Smith.

So? Are the cold people unemotional, or aren't they? Was this a continuity issue in the writing process?Did I love this? Hmmmm! I liked bits and pieces of it. I think this book needed a bit more editing. OK, I wonder how these people will survive, it seems incredibly unlikely that they won’t all die, but I’m interested in seeing how they manage it. This is an epic story. The research that would have gone into creating this novel is unbelievable and the result is fantastic. There are quite a few themes throughout ‘Cold People’, and some are quite relevant to present day – like global warming, the ethics of genetic modification, capitalism, animal cruelty, egotism etc. Also the novel reflects on the ideology of love; what it is to be in love, to love in the romantic sense and also with familial love.