ilk reviewed Cold People by Tom Rob Smith
Cold People
2023, Lisbon, Portugal. Our heroine is on family vacation when she meets Dark Handsome Local. Then an alien invasion commences. An instruction is delivered: humanity has 30 days to reach Antarctica. All hell breaks loose. Heroine and love interest make it in time, but many don't. Two million souls must start civilization on the most inhospitable continent, with a stack of airliners, aircraft carriers, tankers and submarines at their disposal. The book chronicles the establishment of McMurdo Station and three satellite towns on the peninsula as urban centers, and the longterm efforts the science contingent is making to adapt the species to Antarctica.
Smith knows he's no prose stylist, but the pacing is really good and he has an eye for the cinematic. No scenes get old. I read it in two sittings. The author brings to life a strange environment and society in quite creative detail. I was …
2023, Lisbon, Portugal. Our heroine is on family vacation when she meets Dark Handsome Local. Then an alien invasion commences. An instruction is delivered: humanity has 30 days to reach Antarctica. All hell breaks loose. Heroine and love interest make it in time, but many don't. Two million souls must start civilization on the most inhospitable continent, with a stack of airliners, aircraft carriers, tankers and submarines at their disposal. The book chronicles the establishment of McMurdo Station and three satellite towns on the peninsula as urban centers, and the longterm efforts the science contingent is making to adapt the species to Antarctica.
Smith knows he's no prose stylist, but the pacing is really good and he has an eye for the cinematic. No scenes get old. I read it in two sittings. The author brings to life a strange environment and society in quite creative detail. I was struck by how much the chaos of the first section felt like the start of the COVID pandemic, that sense of the world being profoundly changed, and our curious dread of the unprecedented.
The whole premise is ridiculous but I enjoyed it and plan on reading the sequel.
