"Completely and utterly fabulous, this thrilling novel thrusts you into the near future with chilling yet vibrant intensity."
With a unique premise, viciously stunning location, all-consuming plot, and captivating characters, this is an unforgettable novel. With no notice, humanity has to leave everything they know and head for Antarctica, with a thirty day deadline, those that arrive in time then face a desperate battle for survival. Two main timelines create a vivid jagged edge, the first hit me in my stomach it is so immediately visual and emotional. I just had to continue reading, and was exceedingly put out when I had to leave Cold People even a second. Tom Rob Smith makes this section of the book feel as though it could happen tomorrow, I was part of the surge desperately heading towards Antarctica, fully of aware of my own mortality. The main characters feel touchable, relatable, magnificently alive with dynamic energy. Antarctica came as an electrifying shock, I felt the stark differences through to my core, the ice and the future hammering into the fight to rebuild humanity. I hope there is more to come in this tale, there should be! If you love speculative, dystopian, science fiction, or just fiercely breathtaking tales you can easily fall into, then I can highly recommend this novel to you. Powerful and piercing, Cold People throws imagination into the icy wilds of tomorrow with perfectly intense storytelling.
| Primary Genre | Science Fiction |
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It's an absolute cracker. Intense. Chilling. Hold-your-breath thrilling from start to finish.
Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel, Booker-longlisted Child 44, was one of the runaway successes of the 2000s and his follow up novels The Secret Speech and Agent 6 featuring former MGB officer Leo Demidov were equally gripping. And I'm talking one helluva icy grip.
So much so that I have waited with bated breath for his next outing. And here it is, a decade on. But boy, was it worth the wait. Rob Smith delivers a chilling and thought-provoking sci-fi thriller with Cold People, a novel that blends dystopian survival, ethical dilemmas, and human resilience in a world on the brink of extinction.
The novel kicks off with a bang as we are faced with an apocalyptic scenario: an alien force appears out of nowhere, giving humanity just 30 days to relocate to Antarctica—or face annihilation.... Read Full Review
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.
Cold People features in the following genres: Science Fiction, Book Club Recommendations, Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, Dystopian and utopian fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Thriller and Suspense, Science fiction: apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic, Speculative fiction, Antarctica, Narrative theme: Displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: Social issues, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Fiction, General Fiction, Atlantic Ocean islands / Polar regions, Australasia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Atlantic Islands, Place qualifiers, Fiction: narrative themes, Books of the Month
Cold People is available in Paperback, Hardback
Cold People was written by Tom Rob Smith and published by Simon & Schuster Ltd
Cold People has 453 pages
£8.99
