Cold People

by Tom Rob Smith

Overview

* “A zany, wildly gripping, dark futuristic fantasy.” —Vogue, Most Anticipated Books of the Year * “Fascinating...a propulsive ride...through a well-built world.” —The Christian Science Monitor *

From the brilliant, bestselling author of Child 44 and creator of the FX series Class of ’09 comes a “cinematic” (The Washington Post), “captivating...[and] “brilliantly conceived postapocalyptic story” (Booklist, starred review) about an Antarctic colony of global apocalypse survivors seeking to reinvent civilization 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 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?

Original and imaginative, as profoundly intimate as it is grand in scope, Cold People is a “spellbinding...speculative masterpiece” (Library Journal, starred review) that’s “chilling in so many ways” (Los Angeles Times).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982198404
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	02/07/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	496,690
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Tom Rob Smith is the author of the acclaimed Child 44 trilogy. Child 44 itself was a global publishing sensation, selling over two million copies. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and won the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His most recent novel, The Farm, was a #1 international bestseller. Tom also writes for television and won a Writer’s Guild Award for best adapted series and an Emmy and Golden Globe for best limited series with American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. He is also the creator and executive producer of FX’s suspense thriller series Class of ’09.

Hometown:

London, England

Date of Birth:

February 19, 1979

Place of Birth:

London, England

Education:

St. John's College, Cambridge, 2001

Website:

http://www.tomrobsmith.com

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/12/2022

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.)

Publishers Weekly

Chilling in so many ways.” —LA Times

“Cinematic . . . Natural selection is magnificent in the abstract, when it works over millennia, but seeing it sped up to take place in a single lifetime, as Smith vividly imagines, exposes its brutality.” —Washington Post

“Fascinating . . . a propulsive ride [that] unfolds at a galloping pace through a well-built world.” —Christian Science Monitor

"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." —The Observer (UK)

“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

“Original and imaginative, as profoundly intimate as it is grand in scope, Cold People is a masterful and unforgettable epic.” —Bookreporter.com

“A brilliantly conceived postapocalyptic story . . . absolutely captivating . . . Smith’s near-future world is wonderfully imaginative and rigorously detailed, the kind of made-up place that feels viscerally real. A real treat.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Spellbinding . . . suspenseful . . . electrifying . . . A speculative masterpiece that will resonate with fans of Emily St. John Mandel, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Jeff VanderMeer.” —Library Journal (starred 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. . . . [a] triumph of imagination and empathy." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2023

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

Library Journal

2022-12-14
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.

Kirkus Reviews

It's the end of the world as we know it in this chilling audiobook. And what better guide to the apocalypse could listeners have than talented narrator Rebecca Lowman? She's a capable choice to portray--well, only the entirety of what remains of humanity. That's because Earth has been invaded, and humans have been informed they have 30 days to reach a new reservation on Antarctica--or else. Lowman must voice characters from all around the globe, including the new genetically cold-adapted versions of humankind. This she does flawlessly, mixing accents and inflections to differentiate among the large cast. What results is an audio adventure that will have listeners frozen with fear. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

MAY 2023 - AudioFile