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Ice Age
ICE AGE is a collection of eight short stories of the strange and the chilling by award-winning author Iain Rowan.Stories of the dead and the living, and cities at war where it is hard to tell one from the other. Lonely roads and forest paths and wrong turnings. Very wrong turnings. The fiery martyrdom of The New Way, distant voices that call from the sea, and the ice creeping in, ever in.Stories in this collection have been reprinted in year's best collections and featured in anthologies nominated for Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards.ICE AGE features the stories Lilies, The Call, Through The Window, Driving In Circles, Sighted, The Circular Path, Here Comes The New Way and Ice Age."Iain Rowan is both a meticulous and a passionate writer, and these stories showcase his ample talent wonderfully well. You owe it to yourself to discover Rowan's fiction if you haven't already had the pleasure." (Jeff Vandermeer, author of Finch, Afterword, City of Saints and Madmen; two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award)"I loved the nuances and true heartfelt emotion that Iain filled his stories with, and Iain quickly became a must read author for me--everything I read of Iain's had this tragic, and sometimes, horrific beauty filling it, and was guaranteed to be something special."(Dave Zeltserman, author of Outsourced, and Washington Post best books of year Small Crimes and Pariah)"A short story writer of the highest calibre."(Allan Guthrie, author of Top Ten Kindle Bestseller Bye Bye Baby, winner of Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year)
72 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 30, 2011
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About the author
Iain Rowan
33 books16 followersI've had a lot of short stories published, and some of those have won awards and been reprinted in anthologies. I was shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger novel award a while back. I'm now working on something else.
ONE OF US is the crime novel that was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger, and which is now published in paperback and ebook by Infinity Plus.
NOWHERE TO GO is a collection of eleven of my previously published crime stories, which includes the Derringer Award-winning One Step Closer, and is available for all e-readers. It's published by Infinity Plus.
ICE AGE is a collection of eight stories of the strange and the chilling that have been published in various places over the last few years, and it's also available for all e-readers. Stories in ICE AGE have been reprinted in Year's Best anthologies or were first published in anthologies that ended up being nominated for the Stoker or Shirley Jackson Awards.
You can read more about all of this at my website, www.iainrowan.com.
ONE OF US is the crime novel that was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger, and which is now published in paperback and ebook by Infinity Plus.
NOWHERE TO GO is a collection of eleven of my previously published crime stories, which includes the Derringer Award-winning One Step Closer, and is available for all e-readers. It's published by Infinity Plus.
ICE AGE is a collection of eight stories of the strange and the chilling that have been published in various places over the last few years, and it's also available for all e-readers. Stories in ICE AGE have been reprinted in Year's Best anthologies or were first published in anthologies that ended up being nominated for the Stoker or Shirley Jackson Awards.
You can read more about all of this at my website, www.iainrowan.com.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 11, 2022
A short but powerful collection of weird tales. Iain Rowan’s stories create an atmosphere of desolation and unreality, with a grounding in the domestic uncanny, that reminded me of Joel Lane and Sam Thompson. I loved ‘The Call’, the wonderfully atmospheric story of a widower who moves to a run-down seaside town and forges a brief connection with a neighbour. ‘Through the Window’ is a superb example of the collection’s strengths, being both a fantastic portrait of its main character, Parker, and a quiet, unsettling account of a deceptively nondescript house. There are shades of Daphne du Maurier to ‘Driving in Circles’, in which a quarrelling couple are lost en route to a weekend away, the title neatly summarising both the journey and their relationship. ‘The Circular Path’, too, is cleverly named; it’s about a man who finds an inexplicable childhood encounter coming back to haunt him – or was it always a haunting?
A couple of stories appear to be set in imagined worlds: ‘Here Comes the New Way’, wherein proponents of an enigmatic ideology explode in flames once they reach the apotheosis of their faith, feels like it pairs naturally with opening story ‘Lilies’, about mysterious assassins seeking to end the custom of dead people briefly resurrecting. (Both stories involve fanatics who refer to their beliefs as ‘the new way’, for one thing. ‘Lilies’ in particular recalls the vague and horrible dystopia of Kay Dick’s They: ‘Soon the war will be over and it will all be like this.’) Yet we also see how the personal or emotional overlaps and blurs with the corporeal. The collection concludes with the appropriately chilly ‘Ice Age’, in which a man’s perpetual coldness may – or may not – be a product of his consuming sadness.
TinyLetter | Linktree
A couple of stories appear to be set in imagined worlds: ‘Here Comes the New Way’, wherein proponents of an enigmatic ideology explode in flames once they reach the apotheosis of their faith, feels like it pairs naturally with opening story ‘Lilies’, about mysterious assassins seeking to end the custom of dead people briefly resurrecting. (Both stories involve fanatics who refer to their beliefs as ‘the new way’, for one thing. ‘Lilies’ in particular recalls the vague and horrible dystopia of Kay Dick’s They: ‘Soon the war will be over and it will all be like this.’) Yet we also see how the personal or emotional overlaps and blurs with the corporeal. The collection concludes with the appropriately chilly ‘Ice Age’, in which a man’s perpetual coldness may – or may not – be a product of his consuming sadness.
TinyLetter | Linktree
August 1, 2011
I've already reviewed one of the stories in this collection, Lilies, and given it 5-stars, so I've not really left myself any leeway upwards to review Ice Age, which contains Lilies plus seven other stories for the same price... (at the time of writing)
So please consider this a 5star+ review or something.
Anyway, this a great collection of weird, supernatural stories - it's hard to avoid calling such stories 'horror' but some of the tales here are designed to do a lot more than scare you witless. The best stories here (for me Sighted, Here Comes The New Way, and the aforementioned Lilies) are those the most original, where the author is doing something utterly his own. Some of the others have a more conventional ghost/horror story structure, but always with something new - even if that something is just the clarity and precision of Rowan's prose, which is sparse but strong, and full of memorable little phrases. In particular the depiction of a war-torn city in two of the stories is brilliant.
Highly recommended.
So please consider this a 5star+ review or something.
Anyway, this a great collection of weird, supernatural stories - it's hard to avoid calling such stories 'horror' but some of the tales here are designed to do a lot more than scare you witless. The best stories here (for me Sighted, Here Comes The New Way, and the aforementioned Lilies) are those the most original, where the author is doing something utterly his own. Some of the others have a more conventional ghost/horror story structure, but always with something new - even if that something is just the clarity and precision of Rowan's prose, which is sparse but strong, and full of memorable little phrases. In particular the depiction of a war-torn city in two of the stories is brilliant.
Highly recommended.
August 30, 2021
I’m unimpressed by this book. It’s a short (less than 100 pages) collection of short stories, which fall into a category I (thankfully) haven’t encountered very often: literary horror. Build the atmosphere (emotional and physical), build the characters, hint that Something is going to Happen, sketch out an incident or two, and then . . . end it. The story sputters out like a dud match, with no explanations or conclusions. To me it reads like the author had an idea for a short story or even a novel, started writing it, didn’t really know what to do with it, but published it anyway. By far the best story was the first one, "Lilies", because it was the only one that had something approaching a plot. Very clever of the author to put the best story first in the book, because if one of the others had been first I wouldn’t have read any more of it.
August 27, 2016
Ice Age is a great short story collection in the horror genre. Each of the eight compact tales is a gem! Mysterious and believable, they come from everyday common place occurrences as well as dystopian futures. The results are somewhere between totally unexpected and delightfully, horrifyingly surprising.
For myself, I am so glad that I ran across this author – a happy acquisition as a free Kindle book! (There are JEWELS in those offerings!) Of course, this taste of Iain Rowan’s work sent me on a shopping spree for more.
Lilies, where we encounter a city at war and a young soldier that can see dead people. In this situation however, he is not alone…seems like it’s a regular thing.
In The Call, a man escapes to the coast from a city filled with memories of his lost wife and daughter.A story that begins simply with a broken window in a vacant house along a commuter’s daily walk to work can be found in Through the Window.
A typical couple lost among country roads at night is the starting point for Driving in Circles.Sighted takes us to another city at war and the dead that won’t stay that way.
In The Circular Path, a man revisits an early childhood home and confront his mysterious past.Here Comes the New Way gives us a vision of a hard future and a horrifying “new way” that is sweeping the impoverished and starving populace.
Finally, in the title story, a man left by his wife of 11 years begins to freeze, trapped in his own private Ice Age.If you enjoy this genre, do yourself a favor and find Ice Age. You will not be disappointed.
April 10, 2012
Book Info: Genre: Horror, suspense Reading Level: Adult
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this eBook from the LibraryThing Members Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: Ice Age is a collection of eight short stories of the strange and the chilling by award-winning author Iain Rowan.
Stories of the dead and the living, and cities at war where it is hard to tell one from the other. Lonely roads and forest paths and wrong turnings. Very wrong turnings. The fiery martyrdom of The New Way, distant voices that call from the sea, and the ice creeping in, ever in.
Stories in this collection have been reprinted in year's best collections and featured in anthologies nominated for Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards.
Ice Age features the stories Lilies, The Call, Through The Window, Driving In Circles, Sighted, The Circular Path, Here Comes The New Way and Ice Age.
My Thoughts: The first story in this book is Lilies, which I have reviewed separately here: Lilies.
Like Lilies, I found the other stories in this book to be evocative, beautifully written, spare but complete: perfect exemplars of the short story. It’s very difficult to review a short-story anthology without providing spoilers, so I’ll leave it at this. If you like wonderfully written, chilling short stories, this book is one you don’t want to miss.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this eBook from the LibraryThing Members Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: Ice Age is a collection of eight short stories of the strange and the chilling by award-winning author Iain Rowan.
Stories of the dead and the living, and cities at war where it is hard to tell one from the other. Lonely roads and forest paths and wrong turnings. Very wrong turnings. The fiery martyrdom of The New Way, distant voices that call from the sea, and the ice creeping in, ever in.
Stories in this collection have been reprinted in year's best collections and featured in anthologies nominated for Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards.
Ice Age features the stories Lilies, The Call, Through The Window, Driving In Circles, Sighted, The Circular Path, Here Comes The New Way and Ice Age.
My Thoughts: The first story in this book is Lilies, which I have reviewed separately here: Lilies.
Like Lilies, I found the other stories in this book to be evocative, beautifully written, spare but complete: perfect exemplars of the short story. It’s very difficult to review a short-story anthology without providing spoilers, so I’ll leave it at this. If you like wonderfully written, chilling short stories, this book is one you don’t want to miss.
September 10, 2013
I’ve never read Rowan before, so I was really curious when I kicked into this short story collection. There are eight stories here. They are reprints, so dedicated readers will be already be familiar with them. For those new to Rowan, this is a great introduction.
The collection opens with a story called “Lilies.” “It was Autumn, and the city was at war.” Oh no. War. And is that a hint of zombies? I was growing a little skeptical about this first one, but by the end, I was hooked. Yes it’s about war and zombies. But Rowan’s elegant prose and unique perspectives took cliché and made it brilliant. Lines like “Fog had stolen in from the sea” and “A thousand voices, whispering like the waves,” both from the story “The Call,” reflect Rowan’s hypnotic, lyrical style. Avoiding the trap of gratuitous violence, he weaves haunting, dark spells that linger long after you finish.
Short stories are a moment in time. They capture a fraction of what a novel does, but in the hands of a great writer, they can be just as powerful as any longer work out there. Iain Rowan is a master. There was not a misstep in this collection. This is one meant to be read more than once. Leaving the light on will not help.
Simply brilliant.
Originally published at Horror Novel Reviews.
The collection opens with a story called “Lilies.” “It was Autumn, and the city was at war.” Oh no. War. And is that a hint of zombies? I was growing a little skeptical about this first one, but by the end, I was hooked. Yes it’s about war and zombies. But Rowan’s elegant prose and unique perspectives took cliché and made it brilliant. Lines like “Fog had stolen in from the sea” and “A thousand voices, whispering like the waves,” both from the story “The Call,” reflect Rowan’s hypnotic, lyrical style. Avoiding the trap of gratuitous violence, he weaves haunting, dark spells that linger long after you finish.
Short stories are a moment in time. They capture a fraction of what a novel does, but in the hands of a great writer, they can be just as powerful as any longer work out there. Iain Rowan is a master. There was not a misstep in this collection. This is one meant to be read more than once. Leaving the light on will not help.
Simply brilliant.
Originally published at Horror Novel Reviews.
July 12, 2011
Iain Rowan brings together an excellent mix of eclectic stories in Ice Age. He is a master of the short tale, an art form that is under appreciated by some of the big publishers. Iain's work here is enough to make you fall in love all over again with short stories.
All eight stories bring something different to the collection. Iain manages to drag you kicking and screaming into the worlds he crafts. His moody and atmospheric descriptive writing immerses you deeply into the dark tales he weaves.
In some stories, such as the title story, Ice Age, he conveys a deep sense of melancholy that is so tangible you can almost feel it. In tales such as Sighted you are given a glimpse into a city torn about by war where one man takes his revenge one bullet at a time. His endings will often leave you asking questions, as a good short story should.
You can read each tale at a single sitting on a bus or a train journey but don't expect these stories to leave your head that quickly. You will be thinking about some of these tales a while after you finish them. An immensely enjoyable and thought provoking read.
All eight stories bring something different to the collection. Iain manages to drag you kicking and screaming into the worlds he crafts. His moody and atmospheric descriptive writing immerses you deeply into the dark tales he weaves.
In some stories, such as the title story, Ice Age, he conveys a deep sense of melancholy that is so tangible you can almost feel it. In tales such as Sighted you are given a glimpse into a city torn about by war where one man takes his revenge one bullet at a time. His endings will often leave you asking questions, as a good short story should.
You can read each tale at a single sitting on a bus or a train journey but don't expect these stories to leave your head that quickly. You will be thinking about some of these tales a while after you finish them. An immensely enjoyable and thought provoking read.
October 16, 2011
After having read "Nowhere To Go" I was delighted for having the chance to read this short story collection by Iain Rowan as well. While the former falls into the category of crime/thriller, this one goes into quite a different direction which can be best described as speculative fiction with a touch of horror.
Once again the author won me over with his wonderfully detailed narrative and how well devised his characters are (especially considering that those aren't full fledged novels) and he's certainly got a talent for stories that really creep up on you with often very subtle yet scary plots too. While this might not be for those who love gory blood soaked horror stories, it's a fantastic read for everyone who likes spine-tingling yet subtle horror stories!
As to my favorites I'd have a hard time choosing, though "Lilies" and "Sighted" definitely range among the top, and oddly enough the title giving story "Ice Age" turned out to be my least favorite.
In short: Yet another fantastic short story collection which hopefully won't be his last!
Once again the author won me over with his wonderfully detailed narrative and how well devised his characters are (especially considering that those aren't full fledged novels) and he's certainly got a talent for stories that really creep up on you with often very subtle yet scary plots too. While this might not be for those who love gory blood soaked horror stories, it's a fantastic read for everyone who likes spine-tingling yet subtle horror stories!
As to my favorites I'd have a hard time choosing, though "Lilies" and "Sighted" definitely range among the top, and oddly enough the title giving story "Ice Age" turned out to be my least favorite.
In short: Yet another fantastic short story collection which hopefully won't be his last!
May 19, 2012
The first story--Lilies--was absolutely phenomenal. The rest were good, but nothing else quite hit that high. My least favorites (rating ~3 stars) were Through The Window (the, well, window one), Driving In Circles (the car crash one), and The Circular Path (the forest one). The Call (the sea one) was probably second best, earning 4 stars. Although Sighted (not-zombies from the other POV of the "enemy") was pretty good too, as were Here Comes The New Way and Ice Age. Ice Age had all of the elements I like (psychological horror; you can't tell if he's just crazy, or if this new ice age is actually coming; tragedy), but somehow it failed to deliver on its potential.
Okay, let's get a more ordered ranking up in here:
Lilies: 5 stars
The Call: 4 stars
Sighted: 4
Here Comes The New Way: 3 1/2
Ice Age: 3 1/2
Through the Window: 3 1/2
Driving In Circles: 3
The Circular Path: 3
I might have ranked the 3 stars higher if they didn't have Lilies to live up to. But then again, maybe not.
Okay, let's get a more ordered ranking up in here:
Lilies: 5 stars
The Call: 4 stars
Sighted: 4
Here Comes The New Way: 3 1/2
Ice Age: 3 1/2
Through the Window: 3 1/2
Driving In Circles: 3
The Circular Path: 3
I might have ranked the 3 stars higher if they didn't have Lilies to live up to. But then again, maybe not.
December 30, 2012
A chilling, weird, and often sad collection. I'm actually a little hesitant to apply the word "horror", rather than simply going with "weird", but upon reflection will say it definitely qualifies.
Short stories, with plain writing; the settings range from the clearly fantastical (if never saccharine) to the strictly Western contemporary, with the weird elements ranging as well from explicit to possibly imagined. Touching and strange, with characters beautifully realized.
(Also, I will note: I bought it on Kindle. I have only ever done that three times, and this is the only one I've done it where I didn't have even a passing acquaintance with the author. And I'd do it again with his other books, although I'd prefer other options.)
Short stories, with plain writing; the settings range from the clearly fantastical (if never saccharine) to the strictly Western contemporary, with the weird elements ranging as well from explicit to possibly imagined. Touching and strange, with characters beautifully realized.
(Also, I will note: I bought it on Kindle. I have only ever done that three times, and this is the only one I've done it where I didn't have even a passing acquaintance with the author. And I'd do it again with his other books, although I'd prefer other options.)
January 2, 2014
GOTHIC READERS BOOK CLUB CHOICE AWARD WINNER
Iain Rowan is more well known to most people for his crime writing, but he's brilliant at the gothic as well! His short story collection titled Ice Age is one of the most superb collections of dark fiction since Henry James. The stories here all reflect a creeping sense of doom. Hence the title. The cold chill of the grave is reaching out in every line, every paragraph, and every story. Things are wrong, but what? Why? Rowan takes us down very dark, sinister roads of our own making. There are no serial killers, no supernatural beings, and no spell to make things better in the morning. Rowan reminds us that we make our own evil.
If You Like: Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft
http://gothicreadersbookclub.blogspot...
Iain Rowan is more well known to most people for his crime writing, but he's brilliant at the gothic as well! His short story collection titled Ice Age is one of the most superb collections of dark fiction since Henry James. The stories here all reflect a creeping sense of doom. Hence the title. The cold chill of the grave is reaching out in every line, every paragraph, and every story. Things are wrong, but what? Why? Rowan takes us down very dark, sinister roads of our own making. There are no serial killers, no supernatural beings, and no spell to make things better in the morning. Rowan reminds us that we make our own evil.
If You Like: Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft
http://gothicreadersbookclub.blogspot...
October 2, 2022
A well written book. Gave me goosebumps as I read this. In such a simple subtle manner, the dead creep up on you and shake your very existence. Iain has a great way with words, weaving engaging stories. Each starts off simply and then changes suddenly to shock you.. there is a lot of scope for the reader's imagination to just jump in and work around what's happening. Though all were excellent... the first three stories were by far more interesting. I received this book a part of a LibraryThing giveaway.
October 13, 2012
Lovely collection of short stories and each one is very different. Lovely read for anyone who needs to wait on anything. A lovely way to spend an afternoon in the sun.
December 2, 2014
It was actually a very good collection of short stories. It kind of reminds me of Stephen King's style of writing. Mr. Rowan has lots of potential. Kudos!
October 17, 2015
Melancholy, a sad kind of horror.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews