The Ice Is Coming

Book of Wirrun #1

by Patricia Wrightson

Wirrun, a young aboriginal inhabitant of an Australian coastal town, searches for the eldest Nargun, an age-old monster with the power of fire in order to stop the Ninya, ancient ice creatures, from overwhelming the land

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Australia, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Mythology

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (1984).
Patricia Wrightson is one of Australia's most distinguished writers for children. Her books have won many prestigious awards all over the world. She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 1977, the Dromkeen Medal in 1984 and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986, all for her services to children's literature. She is a four-time winner of the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award: in 1956 for The Crooked Snake, in 1974 for The Nargun and the Stars, in 1978 for The Ice Is Coming and in 1984 for A Little Fear. Patricia lives and writes in a beautiful stretch of the Australian bush beside the Clarence River in northern New South Wales.

Reviews

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been impressed with Patricia Wrightson's ability to write fiction which is so purely Australian and make her work become part of Australian mythology. Some of the Goodreads reviews call her work fantasy. I think she wrote well beyond fantasy. A fantasy simply requires magic. Wrightson created a modern mythology from her own Australian culture, and her people and other creatures are part of that culture.

The 'Ice is Coming' looks at what happens when people ignore their mythology and culture. It's a demanding read for Wrightson makes no bones about what the land needs and about what people have done. Her descriptions of the majority of people as Happy folk, her rejection of their ways of life, form a backdrop for Wirren to establish himself as one of the people of the land and not just an abo.

Why is the ice coming? Where is the Nargun who holds the balance of power? Wirrern has to sort all this out and find himself.

It, and the following novels, are a wonderful read, a lovely combination of ancient mythology, modern interpretations of it, an Australian setting so vivid you can see it, and a charming main character. If you want to get a feeling for what ancient Australia is like these books give you an excellent impression.

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite the antipodean version of The Dark Is Rising, but satisfying in the same sort of folk horror, genus-loci sort of way. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop picturing the Mimi as Stick from Hey Duggee, only grumpy.

Bunyips, narguns, nyols and many, many, many more creatures of aborginal lore. Interesting takes on 'the Happy People' (read: white coastal folk, who are only superficially happy at best and are obsessed with the pursuit of more superficial happiness)*, the Inlanders (the jaded white outback settlers and sheep station types), and the People (the aboriginals). I spent a lot of this time getting sidetracked and wanting to know what pigface (= ice plant, rock rose, in my lingo) was, and being tempted to visit Australia to see the horizonless purple of the Outback at dawn, and all the lush greenery elsewhere (the ghost gums, the wattle, banksia, tree ferns in the gullies, sigh...). And then I learned about Bulldog ants and decided, what with the snakes and spiders and fire tornadoes and crocs and all, I don't need to blow all my money on a 18+ hour flight just to be terrified and overheated. I'll stick to vicarious travel for now.

*EDIT: I was just finishing a month-long reading challenge and was up against a deadline when I wrote this review last night, so here's the excerpt on the Happy People I wanted to include originally (page 30 of ISBN0140316280), the thoughts of Wirrun as he reads the newspaper:

They were a study, these Folk. They dragged themselves, exhausted by heat, through ordeals of running and batting for the happiness of being top. They drowned themselves in pools for the happiness of owning pools. They cheated each other for the happiness of being rich, told lies for the happiness of being important, fought bitterly for the happiness of being right. Young Folk, taught in childhood, took what they fancied from other Folk, used it for an hour or so, and threw it away. One man killed another for the happiness of fifty dollars.
Wirrun read and wondered. He knew his own stern People would not have tolerated so primitive and destructive a happiness.

I had previously read The Nargun and the Stars, which is clearly for a younger audience (children to Middle Grade sort of range; The Book of Wirrun series being sort of Middle Grade to Young Adult in terms of accessibility and interest). But this one was cool. It's a free read on OpenLibrary/Archive.org, and the paperback set of The Book of Wirrun trilogy (which I am pleased to own) is tricky to track down, but certainly not impossible (in the UK, and without international shipping. My set is all published in Puffin Plus, but there is an omnibus edition out there as well). (Note: this was once available to read for free via Internet Archive / OpenLibrary, but Penguin Random House (and Hachette and Wiley and MacMillan) sued and now it isn't... well, maybe worth having a dig, just in case something escaped deletion. I mean, if they were selling copies, if it was in print, that would be one thing. But it isn't. They're just greedy crooks, and they ought to be seen as such!).

SECOND EDIT: I wanted to add another pithy excerpt, and I realise that I've selected bits that are outside of the mythology and action, so perhaps this isn't very helpful. But these bits stood out to me. Here's some from page 148, talking of the reactions of the Happy People (the white coastal folk) to the unsettling news of pockets of ethereal frost forming in the summer:

During the day the pile of newspapers went down and the news was carried abroad. Sunburnt people in shorts and bikinis discussed it in boats and bars, on beaches and in the bush. Since these were the Happy Folk it went without saying that they split into factions, and that each faction made fun of all the others.
One faction, mainly consisting of young people, made a holiday game of the mystery and went about in groups searching enthusiastically for ice. Not finding any, they began to map 'low temperature areas' and 'isotherms', exchanging news and theories when they met each other. Stores in al the towns and villages sold out of thermometers, and caves became very important. It was a great happiness to know and visit more caves than anyone else.
A small and gloomy faction searched their consciences instead of caves. What had they done - what had Man-Other-Than-Them done - to bring this trouble on the land? They sat in small worried groups reminding each other of all the disasters caused by Man. There were enough of these to keep them happy and make them feel better than other people.
By far the largest factions loudly refused to believe in the ice in order to make it go away. They laughed a great deal to prove that the ice was not there, and made jokes about the other factions. They quoted experts of all kinds: the Weather Bureau, physicists, psychologists, statisticians. They were not to be fooled by anything the newspapers, or the land iteself, might say.

The quote continues to describe how the people dependent on the tourism market split and how they lied and obfuscated and manipulated. Pretty solid observations on (white) humankind, eh? Apply this to Covid, or the climate crisis, or a missing persons case gone viral on TikTok, and it holds up rather well, I thought. ;) She's got her finger on the pulse of us, that's for sure.

But getting back to the book - there's a lot of interaction with rock-spirits of varying stripes, the land speaking and being heard by Wirrun, and quite a lot at the end about starting beach fires and lugging wood about with utes (utility vehicles; trucks), which (again, generalizing) many young men in particular will find appealing (I don't know many who don't like the idea of starting many large driftwood fires in one go).

There was one big disappointment for me, but of course I know why Wrightson excluded that scene - she can't very well write the sacred and magical songs of aboriginals from Mt Conner (near Alice Springs). But I did want to hear it. She was a clever and thoughtful woman, Wrightson.

Last book of the 2024 Middle Grade Madness challenge, and I've finished with just a couple of hours to spare. Now the question is - straight onto The Dark Bright Water? Or into my pile of spooky Halloweenie reads? :) Tough call. Will have to sleep on it.
(Update: Slept on it. I've started The Dark Bright Water). ;)

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantasy, with an Australian bent. I would rate this book as highly as other fantasy series I read as a child like The Dark is Rising and Lord of the Rings, and in many ways found it more powerful than these. Much as I love these books, they take place in lands that are foreign to me. Since The Ice is Coming it is set in Australia - my land, my home that I know - the fear and the suspense felt so much greater, so real. I could feel and imagine the horror of the events so clearly because it happens in places like those I have lived in and visited throughout my life, and I hung on a knife's edge for so much of the book. Patricia Wrightson is a very talented writer and deserves to be more widely known. I loved The Nargun and the Stars, so it was wonderful to come face to face with the Narguns once again, and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of this series.

[Martin Rundkvist · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel's strength lies in its fine scenery descriptions. The plotting however is weak. The hero is weakly motivated to go on a quest which if fulfilled seems likely to be ineffectual. He has a weakly motivated and ineffectual sidekick. Almost the entire text consists of them hiking while rolling repeatedly on the "Random Encounters (Aboriginal folklore)" table. Each encounter is resolved by the hero showing his magical object and asking about the quest. He never gets a useful reply.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up in a used book store (ABC Books in Springfield MO) because I've become aware that I need to read more soft / social / diverse SF written by women. Looks interesting, so why not... I just hope it stands alone because I imagine the rest of the series (?) is hard to find.

Definitely stands alone but now I want more! A quest fantasy in a world not vaguely medieval, with critters that are not trolls and elves, and a different approach to nature & problems & power, etc. A joy to read, with funny bits like how the Inlander, Morrow, kept the Happy Folk away from the battle, and exciting bits like the encounter with the Bunyip (a cute name for a very not cute creature). A brief glossary to help if one gets confused is not necessary; Wrightson's writing is lovely and lucid.

Highly recommended.

Btw I also commented in a current discussion about The Alchemist, which I do not like, that this book is better. I said, "See what I like is inspirational themes tucked in to great stories. I just finished a fantasy set in Australia, The Ice is Coming by Patricia Wrightson, and the quest there is to save the land from the troll-like Ninya's attempt to bring back the ice (glaciers). Right near the end of the book is one actual inspirational message:

"Is not the rockpool a world among the stars? Life and death are in it, and light and darkness; there are journeys and home-coming there. Is a starfish smaller than a star?""

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent contemporary fantasy suitable for children but sophisticated enough for adults. The author uses aboriginal mythology to create a fantastical world populated by people and creatures unlike any in fantasies derived from European roots. A young aboriginal man gets caught up in a quest to stop the Ninya, ice spirits intent on freezing the world. He is joined by a Mimi, a spindly female rock spirit with an acerbic personality. On the quest, they face many enemies but also surprising allies. This series deserves to be more widely read!

[Nunyah Biznuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

As this is an AUSTRALIAN book, the least Goodreads could do is to use the Australian cover with the Mimi on it.

[Janet Whalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual twist for modern fantasy readers. Wirrun, our protagonist, is a young Australian Aboriginal man who must save the Australia from being overrun by ice caused by malicious ice spirits. He encounters a variety of spirits, both helpful and malevolent along the way. The storyline is predictable, but instead of familiar elves, gnomes and such we meet Mimis, Narguns, Ninya and a variety of other ...unfamiliar types of fae. The scene in which the People (Aborigines) are helped by an Inlander (White rural Australian who has some ability to feel the power inherent in the land) is laugh out loud hilarious. Wirrun's character is not well developed, but this is the first book of a trilogy. I expect to see Wirrun better fleshed out in ensuing volumes. Worth a quick read for the intro to a whole new cast of ancient spirits.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of aboriginal myth mixed up with the modern world. Has a great sense of culture and thoroughness. Reading so much of European folklore, this is a nice change of pace.

Wouldn't mind reading the sequels, but don't feel compelled to keep the book to read again.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good series told from POV of Wirrun, an aborigial native of Australia.
Interesting and well written tale based on aboriginal stories and beliefs. I loved it.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a genre I would normally read, but I found it in a book swap on holiday and read it for the sake of reading and I loved it! It is probably the best book about Australia that I have read.