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Cold People

by Tom Rob Smith

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Lenny said: " I'm listening to the audio book on CD of this title. I am enjoying it overall, but it does have a few issues that a potential reader/listener might want to be aware of going in. No spoilers...

The narrator, Rebecca Lowman, has a breathy, slower delive I'm listening to the audio book on CD of this title. I am enjoying it overall, but it does have a few issues that a potential reader/listener might want to be aware of going in. No spoilers...

The narrator, Rebecca Lowman, has a breathy, slower delivery that I find a little frustrating. I like her voice, and she is exceedingly clear and well pronounced, but seeing as how so much of this story is about the end of the world you might think there should be some urgency. But instead long passages of people going through what amounts to their last moments on Earth are read with what amounts to bedroom voice.

As for the story itself, it’s a bit disjointed, lacking focus. It is not the writers fault that the copy makes it seem like this is a novel about an alien invasion and humanity's subsequent survival in Antarctica. But these are not what the novel is really about. It's actually a story in which humanity is forced to rely in genetic manipulation to survive. Some characters are examples of said genetic manipulation and as such the questions are raised- are they human at all, and what kind of society are they building for the future? In that regard it’s an interesting bit of sci-fi.

But not enough attention is paid to that when suddenly the story jumps back and forth between characters that have nothing to do with another, and also between time periods. The story alternately goes back to "...20 years ago" even within one characters thread, which stumbles any forward momentum built.

We start with characters that meet and fall in love in a "love at first sight" type scenario. So much is invested in that meeting that I thought surely these are our main characters. Nope! Cut to twenty years later and we're onto someone else.

Another situation describes a lonely man made all the lonelier by the fact that he is homosexual in a world in which there are far fewer homosexuals (the entire human population is severely cut down early in the story). But just when we get to deal with that in any meaningful way, you guessed it, 20 years later! Or someone else’s storyline. There’s a character named Echo whom we really come to like, but fully another third of the novel is gone and we haven’t circled back to her!

Oh, and that alien invasion? We never encounter them. They're just pretty lights in the sky. The banishment to the Antarctic? It’s just a difficulty everyone has to endure.

Look, it sci-fi and it’s trying to explore some interesting concepts, so I'm in! But Mr. Smith could have used a little more focus, and a little more clarity about his direction and theme.

I still recommend this, as it is very interesting and thought provoking, and not the kind of sci-fi that is so far out there that it might turn the casual reader away. ...more "

Apr 10, 2023 11:56AM · see review