Cold People by Tom Rob Smith

‘The ice, captain, we shall plunder the ice!’

From an opening which gives an historic perspective of the mystery of Antarctica to humankind, we are taken to Lisbon, where Liza is holidaying with her sister and parents. And then, without warning, an omnipotent alien force takes over planet Earth. Their continuously repeated message to people all over the world is that they have thirty days to travel to Antarctica. After thirty days, Antarctica is the one place where humans will be permitted to exist.

An exodus begins. Not everyone can be saved. Different countries make selections: sometimes the rich and powerful are chosen, sometimes the people best able to contribute to survival in Antarctica’s extreme climate are chosen. Oil tankers and cargo ships are converted to move people, planes are loaded.

Liza is one of the people who make it to Antarctica. We will meet others. Over time the focus shifts from surviving in the present to adapting so that humankind can continue. Genetic scientists are among the survivors. Some seek to adapt humankind for life in Antarctica while others explore more extreme genetic modifications.

‘This was a new era. The era of plenty was over. Humankind was a fallen people now. No longer conquerors but a second-tier species, relegated to the coldest continent on earth, imprisoned within a reservation created by alien occupiers.’

The story shifts between different locations in Antarctica, between several different characters and time periods. There are different approaches to creating a new society: there are three townships on a peninsula while the scientific investigation and experimentation is carried out at McMurdo City, on the site of the USA base.

Once I started reading, I found it very difficult to put this book down. I needed to know how it would end, how some of the ethical issues would play out and if (and how) humankind could survive. A thought-provoking read.

‘Everything is running out. Time is our most limited resource of all. The worst-kept secret on this continent is that we as people are dying, and no amount of optimism can hide this fact.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith