Cold People, by Tom Rob Smith.

Cold People by Tom Rob Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Methinks there will be a sequel… or two!



That ending…. hmmmm!


Did I love this? Hmmmm! I liked bits and pieces of it. I think this book needed a bit more editing.
There was a fair amount of repetition. For example, the phrase: “everyone liked him” was used in reference to several different characters, through a few decades and time leaps.



I couldn’t really connect to many of the characters – especially the Cold People!



You did feel sorry for Cold People, and there’s the rub: they are often described as being unemotional. And yet….. there are scenes where Eitan is loving, euphoric, and even expresses grief.
So? Are the cold people unemotional, or aren’t they? Was this a continuity issue in the writing process?



Did the scientists succeed in creating a hybrid human that will perpetuate the human race, or did they simply create yet another monster of ambition, vainglorious selfishness and greed? Nothing changes, it seems.

I kept thinking of Spock of the Star Trek series. Logical…. everything had to be logical. If we look at the various premises and themes in this novel, we see that the author has created a world where the various humans and their governments believe that: change and freedom of thought/belief will ultimately lead to chaos and revolution; fear of change and of cultural differences cause distrust and alarm – all the knives come out in defense; and aliens and scientific mutations are NEVER to be trusted – because they just want to take over the planet and toss us humans into the freezing ocean, or just plain exterminate us.



Okay, okay… I hear you. History has proven that we humans find it difficult to peacefully co-exist with anything, much less another race or species… turn the page! Nothing new here!

There are many insightful passages in this novel. I was interested to find out how this all would work out. (Pretty predictably, in fact, but like I said, there is going to be a sequel if that ending has anything to do with it.) My beef: serialized novels tend to have a ton of filler, and there was plenty of that here too. (I should have guessed that this might be a series just from the author’s bio: he is famous for them!)

I liked this book, but I didn’t connect with the characters or much of the story. Antarctica is always fascinating to read about, and that is why I ordered this from my local library. A good read, even entertaining at times. A 3.4 rolled back to a 3 because Goodreads does not allow fractions.



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