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A review by jonathanpalfrey
Ice and Iron by Wilson Tucker
3.0
I've read a few of Wilson Tucker's books, and this is my favourite of them, although it's a short and slight novel, less ambitious than the others.
Published in 1975, it imagines a fairly near future suffering from a new ice age, with glaciers overrunning Canada and threatening the northern United States—which is quaintly amusing, as it's the reverse of what's actually happening now.
A team of investigators in the very cold zone near the advancing glaciers finds strange objects and human corpses falling intermittently out of thin air, and eventually works out where they must be coming from and why.
What I like about the book:
1. The gradual unfolding and solution of the mystery.
2. The rather unusual and offbeat writing style and characters (in particular the protagonist).
3. The ingenious use of a few elements of past history, woven into this speculative future.
Nothing special happens at the end of the story: it just ends quietly as the mystery is solved (in outline) and the team disperses. But, in the context of this story, I think the ending is satisfactory, and a more exciting finale would seem out of place.
The story is implausible in various ways (not just the ice age!), but I don't find that a problem. Just think of it as a quirky fantasy, and press on.
However, the short penultimate chapter is implausible in terms of human behaviour: it seems to show primitive hunter-gatherers behaving in a way that they wouldn't. I don't see the point of this chapter: it contributes nothing useful to the book, and could be omitted.
Published in 1975, it imagines a fairly near future suffering from a new ice age, with glaciers overrunning Canada and threatening the northern United States—which is quaintly amusing, as it's the reverse of what's actually happening now.
A team of investigators in the very cold zone near the advancing glaciers finds strange objects and human corpses falling intermittently out of thin air, and eventually works out where they must be coming from and why.
What I like about the book:
1. The gradual unfolding and solution of the mystery.
2. The rather unusual and offbeat writing style and characters (in particular the protagonist).
3. The ingenious use of a few elements of past history, woven into this speculative future.
Nothing special happens at the end of the story: it just ends quietly as the mystery is solved (in outline) and the team disperses. But, in the context of this story, I think the ending is satisfactory, and a more exciting finale would seem out of place.
The story is implausible in various ways (not just the ice age!), but I don't find that a problem. Just think of it as a quirky fantasy, and press on.
However, the short penultimate chapter is implausible in terms of human behaviour: it seems to show primitive hunter-gatherers behaving in a way that they wouldn't. I don't see the point of this chapter: it contributes nothing useful to the book, and could be omitted.