An extraterrestrial incursion seizes control of Earth, exiling humanity to the unforgiving Antarctic, where their battle for survival unfolds.

The narrative is skillfully crafted, promptly immersing me in the destinies of the central characters.
While there are certain gaps and aspects left unexplored or underdeveloped, I found this story to be a captivating page-turner that provokes contemplation of pertinent moral and ethical inquiries. It prompts us to ponder what defines our humanity, the extremes to which we will go to endure, and whether we genuinely possess the capacity to adapt to the direst circumstances.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars rounded up
Whole bunch of adventures packed in this novel. First threat turns up and you think it’s going to be all about confronting it. Then you think it’s basically survival, post-apocalypse. Then another twist. Whew! There were aspects of this that I didn’t care for, but overall, this was a page-turner. And I’m wondering if there will be a sequel…

The premise of COLD PEOPLE is familiar—aliens have arrived, but instead of wiping out humanity immediately, humans are given a deadline. 30 days to relocate to Antarctica, the only place on Earth that humans will be allowed to live. The move proceeds at breakneck pace, through a few POV characters and primarily through the eyes of Liza and Atto, newly in love. Borders and international conflicts become obsolete as the human race struggles to survive. Twenty years later, humanity has established a type of life in Antarctica and has embarked on an ambitious project to genetically engineer a new generation of “ice-adapted” people bred to thrive in the harshest conditions. But will they save humanity or destroy them?

I loved this book a LOT, I couldn’t stop reading it and was updating my family on the plot developments as I read the book. I kept wishing I could see an illustration of what the ice-adapted looked like, especially Eitan, so fingers crossed for a movie!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. Another great, fast paced read by Smith. I have a bit of a fascination with extremely cold climates—that and Smith being the author sucked me in. This is a dystopian novel, but a bit different than others I’ve read due to the Antarctic location. Although the goal is to survive in the present, the ultimate challenge is whether or not humanity can continue to survive and thrive in such an intense climate. If this is your first book by Smith, I do think you will enjoy it if you enjoy thrillers, but definitely go and read his earlier books as well.

Cold People was not at all what I was expecting. I loved the first half of the book-an apocalyptic survival tale of sorts. But everything began to spin out of control with the introduction of the ice-enhanced people. Science fiction demands a suspension of belief, but it must also be grounded in probable science. Otherwise it is fantasy. The genetic modifications in this book were fantastical, without any explanation, and were just not my thing. I did not enjoy the second half of this book at all.

Definitely an interesting book but it didn’t go the way I expected and I struggled to fully immerse myself in the book. It was still interesting but the timelines and pacing were so odd that I felt disconnected. I felt like there were major plot holes too. This kind of book isn’t what I normally read but the premise sounded really interesting.

Published by Scribner on February 7, 2023

Cold People might best be regarded as a fantasy, or maybe as a thought experiment. Its implausible plot rules out caregorization as science fiction. Regardless of how the novel might be classified, the story it tells is far from engaging.

Alien invaders fill the skies with their ships while broadcasting an ultimatum to humans: move to Antarctica within 30 days or die. Personally, I’d break into one of the homes abandoned by rich people and spend my last 30 days sampling their wine cellars, but I have a serious aversion to cold weather. The survivors in Cold People have a serious aversion to being disintegrated.

The aliens have disabled the world’s most destructive weapons, leaving nations powerless to resist an alien occupation. Having rendered humans helpless to resist, why not disintegrate them all instead of disintegrating everyone who fails to make it to Antarctica? It’s not like the aliens are doing humans a favor by turning the least hospitable continent into a reservation. The question is never answered. Sadly, I found the many unswered questions to be more pressing than those the novel addresses.

The politics of self-interest during the invasion might be the most interesting part of the novel. One fellow converts an oil tanker into a ferry and takes as many passengers as he can, provided they aren’t too young or too old to work for the group’s survival. Israel uses its military to occupy its airports, commandeers all civilian aircraft regardless of the nations from which the planes originated, kicks all non-Israelis out of the airport, and uses the stolen aircraft exclusively to transport Israelis to Antarctica.

Some nations use the thirty days to fight against each other, hoping to secure a national foothold in Antarctica by wiping out competing nations. The wars don’t amount to much in the absence of missiles and bombs.

It turns out that people need to pull together to survive in Antarctica and that religious, ethnic, and national differences are no longer of consequeence. At Hope Town, settlers have put aside differences and embraced everyone in their diverse communities. But the novel isn’t really a kumbaya celebration of humanity coming together, because people soon understand that no amount of cooperation will keep them alive after they drink all the brandy and when the survival gear they brought with them wears out.

We are told little about how humans survive at all. Nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers still have power, but they can’t house a million people. Catching enough fish and seals to feed a million people seems like a daunting task, but establishing microbreweries just seems like a misuse of scarce resources.

Maybe I could have lived with the absence of necessary detail if the story had not moved well beyond implausibility. A geneticist who was carrying out forbidden experiments in China decides the human survival requires newborns to be genetically engineered to withstand cold weather. Within a generation, the engineering has produced two versions of ice-adapted parahumans. Children like Echo are born in the usual way and live a relatively normal life apart from having scales and preferring the cold to a warm environment.

The other parahumans, torn from wombs after a brief gestation and then imprisoned in caves, represent a more extreme version of adapted humanity. They are freakishly strong and smart. One of them, Eitan, can make himself transparent to blend in with ice. Oh, and did I mention the snow gorillas with bright orange eyes? Is it remotely conceivable that a geneticist can achieve these results, even using military supercomputers on aircraft carriers, in a generation or two? Tom Rob Smith didn’t convince me.

The point of the novel seems to be that humans are willing to create creatures who aren’t actually human to perpetuate some version of humanity. How snow gorillas advance that cause baffles me. Why it never occurs to anyone that tinkering with genetics to create monsters might be a bad idea is even more difficult to understand.

Echo is the only parahuman we meet who isn’t a monster. Her adaptation is supposedly less extreme, but she learns that she can control temperature — for example, by freezing a gun that someone points at her. How is this a conceivable genetic adaptation? Don’t ask because you won’t get an explanation. Just as implausible is the telepathy with which the parahumans are endowed. Oh, did I mention they can alter the chemistry of ice? I’m surprised they don’t have x-ray vision or the ability to fly. The novel might make a good comic book or Marvel movie but it makes little sense as a work of literature.

So does the novel have any actual humans a reader might care about? Some chapters focus on an Israeli soldier named Yotam Penzak. He expects to be left behind in Israel because he is not among the smartest or most politically connected. He’s chosen because he is a witness to a failed Russian strike at the airport and will presumably defend the Israeli settlement on Antarctica with vigor. In the absence of nationalized settlements, Yotam is instead tasked with assisting the Chinese geneticist despite having no background in science. Yotam was apparently chosen for his job because he was capable of loving without regard to individual differences. Yotam ends up falling in love with and becoming an advocate for an extreme parahuman.

The novel also focuses on an American woman named Liza and her Italian lover Atto. They fell in love in Italy when Atto invited Liza on a boat tour. Atto was so enamored with Liza that he didn’t try to shag her, which only angered Liza by depriving her of vacation sex with a hot Italian. Simplistic themes borrowed from romance fiction being what they are, Atto and Liza end up together on Antarctica, where they conceive Echo. A normal human boy named Tetu overlooks Echo’s scales and falls in love with her. I guess there aren’t many women to choose from after most of humanity is wiped out.

Perhaps Yotam and Atto fall for parahumans as a metaphor for relationships that are not cisgendered. To make sure no reader misses the point, a character asks, “Why does love have to be just one thing?” Fair enough. If a normal human and a parahuman want to love each other, why is that anyone else’s business? My problem is not with the theme but with the absurdity of ice-adapted parahumans who develop superpowers.

We also meet Kasim Abbas, an Iraqi who is now charged with transporting ice-adapted kids to McMurdo Station where the most extreme parahumans are developed, leaving their parents behind. And we meet Jinju, who escaped from a dictatorship in China. These characters are reminders of humans who live in varying states of subjugation, designed to make the reader think about the morality of creating parahumans and immediately imprisoning them. The more salient question might involve the morality of creating parahumans at all.

I suppose the novel might prompt book club discussions of the morality underlying the creation and enslavement of parahumans, although I doubt that many book clubs will take an interest in a story that makes no sense. If humans are going to die out because they can’t adapt to life in Antarcica, is it better for some monstrous version of humans to endure even if parahumans resemble a mixture of telepathic fish and the Incredible Hulk? I’m not sure the question is worth pondering.

While Cold People could be read as a story about the need to embrace diversity and reject the horrors of subjugation, the ultimate themes are “love conquers all” (although it didn’t conquer the aliens) and “humans aren’t so bad” (an ahistorical view that seems to be contradicted by the creation and subjugation of genetically altered servants). Near the end, a character says “the only way to survive on this continent is to find someone to love.” I guess snuggling might slow the length of time it takes to freeze to death, but learning how to fish and building shelters would be a better survival strategy.

I was particularly inspired (to laugh) by the deep conversation that Echo has with Tetu about what it feels like to be in love, a question posed in the midst of an inevitable battle between humans and parahumans. It’s always good to pause and discuss the philosophy of love while what little is left of humankind is under attack.

I enjoyed Child 44 and its progeny, in part because Smith created a strong atmosphere of realism in an unlikely story. His utter abandonment of reality in Cold People is disappointing.

NOT RECOMMENDED

This started out great with a family on vacation and boy meets girl and all heck starts breaking loose with an alien invasion and all. I really was enjoying myself reading about how all the world and these folks we were introduced to were trying to make their way to the one place the aliens said they would let them live, Antarctica, in 30 days time.

Obviously we knew it would be chaotic which makes for a great story because we know everybody will not make it and we see everybody struggling trying to find their way and making tough decisions. I would not like to be in any of their shoes! The story jumps forward like 20 years or so and the folks that made it have formed havens and mapped out a way to live as best they could.

Some wicked stuff is happening now as they struggle to make a way for the human race to continue. Bizarre and unthinkable what they came up with, I just found it unimaginable and also was like "what were they thinking?" What happened towards the end was thought provoking because I feel like they kinda got what they were wanting in a way but then......on the other hand obviously they didn't plan on that outcome but I'm like come on how could that not have happened?

I just didn't like the time jumps and lack of explanations. I felt no emotions for any characters who just jumped to twenty years later. He s a great writer and I hope he goes back to Child 44-type stories.

Parts of this book were fascinating! The setting of Antarctica was really interesting to read about and honestly I kept reading because I liked reading about people living there. The premise of aliens arriving and telling earthlings that they have 30 days to relocate to Antarctica or die (because humans have fucked up Earth so badly) was what got me interested and then I felt like once the journey to the ice was done the story took a turn for the more boring.

I wasn't into the giant cast of characters; I only cared about the first people who were introduced and the others were all too difficult to remember. Think "World War Z" and how that that book was formatted. Cold People is similar in set-up and style. Lots of chapters start "20 years later" or "100 years in the past," just bouncing around all over the place, which I found to be a little lazy on the author's part.

The genetic modification stuff was something I wanted to read more about too because it didn't seem realistic at all. The parts with our favorite Cold Person (aka the miracle modified child who's name I've already forgotten) were super reminiscent of 'The Girl With All the Gifts' and the little romance was 🥴 cringe.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cold People.
Cold People by Tom Robb Smith is a science fiction book about the human race and its hope at survival and keeping themselves from extinction. The story focuses on quite a few characters and their stories from before and after the alien invasion. Aliens come to Earth and give humans 30 days to find their way to Antarctica - the only place the aliens will allow humans to live without killing them. Once there humans realize their chances of continuing on as a race are slim, as humans can’t really survive in the freezing temperatures of Antarctica. Its decided that the scientists that are left should work on evolving the human race to something that can not only survive but also thrive in such bitter conditions. But where exactly is the line between being human and being something else altogether?
This was an incredibly good book, as is expected from author Tom Robb Smith. It was a very slow burn but with an explosive ending. It was slightly predictable and yet I didn’t see it coming at all. I thought the whole book was thought provoking on many different subjects, including global warming, what community means, to what it means to be human. Highly recommend.
ARC was provided by NetGalley and Scribner in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of sci-fi, and this has pretty much everything I want from a sci-fi novel. It starts with an alien invasion, but these aliens are all coy-like and are never actually seen. Like all good dystopian stories, at it's heart it's about people à la the "we are the walking dead" speech. And I think Smith hits the nail on the head with human psychology, because his characters' reactions were totally believable in a "yeah, that's exactly what I would do," or "yeah, that's exactly what a corrupt government would do" kind of way. Although if I'm totally honest, I think the military powers of the world would all annihilate each other before humankind could make it to salvation. I guess we'll just have to wait for an alien invasion to see who's right!
I really liked the variety of POVs, some fleeting. And we got the antagonist's (for lack of a better word) perspective, which is cool because I feel like that only happens in Wicked-esque reimaginings of Disney movies where like, Jafar is sexy and brooding.
The story is left open and I would definitely read a sequel, even if humanity's not in it (I mean what are those aliens up to???). I can honestly say it's one of the best sci-fi novels I've read in a while, and I hope it gets more love.

Thanks to Smith, S&S, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ever ask yourself what would happen if aliens invaded and banished all remaining humans to Antartica forever? Well, Cold People answers just that. I loved the storyline and beginning of the book, but ultimately I just could not connect to any of the characters or their plights. I think many folks will like this one, it just didn’t work for me. Thank you to Netflgaey for the chance to read and review this book!

What a great, weird, disappointing, thought-provoking book. It is all those things, as it is also a book about an alien invasion, a post-apocalyptic world, and an ice-age island of Dr. Moreau, but none of these things at the same time.

I loved large parts of the book, it made me think and rethink, and it made me want to write at least three different essays on what it all meant.

I also set it down for a few days, disappointed that the aliens never really came into play and the formation of the post-apocalyptic world was mostly skipped over. I felt offended that I was to believe these successful genetic experiments took place almost immediately, starting just after 2023 while all of humanity was trying to just survive - in Antartica no less.

But the ability to perform these genetic experiments was later explained and it was logical and probable and it made me wonder if I should be sad or happy for our future.

The entire theme of humans thinking they hold power over every other being and that we have the right to, it bothered me in the good kind of way, the way that makes you think about life. I loved watching the audacity of these survivors thinking they could create a smarter, stronger, more acclimated species that would then be... subservient... to the weaker humans... LOL...

This is disjointed because so is the story. It changes plots and timelines repeatedly, but never delves deeply into any of them, and that is the disappointing part. I didn't feel anything for Echo (or most anyone) because we don't get to know anyone too well. I think character development was the weakest part of this book. I was satisfied with the ending, but I see others believe a sequel is in the works. I don't know if I would pick up a part two UNLESS we hear from the aliens or the survivors decide to head back into alien territory. Otherwise I don't really care about what becomes of Antartica as we leave it in the end.

I would recommend it though, if aliens or post-apocalyptic worlds are your thing, keeping in mind the book changes plots often. It was definitely thought provoking, there is no doubt about that. Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I think the good parts outweigh the lesser ones here, and 4-stars it is.

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) An alien population claims earth as their own and without negotiation, informs humans they need to get to Antarctica if they want to survive. If they make it there in time, the aliens won’t interfere.

Wait, what? That synopsis is phenomenal! I’m a sucker for a dystopia and this had all the elements I love; survival, unique community and multiple challenges. Those that made it to Antarctica are then faced with survival, and how to survive. While there were few people previously living in Antarctica, there was a research facility. So what do the humans do? Focus on repopulation and genetic modification.

“You’re nervous to admit that we’ve created a superior race. But the whole purpose of the Cold People project was to create a superior race. Because we’re dying. And that is exactly what we’ve done.”

This book had a strange dichotomy of things I loved and hated. First off, the writing. Not my fav. It’s third person which led to a lot of disconnect. It had a very matter-of-fact way to it that was dry and impersonal, making me feel no connection to the characters. Second, the subject matter. Full of many stories going on and wholly interesting. It was intriguing enough to hold my attention, even with the writing. Go figure. I found myself torn between loving this book and hating it. I was amazed multiple times that I was entertained but I really wished I could have connected with the writing more.

I would have loved a POV from people that didn’t make it to Antarctica, or the people who were not selected. These would be purely for my enjoyment! There were a few aspects that didn’t resonate with me such as how they lived without paper and computers and a lot of basic material we use on an every day basis. Communication was reduced to mostly walking to another person. And yet they had more than enough supplies to do genetic modifications and house those experiments? It did explain a lot away but not enough for my curiosity. This is the stuff I love and those survival skills are what are so interesting. The new society with few rules was fascinating, I could have read an entire book just on that aspect. I also would have loved more about the aliens! We didn’t get nearly enough of that. However, after reading that ending, I feel what I got was better.

“The truth was that after twenty years of peace people had neglected the art of war, they had allowed the stash of weapons to be depleted and repurposed.”

This book was definitely longer than it needed to be. I needed a bit more “he said, she said” because some of those conversations were long enough to get lost in which character was speaking. But I enjoyed this book and the originality of it. Wholly unique and exciting. That ending was one of my favorites!

“This continent changed people. Smart, stable, decent people lost their minds, and no evaluation could predict who’d snap next.”

“In Antarctica there is a gap between the way you perceive the world and the way the world really is.”

“But surviving at any cost is not surviving. Surviving means holding on to what is great about people.”

“Some countries didn’t bring any older people. Some countries didn’t bring young children. Some didn’t bring women who couldn’t have children. Some countries refused to bring anyone with mental health issues. Some of the most interesting people in the world have mental health issues, I include myself in that. We lost a huge part of our humanity, not just in terms of numbers, but width and range. However, it finds a way back. The odd people, the misfits, the people who didn’t belong, they’re here now. You can’t get rid of them, even if you try. My point is this—you’ve never had a love story of your own. It was stolen from you. First by your parents. Then by the alien occupation.”

“I am going to do things you will find unacceptable. In my view, the only thing that would be unacceptable is failure. And we, as a species, are on the brink of failure. Or, as it is also called, extinction.”

“Cold People project had occurred when it was clear that the moderate ice-adapted people couldn’t reverse the precipitous population decline—they could prolong the era of people, but they couldn’t save us.”

“the justice system had been replaced with a blend of libertarianism and authoritarianism. Almost everyone was given a second chance and almost no one was given a third.”

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the gifted copies!

The book releases February 7, 2023.

Having read the Child 44 Trilogy, this wasn't quite what I expected from Tom Rob Smith... which made it an even more entertaining read.

The plot sucks you in right away and never lets up. The primary characters are well-developed and relatable. Smith does a nice job of depicting a new society that has come to understand it can only survive by embracing its humanity and humanity's best qualities. Unfortunately, there are some holdouts from the old world that believe they alone know what's best for humankind, and having been left unchecked for too long, they may bring about its extinction.

My only negative feedback is that I was hoping the story would wrap up nicely at the end of the book rather than being met with an open end that makes this look like it may be the first book in a series.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for the opportunity to review this advanced copy of the book.

I love apocalyptic stories, however I don’t usually go for alien invasion stories. But I really enjoyed the way Tom Rob Smith did this one.
Humans are forced to live on Antarctica if they want the human race to survive. That alone is a feat. But there is someone who thinks she can solve this horror.
Really hoping for a follow up to Cold People.

I liked this but I think the copy misrepresents the book, it makes it seem like a story of how people BUILD the civilization and survive when first coming to Antarctica which it isn't, the majority of the story takes place 20 years later. That part was very good!!! it just wasn't what i wanted when i picked up the book

I love good science fiction movies. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a sci-fi book, though. In the past I’ve found sci-fi novels to be have over-complicated plots. Cold People grabbed me from the initial plot description and the beginning of the story was my favorite part. As the story went on, I felt disappointed about all the conflict between the regular people and the ice-adapted people. Overall, this is a good science fiction novel.

Wildly imaginative! Wonderful characters. Interesting plot. Vivid descriptions. The suspense builds at just the right pace as the story unfolds. Will keep you swiping the pages furiously! More than worthy of your TBR list. A FANTASTIC read! I hope there will be a sequel.

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.