Ice

[j e l]

looks promising.

compare and contrast with ICE by Anna Kavan (1967):

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34776861-ice

A dazzling and haunting vision of the end of the world, Ice is a
masterpiece of literary science fiction now in a new 50th anniversary
edition with a foreword by Jonathan Lethem.

In a frozen, apocalyptic landscape, destruction abounds: great walls of ice
overrun the world and secretive governments vie for control. Against this
surreal, yet eerily familiar broken world, an unnamed narrator embarks on a
hallucinatory quest for a strange and elusive “glass-girl” with silver
hair. He crosses icy seas and frozen plains, searching ruined towns and
ransacked rooms, all to free her from the grips of a tyrant known only as
the warden and save her before the ice closes all around. A novel unlike
any other, Ice is at once a dystopian adventure shattering the conventions
of science fiction, a prescient warning of climate change and
totalitarianism, a feminist exploration of violence and trauma, a
Kafkaesque literary dreamscape, and a brilliant allegory for its author’s
struggles with addiction—all crystallized in prose as glittering as the
piling snow.

Acclaimed upon its publication as one of the best science fiction books of
the year, Kavan’s 1967 novel has built a reputation as an extraordinary and
innovative work of literature, garnering acclaim from China Miéville, Patti
Smith, J. G. Ballard, Anaïs Nin, and Doris Lessing, among others. With
echoes of dystopian classics like Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven,
Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, and J. G. Ballard’s High Rise, Ice is a
necessary and unforgettable addition to the canon of science fiction
classics.

--jel

On Fri, Dec 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> this sounds rather intriguing. and 1200 pgs!. another doorstop slated for
> 2026
>
> rich
>
> Ice Hardcover – January 13, 2026
> by Jacek Dukaj
> <https://www.amazon.com/Jacek-Dukaj/e/B00K235IU2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
> >
> (Author), Ursula Phillips
> <
> https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=UTF8&field-author=Ursula+Phillips&text=Ursula+Phillips&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books
> >
>  (Translator)
>
> A Trans-Siberian odyssey through political, criminal, scientific,
> philosophical and amorous intrigues, and into an endless winter to confront
> something utterly alien.
>
> 14th July 1924: In a Warsaw buried under feet of snow and Russian rule,
> Benedykt Gieroslawski, a dissolute young Polish mathematician, is roused
> from his bed by two officials from the Ministry of Winter and dispatched to
> Siberia, on the Trans-Siberian Express, to track down his long-exiled
> father.
>
> The catalyst for this frosty metamorphosis of 20th century history is the
> impact of the Tunguska asteroid, deep in Siberia, in 1908. From this Ground
> Zero, emerge the Gleissen, silent harbingers of an eternal winter that
> follows in their ponderous wake. As they spread across the continent,
> agriculture collapses and people flock to cities as they seek protection
> from the deadly cold. As the land freezes, so does history: the Tsar still
> rules Russia; the Belle Époque endures; and the First World War never
> happened.
>
> But out there, on the ice, a new world is being forged. The extreme, alien
> cold has transmuted elements into strange new forms, a 'black physics' that
> is the catalyst for a new industrial and scientific revolution. At the
> heart of it lies Siberia – a 'Wild East', a magnet for all the political,
> religious and scientific fevers shaking the world at the dawn of the 20th
> century, the crucible where black physics, shamanic lore and the cold logic
> of winter combine. And Benedykt's final destination.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>