Cold People by Tom Rob Smith review a chilling vision of a new society

An alien invasion forces humanity to reinvent itself in an ambitious, cinematic thriller that tackles the weightiest issues of our age Cold People is Tom Rob Smiths fifth novel, but in the years since his bestselling debut, Child 44, he has also developed a parallel award-winning career as a screenwriter, and the influence of a

The ObserverFictionReview

An alien invasion forces humanity to reinvent itself in an ambitious, cinematic thriller that tackles the weightiest issues of our age

Cold People is Tom Rob Smith’s fifth novel, but in the years since his bestselling debut, Child 44, he has also developed a parallel award-winning career as a screenwriter, and the influence of a more visual form is subtly felt throughout this cinematic speculative fiction about the future of humanity.

The premise is classic disaster movie territory, almost to the point of cliche: an alien invasion threatens to wipe humanity from the face of the Earth. The planet’s population is given 30 days to relocate to Antarctica, which will become a vast reservation for the remnants of the species; there they will either die out or adapt, depending on their willingness to work together. But the alien overlords are not the focus of Smith’s interest here; they are no more than a device to effect this revolutionary reinvention not only of human society, but of humanity itself.

Will this superior species, created by humans, save or destroy us?

The “exodus” to Antarctica occurs in the summer of 2023, and the narrative is divided between the events of that year, chronicling the colonisation of a new society and seen largely through the eyes of a young couple, Liza and Atto, and a crisis point that occurs 20 years later, at the culmination of the project to genetically engineer a new generation of “ice-adapted” people bred to thrive in the harshest conditions. The most successful of these humanoid creatures is ready to be “integrated” into the community, but the dilemma remains: will this superior species, created by humans, save or destroy us? The answer, according to Yotam, the scientist who has “raised” the creature from birth, will depend on its capacity to love. “But how can I teach something I’ve been looking for my whole life?” Yotam wonders.

Cold People is a vastly ambitious novel, tackling the weightiest questions of our time in a form that rarely loses the tension of a thriller, despite the complexity of its subject matter.

Cold People by Tom Rob Smith is published by Simon & Schuster (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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