Cold As Ice [Hardcover]

Charles Sheffield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1992

Twenty-five years after the great war between the inner planets and the asteroid belt, several of the individuals involved in the war prepare to go battle again. By the author of Summertide.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The war between the inner planets and the asteroid belt is 25 years in the past; travel is common throughout the solar system, and human interests have spread as far as the moons of Jupiter. When a handful of very special people find themselves drawn by apparent circumstance to the underground colony on Europa, the seeds of a conflict long thought to be ended begin to bear unexpected fruit. The author of "The Heritage Universe" series combines a wealth of expertise in theoretical physics with a gift for storytelling to create a novel of hard science and political intrigue that belongs in most sf collections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Buzzing, expansive medium-future space drama from the physicist-author (see below). Toward the end of the 21st century, after a space war has devastated Earth, Mars, and the inhabited asteroid belt, development centers on the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Keen to develop the ice-moon Europa is Cyrus Mobarak, genius inventor of portable fusion power units; opposing him is the reclusive brilliant researcher Hilda Brandt. And caught up in their almost imperceptible power struggle are fusion scientist Camille Hamilton, undersea researcher Jon Perry, and brilliant composer Wilsa Sheer- -all three of whom have extraordinarily augmented abilities. After an accident on the surface of Europa, Camille apparently freezes to death, only to revive without ill effects; Jon and Wilsa, trapped in a submersible in the deep water beneath Europa's icy surface, run out of air, but they revive too. Turns out that all three are survivors of wartime biological experiments aimed at creating super-talented humans--experiments directed by Hilda Brandt. The various plot elements take a while to come together, and there are one or two bothersome holes in the logic thereof. But this is certainly Sheffield's best effort to date. Watch for sequels. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (June 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312851391
• ISBN-13: 978-0312851392
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,510,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Author Will Be Missed, July 23, 2003

By 

Jenny Hanniver "medieval_student" (Philadelphia, PA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold As Ice (Mass Market Paperback)

For years Charles Sheffield has been one of my favorite science fiction authors--right up there with current "wouldn't miss" authors like Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, Ursula LeGuin, Robert Sawyer and Gene Wolfe--and this will be as much a eulogy as a review of COLD AS ICE. I looked forward to a Sheffield novel or novelette every year or so. Some say he wrote space opera--but if so, it was a superior kind. COLD AS ICE, set in the near-future solar system and something like a sequel to THE JUPITER PROJECT, is less of a space opera than, say, Sheffield's "Convergence" tales. I read it years ago and reread it last week before going on to its 2002 sequel, DARK AS DAY. Sheffield's last book is quite good after a somewhat frivolous start, grows better with each chapter, and I genuinely recommend it, but COLD AS ICE remains my personal favorite of all his longer fiction.

Sheffield had the mind of a scientist, a waggish wit, and the soul of a poet--a rare combination in science-fiction, which has been able to attract writers of significance like Ted Sturgeon, humorists as prolific as Ron Goulart and Terry Pratchett, and scientists like Gregory Benford, but seldom has the genre had an author whose elements were so mix'd as in Charles Sheffield, enabling us to shout, "This was a writer!" Sheffield's poetic diction and irrepressible wit probably emerged from his own temperament. He seems to have been a glorious romantic who had next to no male supremacy hangups. "At the Eschaton," a novelette that whirls us, a la Olaf Stapledon, from our time to the far distant future, is the most genuinely romantic work ever to emerge out of science-fiction, a mind-blowing exploration of "eternal love." It remains the best sci-fi short novel I've ever read (although the novel-length expansion was one of Sheffield's lesser efforts).

In a different way COLD AS ICE is also a superb romance, with realistic, sometimes imperfect, relationships of many kinds, from friendship to love (both mature and immature). While these interactions are building, the action never for a moment lets up, and the science, while cutting-edge, is extrapolated from current physical theories. The setting, mainly on Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, is deliciously described and the preservation of Europa from human contamination has resonance for our time. It's a slam-bang adventure tale, with (as usual in Sheffield) a mystery to be solved. But most of all I appreciate Sheffield's subtle, realistic, and warm humans in this fine book--something, alas, Arthur Clarke has never achieved. Humans like "Megachirops" the Great Bat, a fat and sometimes too-arrogant genius (whom we met in THE JUPITER PROJECT and who shows up for a third appearance in DARK AS DAY, I'm happy to report), the three young people of special talents whose mystery is the backbone of the book, and even the lesser characters.

It's correct to call this a next-step-in-human evolution novel, but it takes evolution in small steps--don't look for CHILDHOOD'S END or BLOOD MUSIC. In Sheffield's mature stories the main characters may be superior but are never one-dimensional. Like Bat, they are quite fallible. The up-and-coming young sci-fi novelist, Peter Hamilton, could learn a lot by studying Sheffield's books. Hamilton's space-operatic "Confederation" series shows promise, but the hero is too much a universal genius to be true, and ultimately he becomes a crashing bore. Sheffield never bored us. I don't want to believe he's gone!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A well-written book, with a thin plot line., November 4, 1997

By 

Kenneth R. Bridges "Siddhas" (Thousand Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold As Ice (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is set in the near future after a major war between sects of humans that occupy the asteroid belt region and those on Earth and Mars. The plot revolves around a new weapon that one side hopes will tilt the war in their favor. Unfortunately for them, events turn sour, they attempt to cover their tracks, and we are left with a mystery.

The book is well-written and easy to read. The plot does not create a great deal of suspense, and the resolution involves violations of biological principles that lack a real SF cover. As such, the stage is SF with interplanetary travel, frozen worlds that have been terraformed and the like. The plot, however, is fantasy involving biological responses beyond any norm. The mix is more than mildly annoying.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Science, fine story, Superb Sheffield, October 11, 2003

By 

Christopher S. Gerlach M.A. C.F.A. Oxon (Colorado currently) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold As Ice (Mass Market Paperback)

Cold as Ice is a very fine work, by one of the best science fiction writers of our time. I am sorry indeed to hear of Charles Sheffield's passing last year. I enjoyed the wit, humor and hands on realism of this book, and others of his. Of the works of his I have read, this is the best yet. The story line keeps one engaged, the background of the Great War that is now over, leaving humanity bruised and battered, and the space lanes strewn with lost hopes and ghost ships is a engaging and believable background indeed. And the characters are real, human and they invite us to follow their efforts in many ways.

The issues of science in service to politics, war and social needs is raised in subtle ways, and the sacrifice and challenges faced in many ways in this story evoke and raise questions for contemporary contemplation.

I would urge any who have encountered Sheffield's work to read this as one of his best, and congratulate those other readers who already know and appreciate the fine qualities of this superior work.