Customer Reviews

Cold Earth: A Novel

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Whether a pandemic or the effects of global warming pose the more serious threat to man's sojourn on earth, Sarah Moss assembles a team of archeologists from England, Scotland and the US to face their own test in a tale of psychological suspense in a dramatic landscape where winter is uninhabitable. The team of archeologists has arrived in Greenland's arctic summer to catalog tracings of lost Viking settlements. In alternating chapters, each character narrates the experience, the interactions of the members as they perform their appointed tasks and the gradual deterioration of camaraderie that settles over the camp. Echoes of the Viking's turbulent past are felt more substantively by Nina, who has left a boyfriend behind to accompany her friend, Yanni, the leader of the expedition.

Form the first, Nina is haunted by eerie dreams, the howls of fear, the screams of battle and the blood-soaked fields of snow covered in mutilated bodies. In contrast to Nina's unprofessional behavior, Ruth is capable and precise, shielding the loss of her loved one from the others and resistant to Nina's increasing hysteria, her growing insistence that they are not alone. Catriona, an artist at heart, falls in love with the ice, how she might translate it on canvas; Ben, from the north of England, says little and Jim, an American, relies on his Christian faith for the strength to endure a growing dread when the internet reports a spreading pandemic before all communication with the outside world is cut off.

With decreasing food supplies and the stress of sleeplessness as Nina's screams rend the night, the group struggles to retain focus, worries of home nagging everyone as they hunker down to the daily tasks Yanni assigns. The true drama comes from unsettled minds prey to Nina's increasingly erratic behavior and her obsession that they are being watched. The days pass, relationships more fragmented as hopes of any communication with home is shattered. It is this internal territory where trouble brews, each susceptible to the chaos of Nina's unraveling in spite of their best efforts to remain calm.

Nina's vivid dreams imbue the expedition with growing dread, her constant harping on the Greenlander's vulnerability to attack, her warnings that the dead have been disturbed and are agitated by the archeologist's work. What better way to fuel erratic behavior than the possibility of being stranded in a frozen land with no rescue and ghosts all about them? The psychological theme is Cold Earth's strongest appeal, the sad last letters home a sign that hope has gradually been extinguished. Worldwide catastrophe is more tolerable than the reality of spending whatever time remains without food or the comfort of loved ones, these modern students enamored of the past but unable to cope with the diminished futures they so cherished. Luan Gaines/2011.

I really enjoyed the book, but it just ended. The main story was attention grabbing, the back story was mysterious, the individual story lines were intersting, but it just ended. There was almost no finish to the story itself, and everything else was just left.

This book kept me reading, and along the way I learned about archeology and Greenland, but there were some loose ends, as if the author couldn't quite figure out how to resolve them.

The ending seemed abrupt and sketchy to me, and a topic that appeared throughout the story (I don't know how to present it without being a spoiler)was suddenly dismissed near the end.

Despite my reservations, I am glad I read it, and plan to pass it on to friends.

Six archaeologists spend a short field season in remote Greenland; an unusual setting for a novel? Perhaps, but it is what author Sarah Moss does with it that makes 'Cold Earth' such an enjoyable read. Combining the past and present of Greenland along with that of the six characters and the homes they left behind, Ms. Moss weaves a character study of individuals enduring both internal demons and external stresses and by delivering the story via letters home from each character, she allows the reader six perspectives including autobiographical ones. So effective was this method, I found myself cheating and looking ahead to see whose letter, and thus whose viewpoint, was next.

My intention was to quickly browse this first novel, but I could not put it down after the first page, and only the lateness of the hour made me reluctantly stop my initial reading after the first one hundred pages. The interior lives of her characters come alive, and the tension lines as the characters are revealed through letters to loved ones create a taut edginess and anxiety that is masterful. This book has flow, and a sense of impending doom that is palpable. This is a story that is hard to put into a category-is it a mystery? a ghost story? a dystopian novel? One thing is certain-it is a very good book,and my friends and I will be talking about this one. I can't wait for them to read it, and for the author to finish her next novel.

THis book is a mish-mash of horror movies themes. Stephen King and the Blair Witch Project, combined with pseudo-science. There are many stories and styles in this unfinished draft, and none makes sense or is held to the end. It is obvious to me that the first half was thoroughly drafted (also fully lacking in originality), then the narrators shift and it gets downhill from there. It is a shame to publish work in such an unfinished state, but, on the other hand, since it is not worth reading in the first place, might as well be done with it.