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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi (without the SCI), April 23, 2002
I have mixed feelings about this novel. On one hand, it has a pretty neat premise: The impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter in 1994 perturbed that planet's orbit imperceptibly, yet just enough to cause gradual climatic change on Earth, and hundreds of years later we are in the grip of a new Ice Age. Cool idea! Yet I'm troubled by the fact that such climate change would necessarily result in the catastrophic setback of science and culture depicted in this book. If the climate change had been accompanied by, for instance, a few good meteor impacts, the tribal existence of the book's protagonists would have been far more plausible. Too many questions are left unanswered here, and "Snowfall" is left begging for a sequel. That having been said, I still found this novel quite entertaining. I've always been a sucker for post-apocalyptic sci-fi, although there is precious little sci-fi here. Instead Mitchell Smith has painted a rich picture of a tribal community that calls itself the Trappers, living a tooth-and-nail existence just below the Wall Of Ice that engulfed Canada and the northern half of the United States. Having been forced off their land by tribes that have in turn been forced off THEIR land, the remnants of the Trappers must move south to warmer climes and strange human cultures. There are some memorable, well-drawn characters in this tale, most notably Catania, the tribe's doctor and preserver of ancient medical knowledge. Tribal warfare, sickness and death are portrayed unflinchingly here. The book is divided into short, easily digested chapters, each beginning with an excerpt from Catania's journal. Definitely worth a look if you like books of this genre.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A SAVAGE SURVIVAL TALE, April 2, 2002
Thanks to Amazon.com I found yet another author that I never heard of but writes a novel that sounded very interesting to me. If you like novels in the grand tradition of William Sarabande's FIRST AMERICANS series, or like post-holocaust adventure stories - then this one's for you! Mitchell Smith's SNOWFALL is a well told tale of an Earth that has gone through another ice age and has taken civilization away, leaving cities such as Chicago, with snowdrifts as high as the tallest skyscrapers. It is never told what exactly happened to the earth, but it is told and hinted to a long, long, time ago as the story is taking place. The story opens with a band known as the Trappers, a small collection of families that united and hunt the frozen tundra of what once was Colorado,I think. Their only link to the past is old journals and books that have been re-copied over and over thru time and they call copybooks. The first chapter starts right off with the hunters of the band getting food for their camp when they are attacked by Cree. The Cree are the modern-day equivalent of indians, but most of their bloodline are white, they have just taken to the old indian ways of survival. As the story goes on, the trappers are being forced out of their hunting grounds and being pushed south, along with all the other tribes from the north, like a dominoe effect. Fighting to keep their land, the trapper's, along with an outcast that comes back named Jack, a losing fight ensues and most of the trappers are decimated and Jack finds himself a leader of a band on the run. The band's head doctor of the tribe is a clorful woman named Catania. Catania is much more than a doctor as the reader finds out as the story unfolds. I thought that this book would not have much action and adventure that I'm partial too, but it had it plenty enough along with lots of interesting characters to keep you glued to each page. The adventures and tragedies that befall the running band of trappers as they flee ever southward is an enjoyable read as the reader see's the changes in the land and it's peoples as the trappers go deeper south. The ending is not what I expected, but it was good nonetheless. It read like an epic movie. I recommend this book to anyone.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mankind in the next iceage, November 5, 2006
Set in the future after the next ice age has destroyed most of civilization, this is a story about Dr. Catania Olsen a member of the Trappers tribe, a group by people living in the North at the edge of the glacial wall. Enough time has passed so that most knowledge has been lost. Civilization is still on the fall. It is a brutal time and life is very hard. Catania's tribe is attacked and forced to move.
The tribe meets the Garden people, which live in the forest. There Catania meets the rather extreme one-eyed doctor. Catania must tread carefully with the half-mad woman.
I enjoyed this story. It is creative and well thought out. We are not presented a world where humanity bravely steps up to and overcomes a challenge, but where it descends back into darkness and merely strives for survival.
An interesting story.
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