The Ice Orphan

An insightful and influential story of climate change and the power of humankind's behaviour and decisions, The Ice Orphan takes readers on a journey to a world at once strange and familiar.

Now, in paperback, this third book in the Rewilding Reports cli-fi series from a nationally recognised anthropologist explores a frozen future where archaic species struggle to survive an apocalyptic ice age. It's been 925 summers since the Jemen introduced zyme, bioluminescent algae, into the world's ocean and unwittingly triggered an ice age that has consumed most of the planet. All but a handful of Jemen flew to the stars, but before they left, they recreated several extinct species that had thrived in the last ice age. After almost a thousand summers, the archaic hominins that struggle along the edges of massive glaciers are dwindling. All they have to save them is a dying quantum computer called Quancee and her student, a Denisovan man named Lynx. When the last Jemen, Vice Admiral Jorgenson, tells Lynx he will dismantle Quancee and use her parts to create a new computer, Lynx is stunned. But while Lynx battles to save Quancee, the quantum computer has other priorities. Before she dies, she has to save an extraordinary boy who cannot save himself.

Meanwhile, in the lodges of the Sealion People, a sick boy on the verge of manhood hears voices, including an older woman who sings to him. When Jawbone goes on his first quest to find a spirit helper, that same older woman finds him, and his life will never be the same. 

Contemporary, immersive and completely enthralling.