The Ice Orphan

By Kathleen O'Neal Gear

Book Overview

This third book in a cli-fi series from a nationally-recognized 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, a 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's going to 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 a special 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 old woman who sings to him. When Jawbone goes on his first quest to find a spirit helper, that same old woman finds him, and his life will never be the same.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756415888
• ISBN13: 9780756415884
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.1"