I received a free copy of this ebook by Netgalley, to review on behalf of the publisher. This book will be released July 23, 2013.
It’s fitting that J.M. Sidorova’s The Age of Ice isn’t coming out until July. It will be a fantastic book to cool off with.
The book begins in 1742, with the Empress Anna of Russia and her cruel games. The main characters parents are tormented and their twins are born a little strange. Alexander Velitzyn is impervious to cold and when his emotions are aroused, he actually gets colder. The only one who can touch him without risking frostbite is his brother. Oh, and then there’s the other thing. For some reason, Alexander just doesn’t die–even after being frozen solid in ice for two months while in Siberia.
Alexander’s story, for a large part of his life, follows the history of Russia. He takes part in Pugachev’s rebellion, a search for a Northeast Passage, fights at Austerlitz, and fights his way across Europe with the Russian Army during the end of the Napoleonic Wars. But when his personal life falls apart, Alexander is cut adrift. His curious abilities keep him from forming attachments to people. He is not only looking for someone who can love him, but also for answers about what he is. He ends up drifting to Afghanistan and India, outliving his old life by decades.
Sidorova doesn’t tell the story as a straightforward biography. Instead, it’s almost like having Alexander talking about the highlights of his life. Or rather, it’s a bit like seeing Alexander talk about his proverbial nine lives. He constantly reinvents himself. People come in and out of his life, then their descendants crop up. Russia changes. Europe changes. The Age of Ice is an incredible journey, in all senses of the word.