Ice

50th Anniversary Edition

By: Anna Kavan, Jonathan Lethem - foreword, Kate Zambreno - afterword

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

In a frozen, apocalyptic landscape, destruction abounds: great walls of ice overrun the world and secretive governments vie for control. Against this surreal, yet eerily familiar broken world, an unnamed narrator embarks on a hallucinatory quest for a strange and elusive "glass-girl" with silver hair. He crosses icy seas and frozen plains, searching ruined towns and ransacked rooms, all to free her from the grips of a tyrant known only as the warden and save her before the ice closes all around. A novel unlike any other, Ice is at once a dystopian adventure shattering the conventions of science fiction, a prescient warning of climate change and totalitarianism, a feminist exploration of violence and trauma, a Kafkaesque literary dreamscape, and a brilliant allegory for its author's struggles with addiction - all crystallized in prose glittering as the piling snow.

Kavan's 1967 novel has built a reputation as an extraordinary and innovative work of literature, garnering acclaim from China Mieville, Patti Smith, J. G. Ballard, Anaïs Nin, and Doris Lessing, among others. With echoes of dystopian classics like Ursula Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, and J. G. Ballard's High Rise, Ice is a necessary and unforgettable addition to the canon of science fiction classics.

©1967 Anna Kavan; Foreword copyright 2017 by Jonathan Lethem; Afterword copyright 2006 by Kate Zambreno (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A writer of intense imagination.... Slippery, bizarre, and meticulously written.... A gripping and uniquely strange work of science fiction." (Kirkus)

Incredible dystopian masterpiece

After reading that Anna influenced Christopher Priest, Ballard, and Brian Aldiss I knew I had to read immediately.
With out a doubt one of the greatest dystopian novels of all time. Highly recommend

Difficult both to describe and take in

It's hard to truly review this work, because it's so unlike anything else that I've read or listened to.

Its best attribute is a foggy, dreamlike timeline and setting. It's almost as though the reader is transported to alternate universes at the will of a whim, the same characters reset or in media res in wildly different storylines.

The story, as best can be pinned down, revolves mostly around two horribly abusive and ignorant men waving away the ramifications of the world going into arctic annihilation through their violent and sexual obsession with one woman. It's hard to be in that mindset for its entirety, as we see the young woman infantilized and tortured again and again, sometimes even to the point of death. There seems to be only one ending in which she is happy and it too is ominous.

I admit that this was difficult to get through. It is woefully depressing and repeats the word "ice" with every other sentence. But if you are looking for something to challenge you and give you the most accurate sensation of a bad trip that I've read yet, this may be worth your time.

The narrator does an admirable job given the difficulty of the material. Definitely listen to the afterword, as the author's life is quite fascinating.

Maybe not for everyone - but it's really for me!

I read it twice and did not understand. Listened once and I'm much closer. Embrace the unreality: especially if you already like Kafka.

Listened again and I'm in heaven... hell... the way she captures the subconscious is incredible. Dreamy and vivid, the unreal so real.

Mr. Patterson does a fine job guiding you along and, unlike many readers, injects emotion into his performance without being underdone or forced.

There are few other works I've listened to that match the imagery of Ice, reminiscent of someone like Dante's legendary Inferno.

More than worth it. If you don't get it your first or 2nd time don't be discouraged. I'm really glad I put in the effort on this one.

Baffling and hard work

Nigel Patterson as narrator m made me try this book. The story seemed intriguing. Reviews were solid.
Never have I been so alienated by a story. Didn't make it past 6 chapters.
I actually became aggravated by it...most odd.
Just not my cuppa.

Reads like a first draft of an amateur fanfic

The audio quality and performance is fine. The story is somewhat interesting toward the end, but the book is very poorly written. It almost entirely disregards the concept of "show, don't tell" and endlessly dumps on you about what the narrator thinks and perceives in first person during any given moment, with very little eloquence.

I'll paraphrase the dreadful style of writing in Ice with a parody that is fairly accurate:

"I went to this place in search of a certain thing. I started to feel a particular feeling, but I also started to feel an altogether contradictory feeling, which was frustrating.Soon after I began to grow tired, so I contemplated rest, but I stumbled upon a sight that had transfixed me due to its resplendent luminescence. It was a nice feeling. However, something about it also wasn't so nice, and I had a hard time understanding why that might be the case."

If that sounds well written to you, then you might really enjoy this book.

Ice has circulated around many lists of top sci-fi, but I strongly suggest steering clear of it because it is neither good sci-fi, nor is it remotely comparable in quality of works by Kafka, to which the book has also been compared. While the increasingly hallucinatory progression of the nearly nonexistent plot provides mildly entertaining moments toward the conclusion, I would recommend getting through the first half hour of this book and then aborting it if you are not enthralled by that point, because it doesn't a whole lot better.