Before they arrive, two of the expedition members are forced to drop out, but the rest press ahead, determined to record a full year of weather data and survive the darkness of the Arctic winter. Their destination is the (fictive) abandoned mining camp of Gruhuken, and (as you’d expect in a gothic novel), the locals try to persuade them not to go there without saying why. Jack Miller is desperate to get out of his current situation and although he has qualms about not fitting in with the upperclassmen, he signs up to be their radio operator. It’s better (and shorter) than Dan Simmons’ The Terror, anyway.įour young men of a certain class are planning a scientific expedition to the island known as Spitsbergen in the Arctic Circle, and they persuade a fifth (not of their class) to join them. This is yet another men-without-women narrative, which makes me sigh, but given that it’s at least written by a woman I suppose we can forgive it. I think Michelle Paver is better known for her YA fiction, which is possibly why this reminded me a little of Alan Garner. I’m not familiar with Ms Paver’s work, but I am familiar with supernatural scares in an arctic landscape – one of those classic gothic settings. A quick palate cleanser after the epic Troubled Blood, and another 99p special.
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