(Image from C/W Mars catalog)
Terminal
Freeze by
Lincoln Child is a very good novel that is actually a little difficult to talk
about without giving too much away.
Set in Alaska’s Federal Wildlife Zone, it follows a team of scientists
on an expedition to study the effects of global warming as well as gather
information about the ancient ecosystem of the area. One day while gathering samples, the team discovers a
creature in the ice that challenges their scientific knowledge and wreaks
destruction upon the entire expedition.
Although it has all of the elements of science fiction, and would
actually be a fantastic basis for a movie, the story does not get weighed down
in the science but instead is mostly suspenseful, with a slow development of
the plot that keeps interest up throughout the whole book.
**SPOILER ALERT: reading farther may spoil
the book**
My favorite part of the book has to be the monster
and the fact that there is no clear answer as to exactly what it is or where it
comes from. The descriptions of it
start off as very vague but even as they get more detailed, it is still
difficult to picture exactly what it looks like because it is a creature so
ancient and outside our realm of understanding, whether you take the scientific
or the spiritual view of its origins.
But like every good monster, it is based in some reality, and at its
most basic, I pictured the creature as being an extra large version of one of my
best friends’ cats, which is black and part Maine coon with large, bright yellow
eyes (see picture below). And just
because it is never explained what the creature is, it does not mean that it
cannot be killed, although in no ordinary way.
My friend's cat, Cash. This is what I imagine the monster to at least partially look like. |
That is one of the great things about this story;
even though it raises many questions, especially about what the creature is and
where it came from, those questions do not impede the progress of the plot, so
the story still feels complete and has a satisfactory ending, even though those
questions are never answered. When
the creature’s body mysteriously disappears before they can examine it, along
with the other problems such as the storm and the blood red Northern Lights, it
is clear that the problem of the creature has been resolved for now, even if
none of the scientists can satisfactorily explain what happened or how to prevent
another such incident from happening again in the future. There is a scientific explanation, a
spiritual explanation from the local Tunit tribe, as well as a more outlandish
explanation given at the end by the three main characters who survive, but there
is little discussion or evidence to support one story over the others. I really like that about the story
because sometimes having all of the answers and having everything neatly
categorized and explained takes the fun and thrill out of the story. It is highly reminiscent of The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, even
though Terminal Freeze is more
science fiction than magical realism.
On the whole, Terminal
Freeze works so well as a novel because it focuses on telling the story of
what happens to this scientific expedition once the creature is released,
rather than trying to contextualize and explain away everything that
happens. There is a perfect mix of
science, suspense, and action that allows for the story to move along without
getting bogged down in the debate of science versus religion. The story is also written in such a
way, that it really keeps the reader involved and engrossed in the story. Even the open-endedness of the story
lets the reader decide for himself or herself, if they so choose, how to interpret
what the creature is and what really happened. It is an excellent example of writing that walks the line
between science fiction, mythology, and suspense in a way that works only to
keep the reader interested rather than lost in any one genre.
Child, Lincoln. (2009) Terminal Freeze: A Novel. New York: Doubleday.
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