Winter Song - Colin Harvey

Although bookended with science-fiction themes of interstellar travel and terraforming planets, when spaceman Karl Allman crash lands on the frozen planet of Isheimur the majority of Winter Song involves a Lord of the Rings fantasy style quest across the planet's frozen wastes, deserts and mountainous terrain populated by trolls, dragons and other dangerous creatures.  There's even a Gollum-like character that joins Karl and Bera (one of the planet's settlers, an outcast from her own society) as they make their way across the land in search of an ancient holy object fallen from the skies that could provide Karl with a way back to civilised society.

The Lord of the Rings comparisons however shouldn't worry anyone unduly, as Colin Harvey is more interested in the area where mythology runs up against science and he approaches it in an authentic and intelligent manner in Winter Song, making it highly readable and entertaining at the same time.  A terraformed planet with Icelandic traits, culture and mythology, Isheimur has however been abandoned by the enterprise who made it habitable for human life, and in the place of science, the people have fallen back on old beliefs, Norse legends and, through necessity, back on traditional roles and ways of thinking.  Arriving as an outside to this small isolated culture struggling to survive in a harsh environment, the lifestyle and behaviour seems archaic and almost barbaric to the spaceman with his nanotechnology-enhanced body.  Having been damaged by the planet fall, the remnants of an artificial consciousness causing a split in his personality, Karl's behaviour however is just as strange to the inhabitants of Isheimur, who name the unpredictable part of his nature Loki.

The cultural and social conflict that this gives rise to is handled well by the author, the nature of mythology and legend arising out of finding explanations for the lack of scientific knowledge intelligently approached, thankfully without any hokey old God-falling-from-the-stars nonsense.  The social order that exists on the planet, the attitudes that are formed by its inhabitants and even individual characteristics are all carefully thought through, with a whole range of characters even outside the principal ones being authentically and realistically described and coming fully to life.

Winter Songs work remarkably well then on a number of levels, in how it forms relationships between the characters, in how it examines the differences between them – male/female roles, traditional versus modern, artificial intelligence versus organic, advanced versus low-sentient – as well as considering concepts of mythology and its impact on culture, and the issue of colonisation and its impact on the environment and on indigenous life.  All of this however only goes towards creating a credible and full-realised environment that enriches the novel and provides the motivation and direction that drive the characters through its entertaining adventure.