EVER WINTER by Peter Hackshaw @HackshawPeter

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

On BookBub

How I discovered this book: Amazon browse.

In a Nutshell: Post-apocalyptic survival/scifi/fantasy.

A hundred or so years after the big freeze fell over the earth, Henry and his family live on the now frozen Atlantic ocean.  They escaped from a community called the Favela (which I assumed to be in Brazil), and now live completely alone, seeing no one else.  Their trouble begins when, out hunting one day, Henry and his father find a man who has recently died in the snow.

This tale of survival under brutal circumstances had me totally absorbed at first, and I enjoyed the parts when Henry and his family find relics from the past, not knowing what they are.  The suspense builds in a slow, sinister fashion, as they begin to believe that they are not safe in their new home. 

Other reviews mention this being a book of two halves, and it is.  The first one is a post-apocalyptic tale of danger, survival, loss and the desire for revenge, and I loved it.  It's gritty and violent (warning: contains instances of cannibalism).  The second half introduces a robot medic from an abandoned ship - don't want to say any more because of spoilers, but I liked his scenes a lot, too; the interactions are great, and it's all well thought out and feasible.  As it goes on, though, the tone of the second half felt like more of a fantasy novel.

There were a couple of aspects I wasn't so keen on - the long dream sequences, which I've always found pointless in books and on TV.  Then, later on, Henry's younger sisters turn into Game of Thrones characters:  'I thank you, my husband, for bringing me to this place.  But Mister Lanner's presence upsets me.  I want his head.  Serve it on this table with the lobster, if you will'.  Where would they have learned to talk like this?  I also thought the editor could have lost some unnecessary dialogue tags (which dulled the impact of some lines of speech), and some sentences in which the author has told the reader how the character is feeling, though this has already been illustrated by his dialogue and actions.

To sum up: I liked it, and Mr Hackshaw certainly has talent; it's a most respectable debut novel and I'm sure he will go onto bigger and better.