Ice (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Helen Woods
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—inner space
- Time of Work: The twentieth century
- Setting: Various decaying towns and snowbound wastes
- Genres: Long fiction, Fable, Science fiction, Surrealist literature, Fantasy
- Subjects: Girls, Love or romance, Twentieth century, Nature, Future, Alienation, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Imagination, Science fiction, Soldiers, Quest, Winter, Glaciers, Ice Age, Mammals, Snow
- Locales: Europe
The Plot
The only fantasy among British author Anna Kavans twelve novels, Ice was the last work published before her death from a heroin overdose. Ice reflects a fragmented personality, hallucinating under the drugs thrall, yet the writing is fully in control, marked by pictorial vividness and lyrical beauty, as scenes dissolve between realism and trance.
The story opens with the nameless narrator driving, lost, along a dark road in his own country. A garage attendant warns of treacherous icing. The narrator, a writer interested in geographical locales, has...
[The entire page is 996 words long]
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