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Cold People
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
21 posts | 12 read | 6 to read
From the bestselling author of Child 44, a virtuosic, highly-anticipated new novel about a colony of global apocalypse survivors trying to reinvent civilisation under the most extreme conditions imaginable. The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist . . . Antarctica. Cold People follows the journeys of a handful of those who endure the frantic exodus to the most inhospitable environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. While they cling to life on the ice, the vestiges of their past swept away, they must also confront the most urgent of challenges: can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity's future? Can they build a new society in the cold? Original and imaginative, as profoundly intimate as it is grand in scope, Cold People is a truly masterful epic.
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review
readswellwithothers
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Pickpick

Well, I‘m sure glad I didn‘t check to see what y‘all thought of this book before I read it because WOW, there is *no* Litsy Love to be found! Was it an alien story? Nope. Were there some plot holes? I suppose, yes, but can‘t that also just mean that we get to walk away with some questions? Isn‘t it okay to wonder, to allow some space for our beautiful brains to choose imaginative explanations of our own? Anyway, I‘m making this a pick. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

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CaitlinByTheBook
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Current #librarybook that I‘m reading on my new Kobo! Do you use an e-reader? I love it for reading at night and limiting my blue light exposure.

Even though it‘s winter, we‘ve had some warm days and I‘m craving books set in a cold and snowy place!

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AllDebooks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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#JoyousJanuary #Midwintersolace

Planned weekend reading, as well as finishing the tagged.

@Andrew65

36 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Reggie
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Bailedbailed

Yeah, this is bad. The writing is way more tell than show. I gave it the good ol‘100 pg try and couldn‘t. I made to 25 years into the future where there are 3 settlements and the first one we read about he keeps writing there, you‘re like family. Everyone there, they‘re family. They hugged because everyone there, they‘re like family. I just started laughing. Shoutout to Olive Garden‘s marketing because when you‘re there, you‘re family. Lol👇🏼

Reggie I have 5 more books to read for my goal this year and I just want them to be good. 11mo
Ruthiella Hope the next five are great! Love the Olive Garden reference. It made me chuckle. 🤭 11mo
Reggie @Ruthiella Thanks! Yeah, he must have written that phrase like 5 times over a couple of pages. In my head I was hearing the guy in the commercials. 11mo
See All 13 Comments
batsy Lol! Love this. 11mo
Bookwormjillk I couldn‘t get through this one either. I had such high hopes too. 11mo
TrishB This is in my pics folder for future purchases! It shall be relegated! 11mo
Bookzombie I tried to read Child 44 by him years ago and couldn‘t get in to it. I hope your next five books are great! 11mo
Reggie @batsy @Bookwormjillk @TrishB @Bookzombie there are only so many times I can be told something in a book without the author writing a scene to support it. And then he expects us to be connected enough to where he kills off this character and instead of caring I just rolled my eyes. Whatever. Not for me. 11mo
Rissreads This reminded me of the book I read The last. A similar thing happened. The author used this expression at least a dozen times in the book. She/he spread her hands. I started to get an involuntary tick every time it came up! It really pissed me off in the end! 🤣 I‘ll give this book a miss. Good luck on your last 5 books! May they be fabulous! (edited) 11mo
Reggie @Rissreads Lolol, yeah. Sometimes it‘s just a word, too. They keep using it. I totally understand. Thanks! 11mo
Centique @Reggie @Rissreads the funny thing is when i wrote a novel and did a writing course i discovered my own overused phrases. It was so bizarre! I was writing for a year or more and every chapter two or three times someone would “hold their breath” or “ take a breath” Completely shocked me when i read it and saw how often i mentioned breath! (edited) 11mo
Centique @Reggie @Rissreads but YET we were just beginners and even we could use google search and find our overused words - so no excuse really for publishers and editors. 11mo
Rissreads @Reggie @Centique yep someone needs a kick up the arse! The editor was definitely asleep at the wheel! 11mo
56 likes13 comments
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Addison_Reads
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Panpan

This was one I was excited to read even before the #tob24 long list came out. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. Great ideas, interesting setting, but ultimately the author has too many unanswered questions and giant cavern sized plot holes.

And don't even get me started on that terrible ending! 🤦‍♀️ I will be surprised if this makes the shortlist.

BarbaraBB I‘ve been interested in this one too. Will let it be for now. 11mo
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Megabooks 💯💯💯 agree terribly disappointing!! Don‘t waste your time if it doesn‘t make the shortlist @BarbaraBB 11mo
Ruthiella Yeah, this sounds bad. The reviews I‘m seeing on Goodreads are also pretty negative. 11mo
squirrelbrain I couldn‘t get this and was very disinclined any after @Megabooks review. Then, a couple of days ago, it appeared on BorrowBox so I borrowed it. Still don‘t think I‘ll read it, unless it makes the shortlist! 11mo
Hooked_on_books I read this a while back, as I really liked another book by this author (The Farm), and I agree. Cool premise, poor execution. 11mo
43 likes7 comments
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Megabooks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Panpan

Holy plot holes, Batman! The premise of this book is so poorly constructed it‘s laughable. Aliens give all humans 30 days to move to Antarctica, and the majority of us don‘t make it and even fewer survive the first winter. However somehow supercomputers and an inventory of the of the DNA of every species that ever existed were moved and put in service of a crazy geneticist to save the human race by making non-human creatures to its not clear…⬇️

Megabooks I‘m going to elaborate in spoiler tags in case you‘re suddenly dying to read this, but I promise I‘ll try to make what‘s behind the tags funny! Stay tuned! #tob24 12mo
Megabooks Evacuation blah blah…that part was fine. Then you skip 20 years…just 20 years…into the future and you‘ve got geneticists trying to save the human race (as the author reiterated MANY times) by making human hybrids. But it was unclear for the entire book whether they were building a race of slaves or trying to humanize them and defining and exploring one of these options would‘ve made a WAY better book!! 12mo
Megabooks So humans share 98% DNA with chimps and 84% with dogs. This geneticist on Antarctica, where it would be difficult to get instruments adapted for warmer labs to work (and how are they fueling the electricity??), have created these hybrids with octopus blood and dinosaur tails and scalpel hands. Because that‘s totally how genetics works AGCTGoctupusbloodTAGC. 🙄🙄🙄🙄 and again unclear how these hybrids are going to save humanity. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ 12mo
See All 16 Comments
Megabooks So basically the entire book was a massive exercise in frustration as a person who cannot !MASSIVELY! suspend her disbelief. Rebecca Lowman‘s narration was great as always but the material was shit. Thank god I borrowed from Spotify!! See spoiler tags above for details. ⬆️ (edited) 12mo
TieDyeDude Sad. I loved his Child 44 series, but I haven't heard anything great about his other work. 12mo
Megabooks @TieDyeDude this was a huge disappointment. There were directions he could‘ve explored that would‘ve made it much better. 12mo
Megabooks Also, in trying to make these huge edits, you‘re going to lose a lot of early embryos, but how are they replacing them? Did they bring storage containers of leftover IVF embryos? How? Did they make embryos from survivors? Again how? Because they‘d seriously need A LOT. At least as far as I understand things. and yeah, the evacuation was in 2023 and twenty years later is 2043, so you can‘t use the “we‘ve figured things out in the future excuse” 12mo
Megabooks And yes, the MC with octopus blood was carried by a normal human female, so how did that placenta work?? PLOT HOLES!!! 12mo
squirrelbrain Phew! My library had this but went I went to check it out we couldn‘t find it on the shelves. My lucky day I think! 🤣 12mo
Megabooks @squirrelbrain I think so!! 12mo
AlaMich It sounds like the plot you‘d get if you had a group of people writing it without knowing what the others were writing. 12mo
Reggie I have this on Libby right now. I love the TOB pans you guys get. Makes me want to read them more. Great review Meg! 12mo
Megabooks @AlaMich it was disjointed! I really don‘t know what he was going for because there were a few interesting directions and he didn‘t seem to pick one. It just kind of lumbered. 12mo
Megabooks @Reggie very curious about what you‘ll think of if you‘ll finish! 🤔🤔 12mo
Hooked_on_books I wasn‘t a fan of this either, but didn‘t hate it quite as much as you did. 😉 I loved his book The Farm and keep looking for him to have another that good, but this definitely wasn‘t it! 12mo
Chelsea.Poole Oh wow…definitely not going there 😆 12mo
56 likes16 comments
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Megabooks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Two #tob24 pans coming this afternoon/tomorrow. 🤣😱 I think Cold People is the worst book I‘ve read this year. If I weren‘t a #completist of the shortlist, I wouldn‘t have finished either, but I DON‘T want to come back to them!!

squirrelbrain Oh good! For me anyway, as I can cross them both off my list. Thanks for taking one (two!) for the #ToB tea,! 12mo
Deblovestoread Sorry you read two stinkers but thank you for letting us know! 💜 12mo
Bookwormjillk I‘m impressed if you finished Cold People. I bailed. 12mo
See All 8 Comments
Megabooks @Bookwormjillk it was horrible! 12mo
Megabooks @Deblovestoread I hope neither makes it to the real tournament, but I bet the new earth will. 🤔🤔 I‘ll say more in its review. 💜 (edited) 12mo
Megabooks @squirrelbrain always glad to be the vanguard!! 🤣🤣 12mo
Bookwormjillk @Megabooks I was really surprised to see it was being considered. I loved his book The Farm though. 12mo
Megabooks @Bookwormjillk I‘m willing to try him again, but not for awhile. There were parts of his ideas I found interesting, but it was sooo poorly executed! 12mo
55 likes8 comments
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Addison_Reads
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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I might have a problem. These are my current library checkouts for #ToB 2024.

I think I'm starting the tagged book first.

AnnR Wow! Good luck. 12mo
BarbaraBB So many! Can‘t wait for your reviews! 12mo
jlhammar Ambitious! 12mo
36 likes3 comments
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LiseWorks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Well, finally, another book for these two challenges. It was not on my list for #SummerEndReadathon, but I added it. @TheSpineView #IspyBingoSept one more spot @Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks

TheSpineView Great job! 1y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 1y
15 likes2 comments
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LiseWorks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Mehso-so

This book was kind of boring. Yes, it had Alians in it. But we don't know why. 🤷 it seemed to drag for me. Lots of unanswered questions. I don't think there is a book 2, so I am left with like Whaaaaaat.....? It did give another bingo spot for #NSR23 @Nessavamusic and another book for #RushAthon @DieAReader @Andrew65 @GHABI4ROSES

Nessavamusic Hey another prompt done. Good job! 1y
LiseWorks @Nessavamusic getting there lol 1y
DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 1y
Andrew65 Well done 👏👏👏 1y
15 likes4 comments
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thegirlwiththelibrarybag
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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I select/borrow books for my grandparents and somewhere in a reserving spree, I reserved this one for my *pretty much exclusively reads crime & thrillers* grandpa - and he absolutely loved it - which is great - because I somehow missed that this was dystopian sci fi!

He even requested further books from this author!
And I love that for him.

Bookzombie So sweet! 1y
50 likes1 comment
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LiseWorks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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This is my list for the #RushAthon Readathon @DieAReader @Andrew65 @GHABI4ROSES I couldn't put photos of all, but I'm hoping to read all through these for this Readathon This should be fun

DieAReader 🤓📚Great stack!! Great to have u🥳 Good luck!! 1y
15 likes1 comment
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Decalino
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Pickpick

When an alien armada surrounds Earth, humans are given 30 days to make it to Antarctica or else. Alternating storylines show the desperate race to reach an extraordinarily brutal destination before the clock runs out and, 20 years later, the efforts humanity is willing to make to survive, even engineering cold-adapted beings (not all entirely plausible) who may no longer be human. Thought-provoking high concept SF with a touching emphasis on love.

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Kboltz
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Pickpick

Loved this read. 🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶 Aliens come to Earth and give the directive for humans to survive only if they reach Antarctica in 30 days. Love at first sight, survival, DNA engineering in a read that makes you shiver. 🥶

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Bookwormjillk
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Me and Daisy are taking a mental health day, and getting a head start on #MagnificentMay Readathon. My goal is to finish 6 books. I‘m in the middle of four so that should be doable!

dabbe Hello, Darling Daisy! 💙🐾💚 2y
Ruthiella 😻😻😻 2y
ElizaMarie So proud of you for taking a mental health day! Enjoy :) 2y
63 likes3 comments
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GerardtheBookworm
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Pickpick

On a fantasy sci-fi kick. In this one, an alien invasion forces the surviving humanity to seek refuge in the Antarctic. Establishing a new colony, this civilization resorts to science and human experimentation to create a new breed of living beings for the planet leading to conflict and questionable ethics. Jumping from pre-invasion to a future dystopia, this frigid read leaves reading from page yo the next.

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Hooked_on_books
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Mehso-so

I‘ve read and liked TRS before, but for me this apocalyptic novel doesn‘t measure up. The apocalyptic event just feels contrived to get to the story he wants to tell, about a small group of people in Antarctica trying to survive and yet making some very poor choices. Enjoyable at times, but full of holes and with a weak ending.

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Rhondareads
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Excited to read the new book by Tom Rob Smith the author of the best selling Child 44

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BoleyBooks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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BoleyBooks
Cold People | Tom Rob Smith
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Tackle the TBR 🤓📚
#boleybooks #ColdPeople #tomrobsmith #NetGalley #bookbeast #bookjoy #bookbuds
What are you reading? 😊

40 likes1 stack add