Egalley thanks to Random House

This book reads like a mad inventor's fairy-tale. I love crazy, but sometimes it was too much even for me. That's why I think I'm having difficulties describing what I feel about this book.

You've read the synopsis, right? A mad, mad world full of genetic mutations, hard work and extreme climates.

Sorykah is a Trader, a rare mutation with genetic make-up of two people. Her other half, Soryk has been suppressed all her life and only comes out for short spurs of time when Sorykah's body goes through too much stress. Sorykah doesn't remember what happens when she is male, Soryk doesn't know he is a Trader and blames what he can't remember on memory loss.

Sorykah has baby twins, who get kidnapped by an absolutely mad monstrous Collector of rare mutations, and the poor woman has to go through numerous trials and tribulations to save her babies. It's a classic fairy tale but from a very twisted angle.

I look back and all I can see is a slew of images imprinted on my brain after I finished this book...

Sorykah's dogs get eaten by a giant seal; Dunya, the dog-faced housekeeper of Collector's house keeps the children safe in her kitchen; Soryk falls in love with mutants' Queen who hides her people in the big trees of the forest; Sorykah goes to Collector's son, a sexual deviant who lives on an island where pleasure is the only ruler; Soryk cuts his little finger to use as a key to Collector's house; merged personality, mad battles, weird hazy conversations, torture and evil experiments....

Mad enough for you?

It's an undeniably unique and interesting book, it's gripping, frustrating and exhausting with plenty of fascinating secondary characters. Will I read book #2? I guess I will when I feel brave enough. ( )

For me, this is more of an interesting spin on an adult fairy tale, but not enough to slot it into that category. The frozen land of the Sigue is one that contains an Isle of Mourning, a Bay of Sorrows and even a Erun Forest - with a Wooded Beast that roams it - located at the base of the Glass Mountains. It is a world of somatics, outcasts that are part human, part creature in a world where genetic mutation has altered things and a world in which Sorykah is determined to "slay her dragon", the Collector. The story was very slow in the beginning - great detailed description but a bit too much description - to the point where, 100 pages in, I was starting to grow bored with it. I am glad I stuck with it. The story - meaning the plot - does improve. The sex orgy on the Isle of Mourning and the other various sexual innuendos could have been minimized, along with some repetition of the story, but that is just my opinion. lastly, I cannot picture Sorykah as the girl on the cover..... the cover art gives a very different impression of the story between the covers!

For a debut novel that fits into a genre I don't usually read, this ended up being an okay story for me.... a little on the long side at some 372 pages - could have easily cut 50-75 pages from it and I blame the editors for that - but overall okay. ( )

Very violent, grim with extreme sex and orgies. NOT recommended. ( )

Reading Ice Song is like dreaming. While you're in it, everything seems completely normal and you take it as it comes. Kasai's vividly descriptive writing makes every scene come alive in your mind. Then you wake up and think, "Man, that was weird!" Though I mean that in a positive sense. I love a good, imaginative story, and this one definitely fits the bill.

I really liked the first half of Ice Song. Even though this is a fantasy novel, I think this book did a great job of expressing the conflicts of mothers everywhere. As a mother, I identified with Sorykah's desperate drive to find and rescue or avenge her children. The story of her trek through a bizarre and forbidding wilderness made excellent reading, as I was on the edge of my seat wondering if she would make it in time. Then the second half of the book came along, and I just felt that it was overly bogged down with sex and debauchery (please visualize my prim schoolmarm look). I am not offended by sex in books if it fits in with the story, but this felt a little excessive at times.

Worthy of mention is one plot line that didn't make the cover description. It concerns the story of Dunya the dog-faced girl, a disfigured woman trapped in the service of the man who kidnapped Sorykah's children. Assigned to care for the kidnapped twins and terrified for their safety, Dunya is torn between fear of escape and a desire for freedom. I loved reading her story.

I also liked the way this book challenged gender roles and characteristics. I actually liked the Trader concept (I've always wanted to know what being a guy feels like, if only for a day), but I know it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Just so you know, the whole gender-switching issue ended up being a lot less strange than I thought it was going to be. Soryk and Sorykah read as very different characters, characters who don't even know each other, and so never really mention each other. However, if there is an issue that makes you uncomfortable you should be forewarned that it's probably in this book. Gender ambiguity? Obviously, check. Homosexuality? Check! Discrimination, disabilities, addictions, sexual promiscuity? Checks all around!

Due to the many content warnings (sex, drugs, violence, creepiness), I cannot broadly recommend this book. But if you're the kind of person who enjoys a really unique character and story, I think you will love Ice Song. ( )

For a first novel, I’m impressed with Ice Song. A rich world has been created. In the end, I was quite impressed by how it grew in my mind in the wake of Sorykah’s quest. Heavy and dark, this is unquestionably a good novel, but not one that everyone will find easy to get through.

For a longer review, see my blog:
http://mentatjack.com/2009/06/07/review-ice-song-by-kristen-imani-kasai/ ( )