Frost Burn, a fantasy-adventure novel by co-authors K.T Munson and Nichelle Rae, tackles the devastation of sudden climate change in a world where two nations, one of fire, one of ice, co-exist in mutual dislike and misunderstanding. The people of each nation are incapable of withstanding the environment of the other. But somehow the queens of the two nations must find a way to work together against both the forces of nature and internal rebellion, or face complete destruction.
The contrasting cultures of Fire and Frost create the opportunity for an exploration of how two differing cultures can learn to cooperate. While this is addressed to some extent, it takes second place to the action of the plot, which moves rapidly but allows for reasonable character building. The writing is competent, and I give the co-authors credit for their ability to meld their writing into one consistent voice.
Frost Burn adds a world unique in several aspects to new adult fantasy. I had a few niggles: the use of modern terms such as ‘tarpaulin’ and ‘mega-volcano’ didn’t sit well, nor did the use of ‘what the hell’ as an expletive. Two other examples that bothered me were the use of Fahrenheit temperatues – actually I had two reactions to this: one was the dispassionate ‘how will this read in all the countries of the world that don’t use Fahrenheit?’ (only 5 do, by the way) and then ‘hmmm, maybe it makes this seem more alien…’. So, maybe good, maybe not so good. I had a similar reaction to the use of ‘clicks’ to mean miles; generally ‘klicks’ means ‘kilometers’: so again – confusing to the reader, or just enough dissonance to remind us this is not our world?
There were a few awkward phrasings, and a few errors of word usage, and a few obvious borrowings from other books in the genre. Walls play a role in many books, so while the huge ice wall is reminiscent of the one from A Song of Ice and Fire, it plays quite a different role here. I had a bit more trouble with the messenger owls, though.
But don’t get me wrong! Frost Burn was an entertaining book. My personal rating is three stars. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, fast-paced read in the new adult fantasy-adventure genre.
marianlthorpe.com 