Coldmaker: Those Who Control Cold Hold the Power (The Coldmaker Saga, #1)

by Daniel A Cohen

A warmly-written crossover fantasy adventure from Daniel A. Cohen

Eight hundred years ago, the Jadans angered the Crier. In punishment, the Crier took their Cold away, condemning them to a life of enslavement in a world bathed in heat.

Or so the tale goes.

During the day, as the Sun blazes over his head, Micah leads the life of any Jadan slave, running errands through the city of Paphos at the mercy of the petty Nobles and ruthless taskmasters.

But after the evening bells have tolled and all other Jadans sleep, Micah escapes into the night in search of scraps and broken objects, which once back inside his barracks he tinkers into treasures.

However, when a mysterious masked Jadan publicly threatens Noble authority, a wave of rebellion ripples through the city.

With Paphos plunged into turmoil, Micah’s secret is at risk of being exposed. And another, which has been waiting hundreds of years to be found, is also on the verge of discovery…

The secret of Cold.

• ISBN13: 9780008207151
• Publish Date: 2 November 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 September 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HarperVoyager
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Mixed review It reads a bit like fantasy but it's post-apocalypse. The apocalypse happened when, according to the rulers, the Jadans angered the crier and that ripped cold away. Now cold is a commodity, the land is a desert and the rivers boil and the Jadans are the slaves of petty Nobles who have the power of life and death over the Jadans. The Jadans are raised in communal houses, taken from their parents and given to others to raise. Their lives are nasty, brutish and short and things are grim.
Micah escapes the dorm at night, looking for things to (illegally) tinker with and to try to make his life, and the life of others better. He encounters are more rebellious Jadan and realises that life isn't always obvious.
It's interesting and the characters are well drawn but the world is a mystery. I didn't really get what was going on and why and eventually I just was underwhelmed by it all. I am curious to know what's going on but I don't really feel an urgency to find the next book.