The Age of Ice Hardcover - 2013

The Empress Anna Ioannovna has issued her latest eccentric order: construct a palace out of ice blocks. Inside its walls her slaves build a wedding chamber, a canopy bed on a dais, heavy drapes cascading to the floorâÈ'all made of ice. Sealed inside are a disgraced nobleman and a deformed female jester. On the empressâÈçs commandâÈ'for her entertainmentâÈ'these two are to be married, the relationship consummated inside this frozen prison. In the morning, guards enter to find them half-dead. Nine months later, two boys are born.

Surrounded by servants and animals, Prince Alexander Velitzyn and his twin brother, Andrei, have an idyllic childhood on the familyâÈçs large country estate. But as they approach manhood, stark differences coalesce. Andrei is daring and ambitious; Alexander is tentative and adrift. One frigid winter night on the road between St. Petersburg and Moscow, as he flees his army post, Alexander comes to a horrifying revelation: his body is immune to cold.

J. M. SidorovaâÈçs boldly original and genrebending novel takes readers from the grisly fields of the Napoleonic Wars to the blazing heat of Afghanistan, from the outer reaches of Siberia to the cacophonous streets of nineteenth-century Paris. The adventures of its protagonist, Prince Alexander VelitzynâÈ'on a lifelong quest for the truth behind his strange physiologyâÈ'will span three continents and two centuries and bring him into contact with an incredible range of real historical figures, from Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, to the licentious Russian empress Elizaveta and Arctic explorer Joseph Billings.

The Age of Ice is one of the most enchanting and inventive debut novels of the year.

Details

• Title The Age of Ice
• Author J. M. Sidorova
• Binding Hardcover
• Pages 398
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Scribner Book Company, New York:
• Date 2013-07-23
• Illustrated Yes
• ISBN 9781451692716 / 1451692714
• Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
• Dimensions 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 in (23.11 x 15.49 x 3.56 cm)
• Library of Congress subjects Historical fiction, Adventure fiction
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 2013022052
• Dewey Decimal Code FIC

"AlexanderâÈçs sharp observations âÈ' and the authorâÈçs ability to plunge him into the thick of things, fraught with emotions far more intense than ennui âÈ' display a remarkable power."