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BURNING THE ICE by Laura J. Mixon Kirkus Star

BURNING THE ICE

by Laura J. Mixon

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-86903-7
Publisher: Tor

Long-range sequel to Mixon's impressive Proxies (1998). On Earth, a secret government project raised hopelessly handicapped infants in crèche-tanks, connecting their minds to proxy bodies by which they interacted with the exterior world. The crèche-raised, some of them more or less insane, then stole a starship and headed into deep space. On Brimstone, a moon of a giant planet, they established a colony of clones before departing for yet another planet. Brimstone is severely glaciated, so the colonists must warm it up while adapting to the frigid conditions and coping with inadequate, failing equipment. The clones themselves are families, each as closely bound as twins. Manda, a loner whose twin died, was harassed unmercifully by her clone-siblings, and grew up aloof, prickly, impatient, and critical—yep, she's quite a character—but also innovative in ways clones cannot imagine. Project IceFlame will release heat and greenhouse gases trapped in frozen deposits; Manda, monitoring progress via submarine “waldoes,” discovers unexpected heat sources in the deep ocean beneath the ice. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the colony's smart-computer “syntellect” reveals, only to Manda, that the colony's founder, Carli, left technology and information hidden. Why? What if Manda's waldoes reveal evidence of native lifeforms? And why—as Manda's researches show, and the colony's chief admits—would the crèche-ship be hanging around instead of heading off into space? Even worse, what if the crèche-ers have malign intentions—and can tap into the colonists' communications and computer systems?

Overstuffed but beautifully thought-out: tense, complex, and spellbinding.