Patrick Finian Reilly - "Ice's End" - August Clarke
Patrick Finian Reilly will discuss his new book Ice's End. He will be joined in conversation with August Clarke. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion.
At 57th Street Books
About the Book: Roscoe Slake had hoped that the StarCross corporation’s internship program would be his ticket off the dying Earth of 2123. Instead, it has him working in the archives of the division that sells Antarctic meltwater. His frustration turns to hope when he finds records from the Ross Antarctic Expedition of 1839-43. An officer on that expedition, Henry Braddick Yule, was driven to unthinkable treachery. But Yule unwittingly left a secret that could make fresh water plentiful again in Roscoe's time -- if Roscoe's employers or Antarctica itself don't kill him first.
Fans of sci-fi thrillers like The Water Knife and Blackfish City, and historical fiction like The Terror, will enjoy this tale of a scandalous past shaping a climate-ravaged future. In the words of one reviewer, "the resolutions to these stories are woven together in a manner reminiscent of the best qualities of magical realism. To tell you how would spoil not one but two endings, but I can assure you it is well worth the effort to reach the final pages of this incredible book."
About the Author: P. Finian Reilly studied History at the University of Chicago, then got a different kind of education working as a local newspaper reporter in Montana. In that job, he learned to drive a motorboat alongside a burning lakeshore, interview antigovernment militia leaders, and appreciate just how complicated humanity's relationship with the natural world can get. That experience led him to pursue a career in environmental law, which he now practices in New Jersey. It also heavily inspired his first novel, Ice's End, now available from 12 Willows Press.
About the Interlocutor: August Clarke is here and queer, etc. They have been published in PRISM international, Portland Review, and Eidolon, and in the Bury Your Gays and Unfettered Hexes anthologies. He was a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction and an Andre Norton Nebula Award, Locus Award, Dragon Award, Pushcart nominee, and winner of the 2025 Lambda for LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction. He is the author of the series The Scapegracers, which he writes as H.A. Clarke. Metal from Heaven (Erewhon, October 22, 2024) is for fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth, and is set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change and simmering class warfare.
Related Titles
A deadly place. A dying planet. A secret frozen in time.
2123 Earth is choking on heat, greed, and dwindling resources. Roscoe Slake, a driven but disillusioned intern, thought his placement with the influential StarCross Corporation would secure his escape from a...