Feral Snow by Mark Lowes

 

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You can buy Feral Snow...Here

You can follow Mark Lowes...Here

Description...

Alone and stranded in the Arctic wasteland, would you risk your life to save a stranger or try to get home?

Paul is a father-to-be; traumatised by his past, he's terrified of becoming a father after his own beat him until he was unilaterally deaf. While working as a freelance cameraman in the Arctic, he's caught in a blizzard, separated from his crew, and falls into a chasm. Alone, and waiting for death to come, personal demons plague his mind.

When a young native girl falls into the chasm with him, Paul must learn how to accept responsibility and what it takes to give your life for a child.

My Review...

Good authors know what interests readers, even when the reader themselves dont know. When asked what they like to read, readers will often reply  crime fiction, horror, SF or some other genres. They mistake the frame for the picture. What enchants us is not really the type of story, rather  it is the human condition that enthralls us when we read, love, hope, honour, despair, fear. So for example the Shawsank Redemption is a tale of the endurance and beauty of the human spirit even in the most difficult conditions entwined within a prison break story. A good author can splice the human condition and a rollicking yarn together. I think this is why Stephen King is so successful. In this his debut novel Mark Lowes also demonstrates this author's gift.

We really experience our flawed protagonist through his external trauma of cold, injury, wild animals etc but even more so we feel his internal adventure of fear, shame, regret and possible redemption. We live both his real and metaphorical journey.

The author has a very descriptive turn of phrase, which he uses wonderfully well to describe the relentless, biting cold (see selected quotes) I found my self gripping my hot tea a little closer and edging ever closer to the fire as I was reading. It also speaks to the author's talents that even in a vast  expansive backdrop like the arctic he can still make us feel everything so intensely.

You end up cheering our hero on, even when you find out some of his past that even he would rather forget.

Our protagonist runs away from the imminent birth of his first child to be a wildlife cameraman in the arctic. From the dedication at the start of the book, you can see the author was about to become a first time father himself. Talk about self projection. He need not worry, in my experience any man who stresses this much about becoming a good father already has all the building blocks he needs to be a good dad.

I have seen this book described as a cross between 127 hours and the revenant. I would go a little further and throw in a pinch of "a christmas carol" with a sprinkle of "it's a wonderful life."

An exceptional tale of arctic survival and character reflection. Amazing when you realise this is a debut novel.

Selected quotes...

"Cold sets into his lungs like an infection. It spreads through veins, strangling the life from them until they are no more than scrawled blue ink across pallid skin."

"The coolness soothing the side of his face like the cold hand of a lover."

“I’ve dealt with disappointment forever. But disappointment in yourself is the worst thing I’ve ever experienced."

"His body is beginning to shut down. Someone inside him is going from room to room and flicking the light switches off."

"It isn’t fair that he suffered the childhood he did, that he’s terrified of fatherhood as a result."

About the author...

Mark Lowes is an author from Cardiff, Wales in the UK. He's been writing stories since before it was cool. He also had a beard before it was cool but the less people know about that, the better.  He works for a national charity helping deaf children develop their literacy skills. He has worked in education his entire professional career, however, he will always come back to his dream of writing.  FERAL SNOW is his debut.  Please follow Mark Lowes on Twitter: @MJLAuthor