Almost one thousand years have passed since humans admitted defeat against climate change. In order to help continued existence, scientists brought back long extinct animals that reigned during the previous Ice Age and, apparently, fiddled a bit with the human genome to make sure people are also a bit better adapted to the colder climate. Presumably, scientists also released a special enzyme into the oceans to help combat the damage done to the environment, but it is a fix that will take a long time to work, and thus a new Ice Age took hold and the Zyme spread across the waters of the planet.
The Ice Lion focuses on the Sealion People, a small tribe who feels the need to move South in order to find warmer climates. Two members of the tribe take center stage in this book; Lynx and Quiller.
Lynx is newly wed to the beautiful Siskin, but on their wedding night, a pack of lions descends upon the pair. Lynx's young wife doesn't survive the experience and Lynx is, oddly enough, left unharmed and also unaware of exactly what happened. When the rest of his tribe finds him, he is branded a coward who must have run away from the scene rather than save his wife.
Quiller is a formidable huntress for the tribe who has long been in love with Lynx. She is still recovering from her broken heart when Lynx marries Siskin instead. When Lynx returns from his wedding night as a widower, she has conflicted feelings. She knows Lynx has a gentle soul and knows he hates to hurt anything, but she also knows how the rest of the tribe will see the events. Could he have actually run away while watching his wife be killed or could something bigger be in the works?
Quiller is able to convince the elders of their tribe that Lynx should be sent on a soul-seeking journey instead of being outright abandoned. Given that Lynx was found curled up with the very lions that killed his wife, the elders are inclined to believe that Lynx's strange story could have strong spiritual implications. While Quiller promises to track Lynx and help him on his quest, those same elders know her heart and put a stop to her secret plans by making her part of a scouting mission to find a new location to the South for the tribe to move to.
Lynx is left alone far away from the tribe's lands and is told that he must confront Nightbreaker, a large ice lion, in order to learn exactly why he was spared and what the gods want from him. As he treks through the frozen world, Lynx finds himself truly alone for the first time. That is, until he comes across a strange man named Arakie. As Arakie helps him return to his village, Lynx will be confronted with many strange events, the least of which is an encounter with two members of a rival tribe, the Rust People. How Lynx handles his interaction with these two, as well as how he deals with the other revelations he has while on his journey, is sure to have long-lasting repercussions for the Sealion People, as long as he can actually get back to his tribe alive before they move South.
Meanwhile, Quiller is honor-bound to help her team's mission of finding a new safe haven for the Sealions, but she desperately wants to find Lynx and help him return home. To make matters more complicated, RabbitEar, a former lover who wants to marry Quiller, is on the mission with her. As her affections for RabbitEar grow, she can't help but think about Lynx, and when this scouting troop comes across their own collection of Rust People, Quiller will have to make even more complicated decisions before returning to the tribe and reporting their findings.
The Ice Lion: The Rewilding Reports - Book 1 is an interesting introduction to a new world that feels both fresh and well-established. By taking her previous experience in Native American Historical Fiction and transforming it into a far-future science fiction story, Kathleen O'Neal Gear is able to do some really interesting world-building that is a lot of fun. While characters like Arakie seem to have a solid understanding of exactly what happened 1,000 years prior, he is rather tight-lipped and seems to be amused by the various myths the Sealion and Rust people tell of the immortal Jemen warriors who fight the Ice Giants. It will be really interesting to see how The Rewilding Reports evolves from here.
