It has been several months since the events of The Ice Lion, and while Lynx has spent the time away from his tribe, the Sealion people, in the hopes of learning from one of the last original humans, Elder Arakie, his family has had a hard time in his absence. It seems that the tentative truce between the Sealion and Rust people has been shattered. Quiller, RabbitEar, Mink and the remaining other Sealions are besieged in a cave with a collection of Rust people ready to hunt them down.
The Rust people are led by Trogon, a powerful witch who insists that he has visions that the Sealion people must be exterminated. That is, until Trogon suddenly proposes a new truce. It seems his visions have changed and now he believes he needs Quiller to help lead him to The Old Woman of the Mountain, a person from their myths. Trogon insists that Quiller has been in The Old Woman's cave and believes she is the only one who can lead him where he needs to go.
Meanwhile, Lynx recognizes that Arakie is close to dying. Arakie has spent the last few months teaching Lynx how to read and to interact with the ancient A.I. machine that Arakie has been guarding for the past millennium. While Lynx struggles to help his teacher as the Elder prepares for death, he finds his plans shift when Trogon, Quiller, and one of Trogon's Dog Soldiers show up. It seems Trogon believes that Lynx is also a part of the vision, and a key element to getting what he wants ... whatever that is.
While the book doesn't start with a lot of characters, especially since the Sealion people's population has dwindled down to only a couple dozen, it isn't long before the cast is focused even more so that it really only centers on just a couple of characters. As the small party travels through the ancient caves and buildings of the previous humans, stories from the two peoples' past start to come out and discrepancies between the different tellings start to get explored. One thing seems to be clear though, it looks like no one has the full story of what happened when the Zyme took over the oceans and the Ice Giants covered the land. Even the stories that Lynx learned from Arakie seem to be off. Could Arakie have been lying to Lynx, or are these differences simply a case of the details being lost to time?
I'm curious to see where Gear plans to take this series as a whole. Like before, it is interesting to see Gear take her anthropological background and apply it to a post-apocalyptic sci-fi series. In just two books, the nature of the world and people in it have changed drastically, and it's clear that many of the myths that the Sealion and Rust people have passed down through the ages are pale reflections of the actual events that led to the frozen planet portrayed in The Rewilding Reports. By the time The Ice Ghost concludes, some legends will walk, some will die, and new ones will be created. I can't wait to see what happens next.
