Science Fiction The Third Thaw

Third Thaw by Karl J Hanson

Young adult futuristic fiction

August 2018

EL Marker, Publisher

$5.99

$17.95

Buy on Amazon 

About the Book:

Mankind forced to relocate to a different habitable environment, light years from Earth. A group of young people on a distant planet who must re-establish human civilization. A fantastical yet realistic world based on plausible technological developments. A power-mad egomaniac determined to destroy anyone who gets in his way. This is The Third Thaw, a hard science fiction novel that presents a radically different strategy for planet colonization, one within the grasp of present technologies.

In a settlement called New Eden, live a group of teens known as the Third Thaw. They come from Earth, conceived there and sent as frozen embryos on a rocket ship to this planet twenty-six light years away, a journey that lasted 80,000 years. 

When they reach the age of twenty-one, after being thoroughly and specifically educated for their future tasks, the Third Thaw must leave New Eden to assist with colonizing a larger, permanent settlement on the planet. 

After the First and Second Thaws fail to complete their expedition, it’s up to the Third Thaw to succeed and save civilization.

As the highly-trained expedition party heads out to fulfill their tasks, they encounter life-threatening obstacles in their way, many of which challenged the Thaws that preceded them. 

Not the least of these is a group broken off from a German colony sent from Earth years earlier. This group and their leader, Ulrich, believe they are evolved beyond ordinary humans. 

Ulrich, along with his supercomputer “Genius,” is determined to destroy the Third Thaw. And anyone else who threatens to stop him.

Review:

The Third Thaw is an intriguing distant future yet familiar novel that spans several genres, from coming of age to New Adult to mildly science fiction fantasy. The summary explains the story quite well. If you like Lord of the Flies combined with some of Ray Bradbury’s robotic parent-teacher tales, you’ll find The Third Thaw enjoyable. A little rough start with formal language eventually smoothed out into a very nicely written, engaging story. One aspect I was surprised about was that the children raised in New Eden are virtual innocents, not even taught about adult relationships, then expected to go forth and populate their new world, but there were a number of twists that kept me turning pages. The story is an intriguing tale about potential societal development when attempting to start from scratch. I wanted to read this story as I worked on my book, Parhelion, that revolves around a similar theme of starting a new civilization from scratch and was glad to note we each have our own fresh perspective.