Again I was impressed by the imagination that Smith brings to bear on the conceptualisation of the various hybrids that scientists working in the “capital city” at McMurdo station have engineered. I was heavily invested in the characters from the beginning and it was just as interesting learning about their pasts, as it was their current journeys. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and won the CWA Steel Dagger Award. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

So I then thought we'd spend the rest of the book dealing with daily struggles of life in Antarctica over the days, months and eventually years of forming a new society. the first half covers humanities initial reaction to being told they have just 30 days to travel to the most inhospitable region on Earth, Antarctica, or risk being annihilated, and how they make that journey. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.After aliens occupy Earth in 2023 and enact "the largest genocide ever committed," all human survivors are forced to live in Antarctica, where genetic engineering becomes key to their survival as a species. The aliens carry out their threat for the majority of people that don’t make it to Antarctica and play no further part in the novel.

Next came Child 44, later made into a movie on the big screen starring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace.Split between three camps are the majority of the survivors while the previous presidents and high ups live in a scientific area working around the clock to create solutions to survival. It's probably relevant to acknowledge that I don't read many dystopian novels or books set in a post apocalyptic world. I read Tom Rob Smith’s novel The Farm a while back and enjoyed it so thought I’d give his latest, Cold People, a shot - annnnd it wasn’t nearly as good, unfortunately.