Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ice | 2002 | Vladimir Sorokin | Buy |
Ice is the first-published novel in Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy, though it falls second in the internal chronology. The trilogy also includes Bro (2004) and 23,000 (2005), and all three were collected in a single English-language volume by New York Review Books in 2011. The database lists only Ice, but readers looking for the full story should seek out the complete trilogy.
The novel is set in contemporary Russia and follows three characters: Yuri, a drug addict; Alya, a prostitute; and Boris, a businessman. Each has been identified by a mysterious Brotherhood of Light as a possible candidate for awakening. The Brotherhood uses hammers made from ice that fell during the Tunguska event of 1908, and they strike candidates in the chest to test whether they are among the 23,000 chosen. The process kills the vast majority who turn out not to be chosen. Sorokin uses this premise to explore fanaticism, violence, and the human desire to feel special in a world that treats most people as disposable.