by Kim Stanley Robinson

In the near-future, as Earth's resources dwindle, the harsh landscape of Antarctica may hold the only salvation--and a number of corporate and governmental interests are ready to stake their claims. Following several mysterious equipment thefts, a senator's aide is set to investigate, encountering a series of individuals--a trek guide and her charges, a moody, philosophy-obsessed field hand, and a group of eccentric geologists, among others--along the way. And when a terrorist attack affecting communication satellites strands everyone at scattered locations across the frozen planes, their fate may echo that of the early explorers who lost their lives in the 1800s. A