“Some kind of degenerated process has begun which may be catastrophic for everybody.”

22. The Ice Lands – Steinar Bragi

A road trip though Iceland’s sands, where it seems roads are very hard to discern, does not make for fun if you run the Jeep into a farmhouse you couldn’t see through all the fog. The farmhouse happens to be inhabited by an elderly couple, the male half of which seems to need a bit more caretaking than is available in the middle of nowhere.

The weather and a second Jeep with terrible tires keep preventing them from actually getting anywhere, even though they have a compass. Their interpersonal relations have not been good anyway and they’re getting worse, which is the main thing in the story that is explained via flashbacks for each character to show how they got to where they are today…stuck in that weirdo land of no explanations. There also seems to be an undercurrent of madness running through the proceedings and it’s hard to tell what’s real (especially at the end), what’s happening because of those foxes that seem to be the only ones having a good time in the area, and what’s just a little out of my reach.

I like horror and this is certainly a horror novel, but it isn’t a very satisfying one. Even though I think the translation is good. I would have liked just a little more explanation because I also thought there was an additional someone in the house with coherent thoughts and plans and that never went anywhere. The reader is stuck without much to work with for backstory on the what’s going on parts, like the lady who lives in the farmhouse and doesn’t know how to make a frozen pizza.

 

Horace, Peregrine, Ozma, and Finny on a couch trip certainly also has an undercurrent of madness, even though they have a pen and don’t need to worry about transportation.