Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review this book.
Unfortunately, after reading the first in the series, I decided not to go on to read this as I did not find the characters or the storyline compelling enough.

3.5 Stars
The Ice House by Tim Clare is the second book in The Honours series, which is something I must have missed and was unaware of when I requested this book from NetGalley and is something that I wish I had knew beforehand. Although I did enjoy this book and I did enjoy the story by itself, while reading this book I did have this constant feeling that I was missing something. Not only some background on the characters that would have made reading and connecting to these characters and their past a lot better, easier and quicker, but some insight and world building with the world and with the overall story. This gap I was feeling while I was reading would have been complete if I had read the first one beforehand and was disappointing while reading this book, however, it didn’t prevent me from reading this book and it didn’t stop me from continuing on.

The writing of The Ice House is what makes this book what it is for me and it is Tim Clare’s writing that made me continue on reading it and more importantly, want to continue reading, regardless of not reading the first book in the series. His writing is so imaginative and paints a picture so clearly in your head while you are reading it

The writing has this brutality to it, a vividness, but yet it is still has this poetical air to it.

* There was a scene at the beginning that was brutal and involved the death of a horse, that will stay with me, but yet I continued on. The scenes continue on, but again, this didn’t stop me reading this book, even if I was tempted to look away from the page on numerous times. So do be warned if this may be a trigger for you *

I took my time with this book, getting to know the world, the characters and it was well worth getting into it, as I really got to enjoy and appreciate it more. Am I disappointed that I didn’t read The Honours first? Absolutely! If I enjoyed this book as much as I did without reading the first book and knowing that I was missing a chunk of the story, then how much I would enjoy it after reading the series correctly.

This is my first Tim Cave and although I enjoyed it, I confess that it was pretty difficult t get my head around at the beginning - there is quite a lot of implied backstory that was quite challenging and I did not realise this was book two in the series! I can say that it is hard to get into this if you have not read book one, but that is my fault entirely!

Having said that, I did enjoy it, but think I would have got a lot more out of it if I had actually known what was going on! I think I need to read book one and then have another go at this one, before making a proper judgement!

My thanks to Canongate for an eARC via NetGalley of Tim Clare’s ‘The Ice House’ in exchange for an honest review. It was published in May 2019.

I hadn’t realised that this was a sequel to his earlier novel, ‘The Honours’, when I requested it. I started reading and as I was feeling a bit lost decided to delay reading until I had read ‘The Honours’, which I enjoyed very much. I elected to buy the audiobook editions for both novels.

This is set 73 years after the events of ‘The Honours’ and Delphine is now elderly and crippled by arthritis. She remembers the violent events of 1935 and the creatures from the other world. Meanwhile, in that other world Hagar, a centuries-old assassin, is planning the death of her master, the Grand Duke. In order for her plan to succeed she needs Delphine.

I found this a powerful literary fantasy. It moves smoothly between the stories of Delphine and Hagar for the majority of the novel exploring Hagar’s long life and Delphine’s quest to find Avalonia.

It is undoubtedly a dark and disturbing tale with some strong scenes of violence and gore. I did find that I rather missed the innocence of the first novel with its 1930s English stately home setting and young protagonist though here the world building was undoubtedly strong.

It was refreshing to see the elder Delphine being so plucky as well as the depiction of her enduring relationships with the scarab, Martha, and her mother’s former maid, Alice.

‘The Ice House’ is a novel that I would certainly recommend to lovers of dark fantasy though suggest for continuity reading ‘The Honours’ first.

It wasn’t until I was halfway through this book and adding it on to Goodreads, that I realised it was the second in a series. So I would say that it can be read on it’s own - but I’m going to buy the first book and read it now! I love this world building! It would be interesting to read about Delphine’s childhood, the discovery of the Honours and the gateway.
There’s a great cast of characters in this book - the females have great representation and lead the story. They’re strong, brave and don’t wait for someone else to do what they can do for themselves.
The Honours refers to a gift given to certain, chosen people from this otherworldly, accessed by the gateway, and it makes them immortal - which I thought was a great touch.
I feel that only the surface has been scratched, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series (there had better be one - we’re certainly left thinking that there will be one!). Thanks to NetGalley for my copy of this book - this is all my own, unbiased opinion, and I’m sorry for taking so long to review it!

I got the opportunity to read this book as an advanced review copy and decided after reading some reviews, that I would read the first novel The Honours as this is the second in a series. I enjoyed The Honours and was looking forward to the second book. However the two books were very different. The Honours is set firmly in 1930s England with mysterious and sinister goings-on that young Delphine is trying to solve. The introduction of the alternate world comes very late in the book. However The Ice House is set in both our world in modern time with an elderly Delphine, and the alternate world introduced at the end of the first book. The chronology is also not straightforward in that for one of the character's perspective, each installment of the story is from progressively earlier time points. I enjoyed the characters - they are not always likeable however! - and the creation of this alternative world is very well done. Often descriptions of alternative worlds are a bit boring and laboured but this is excellently engaging.

When I read the summary of the book, I thought it sounded interesting and The Ice house was an interesting book. However it is very different in style and content to the first book. I might even go as far to say that it would be better to read this one first, if it weren't for the fact that the unfolding on the story in the first book is helped by the fact you don't know why people are doing the things they do.

I finished this book at 2 Am so there was no direct write up of the review other than, 'omg I loved it, go read it' and that felt insufficient haha.

I will say when I requested this on NetGalley I had no idea that it was the SECOND book, and really this was before I leaned my lesson on checking goodreads to see, so, I'm not putting the blame on them or me, it just happened that way haha. But that really didn't takeaway from the reading experience, not as much as I thought it would (so yes you could say this would have had a full 5 stars from me instead of 4.5 if I had read the first but still, 4.5 without reading it isn't shabby).

Delphine is probably one of the best MCs I've read of, and I don't mean necessarily that she was complex and multifaceted and all, but we start off in this book with a woman in her 80s, do you know how rare that is?? Not to mention I adored Martha to the point of no return and I thought that Hagar was that complex character that you couldn't just hate, but man did you sure want to shake.

Tim Clare breathes life into a whole world, giving us varied and new species and parallels, politics, intriguing characters, and does it all without making you feel like you're always getting 'lectured' on the set up of what he's given you. Butler was another favorite of mine and I love how much Martha cares for Delphine by helping her with Alice and by simply continuously staying by her side (another thing I absolutely adored and can't even put into coherent words).

If you want a book that makes you fall head over heels in love with an author's style and words and you like high/heavy fantasy, I definitely say give this book a try....just...read book 1 first (The Honors for those who are curious).

Really I tried not to fangirl over this, I didn't succeed but I hope this review helps someone!

I received this book from the Publishers via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to Canongate and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't realise this was the second book in a series when I requested it. I wouldn't say you have to have read the first book but I think you'd definitely appreciate it more if you did.

From the outset this book felt like something a bit special. The writing is imaginative and evocative and the settings are wonderfully rich and complex. .

What I really liked about this book in particular were the strong female main characters Delphine and Hagar. Hagar in particular is quite frankly a complete BADASS and I loved how morally grey she was. I got a kick out of the elderly Delphine too and if anything preferred her at the beginning of the book.

There are some surprisingly gory moments which the more squeamish reader might struggle with.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I'm curious to see where it goes next. Beautifully written with imaginative and original world-building. I'm definitely going to be reading the first book as soon as I can.

Wasn't aware this was actually a sequel when I picked it, but nevertheless, the story is unique and the characters memorable enough that it wasn't that big a deal I hadn't read The Honours beforehand. Very original story and I'll be reading Clare's other books on the back of it.

Recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I did not want to rush through this epic fantasy novel created by Tim Clare!
Full of multi faceted creatures and characters, a blending of religion and urban fantasy, with a reassuring vision of a world which turns back time, I won't lie, I was annoyed when life intruded into my reading time and I was wrenched away from it all!

I loved that the female characters were strong, confident and kick ass, and that it didn't compromise on the strength of the male characters. The romantic relationships and situations were beautifully described, and added depth to the characters.

The Honours is the first novel by the author, and I suspect reading it first will help you to better understand this fantasy world, and what leads to the events taking place in this novel. But I can also confidently say that although I haven't read the prequel, I could still understand everything that took place as everything was explained really well. I did read it very carefully though, and didn't skip a single word! The ending was left very open to a third book, which I will definitely be buying!

Delphine, Hagar, and especially Martha were all fantastic characters I really came to care about.
And Butler made me smile a number of times. So quirky, confident and charismatic.

The writing style is nuanced, with a gentle wisdom embedded in the novel which took me by surprise more than once. The political strategies and changes in power were very cleverly woven into the story, and the author managed to touch on some very deep concepts whilst also retaining a lighter fantasy feel.

I'd say that this one has a very high chance of being in my top 10 novels of the year, and I will definitely be rereading it again. Loved it!

A stunning follow-up story to Tim Clare's The Honours, this is a gripping story that will definitely keep you on your toes. Slightly verging on the brink of gore at times, it is, nonetheless, a very interesting and fascinating fantasy read, revolving around Delphine and her appointed assassin, Hagar.

Truth be told, you probably have to read The Honours before moving to The Ice House, but the read is definitely going to reward you. A recommended read for fans of the fantasy genre.

This is a very well written grown up fantasy. I wasn't aware that there was another book before this one but that did not spoil my enjoyment of this story in any way. I will now be seeking out the earlier book and I look forward to reading new stories from this author in the future.

The Ice House
Tim Clare
Allen and Unwin $29.99
ISBN: 9781786894816
Cover Art: http://assets.allenandunwin.com.s3.amazonaws.com/images/original/9781786894816.jpg

In 2015, Tim Clare released his debut fantasy book The Honours. That book felt like a reinvigoration of classic British fantasy. Set around a stately home, Alderberen Hall, in the 1930s, if focussed on a precocious 13 year-old called Delphine Venner. The Honours had everything readers might expect of a grand British fantasy – a gateway to another world, strange creatures, secrets and a plucky heroine who gathers allies for a final battle. The end of The Honours could well have been the end of the story and the book works perfectly well as a stand alone. But in The Ice House, a name meant to trigger an association with the earlier book, Clare returns to Delphine and her world. And while this now feels like the second book in what could be an ongoing series, it is a very different beast.
The Ice House opens seventy three years after the end of The Honours. Delphine is an old woman and her friend Alice is in an old age home and her memory is slipping. She still keeps company with a giant scarab beetle called Martha, the last of her kind left in our world, and puts feelers out to anyone who might know of gateways to another reality. For those who remember the sprightly thirteen year old, the ageing Delphine Venner is a bit of a shock, but also for Delphine herself.
Because despite her age, Delphine is pretty handy with a gun and resourceful in a fight when the other world comes looking for her.
Meanwhile, in that other world in a coastal city constructed on stilts called Fat Maw, Hagar, an immortal being in a child’s body, is planning an assassination. Hagar is connected to a peer called the Grand-Duc Morgellon, peers are both immortal and can regenerate from their injuries. As his valet Hagar feels his pain for him which makes her plans to draw him out of hiding and kill him more than a little complicated. But Hagar has other worries. A doctor she has been working with has been found dead in mysterious circumstances and her plans are unravelling. For most of the book Clare follows Hagar’s story backwards in time, each jump going further back but serving to illuminate another part of her plan as it developed over hundreds of years.
In classic British fantasy style, soon both Delphine and Alice have gone through the portal (lookingglass/cupboard) and into Hagar’s world, but not in a way that feels at all derivative. The process de-ages them both to their early 20s and once again Delphine finds herself in a new body, this time suddenly, but one that has all of the moves of her younger self. She finds herself in a world that was only vaguely touched on in The Honours, and which Clare now fleshes out through geography and exploration of different races of beings many of which just served to terrify Delphine when she was 13. As well as humans the world is populated by the wolf-like and winged Vespari, the bull-headed Harka, the scarab Hanta and strange mushroom people
It is here that The Ice House completely diverges from The Honours, with most of the action and its resolution set in this world which Clare explores and describes with technicolour relish. Hagar and Delphine’s stories converge in the city of Fat Maw, a city in the middle of a huge celebration. And following this bacchanal, the potential of a civil war brewing. While this provides the excuse for plenty of action along the way, Clare builds to a explosive page-turning showdown finale deep in the bowels of an ancient temple.
The Ice House provides context for the actions and characters in The Honours and some deeper explanation of their powers without having to revisit the action in that book. But Clare significantly expands his universe by taking the action deep into the world on the other side of the portal. But even here Clare only scratches the surface of this world, leaving plenty more to be explored.
The Ice House is a stunning follow up to one of the most interesting fantasy debuts of the last few years. Clare follows in the footsteps of other modern British fantasists like China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer in drawing on a British fantasy tradition to create a world that is at once familiar but also full of dangerous otherness. Plenty of mysteries still remain in both worlds and a cliffhanger ending means that the end of this tale is almost certainly not the end for Delphine Venner. But if Clare can deliver something different again in book three that is by no means a bad thing.

I made the difficult decision to end reading this book at around 35%. I thought that the actual writing was quite good, very rich descriptions and there are certainly some wonderful ideas wound up in this book. I hadn't realised that this was a follow on from a previous novel which may have contributed to the general sense of confusion I had, but I felt as though this was throwing heaps of detail at me without ever really explaining anything. I was clear on the brunt of the story but the more I read the more confused I was. Possibly at another time I would enjoy this book but presently I don't think it is for me and I wouldn't be comfortable recommending it.

Wow. After finishing this book I thought how am I going to review this! How can I explain how much I enjoyed this action packed riveting novel?

There are two veiewpoints: Hagar and Delphine. Hagar is an assassin but she’s also connected to this politician, she feels his pain, it’s complicated. (Read the book) She is trying to sever her connection with him and we learn why and how she intends to do it. Delphine just wants to find her family but to do that she has to work with these people.

I couldn’t really decide if Hagar was a good person or a bad person, I didn’t know if I was meant to be on her side or not.

I loved the fantasy world of this book. So imaginative. There’s so much going on in this book: intrigue, tension, mystery, violence, weird fantasy creatures. It’s never boring.

Umm.. it can be a little gory too. Do you ever get the urge to look away from a tv show/movie when it’s gory? Like a hospital scene or a really disgusting murder scene? You want to look away but you keep watching to see what happens? Well I never thought I’d have it with a book and I read horrors (real life gore is worse for me or this scene!) The scene was of a horse being butchered, it’s a very well written scene, not overly gory. Perfect, really. Um.. as much as it can be perfect.. it’s very disconcerting.

I love Tim Clare’s writing style: when he describes a scenes it’s like he’s painting a picture with his words and you can see every detail. It makes the fantasy world come alive in your mind, enriches it and captures your imagination. I really wish they’d publish an illustrated edition of this book because it would be amazing. Please?

I loved everything about this book, the characters, story, world, style. Looking forward to the next one….

But before that I am going to read The Honours and then reread this book. It’s so good.

Delphine Venner is an old woman now. She is old, but she remembers everything. She remembers fighting for her life, the terrifying creatures from another world, the gateway they came through, and those she lost.

And in that other world, beast-filled and brutal, someone waits for her. Hagar, a centuries-old assassin, daily paying a terrible price for her unending youth, is planning one final death: that of her abhorrent master, the Grand-Duc. The death that will cost her everything. The death which requires Delphine.

Voyaging into this violence and chaos, Delphine must remember who she really is and be ready to fight once more, as war reawakens. In the battle to destroy an ageless evil, will both worlds be saved - or will every mortal creature lose everything?

I LOVED 'The Honours', the book preceding this one that details Delphine's first engagement with the beasts, so had high hopes of 'The Ice House'. However, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I don't mind split narratives, time-shifting narratives, narratives in reverse chronologically speaking and can usually follow them quite effectively, but I genuinely could not keep track of what was going on.

However, 'The Ice House' contains a perfectly-realised, very detailed, complex 'other world', and the writing keeps you reading regardless of whether you really understand what is going on all of the time. I would definitely urge you to read 'The Honours' first though, to give yourself a fighting chance of understanding what is happening!

Pretty amazing and a very different story. Really enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to reading more in the future by this author.

A short review for now, a longer one to follow, I need to fully digest this story!. The Ice House is, like The Honours before it, an amazing read. I was gripped from the start; the book didn't take the route I expected - but I should know by now that predictable is not the way of Tim Clare, and what a world he has built over these two books - its astonishing. I would say that reading The Honours first probably made this easier to follow (but I can't "unread' that so how would I know...?)

3.5 stars

I made the very foolish mistake of not reading the first book first.
Because of this,I was baffled as to Who,why,where and what for a lot of this book.
I'm not joking when I say I almost gave up on it several times.
But as you see,I finished it,and gave it a better than average rating... because I enjoyed the writing style,even when I didn't know what was going on.
Also,almost every time I was ready to step sway,something would drag me back into the story,something weird and wonderful.
I won't ever be able to explain what happened in this book,but I can say I rather liked it.