Review - Frozen Heck by SI Clarke

Time once again to check in on Lem, her dog Spock, and the rest of the crew of the starship Teapot. The team is on their way to a gig when the ship malfunctions and is dead in space near a derelict ship. On the ship they find, of all things, a puppy and stasis pod. Using Brexley’s unique talents, the ship limps to the nearest station, where there’s not much on offer, except some really good doughnuts. At the station, the crew finds out there’s a shifter on the loose. They could look like anyone and not even Spock’s nose could tell the difference. It all turns into a cat-and-mouse game, only you can’t tell the cat from the mouse.

“Frozen Heck” continues the very queer and slightly silly adventures of the Starship Teapot with its crew of beings from all around the galaxy. This time, the team is trapped on an isolated station crewed by just robots and has to deal with a pair of shifters that can take on any form. It’s a definite homage to the classic film “The Thing” only a lot funnier. The ending was a bit of a surprise, but perfectly in keeping with the wacky nature of the series and its astute observations about contemporary western culture.

It’s those observations about culture and technology that have made this such an interesting series to read. Amongst the silliness of many situations are some rather interesting ideas. I’m particularly impressed by the thoughts around one of the foundational technologies of most space operas: universal translators. There are many situations in each story which show how limited a translator would be when there’s no common frame of reference for what’s being said. For example, you’d have a hard time explaining the internal combustion engine to a caveman who hasn’t discovered fire.

Lem opens up a lot more about herself in this installment of the series. In the first book, there was mention of body dysphoria, but not much else to go on. What she reveals in this latest book wasn’t much of a surprise to me. The whole series has had a lot to say about gender and identities. That was another aspect of the translator technology - if you come from a culture that is essentially binary gendered, how do you translate a language that has four or five genders? Lem’s dysphoria also leads to another one of the series’ humorous concepts: the notion that clothing is a distinctly human eccentricity.

“Frozen Heck” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).