When we last left the Snow Piercer things didn't look like the up and up for Proloff. He's girl was dead and he was left in charge of the Snow Piercer. With Snow Piercer 2 we have a remake of what happened.
This new take or continuation of the story follows events a bit differently, but it's still set in the same cheery forever winter post-apocalyptic tomorrow. It still has a brash young man falling for a woman out of his class as he makes his way up this future train called the Snowpeircer 2 sometimes called the Icebreaker.
New elements of this title include the use of virtual reality to pass time on the endless voyage of the train; a hilariously messed up religion believing that the Ice Breaker is really a spaceship floating endlessly in space and a more diverse government on board the train with different parts to manage it. If you guessed a religion worshiping the train itself, you'd be right. They love the "LOCO" in this book. A new aspect is the explorers, a group who wears protective suites allowing them to venture off the train and explore
Why do they explore? Not to learn anything or get help, but find mementos for those higher up the train; those in the front are better off.
Puig is an explorer who goes too far without abiding by the rules of the upper crust and just like Proloff is taken to the head of the train. Just as last time, like in the first volume, we have a breakdown of the classes and how the train operates both in sci-fi ideas and differences between those in front and in the back
With his new connection in the form of Kennel's daughter, Val, he soon becomes a leader of the train. There's some showboating of his skills with a flying aircraft and the help of his new girlfriend that gets him to the front of the train though.
The story isn't going to end on such a happy note, soon Puig must quell a fight with the rest of his government made of overbearing idiots and false prophets.
Fears of crashing into the original Snow Peircer are always on the mind of those on the train as they left right behind it all those years ago, but the connection to the train both in the rewrite of the story and what's really going on are both extremely dark.
The art remains a black and white tale capturing scenes unfolding like a movie. Many times cramped by being in a cumbersome train or deafening by the sheer nothing left in the world and those walking through it.
Another dark chapter to read in a story of all that's left of humanity and how petty that humanity can be, better than a SyFy channel movie.
The book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.
