Siberia - Tapa dura

Despite mixing fantasy and fairy-tale creatures, Siberia is a story full of human drama. Set in snowy wastelands, Sloe sets off on an epic journey to be reunited with her magical mother. (Funday Times 16.01.05)

It's a great read with a terrific central character - resourceful, brave, loving and challenged beyond endurance - and the ideas, so chilling and so provocative that I can't get the story out of my head. (Wendy Cooling)

Siberia is proof that teen fantasy can deal with complex and difficult themes as adequately as adult fiction. The story resonates, Sloe's fate matters and the awardwinning Gwyneth Jones, writing as Ann Halam, strips betrayal, hope and the corruption of politics and ideals down to simple sentences. A quietly impressive book. (Jon Courtenay Grimwood Guardian, 15 Jan 05)

The story is truly original. .. This is a terrific read: a dystopian creation of endless winter and ultimate hope that avoids the cliches of environmental nightmare genre. From its dust jacket, to its Goethe quote: "Seed corn must not be ground" this is a lean, effective and moving book. I loved it and admired the clarity of thought and the elegance of its delivery. (GAye Hicyilmaz TES)

Siberia by Ann Halam (Orion, £8.99) is not a place, it's a state of mind, says the author's note at the back of the book. Part dystopian thriller, part science fable, Siberia is set in the frozen wastes of a future where the families of criminals and dissidents are banished to Settlements, and wild mammals have become extinct. Sloe's mother, a disgraced scientist, has brought her up from an early age with the knowledge that she is the guardian of strange "seed kits" - the genetic material of d (Dinah Hall SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

Ann Halam's depiction of a wilderness world... take on parable proportions; the images stay with the reader long after the book is finished. Equally powerful are her visions of an outcast society, scavenging and betraying their neighbours for survival. Halam pulls a tight thread of tension on every page. (Helen Ryan INIS)

'...remarkable...' (Amanda Craig THE TIMES)

'one of those books that keeps you thinking after you have finished reading it.' (John Millen SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)

'a vividly imagined, though very bleak vision of the future. It is also a nail-biting adventure which should appeal to boys as well as girls.' (Rosalind Kerven THE NORTHERN ECHO)