Hello Summer, Goodbye

Drove's father is a member of the Erto Parliament, and when the family sets off for its annual holiday at the seaside town of Pallahaxi, Drove is thinking only of how to improve his acquaintance with Browneyes, the girl he met there last summer. But Erto is at war with a neighbouring country, and soon Pallahaxi is under siege conditions in which Drove and his friends are forced to side with the workers against his family and the establishment. As the political situation gradually worsens, the deadly cold which has been overtaking the planet claims more and more victims. The incidental detail of the alien planet on which the action takes place is, as always in a Michael Coney novel, especially good: the ice-devils, for instance, which live at the bottom of pools and trap any-one foolish enough to step into the water; the grume (the peculiar tidal effect caused by the planet's orbit) and the grume-riders; the delightful silky-furred Lorin who befriend anyone caught in the intense cold.