About this book
“Reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin’s paradigm-shattering The Left Hand of Darkness, this piercingly moving story belongs in most fantasy collections.”—Library Journal There are secrets beneath her skin. Sorykah Minuit is a scholar, an engineer, and the sole woman aboard an ice-drilling submarine in the frozen land of the Sigue. What no one knows is that she is also a Trader: one who can switch genders suddenly, a rare corporeal deviance universally met with fascination and superstition and all too often punished by harassment or death. Sorykah’s infant twins, Leander and Ayeda, have inherited their mother’s Trader genes. When a wealthy, reclusive madman known as the Collector abducts the babies to use in his dreadful experiments, Sorykah and her male alter-ego, Soryk, must cross icy wastes and a primeval forest to get them back. Complicating the dangerous journey is the fact that Sorykah and Soryk do not share memories: Each disorienting transformation is like awakening with a jolt from a deep and dreamless sleep. The world through which the alternating lives of Sorykah and Soryk travel is both familiar and surreal. Environmental degradation and genetic mutation run amok; humans have been distorted into animals and animal bodies cloak a wild humanity. But it is also a world of unexpected beauty and wonder, where kindness and love endure amid the ruins. Alluring, intense, and gorgeously rendered, Ice Song is a remarkable debut by a fiercely original new writer.
Censorship history
In 2024, "Ice Song" by Kirsten Imani Kasai faced bans at the school level across several districts in the United States, primarily due to its LGBTQ+ content, sexual themes, and discussions of race and colonialism. Notably, the book was challenged in various PTA meetings and school board votes, leading to formal complaints from conservative advocacy groups. As a result, many schools opted to remove the book from their libraries, reflecting a growing trend of censorship surrounding LGBTQ+ literature in educational settings.
Bans
| Country | Year | Reasons |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 2024 | LGBTQ+SexualRacial |