A deadly place. A dying planet. A secret frozen in time.
In 2123, Antarctica is the last resource on a planet running dry—controlled entirely by StarCross Corporation, which decides who gets water and who doesn’t. When Roscoe Slake arrives as a company intern, he expects bureaucracy. What he finds in the archives is something far older: logbooks from a 19th-century Ross Antarctic Expedition that suggest the ice holds a secret StarCross has buried for decades.
If the logbooks are accurate, the discovery could break the corporation’s global monopoly on water—and give a dying civilization its last real chance. If StarCross finds out what Roscoe knows, he won’t survive long enough to share it.
Shifting between Roscoe’s unraveling present and the expedition’s perilous past, Ice’s End is a propulsive dual-timeline eco-thriller about corporate power, climate survival, and what buried history can still change.
For fans of The Water Knife, Blackfish City, The Ministry for the Future, and Waste Tide.
Awards & recognition
2025 INDIES Book of the Year Award, Science Fiction, Finalist
2025 IBPA Book Award, Gold Award Winner, Science Fiction & Fantasy
P. Finian Reilly
Softcover: 978-1-961905-47-4 | $14.95
E-book: 978-1-961905-48-1 | $8.99
June 2025 | 350 pages
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In the media
Dragonfly.eco News – “P. Finian Reilly, Ice’s End” – 2025
Huxley & Hiro – Kenneth L. Hansen – book review – May 2025
Dragonfly.eco News – “World Eco-fiction Spotlight” – October 2025
Climate Fiction Writers League – “Presence of the Past in Climate Fiction:
A conversation between Tracy Richardson and P. Finian Reilly” – October 21, 2025
“P. Finian Reilly is a fresh new voice in sci-fi—Ice’s End is a deeply researched historical novel from the age of Antarctic exploration and an imaginative view of our harsh climate future on the harshest continent on Earth. From glacier mining to water credits to secret missions, Reilly twists today’s climate crisis into a future environmental thriller. Through it all, he maintains suspense, humor, and plenty of heart. Ice’s End is a propulsive read that responds to our times.”
—Adrian Horton, arts writer for Guardian US
“Ice’s End is a compelling read, offering a chilling look at a bleak future starved of resources that feels frighteningly plausible.”
—Mike Lucibella, former editor of the Antarctic Sun
“Ice’s End is original and quietly powerful—a haunting excavation of the frozen past and the glittering, fractured future.”—J.M. Ledgard, author of Submergence
“P. Finian Reilly’s Ice’s End plunges readers into Antarctica’s icy secrets, ones that may hold the key to the survival of a planet whose drinking water supply has nearly run dry. Its propulsive plot brings the cautionary tales of early Antarctic exploration into a futuristic world whose power-hungry entrepreneurs have learned too little from the past. A page-turner from the get-go, with a sense of urgency that resonates in a warming world.”
—Gwen Florio, award-winning author of the Lola Wicks and Nora Best mysteries and Silent Hearts
“P. Finian Reilly has hit the ground running in what promises to be an exciting writing career. ”
—Kenneth L. Hansen for Huxley & Hiro