Reviewed by Sidra Roman

Assuming that one can get past the global warming premise of what essentially causes most of the earth to turn into a giant ice ball, North Wind #1 is an interesting enough dystopia. In North Wind, the heating of the earth has caused melting ice and these melting ices have caused a change in the wind patterns of the earth, causing what they call the North Wind to cover all but the equator in ice. People tried to immigrate to the equator, but overpopulation caused conflicts. Eventually these conflicts came to a head, in the form of nuclear warfare that wiped out the entirety of the equator. Survivors of the nuclear war and the inhospitable cold live in small communities mostly bargaining for heat to survive. War barons have sprung up to control heat and massive portions of what is left of the population. The problem with these war barons, like many war barons before them, is that they are petty and they don't plan well. Heat is running low in what used to be Los Angeles but is now referred to as Lost Angeles. Lost Angeles is led by a particularly nasty fellow named Slaughterhouse Joe. Can we guess what he enjoys doing? The outlying towns around Lost Angeles are forbidden by penalty of death from trading with outsiders such as Skinrunners who kill various animals and trade their bits for the things they need to survive: rations, heat, apprentices, etc. In the start of North Wind, a young boy and his friend are trying to hunt the seals that live on the coast of California. The two children get into a spot of trouble when a white tiger comes to hunt the same seals. Luckily for the children, a Skinhunter comes along at that time and saves their hides. The Skinhunter accompanies them back to their village and asks to trade some of his various animal bits for an apprentice. The town head, the boy's mother, is too afraid of Slaughterhouse Joe, and refuses to trade with the old Skinhunter. As it turns out the town head needs to head into Lost Angeles and trade for some copper wiring for their greenhouse, so she sets out. Her son follows her into Lost Angeles without her knowledge. Meanwhile in Lost Angeles things are restless. The heat sources are drying up, and Slaughterhouse Joe, like any other failing dictator is starting to grow paranoid. He determines that the boy's village must have some source of heat that they are withholding from him as they never have to trade for heat. Slaughterhouse Joe suspects that the little village is on top of one of the buried in ice old refineries that the city of Lost Angeles has thus far been unable to find. This whole idea strikes me as slightly preposterous. It would be near impossible for the ice to appear fast enough for a full refinery, which is a very hot thing, to be buried completely in ice and lost. One would think that before the refinery was buried, it would have been shut down and emptied, but that is perhaps me bringing too much of my professional knowledge to the table. But at best, assuming that they're talking about the largest refinery in California, they're going to find a little more than a quarter million barrels of gasoline, which in a fixed amount of time will run out, depending on the number of people and the frivolity with which the gasoline is spent. Overall it seems like an interesting enough setting, but the book fails to indicate where it wants to go with the world it has built and offers few clues as to why the reader should stick around for more. If you like dystopia and you're willing to give it more of a shot, knowing that the beginning is slow, you can pick up a copy at http://www.boom-studios.com/node/698

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