{{Short description|2015 novel by Alison Littlewood}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Use British English|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox book | name = A Cold Silence | title_orig = | translator = | image = Littlewood ColdSilence.webp | image_size = | caption = First edition cover | author = Alison Littlewood | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | series = | subject = | genres = Fantasy, horror | publisher = Jo Fletcher Books | pub_date = September 2015 | media_type = Trade paperback | pages = 400 | awards = | isbn = 978-1-84866-992-5 | preceded_by = A Cold Season }}
'''''A Cold Silence''''' is a fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood. It is the sequel to her debut novel, ''A Cold Season'' (2012), and was first published in the United Kingdom in September 2015 by Jo Fletcher Books. It is about a group of friends from the sinister village of Darnshaw who investigate the deaths of several people who had played a computer game called ''Archeron''.
''A Cold Silence'' was shortlisted for the 2016 British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel (August Derleth Award).<ref name=BritishFantasyAwards/>
==Plot summary== After managing to flee the sinister village of Darnshaw with her son Ben in ''A Cold Season'', Cass is alarmed twenty years later when Ben announces that he wants to return to the village. Jessica, a childhood friend of his has died and Ben wants to attend her funeral. Cass forbids him from going back because of the trauma she and a younger Ben endured there. But he goes anyway.
In Darnshaw, Ben meets up with some of his old friends, and learns that Jessica had committed suicide after playing a computer game called ''Archeron''. They discover that the game draws on the occult and will grant you your wishes, provided you give it what it asks for. After they learn that the game had resulted in the deaths of several other young people, Ben and his friends visit the London offices of the game's developers to get answers as to what is happening.
==Critical reception== Reviewing ''A Cold Silence'' in ''Sci-Fi Bulletin'', Marie O'Regan called the book "an involving sequel" to its predecessor.<ref name="O'Regan" /> She said it shows the impact the events in ''A Cold Season'' had on Cass and her son, and described Ben as "a worthwhile protagonist".<ref name="O'Regan" /> O'Regan liked the way the novel builds up to its "final reveal" and conclusion. She gave ''A Cold Silence'' a score of seven out of ten.<ref name="O'Regan" />
In a more critical review at ''Tor.com'', Niall Alexander described ''A Cold Silence'' as "an exhausting" and "tedious sequel" to ''A Cold Season''.<ref name=Alexander/> He complained that some of the scenarios in the book drag on for pages and pages and rely on "careless characterisation and casual narrative contrivance".<ref name=Alexander/> He called the book's antagonist "cartoonish", and said Ben has "all the personality of a pencil". Alexander stated that ''A Cold Silence''{{'s}} premise is "promising" but "little of it is convincing".<ref name=Alexander/>
Stephen Theaker wrote in a review in ''Black Static'' that of Littlewood's first six books, ''A Cold Silence'' is a "definite misfire".<ref name=Theaker/> (Of the six books, he named ''The Hidden People'' her "best novel yet".<ref name=Theaker/>) Theaker felt that while the effect the computer game, ''Archeron'' has on people in ''A Cold Silence'' "is fascinating [and] an excellent idea rich with the potential", it all takes place in the novel's backstory. He said the bulk of the book is dominated by a couple of "very, very long conversations" and not much else.<ref name=Theaker/> Theaker concluded that ''A Cold Silence'' is an "admirable" sequel to ''A Cold Season'', but one that has not worked.<ref name=Theaker/>
==References== <references>
<ref name=BritishFantasyAwards>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/British_Fantasy_Awards_2016 |title=British Fantasy Awards 2016 |website=Science Fiction Awards Database |access-date=10 May 2023}}</ref>
<ref name="O'Regan">{{cite web |last=O'Regan |first=Marie |url=https://scifibulletin.com/books/horror/review-a-cold-silence/ |title=Review: A Cold Silence by Alison Littlewood |website=Sci-Fi Bulletin |date=3 October 2015 |access-date=11 May 2023}}</ref>
<ref name=Alexander>{{cite web |last=Alexander |first=Niall |url=https://www.tor.com/2015/08/31/book-reviews-a-cold-silence-alison-littlewood/ |title=Cross of Confusion: A Cold Silence by Alison Littlewood |website=Tor.com |date=31 August 2015 |access-date=11 May 2023}}</ref>
<ref name=Theaker>{{cite journal |last=Theaker |first=Stephen |date=September–October 2017 |title=Review: A Cold Silence by Alison Littlewood |journal=Black Static |publisher=TTA Press |location=Witcham, Cambridgeshire, England |volume= |issue=60 |page=74 |issn=1753-0709}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== *[https://www.jofletcherbooks.com/titles/alison-littlewood/a-cold-silence/9781848669925/ ''A Cold Silence''] at Jo Fletcher Books *{{ISFDB title|id=1889280|title=A Cold Silence}} *[https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/alison-littlewood/cold-silence.htm ''A Cold Silence''] at FantasticFiction
{{Alison Littlewood}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cold Silence, A}} Category:2015 British novels Category:2015 English-language novels Category:2015 fantasy novels Category:2010s horror novels Category:Books about video games Category:English fantasy novels Category:British horror novels Category:Jo Fletcher Books books Category:Sequel novels Category:Novels by Alison Littlewood