ICE APPRENTICES

In the icy land of Tundra, an outcast with a mysterious past enrolls at a school for ice apprentices, where he seeks the truth about his family, fights to prove his worth, and confronts the monstrous dangers threatening the school.

Day after day, white transgender boy Oswin Fields toils away, planting splinters (which grow into logs) and harvesting logs for his harsh and humorless adoptive mother, Lullia. But that’s all a stray like him deserves, or so he’s always been told. Strays are treated as worthless burdens on the true Tundrans, who struggle for survival in their frigid homeland. Oswin expected to spend his whole life working in the fields until the grandmaster of Corridor, a school that teaches Tundrans skills of survival and magic, requests his attendance. Although Oswin is thrilled to join the ice apprentices and reunite with his adoptive brother, the stakes are high—the other students don’t like him, his adoptive family has a dubious legacy, he must pass his exams or be expelled, and monsters from beyond the Tundra are attacking the school. Fantastical mystery, suspenseful intrigue, and looming danger abound in this debut. Oswin, who’s an endearingly quirky and insatiably inquisitive protagonist, has a health condition resembling asthma and is cued as neurodivergent. The characters in the world around Oswin reflect diversity in skin tones, gender identity, and disability. A cliffhanger ending sets up an enticing hook for future installments.

An immersive and page-turning adventure.