Along with his camera operator and close friend, Jack Prentiss, he sets out to Siberia for their latest project. But I was kept in the story throughout, even as characters fell one by one and it became clear that this wasn't a battle they could win.Felix Teiglund is a documentary filmmaker. I did find the conclusion to the story a bit of a letdown after all the atmosphere leading up to it not that it's a bad premise, just a bit less than I'd hoped for. From there the story's a race for shelter, though what shelter can there be against Things that can survive the cold and can keep up with a motor vehicle?

Other characters include a young woman whose car broke down and who is given a lift just in time by our protagonists an old woman whose late-in-life avocation has become roaming the Road of Bones mile by mile offering prayers for the dead workers whose bodies, buried under the roadway, gave the place it's name and a rather jolly couple who run a tiny inn.Īll this could be quite grim enough, but as the characters try to take the little girl to a safe haven, they find that they're being pursued by what seem to be animal-shaped shadows - which become lethally tangible when they get close enough. Tracks in the snow suggest the residents simply walked out into the icy forest - but why?

The pair and their guide, a local man, make the long journey to the small village that's reportedly the coldest place on earth - or at least in the region - only to find it abandoned, save for a young girl found hiding and speechless in her home. (The relentless cold might make this one a good choice for reading during a heat wave. The story does convey a sense of that devastating cold, whether from technical details about not shutting off their vehicle's engine unless it's inside a shelter lest the cold make them unable to start it up again as the fluids congeal, or simply realizing how quickly one's face and hands and feet can start to freeze. But the pair has not allowed for the mind-bendingly extreme cold and isolation - and, as it turns out, there are worse things out there as well. With him is his long-time friend and increasingly frustrated patron, who hopes that by joining him on the expedition he'll motivate his friend to carry the project through to completion. It's an atmospheric horror tale in which a man - whose career as a documentary film producer has been languishing due to many poor decisions or outright bad luck - has decided to drive the 'Road of Bones,' a portion of the Kolyma Highway in Siberia, to document not only the grim history of the region but to acquire local legends and lore in this 'coldest place on earth'. I got this softcover at a local Barnes and Noble.

Road of bones christopher golden