We are in familiar Magnus Mills territory with Explorers of the New Century. The work is short (at less than 200 pages), and the words highly economical. There is humour, but it's very dark. And the ostensible topic of the novel — a retelling of the race between Scott and Amundsen to reach the South Pole — soon reveals itself just to be an edifice. All is not what it seems. There is a sense of the uncanny. While it may often be facile to compare authors to Kafka, it is fair to say that Mills's characters are rarely in control of their destinies — exogenous and unpredictable forces are at work. Explorers of the New Century is part alternative reality, but also allegory and fantasy too. The harsh climate and terrain encountered by the explorers strips them of their destinies. The role reversal between the humans and their mules is also superb — from denial of freedom to dependency for their own freedom. Punishment and reward are recurring themes across Mills's novels and are exploited well here. Eight out of ten.
By Magnus Mills