Review: Night Shift

Night Shift by Robin Triggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of NIGHT SHIFT by Robin Triggs

I love Antarctica. I always have loved everything about the concept of Antarctica (up until the last few years of ice melt and global warming). I am fascinated by the “winter over” syndrome which seems to occur only in Antarctica: that specialized, location-specific version of Seasonal Affective Disorder, caused by isolation, deep winter, and six months of night (hence the term, night shift). So I was delighted to find NIGHT SHIFT, an engrossing, captivating, intriguing novel of a winter over in Antarctica, set in the slightly near future, after Resource Wars have resulted in the virtually complete takeover by The Company, a multinational megalith which provides resources and employment to much of the globe, and is opposed by a quite weakened United Nations.

The novel takes place in Australis, a Company-owned mining and oil-drilling site in Antarctica, not far from the South Pole. Anders Norveldt, a man with a bizarre childhood history, raised in the Company foster system, is unexpectedly a last-moment inclusion for Australis' Night Shift, as replacement for the departed Chief of Security, who apparently had psychological and health issues. Nobody likes Norveldt, from the commander on through the crew, for no particular reason it seems, but he soon becomes the target of rampant suspicion. As one tragic event follows another, morale doesn't just wane—it collapses, and eventually the remaining crew are suffering near-starvation, cold, and lack of security and privacy, wondering if any will survive till the sunrise (after Antarctica's six months of night).

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