4

Can anyone identify this story? This was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, probably ca. 1974. May have been written in the 50's or 60's. I think it was what was marketed then as a "juvenile novel" (today's YA novel), possibly a short Scholastic book marketed to grade school kids.

The idea is that the earth has entered a mini ice age, so a group of people have built an underground city to escape the cold. It is now maybe a generation or two later, and they are poking their heads out to see if the ice age is over and the earth is habitable again. I think there may be controversy about whether it's OK to go out yet. Unfortunately there's not much more I can remember -- I was a little kid then.

Improve this question
3
  • The Sunset Warrior by Eric Van Lustbader was published in 1977 and was based in an underground city, they told people that it was unsafe to go above ground. Without more details it’s a bit of a shot in the dark. ericvanlustbader.com/fantasy/the-sunset-warrior
    – Blair
    Commented Sep 24, 2017 at 22:57
  • There's a similar premise being asked after at scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/78603/…
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Sep 24, 2017 at 23:41
  • @Blair: Thanks for the suggestion, but 1977 is much too late.
    – user2490
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 0:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

Could it be the same one, as An old juvenile novel about a small group walking across the frozen Atlantic Ocean??

Time of the Great Freeze by Robert Silverberg.

Book Cover - Time of the Great Freeze

Miles beneath the layer of ice that covered Earth in the New Ice Age of 2300 A.D., men survive in the subterranean cities they built to save themselves as the ice crept with killing cold over all living things. For three hundred years no one has seen the surface or communicated with any other city. Until now. Now the few scientific instruments that remain seem to indicate that the Ice Age may be ending; outside temperatures are reaching a level that may make life possible--though not easy--on the outside. But life in the undergournd (sic) cities is comfortable, and those few who are brave enough to be curious about the unknown frozen world above are suspect; troublemakers. A small party of these "troublemakers," led by Dr. Raymond Barnes, with a few scientists and others who think they might prefer freedom to safety, has been allowed to take the long-unused elevator up through the ice to the outside. But they go more as exiles than as a scientic (sic) expedition; they are not expected--and may not be allowed--to return.

It was written in 1964, which fits your time frame, and involves a group coming out of an underground city to see if it's safe after an Ice Age.

Search terms: juvenile novel teenagers emerging from an ice age (I don't know why I thought "teenagers" from your description...)

Improve this answer
2