La Compagnie des glaces

Lore & Background

The main series, La Compagnie des glaces, concluded in 1992 with its sixty-second volume. A supplementary series, Chroniques glaciaires, covers the period of Earth's glacification. A later continuation, La nouvelle Compagnie des Glaces, began publication in 2001 and continues the original plot fifteen years later. The first volume is the only one translated into English, published as The Ice Company in 1987 by DAW Books; that translation included plot summaries of all volumes released up to that point.

Reader's Guide

La Compagnie des glaces holds significance as one of the longest single-author science fiction series in French literature, spanning 97 novels over 25 years. Its influence extends beyond print: it inspired the video game Transarctica (1992) by Silmarils, the anime series Overman King Gainer (2002) by Yoshiyuki Tomino, and a low-budget French-Canadian television adaptation titled Grand Star (2006). A bande dessinée adaptation by Philippe Bonifay, published by Dargaud, ran for 15 volumes (covering roughly the first ten novels) before ending due to limited commercial success, despite an original projection of 100 volumes. The series also spawned a pen-and-paper roleplaying game published by Jeux Actuels in 1986. The setting bears close similarity to the 1982 French comics series Le Transperceneige, adapted as the film Snowpiercer in 2013.

Did You Know?

• The series consists of 97 novels published between 1980 and 2005.
• The video game Transarctica (1992) was inspired by the setting and plot of the novels.