The Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle, #1)

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The Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle #1)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 4,869 ratings · 161 reviews

The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. All is not lost if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not wi...more

Paperback, 448 pages

Published February 1st 2001 by Warner Books (first published 1980)

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Apr 17, 2013 Aerin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, science-fiction, well-that-was-awesome, female-sf-authors-of-the-80s-90s

This may be the best science fiction book ever written.

By "the best", of course, I mean "my favorite". I can't name any objective parameters that would scientifically prove its superiority, or anything, and my overwhelming love for it probably blinds me to whatever flaws it may have. Nonetheless, I'll stand behind my opinion: this is the best science fiction book ever written.

There are a very few books that can take my breath away, keep me up all night turning pages, consume my every waking thou...more This may be the best science fiction book ever written.

By "the best", of course, I mean "my favorite". I can't name any objective parameters that would scientifically prove its superiority, or anything, and my overwhelming love for it probably blinds me to whatever flaws it may have. Nonetheless, I'll stand behind my opinion: this is the best science fiction book ever written.

There are a very few books that can take my breath away, keep me up all night turning pages, consume my every waking thought when I'm forced away from reading to do useless things like work or sleep. It happens so rarely nowadays that it's easy to forget what a transcendent experience reading can really be. Books like this one remind me.

The Snow Queen has elements of space opera, epic fantasy, and tragic romance. In a rustic seafaring community on the planet Tiamat, Moon and Sparks Dawntreader have just pledged their love. Inseparable since birth, they plan to become sibyls and travel throughout their community imparting mystic knowledge. But when only Moon passes the sibyl test, their lives fall apart - sibyls carry a sexually-transmittable disease that gives them their power and causes madness in the uninitiated. Devastated, Sparks leaves for the capital city Carbuncle to seek his fortune, as Moon begins her training.

Months later, Moon receives a message from Sparks begging for help, and she sets off immediately for the city. But on the way, she becomes entangled with smugglers who take her off-planet on a time-bending journey from which by law she can never return. For the galactic Hegemony has a vested interest in keeping Tiamat isolated and ignorant: only on Tiamat can an eternal-youth-granting serum called the Water of Life be harvested - at a steep price. If the Tiamatans were to learn that price, and develop their own authority, they could end the highly lucrative trade.

With Moon irretrievably lost, Sparks is vulnerable to the connivings of Tiamat's monarch, the ageless Snow Queen Arienrhod, who has ruled for 150 years thanks to the Water of Life. But her reign (and her life) will come to an end with the coming of Summer in just a few years, unless she can find a way to circumvent the traditional change of power. Sparks becomes infatuated with Arienrhod, who looks eerily like the lost Moon. And Arienrhod shares his loss - for Moon is in fact her clone, originally created to take her place as the Summer Queen. As Sparks becomes caught up in Arienrhod's plans, becoming her lackey, lover, and assassin, he loses his humanity piece by piece.

Until Moon finds her way home, armed with the truth about sibyls, the Water of Life, and Tiamat's bondage. She's desperate to find Sparks again, but has no idea what he has become in the years of her absence.

But that synopsis, long as it is, can't begin to cover the riveting power of this book. The world is so intricately realized, the characters are so real (and so captivating, even the evil Arienrhod and corrupted Sparks), the plot is so sprawling and yet never boring, the writing is so polished and clear. Every time I reread it, it feels like returning to some well-loved and too-long-abandoned retreat. It's like seeing old friends; it's like going home.(less)

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Sep 07, 2011 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, award-nominee-hugo, award-winner-hugo, multiple-award-nominee, multiple-award-winners, award-nominee-nebula, easton-press, award-nominee-locus, award-winner-locus, 1980-1989, alien-cultures, political-fiction, galactic-civilizations

This is higher end political space opera that borrows a number of themes and central plot components from Frank Herbert’s Dune, while creatively retelling the Han’s Christian Anderson story for which it’s named. I found much to like here. Vinge has quality prose skills and does a excellent job with both world-building and layering in a well thought out political structure. She has also peopled her narrative with strong, determined, intelligent central characters, all of whom are women. A nice c...more

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May 04, 2013 Clouds - (¿head-in-the?) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-stand-alone, locus-sci-fi, hugo, science-fiction, reviewed

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, wssfbc, sci-fi-fantasy, 2011, 52-in-2011

OK, I am going to describe a scene to you, and I want you to then tell me which famous science-fiction property it comes from. Ready?

So, this is the climax of the middle part of the story. The hero finally meets up with the primary antagonist. They go head-to-head in a duel on a narrow bridge over a vast abyss. Midway through, our hero learns a stunning piece of news regarding a parental figure, and is then tempted to join the villain in an evil scheme to rule the galaxy.

Ha ha, yeah, I did make...more OK, I am going to describe a scene to you, and I want you to then tell me which famous science-fiction property it comes from. Ready?

So, this is the climax of the middle part of the story. The hero finally meets up with the primary antagonist. They go head-to-head in a duel on a narrow bridge over a vast abyss. Midway through, our hero learns a stunning piece of news regarding a parental figure, and is then tempted to join the villain in an evil scheme to rule the galaxy.

Ha ha, yeah, I did make it pretty easy. Of course I am talking about Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen.

So, this is a very Star Warsy book, very hero's journey. I might just be grasping at narrative tropes that were obviously very common before George Lucas came on the scene (humble farmer discovers a wider world, plays an active role in world-shattering events, faces darkness and temptation yet triumphs), but I can't overlook the fact that it was published in 1980, just three years after Lucas made Joseph Campbell a household name. Granted, a lot of the material couldn't possibly have been inspired by The Trilogy, but it is almost funny the way the book predicts events in Empire and Jedi.

Anyway, broad similarities with other genre entries don't mean this isn't a great book; in fact, it's a damn interesting take on the material, Star Wars from a feminist point-of-view. The hero, Moon Dawntreader (seriously?) is female, for one thing, and an inhabitant of a matriarchal world where one woman, Arienrhod (the semi-villainous Snow Queen of the title), has been in power for more than 100 years and has concocted a scheme to ensure she keeps it. I'm sure you could pick a lot of it apart, even from this angle -- for much of the story, Moon is motivated by her quest to rescue her lost love, who has been seduced into becoming the Snow Queen's dark apprentice -- but she eventually realizes she has her own greater purpose, one motivated by her connection to the women of her bloodline and a great, galaxy-spanning force than unifies the... you know, it really is uncanny.

It's a nice change of pace to read a sci-fi novel in which the three primary characters are strong women -- in addition to Moon and the Snow Queen, there's also Police Inspector Jerusha PalaThion, certainly one of the more nuanced female characters in any genre entry I've read. It also manages to create an interesting mythology (somewhat loosely inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale), about a world that holds the secret to eternal life, is exploited by a Galactic Empire (erm...), and, due to its plot-convenient location near a black hole, disappears, Brigadoon-like, for a century every 150 years. It's all a lot of fun, even though there is hardly any space travel and little in the way of laser fights (one tense showdown involves some flute playing).

Despite the fact that it won the Hugo (and has amazing cover art), The Snow Queen has been in and out of print for years (and is currently out). The author was injured in a car accident a decade or so back and has been unable to publish anything new, which might have something to do with it, but this is one book that deserves to be available in bookstores.(less)

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Jan 02, 2012 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

I always found the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen oddly disturbing, that business with mirror splinters in the eye creeped me out as a kid. This Hugo award winning book by Joan D. Vinge (Mrs. Vernor Vinge no less), takes the original tale and turns it up to 11. I find that female science fiction authors are frequently better at character development and are better prose stylists than their male counterparts, cases in point (off the top of my head) would be Ursula K. Le Guin,...more I always found the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen oddly disturbing, that business with mirror splinters in the eye creeped me out as a kid. This Hugo award winning book by Joan D. Vinge (Mrs. Vernor Vinge no less), takes the original tale and turns it up to 11. I find that female science fiction authors are frequently better at character development and are better prose stylists than their male counterparts, cases in point (off the top of my head) would be Ursula K. Le Guin, Lois McMaster Bujold, Connie Willis, Anne Macaffrey and Mrs. Vinge here very much deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with them (but isn't). Certainly with this book she has created some emotionally complex and believable characters who she puts through the wringer and they come out better people for it (unlike in real life when I tend to shake my fist at the sky post-wringer sessions).

The hardest villains to write are the ones who are morally complex and commit heinous acts on the basis of some warped principles, like altruism gone wrong. The super wicked titular Machiavellian character never hesitate to corrupt, murder and destroy for in the name of planetary progress. She thinks nothing of killing half the populace yet she misses her younger days when she was just a happy care-free girl and instinctively fall for a boy who reminds her of her younger self. She now ranks among my all time favorite villains. Romance is a major aspect of the story but not the adolescent starry-eyed type that will leave twitards weak at the knees. Here it is portrayed as a vastly complicated human condition that create, destroy, corrupt and redeem with equal facility.

My only complaint is that the male characters are not as well developed as the ladies, especially the two "starbucks" characters who are despicable and deserve their eventual decaffeination (sorry). The one exception is a sympathetic policeman who goes on to have his own spin-off adventures in later books.

It is a terrible shame that The Snow Queen is out of print (as I write) while Stephenie Meyer's literary manures are in plentiful supply. The most recent book by Joan D. Vinge appears to be a Cowboys and Aliens novelization. What is the world coming to??(less)

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Nov 24, 2009 Patrick Burgess rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Eewoks, House-Elves, and Homo Sapiens

Shelves: reviewed

Lovely, Organic, Classic

Snow Queen is a beautifully written and absolutely amazing piece of science fiction. I'm not a fan of "hardcore" scifi novels that read as though technical manuals had been taken and turned into stories. Yes, I enjoy descriptions of a story's technological aspects, but not to the point where it becomes the story, and the characters merely its automated operators.

Vinge has melded science fiction, drama, and poetry in a way that breathes life into the worlds she's created,...more

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Aug 15, 2008 Swankivy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading this but found it a bit confusing. Ms. Vinge is my favorite author, but sometimes her plots and huge cast of characters become overwhelming. The basic gist of it began with two opposing cultures--the Summers and the Winters--and how the queen of the Winter culture has to be destroyed when it's time for the Summer Queen to rise. It follows the life of Moon Dawntreader, who's got a curious connection to the reigning Queen, and the culture of the "sybils" who can answer questions...more

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Mar 15, 2008 Kirsten rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-pre-12-07, own

I've owned this book for a very long time, and actually started reading it twice, only to get distracted. This time I finished it, and I was not disappointed. It starts off kind of slow, but then Vinge gets all of her different plots going and the thing sort of gathers this incredible momentum. It's an sf novel about a world called Tiamat, which orbits two stars and a stable black hole. Due its idiosyncratic orbit, every 150 years Tiamat's atmosphere radically changes. During the cold years, the...more

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Aug 08, 2008 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism-and-gender-studies, readinglist2-sf, science-fiction-and-fantasy, 20th-century-american-lit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm torn between three and four stars on this one. I greatly enjoyed most of the book, but it does take a long time to set all the events and characters in motion and then, because so much is going on, it takes longer than I'd like to conclude. On the other hand, after the action gets going and before it concludes the book becomes difficult to put down. I decided it deserves four stars because not only was it a fun read but it is a really interesting read in the following ways:

1) Without being o...more I'm torn between three and four stars on this one. I greatly enjoyed most of the book, but it does take a long time to set all the events and characters in motion and then, because so much is going on, it takes longer than I'd like to conclude. On the other hand, after the action gets going and before it concludes the book becomes difficult to put down. I decided it deserves four stars because not only was it a fun read but it is a really interesting read in the following ways:

1) Without being overtly political, Vinge makes a feminist statement in this book. The fact that the world of Tiamat is ruled by women could cut both ways, but the Snow and Summer Queens are far from the only strong female characters. The ratio of strong female to strong male characters is probably pretty balanced, actually, which is a rarity in my SF reading up to this point. Prior to the 1970s, to find a strong female character in SF was a surprise and a treat.

2) Vinge raises questions of ethical behavior toward not only other human beings but toward nonhuman creatures as well in the relationship between the mers--intelligent waterdwellers on Tiamat (basically merpeople) who, as it turns out, had been created by the Old Empire as part of a scientific experiment--and the human inhabitants and visitors of Tiamat. The mers are regularly slaughtered for their blood, which has life-preserving qualities that allow the humans who use the "water of life," as it is called, to stay young and live forever--as long as they keep ingesting this substance. Vinge asks us to consider whether this is justifiable, even if the mers are not intelligent creatures, and this echoes real-life issues of animal rights and anti-colonial movements.

3) Although The Snow Queen, based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, is in some ways very much in the tradition of epic fantasy, complete with royalty, palace intrigue, and apparent magic, Vinge refigures the fantastic in favor of the scientific. Here, fantasy is transformed into science fiction by simply providing an explanation for the magic of Tiamat. The sibyls, who are worshipped as specially able to communicate the words and knowledge of the Lady, a goddess, turn out to be able, instead, to communicate with a computer system because they have been genetically engineered to be able to do so. The mers aren't fantasy creatures divorced from reality but are the result of scientific experimentation that have a purpose. And the central issue of the book is that of progress through technology and the rights of the people of Tiamat to improve their lives through technology. The goal is not to return to a primordial time of innocence and wonder but to change the world for the better. As Moon, the protagonist, says, "Change isn't evil--change is life. Nothing's all good, or all bad. . . . What you choose to do with your life doesn't matter, unless you have the right to choose anything" (489).

4) Vinge explores quite thoroughly the various ways in power can change those who hold it. Arienrhod, the Snow Queen, is completely corrupted by her absolute power over her subjects, and Sparks is changed from an innocent and good young man to an executioner and murderer at the hands of Arienrhod and with the power their relationship gives him. Jerusha, the police inspector who becomes commander, is changed by the power she gains as well; although she does not become corrupted herself, she does lose a great deal of herself to the position she has taken on. Even Moon, the most good-hearted, well-informed, and well-intentioned character in the book risks losing that. As she realizes when she becomes Summer Queen, "becoming Queen did not mean absolute freedom, but the end of it" (528). As we see in Jerusha and Moon, however, power does not have to mean corruption. Jerusha resists that corruption and her position and prestige in order to do the right thing and we can only hope that Moon, in the following books of the series, will be able to do the same.

5) The concluding chapter includes a couple of statements that I, quite simply, really liked and was moved by. BZ Gundhalinu, a police inspector, tells Jerusha what he has learned through the painful experiences he has endured and says,

"A man without armor is a defenseless man. . . . But maybe he's a freer man for it. . . . Anything becomes possible, after you find the courage to admit that nothing is certain" (532).

In the same conversation, Jerusha tells Gundhalinu that the real danger of the world is indifference. It is, she says,

"the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hatedon't stand a chance against it. It lets neglect and decay and monstrous injustice go unchecked. It doesn't at, it allows. And that's what gives it so much power" (533).

These two concepts play a huge role already in my personal philosophy and it's nice to have them articulated so well here. (less)

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Feb 15, 2013 Germanager rated it 2 of 5 stars

Hugo award? Really?!

Its very outdated suitable only for teenagers. I'm no longer one so I couldn't find anything amusing about this book. Plot is a interpretation of Hederson's Snown Queen fairy tale. Very straightforward.

Couldn't seriously believe in all that moral discussion about mers' slaughtering. We slaughter animals all over for food without a blink of an eye, in the book they slaughtered some seals for eternal(!!!) life. Sure, there's no way even modern person would judge that.

Main heroe...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Nathaniel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

This is another winner of the Hugo aware for best science fiction novel (1981). Based on those high expectations, it was a disappointment. Some of the problems had to do with the time when it was written, I think. One of the protagonists is a woman police officer, and she has serious doubts as to whether or not she is capable of doing a "man's job". The angst seems overwrought and silly. I suppose it may have seemed like cutting-edge feminism in 1981, but in 2011 it's just weird. The main protag...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Eloketh Palarran rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel was a bit of a frustrating read for me.

On the one hand, there is a lot to commend. The world-building is quite well done, the societies and cultures interesting and well thought out, and the background - both in terms of history and the actual physical settings - are never anything less than fascinating. None of the characters were boring, and even some of the incidental people had lives of their own.

On the other hand, the story didn't really engage me until the very end. Two of the m...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars

Recommended to Richard by: SciFi & Fantasy Group 2011-07 Science Fiction Selection

Shelves: classic, scifi-fantasy, bookclub

Meh. Within the first two or three dozen pages I was very strongly tempted to put this down and walk away. NPR had just released their listener-selected list of the best 100 of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and there's lots there I haven't read yet. Vinge's The Snow Queen isn't on the list.

What dragged me down at the very beginning was the overly lyrical style, unoriginal plot set-up and banal characters of her young protagonists. But I glanced at some Goodreads reviews, realized it had won the H...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Kiersten added it · review of another edition

A novel possessed of a beautifully epic feel. Light travel, long words that don’t exist in real life, long half-pronounceable names, an array of unique cultures, high class characters, low class characters, characters in between, characters with disabilities, different planets, imprisonment, intrigue, politics, simplicity, complexity, contrast. Superbly, masterfully done.

Very solid character development. There was a pretty good array of personalities and motives throughout Vinge’s cast, and a de...more A novel possessed of a beautifully epic feel. Light travel, long words that don’t exist in real life, long half-pronounceable names, an array of unique cultures, high class characters, low class characters, characters in between, characters with disabilities, different planets, imprisonment, intrigue, politics, simplicity, complexity, contrast. Superbly, masterfully done.

Very solid character development. There was a pretty good array of personalities and motives throughout Vinge’s cast, and a decent balance of static minor characters and dynamic major characters. Sufficient background stories were given to satisfy my inner Tolkien-esque-ity meter.

(Short moral rant here.) I am really not a fan of extramarital sex. That’s my one complaint about this book. Although I’ll concede it was a pretty necessary plot point, I am still unhappy with it. I’m happy that it at least wasn’t recurring (descriptively, I mean; clearly it was actually a recurring event within the story.) Technically *this is a spoiler!* if Sparks and Moon were “married after their [people’s] fashion”, as one character explained their being “pledged”, then Sparks was committing adultery by becoming Arienrhod’s lover. (I am completely not buying Arienrhod’s tales about she and Moon being the same person, clone or no.) Even if Sparks’ feeling of betrayal were completely understandable, and even if he eventually went back to Moon, I am not okay with adultery.

Even though I’m normally a complete sucker for happy endings, I’m glad this novel turned out the way it did. Nobody was free of a conscience; Vinge resisted any urge to throw in a little extra “deus ex machina”. The characters in this story lived lives and did things that tarnished them; and thus is their ending, while generally happy, was somewhat tarnished. It’s right, and it’s very good science fiction.

Although I do have that one qualm, I would say this is probably one of the best-written science fiction novels I have ever read.

(less)

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Jul 12, 2011 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama, book-club, sci-fi, hugo-winner, nebula-nominee, locus-winner, female-author, 1980s, book-club-scifi-and-fantasy

My thoughts on this book are quite tangled.

On one hand I loved the sci-fi elements of this book. A world which is periodically reduced to a "primitive" state, controlled by the Hegemony for the purpose of harvesting it's most precious resource.

On the other is the drama surrounding the Winter Queen, her Summer clone and their joint love.

Honestly I would have enjoyed the book with far less of the latter and more of the former. The dramatical parts of the book really dragged for me. The whole rede...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I think I was in junior high the first time I picked this book up off my mother's book shelf. I must have really liked it because I took it with me when I moved out (shh, don't tell!).

I reread it again after college, and thanks to this website I just discovered it is part of a series of books that I have now added to my to-read list.

Although my mother had read both The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia to us when I was a child, The Snow Queen was my first independent foray into the world of sc...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Caitlin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

This one won the Hugo Award in 1981 & with good reason. Someone in another review I read said that this book was what Dune would be if it had been written by a female anthropologist.

I read this when it first came out - loved the doomed love story at its core with its echoes of the Hans Christian Anderson story. Reading it now I'm more drawn to the politics and culture of the world & to the notion of the sibyl mind - a huge networked database containing all of the knowledge of the Old Emp...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, space-opera, re-reads, favorites

One of my all time favorites. I first read this in high school and I've returned to it several times since. It uses the "Snow Queen" fairy tale as an armature and builds a rich, wonderful world upon it. It's got romance, detailed world-building, and suspenseful storytelling. A fantastic space opera.

The peoples of the planet Tiamat are divided into two groups: the more technologically advanced Winter people, who serve as hosts to the galactic community and control the trade of Tiamat's only expor...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Carson Kicklighter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked the Snow Queen because the setting and conflicts were constantly changing, although the end dragged a bit.

The novel starts with a boy and a girl in a fishing village, and I was worried that the story was going to hang around there for longer than it needed to, introducing me to lots of boring fishing folk and their banal fishing lifestyles. However, the plot never stays in one place for long. It goes to the world’s capital, a village of savages, a wildlife refuge, and eventually to anoth...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: post-grad, sci-fi

The Snow Queen has a fantastic premise but it chokes on itself - Vinge's writing style is very heavy, weighted down with flowery descriptive passages and melodramatic soliloquies, which is great if you like that sort of thing. This book was just too long and too heavy; if 100 pages and 10,000 adverbs were cut, it would be much stronger. The omniscient narration provides too many thoughts, and it was just exhausting to try to invest interest in all of them. That said, I did like it quite a bit. T...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Kerith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tales, fiction

This book was a delicious surprise! A friend recommended it long ago, so my husband bought our first copy used at the Book Nook in Atlanta. I finally read it, and what a treat. It really is Andersen's fairy tale, too -- in that there are two cousins who love each other,
and one gets "bewitched" by the Snow Queen Arienrhod. That's simplifying the plot a bit, though.
Here, Winter people equal technology and progress; Summer people equal faith, tradition and living off the land. Offworlders hold the...more

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Nov 12, 2011 Mike Moore rated it 3 of 5 stars

A masterful migration of the themes of the fairy tale from which it takes its name, and a solid piece of space opera. I have no strong criticisms of this book, it is well crafted and beautifully executed. Yet, despite my affection for space opera and fairy tales, the book didn't resonate with me as strongly as I might expect. One reason may be how female-centric the book is (something that can hardly be considered a drawback for a work of early-80s sci-fi). However, I think a larger reason is th...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Alicia rated it 5 of 5 stars

By far the best science fiction space opera I have ever read. This woman is my idol and role model. No one ever talks about how amazingly grand in scope the settings of this novel are. Not only that, but Ms. Vinge's prose is incredibly personal and deeply emotional. She has the ability to make these characters, who are as distant to us as any possibly could be, seem like people we may know.
I have DREAMED that this be made into a film. I know it would reach a large audience and would be well rec...more

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Feb 01, 2010 Gia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh sigh. I REALLY wanted to like this book more than I did. I was hoping for something like Dune, maybe a bit of Mists of Avalon tossed in, and instead it just seemed to skim the surface of greatness. The dialogue was clunky, the premise was so-so. I guess I went in with high expectations, remembering how much I loved Foundation and that series. I read it because I have a lot of respect for Hugo winners and found myself wondering how it won a Hugo. I wanted to stop reading it several times but f...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Mathias Cavanaugh rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Snow Queen was released in 1980, but since I was just eight at the time, I never read it before now. It was never on my reading list because, frankly, I never had anyone recommend it as something that I should read. But, several months ago I came across it and added it to my pile of books to read.

The science fiction novel takes place on the worlds ruled by the Hegemony. In particular, one called Tiamat. The natives of this world are kept in a relative state of technological limbo by the Hege...more The Snow Queen was released in 1980, but since I was just eight at the time, I never read it before now. It was never on my reading list because, frankly, I never had anyone recommend it as something that I should read. But, several months ago I came across it and added it to my pile of books to read.

The science fiction novel takes place on the worlds ruled by the Hegemony. In particular, one called Tiamat. The natives of this world are kept in a relative state of technological limbo by the Hegemony with technology only existing on the world during the reign of the “Winters” when the planet is able to be accessed through interstellar travel. When the gates close and the “Summers” take over, all technology is removed from the planet or destroyed until the gate reopens, and the “Winters” regain control.

The novel follows the story of Moon Dawntreader Summer, a Sibyl and keeper of ancient knowledge. The reign of the Arienrhod, the current Winter Queen, is at an end after 150 years. After she is picked to become a Sibyl and Moon’s lover,Sparks, is not and the two part ways. Sparksmakes his way to Carbuncle, while Moon is essentially kidnapped and taken off world, making her an outlaw if she ever returns. While off world, Moon learns that, as a Sibyl, she is an access point for people to ask questions of an intergalactic supercomputer to which she is linked.

Arienrhod, whoSparkslearns Moon is a clone of, created to extend the current Winter Queen’s rule, ensnares him. He becomes her lover, aka Starbuck, and takes over the role of harvesting the water of life from creatures known as mers. The elixir is what keeps Arienrhod from aging and is highly prized in the Hegemony.

Moon eventually returns to Tiamat, uses her powers as a Sibyl to become the Summer Queen, and reunites with Sparks. She plans to use her powers to bring Tiamat out of the Stone Age once the Hegemony has left for the coming cycle. The end.

This book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981 and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1980. Honestly, I don’t know why. And after reading it, I realized why it had never been recommended to me by anyone else for a read. Horrible? No. Average? Barely.

Like so many books, this one seems to suffer from pointless point of view characters thrown in when you really want to follow the main characters: Moon, Sparks, and Areinrhod. Tor Starhiker Winter, for one, just seems so irrelevant to the story that I don’t know why there were points where we had to see things through her eyes. Jerusha, for another example, felt so insignificant that I don’t even know why she got promoted to point of view character at times.

As for the way the book ended, well, I’ve struggled to find an applicable analogy. Think of it like making love to a woman and having her fake an orgasm after a lot of hard work. Crude? Maybe. But a clear way of envisioning how the story just never got to a climax and then petered out in the end after trying to make you believe that it had.

While the prose is good and clean, the world building lush, and while the story itself when stepped back from wants to intrigue the reader, it simply fails to do so. I was able to finish, but it was a struggle. I rate The Snow Queen at a below average 2 out of 5 stars. Sorry. Just didn’t do it for me. As always, other opinions may vary. You’re entitled to yours, so allow me to have mine.
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Jul 15, 2011 Cecile rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, english

It's been a long time since I've last read this story, so I didn't remembered much when I started it again two weeks ago. But as the story was unfolding, I began to have glimpses of what laid ahead for the characters. At first distant memories of what seemed to be part of another strange story. Then bits and pieces that started to make sense and fit together, revealing hidden or long forgotten secrets.

This is a powerful story, with strong characters, each nurturing secrets while trying to get wh...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Mystii rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

Excellent story! Joan Vinge is a particularly adept story-teller and she blends science fantasy with science fiction in such a way that it appears to be just a very, very good story. I've read this book several times because it's high up on my list of favorites. The Summer Queen sequels picks up where the Snow Queen leaves off. A side story that is mentioned in the Summer Queen is Worlds End and it is definitely worth reading!

I most recently read it a few months ago and I think it was the third...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Ana Bastow rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was an okay book. The character of Aryenhord was interesting but not enough and her clone was flaky at best and too much good luck, didn't cared enough about her "love" to want to continue to read the second part.
The world was marvelous though, the ships, the other characters were very good as well. I could say she should had written the books from the others POV, but that is cliché and most of the time the reason other characters tend to look more important than the leads is because they are...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the beginning of a fantastic space opera--an interesting planet with its own well-developed culture and customs that fits into a much grander hegemony that is mostly hinted at...at least in the first book. Characters are not what they seem and definitely mature with the books. One of my old favorites--I've read the Snow Queen many times through. The sequel "the Summer Queen" is very good as well and there is also at least one ancillary book "Tangeled Up in Blue" set in the same world tha...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-collection, sci-fi

This book was on this month's "Sci-Fi and Fantasy Club's" list for discussion, so it prompted me to pull out my old dusty copy, nestling comfortably next to her ex-husband's "Fire Upon The Deep".
A revisit 20 years after my first reading brought back the same sense of wonder and delight. It's hardly aged, this is definitely a classic. Not quite a masterpiece, there are definitely flaws (Moon is too perfect for one, and it dragged a sad slowly in places), but a novel to be proud of.

And the cover p...more

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About Joan D. Vinge

Joan D. Vinge (born Joan Carol Dennison) is an American science fiction author. She is known for such works as her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her Heaven's Chronicles books.

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The Summer Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle, #3)

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Quotes from The Snow Queen

“Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything...and not doing it only because you can.” — 14 people liked it

“But what force in the galaxy is stronger than she is?"

"Indifference." Jerusha surprised herself with the answer. "Indifference, Gundhalinu, is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don't stand a chance against it. It lets neglect and decay and monstrous injustice go unchecked. It doesn't act, it allows. And that's what gives it so much power.” — 11 people liked it

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The Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle #1)

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