The Snow Queen

by Joan D. Vinge
The Snow Queen
published
February 1st 2001 (first published 1980) by Aspect
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binding
Paperback, 448 pages

literary awards
Hugo Award for Best Novel (1981); 1981 Locus Awards Winner (SF)

isbn
0446676640   (isbn13: 9780446676649)

description
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 s...more





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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 466)



Swankivy
Swankivy rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
08/15/08

Read in January, 1993
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 answ...more
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Kirsten
Kirsten rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
03/15/08

bookshelves: own, read-pre-12-07
Read in January, 2004
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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Christy
Christy rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
08/08/08

bookshelves: feminism-and-gendersexuality-studie, readinglist2--sf, science-fiction-and-fantasy
Read in August, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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  1 comments

Ashley
Ashley rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
01/06/08

bookshelves: science-fiction-and-fantasy
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for: Anna
The most tragic romantic and melodramatic Sci-Fi novel of our time. The winner of the 1981 Hugo (Best Science Fiction novel) award, this book tackles the oppression of women, the subjugation of animals for human vanity, racism, and imperialism. The book is about the power-hungry and vain "Snow Queen" of the planet Tiamat, the "backwards" planet of the Hegemony's galaxy and the only source of the "water of life" that works like a fountain of youth. On Tiamat the &...more
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Anja
Anja rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
01/20/08

Read in January, 2008
recommends it for: sci-fi readers
I spent hours and hours just trying to get through the first hundred pages of this book- it was not easy. This is a dense sci-fi book but unlike other sci-fis I have read is has a more in-depth stories and believable characters. Like all sci-fi books you really need to let go of this world to understand the world which The Snow Queen is set in.

Youth and beauty are the ultimate goals to the Winters living on Tiamat, The Snow Queen has ruled for the last century and a half stealing b...more
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Triffany
Triffany rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/12/07

Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: Science Fiction Lovers
I think if I followed Science Fiction writing better than I do, I'd have enjoyed this book more. The story line was fantastic, but it took me 1/2 the book just to get used to the names of places and people. That's no fault of the writer, just my feeble ability to assimilate new information.

Vinge has an art for the analogy and uses it often to bring the reader into her story, but she doesn't trust the reader to draw his/her own conclusions or parallels when reading the dialogue - this is de...more
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Karina
12/26/07

bookshelves: own
Read in December, 2007
I rarely have stuff to say about books I really liked. It was excellent. I heard that the sequel wasn't so good, so I probably will simply cherish the hopes that the Summer Queen will succeed in everything, and that time will heal Sparks.

One of the small things I liked were the names: Sparks and Moon Dawntreader, Fate Ravenglass, Arienrhod. Another is the way a biohazard trefoil has sort of become a thing of beauty, divinity, or power; and deducing that the Old Empire must have been us -- E...more
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Fondren Library
Fondren marked it as to-read
05/12/08

bookshelves: summer-leisure-reading, to-read
recommended to Fondren by: Alice Rhoades
Fondren Library Has This Book: PS3572.I53 S58

Science Fiction-

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. The author uses the popular folktale as the blueprint for this science fiction...more
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gabrielle
gabrielle rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/15/08

Read in November, 2008
Another one of my all-time favorites.
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  1 comments

Jake
Jake marked it as to-read
11/17/08

bookshelves: hugos--read-, to-read

Todd
Todd added it
11/16/08


Licinda
Licinda rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/11/08


Eric Vincent Guilmette
Eric Vincent rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
11/07/08

bookshelves: read-non-graphic-and-fiction, read-not-owned
Read in January, 1983

Mike
Mike rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
03/01/08

bookshelves: scifi-fantasy
This series opened my eyes to Joan D. Vinge and how well she can tell a story. There is no way to predict what will happen in this story until near the very end. Yes, she does have some of her own pet philosophies she throws into every book, but unlike Asimov or Greg Bear, they are easy to take. Who really cares if an author believes in preserving species or is against pollution? If you like Sci-fi and were looking for a new author, check out this series and Ladyhawke.
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  2 comments

Tracy
Tracy rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
09/06/08

bookshelves: fantasy
Read in September, 2008
For a Hugo Award winner, I wasn't that impressed. While the characters and story were somewhat interesting, the writing style was rather flat. I also found the presentation of the "themes" to be rather blunt. Vinge was clearly trying to make points about feminism, exploitation, and tolerance. Rather than subtly weaving these things into the story, the discussion was often overt, which I found annoying.
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Luke
Luke rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
09/07/07

Read in September, 2007
I wish sometimes that goodreads had a category for books that you didn't really, really like, but that you thought were important and worth reading anyway. On the whole I felt that this was a little uneven. There were parts that the only way I could keep reading was to remind myself that this was written in 1980; but then again there were parts that I couldn't believe were written in 1980.
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Amie
Amie rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
11/25/07

This was my favorite book when I was 22-- it was one of those books that spoiled me for all other books for a while after reading it. The world is huge and rich. It was when reading Cloud Atlas years later that I realized that the science fiction I really like has the ability to take on culture in a big way-- it's kind of the straw man of anthropology. This book does that.
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Alex
Alex marked it as to-read
10/29/08

bookshelves: to-read

Anna
Anna added it
10/24/08



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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 4.00 (350 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 4.00 (339 ratings)
number of reviews: 28







other editions

The Snow Queen (Mass Market Paperback)
The Snow Queen (Hardcover)
The Snow Queen (Hardcover)









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