A Bluer Shade of White

by Alexander Wales

Six years after her coronation, Elsa rules over Arendelle, using the power of ice to improve the lives of her citizens.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Fan Fiction, Science Fiction

65 pages, ebook

First published May 6, 2014

About the author

Alexander Wales is the pseudonym of Ben Friesen. Ben is a writer and stay-at-home dad located in Duluth, MN with his wife, their son, and cat.

Reviews

[Facedeer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable. This fanfiction starts from Disney's "Frozen" and winds up as a story about artificial intelligence and transhumanism and the singularity. Chilling, in so many ways.

[wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frozen without the songs! That’s just the way I like it. Although, near the end, there was a clever use of ‘for the first time in forever.’ Well done.

[Abi Olvera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this during a short flight - it's a very quick read and a good way to get a taste of what rationalist fiction is!

Set six years after the first Frozen movie, Elsa and Anna are living their happy-ever-after stories, ish. Anna and her husband are raising their family, while Elsa's powers make their kingdom prosperous. Elsa is concerned about the viability of the kingdom's competitive advantage (her powers) if she dies. Was the village too dependent on her? Elsa contemplates the potential boundaries (physical, moral, etc.) of her magic. Luckily for us, a duke in the story encourages her to explore more, for the good of others. I adored the big-picture thinking, and seeing the lovable characters in Frozen come to life like this, in a rationalist, transhumanist, and singularity-minded way, was truly a treat. :) Highly recommend!

[Irrevenant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well huh. Very cool story. I saw the general gist of where it was heading fairly early on but not a lot of the detail or the extent, so yay! And there was enough question to give it a decent sense of tension.

I'm docking it a star just because it felt a little dry and flat. Some of that is attributable to the story being from the viewpoint of Elsa who's quite a cold character (pun intended). But it did make it a bit hard to get emotionally invested in the story.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intelligence. Marriage. Parenting. Loneliness. Revolution. Control versus Freedom.
These ideas and more are addressed in this short story my Alexander Wales.

I really enjoyed it, though I wanted it to be a bit longer. There's not much that can be said without spoilers. But it's short enough (~65 pages) that you can read it in one sitting.

[Callum G · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cookie-cutter rationalist story of intelligent characters + singularity concerns, but this time usurping Elsa in the world of Frozen.

Despite being nothing revolutionary, I still enjoyed it. The scheming was well done and big-picture uses of magic are always entertaining. A good quick read.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. The ending is an especially clever inversion of the beginning of the fairy tale that Frozen was loosely based on, The Snow Queen.

[rixx · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's rational fiction on Frozen. Fairly good (rrrresist the cool pun, resist!), but characterisations are very much on the nose and progression is weird. Enjoyable short read though.

[chvang · Rating 2 out of 5]

A parable about artificial intelligence set in Frozen, with the runaway super-intelligence represented by Olaf the Snowman. Interesting, but more preaching than a story.

[Oren Milman · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5
Pretty good!

[Dillon]

Q

[Thomas Lemoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short fanfiction for Disney’s “Frozen”. Elsa gets convinced by some duke to make Olaf smarter with her magic, and he soon asks her for her permission to make himself smarter in turn; and from there the story get into what you’d expect from an artificial intelligence singularity with the goal of creating a utopia, or maximizing good, or whatever he calls it. Very clever, though predictable at times. I recommend this story to anyone who’s interested in artificial intelligence and/or Frozen, and doesn’t necessarily have time for more lengthy stories.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

what.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

mildly disturbing, but in a good way