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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
The cop was my favorite character. Otherwise, not a huge fan of books where the "good" girl is there to save the "bad" boy. Seriously, the guy was a murderer, but she is there to make him good again with all her love? Pass.
Reread 2019: I loved this so much!! Even more than the first time. The old 80s audiobook was amazing. I love the worldbuilding, characters and writing style. All the women in this book were strong and essential for the story. The snow queen was a devilish manipulative woman and I still rooted for her. Jerusha the female police officer was struggling with sexism but not afraid to speak up. I cannot wait to read the rest of this series.
Borrows heavily from Herbert's Dune and Asimov's Foundation. But, other than that, nothing special.
The Winters and their Snow Queen have ruled Tiamat for 150 years, slaughtering the peaceful mers for their blood, which confirs everlasting youth. Colonists from the off-world Hegemony keep the Winters comfortable with advanced technology in exchange for this water of life.
But everything is about to change when astronomical events move the planet out of the Hegemony's reach, the summer season transforms Tiamat, and the Summer class chooses a Queen and takes over rulership.
A summer girl named Moon, having recently been initiated into a mysterious sect of seers, and her betrothed cousin Sparks, who was rejected from the order, are separated and make their way to the capital of Tiamat to find each other and their destinies.
I enjoyed the richly textured world and complex milieu of this planetary romance. It reminded me of a lighter, more youthful Dune—but with a goddess-lead paganism guiding the backdrop rather than Islam.
But everything is about to change when astronomical events move the planet out of the Hegemony's reach, the summer season transforms Tiamat, and the Summer class chooses a Queen and takes over rulership.
A summer girl named Moon, having recently been initiated into a mysterious sect of seers, and her betrothed cousin Sparks, who was rejected from the order, are separated and make their way to the capital of Tiamat to find each other and their destinies.
I enjoyed the richly textured world and complex milieu of this planetary romance. It reminded me of a lighter, more youthful Dune—but with a goddess-lead paganism guiding the backdrop rather than Islam.
This is one of those books that is long, is a long a journey, and when you're done you're just like "Wow...what a ride."
Update 1/11/21: Since this review is getting likes again, I thought I should add some info I forgot to add when I original wrote the review. Winner of the 1981 Hugo Award for Best Novel, The Snow Queen tells the story of Moon Dawntreader Summer, a young woman from the planet Tiamat who is training to become a sibyl among her people, the Summers; a people who are a bit fearful of advance technology. Tiamat is currently ruled by Arienrhod, the Snow Queen, and thus Winter dominates Tiamat not only environmentally, but culturally and socially as well. Arienrhod's rule has lasted 150 years due to her ingesting of the water of life, a substance taken from the native nautical life of Tiamat. Not only that, Winter is more technologically advanced than the Summers, but it is far form being a utopia.
Moon along with her cousin-lover Sparks train to become sibyls, but only Moon achieves this. Sparks leaves for the capital to seek answers about his unknown father and to find a new path in life. After being robbed, The Snow Queen takes him in and psychologically manipulates him into being her new prime lover, doing away with her original lover Starbuck. It is soon revealed that Moon is actually a clone of Arienrhod--the only surviving one--and that the Change is coming; in which Summer will finally take over from Winter via a literal sacrifice of the Snow Queen. Thus Arienrhod attempts to find Moon and use her as an extension of her life, but Moon escapes Tiamat into a journey that will uncover the history and mystery of the sibyls.
Also, I am upset with myself that in my original review I forgot to mention the police woman Jerusha PalaThion, probably one of the best characters. She's trying to unravel the mystery of the Snow Queen and keep Tiamat from falling into disarray, but the Snow Queen's manipulations get in the way. This the end of the update editions, everything else below is the original review.
The Snow Queen wasn't perfect. Some scenes went on for too long, the romances had some hitches (but were far from being the worse romances I've seen), and I felt at times that Joan D. Vigne over explained some things. But other than that, it was a very enjoyable read. What surprised me the most is the lush writing that Vigne often employed. I'd expect that for a short novella or something, but in a full-length sci-fi novel? I was surprised at how well it fit.
Vigne had some amazing ideas that she played out well and, unlike some other sci-fi works that dealt with the topics she did, there was care and nuance. Even our main heroes and heroines had questionable actions, although this book is far from being anything grimdark or grey-morality tone.
All in all, I really enjoyed this! I will read The Summer Queen at some point, but now my brain needs a break.
Thanks for the ride, Joan!
Update 1/11/21: Since this review is getting likes again, I thought I should add some info I forgot to add when I original wrote the review. Winner of the 1981 Hugo Award for Best Novel, The Snow Queen tells the story of Moon Dawntreader Summer, a young woman from the planet Tiamat who is training to become a sibyl among her people, the Summers; a people who are a bit fearful of advance technology. Tiamat is currently ruled by Arienrhod, the Snow Queen, and thus Winter dominates Tiamat not only environmentally, but culturally and socially as well. Arienrhod's rule has lasted 150 years due to her ingesting of the water of life, a substance taken from the native nautical life of Tiamat. Not only that, Winter is more technologically advanced than the Summers, but it is far form being a utopia.
Moon along with her cousin-lover Sparks train to become sibyls, but only Moon achieves this. Sparks leaves for the capital to seek answers about his unknown father and to find a new path in life. After being robbed, The Snow Queen takes him in and psychologically manipulates him into being her new prime lover, doing away with her original lover Starbuck. It is soon revealed that Moon is actually a clone of Arienrhod--the only surviving one--and that the Change is coming; in which Summer will finally take over from Winter via a literal sacrifice of the Snow Queen. Thus Arienrhod attempts to find Moon and use her as an extension of her life, but Moon escapes Tiamat into a journey that will uncover the history and mystery of the sibyls.
Also, I am upset with myself that in my original review I forgot to mention the police woman Jerusha PalaThion, probably one of the best characters. She's trying to unravel the mystery of the Snow Queen and keep Tiamat from falling into disarray, but the Snow Queen's manipulations get in the way. This the end of the update editions, everything else below is the original review.
The Snow Queen wasn't perfect. Some scenes went on for too long, the romances had some hitches (but were far from being the worse romances I've seen), and I felt at times that Joan D. Vigne over explained some things. But other than that, it was a very enjoyable read. What surprised me the most is the lush writing that Vigne often employed. I'd expect that for a short novella or something, but in a full-length sci-fi novel? I was surprised at how well it fit.
Vigne had some amazing ideas that she played out well and, unlike some other sci-fi works that dealt with the topics she did, there was care and nuance. Even our main heroes and heroines had questionable actions, although this book is far from being anything grimdark or grey-morality tone.
All in all, I really enjoyed this! I will read The Summer Queen at some point, but now my brain needs a break.
Thanks for the ride, Joan!
There are so many things I disliked about this book. I almost gave up on it, but kept thinking of this review and writing it in my head, and I was just hoping it would get better. Overall I thought the book was poorly written, lazily edited, and uncreative. Also it was weirdly misogynistic for no good reason (as it wasn't necessary to the plot) especially given that it's written by a woman.
First, the main source of my ire is that the two main characters Moon and Sparks are supposed to be star crossed lovers. But the author never shows us a single tender moment between them. They have absolutely no reason to even like one another except that's what the author wrote. It doesn't even fit their characters.
spoilers below I guess.
Sparks is un likeble, whiny, maudlin and utterly lacking a moral compass. He has no compelling reason for anyone to like him let alone love him, let alone the the snow queen AND moon. He was abusive, self loathing and generally lame. Also WHY did the author make Moon and Sparks cousins raised as siblings and THEN lovers. Like what was the narritive point of that. Incest is gross, but pointless incest (not cultural in the context of the world building or needed for the plot) is just freaking weird.
Poor editing. First sybils have necklaces then suddenly they have tatoos? Moon can't get home from another world because it's too late and then suddenly it isn't if she just has some stabilizers for her ship... AND the entire prime ministers group hasn't even visited yet... so like anyone could get through the black gate?
The Queen spends all her time trying to live forever and then just lets people toss her into the sea? A world that is supposed to be kind is doing human sacrifice? Last time they were just effigies but this time they are really killing people... like and no one tries to stop them?
Out of the 7 hegemonic worlds we only learn anything about two others and they both hate women? Like why? Why write that?
Jerusha has no motivation for anything she does and is just flat. Moon cheats on Sparks right before she finds him for no reason. The mares are important and sentient but like who cares, not related tot he story? There's a plague but it was super easy to stop, and it's not clear what the purpose would be The entire ending is anti climatic.
Ugh. I just wish I hadn't read it. All the characters lack internal motivation and are just puppets moving around the author's strings. I didn't care about a single one of them and I actively wanted Sparks to die.
First, the main source of my ire is that the two main characters Moon and Sparks are supposed to be star crossed lovers. But the author never shows us a single tender moment between them. They have absolutely no reason to even like one another except that's what the author wrote. It doesn't even fit their characters.
spoilers below I guess.
Sparks is un likeble, whiny, maudlin and utterly lacking a moral compass. He has no compelling reason for anyone to like him let alone love him, let alone the the snow queen AND moon. He was abusive, self loathing and generally lame. Also WHY did the author make Moon and Sparks cousins raised as siblings and THEN lovers. Like what was the narritive point of that. Incest is gross, but pointless incest (not cultural in the context of the world building or needed for the plot) is just freaking weird.
Poor editing. First sybils have necklaces then suddenly they have tatoos? Moon can't get home from another world because it's too late and then suddenly it isn't if she just has some stabilizers for her ship... AND the entire prime ministers group hasn't even visited yet... so like anyone could get through the black gate?
The Queen spends all her time trying to live forever and then just lets people toss her into the sea? A world that is supposed to be kind is doing human sacrifice? Last time they were just effigies but this time they are really killing people... like and no one tries to stop them?
Out of the 7 hegemonic worlds we only learn anything about two others and they both hate women? Like why? Why write that?
Jerusha has no motivation for anything she does and is just flat. Moon cheats on Sparks right before she finds him for no reason. The mares are important and sentient but like who cares, not related tot he story? There's a plague but it was super easy to stop, and it's not clear what the purpose would be The entire ending is anti climatic.
Ugh. I just wish I hadn't read it. All the characters lack internal motivation and are just puppets moving around the author's strings. I didn't care about a single one of them and I actively wanted Sparks to die.
Great book but took me about 300 pages to really get into it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don’t know what book the AI is reviewing, but there is no character named Gerda in this book. Or series! And it’s not a retailing of the snow queen fairytale. This is pure and utter political and environmental space Opera at its absolute best. A wide cast of characters in a far future human dominated sector of space struggle with a technology that is so advanced they can’t comprehend its source. Instead, they greedily scrabble after the water of life which promises immortality.
Loosely based on a famous fairy tale, The Snow Queen is a story about good, evil, power, and love above all else. The planet Tiamat is defined by two cultures, which alternate power over centuries. When Tiamat is accessible by the black hole based FTL drive, it is part of the Hegemony, the Snow Queen ruling over Winter with technological tricks from the stars. For the century of Summer, when the stars of the planet orbit close on the black hole, Summer rules, a luddite culture that rejects technology. Tiamat is also the only source of the immortality drug the Water of Life, murderously extracted from the local mer, a seal-like species.
The cycle has endured for centuries, but the current Snow Queen, Arienrhod, a woman of tremendous power and evil, plans to break the cycle and uphold Winter. The first step of her plan is to clone herself, and have the clone raised as a member of the Summer culture. But then everything goes awry, as the clone, Moon, and her cousin and true love Sparks, refuse to fit neatly into the plan. Moon becomes a sybil; a semi-legendary breed of oracles, and winds up leaving the planet with idealistic tech-smugglers trying to help out Tiamat in their own way. Sparks falls into the orbit of Arienrhod and becomes her right hand, the masked hunter Starbuck. Most of the novel concerns the arc of degeneration around Arienrhod, her city of Carbuncle (an immense shell-like spiral constructed by the fallen Old Empire), and the moral degeneracy that is connected to the immortality drug. Meanwhile, Moon discovers the extent of her powers and returns to set things right.
Vinge is the first self-consciously feminist writer to win the Hugo for best novel, an opinion confirmed by the front and backwards material in this version. Ursula LeGuin is a great writer, but concerned more with Humanity than with women. Vonda McIntyre wrote an adolescent fantasy, and a bad one at that. I think Snow Queen is a female counterpart to Dune The similarities are clear: a chosen one with the power of prophecy; a harsh and primitive world valued for its immortality drug; themes of moral decay and personal salvation; along with inversions like water for sand, and lust instead of revenge as the prime driver for personal politics. One of the viewpoint characters, the interstellar cop Jerusha PalaThion, is a clear analog to the stark discrimination women faced in the late 1970s.
I was surprised by how much I liked this book, given that I'd never heard of Joan D. Vinge before. She had a checkered career, doing novelizations to make ends meet in the 90s, and then spending most of the 00s down with medical problems. The way that minor uses and abuses on human dignity add up to a complete lack of empathy and great evil in Arienrhod and her minions, is as good a picture of evil as any that I've read (comparable to Fallada's Every Man Dies Alone). Vinge is vividly imaginative and solid on the world-building. For example the FTL drive involves plunging into a black hole, so starships are disc-like to minimize tidal stresses, while the cultures of Tiamat and the Hegemony are brightly painted. She's an enthusiastic writer, and a great describer of place and character. If I have any strike against this book, it's that it's actually too quickly paced. I think the story could've been done better as two volumes or a trilogy, with a little more room to breath.
Not that my audience needs any reminders, but The Snow Queen is proof that great stories can be written by women, about women, for everybody.
The cycle has endured for centuries, but the current Snow Queen, Arienrhod, a woman of tremendous power and evil, plans to break the cycle and uphold Winter. The first step of her plan is to clone herself, and have the clone raised as a member of the Summer culture. But then everything goes awry, as the clone, Moon, and her cousin and true love Sparks, refuse to fit neatly into the plan. Moon becomes a sybil; a semi-legendary breed of oracles, and winds up leaving the planet with idealistic tech-smugglers trying to help out Tiamat in their own way. Sparks falls into the orbit of Arienrhod and becomes her right hand, the masked hunter Starbuck. Most of the novel concerns the arc of degeneration around Arienrhod, her city of Carbuncle (an immense shell-like spiral constructed by the fallen Old Empire), and the moral degeneracy that is connected to the immortality drug. Meanwhile, Moon discovers the extent of her powers and returns to set things right.
Vinge is the first self-consciously feminist writer to win the Hugo for best novel, an opinion confirmed by the front and backwards material in this version. Ursula LeGuin is a great writer, but concerned more with Humanity than with women. Vonda McIntyre wrote an adolescent fantasy, and a bad one at that. I think Snow Queen is a female counterpart to Dune The similarities are clear: a chosen one with the power of prophecy; a harsh and primitive world valued for its immortality drug; themes of moral decay and personal salvation; along with inversions like water for sand, and lust instead of revenge as the prime driver for personal politics. One of the viewpoint characters, the interstellar cop Jerusha PalaThion, is a clear analog to the stark discrimination women faced in the late 1970s.
I was surprised by how much I liked this book, given that I'd never heard of Joan D. Vinge before. She had a checkered career, doing novelizations to make ends meet in the 90s, and then spending most of the 00s down with medical problems. The way that minor uses and abuses on human dignity add up to a complete lack of empathy and great evil in Arienrhod and her minions, is as good a picture of evil as any that I've read (comparable to Fallada's Every Man Dies Alone). Vinge is vividly imaginative and solid on the world-building. For example the FTL drive involves plunging into a black hole, so starships are disc-like to minimize tidal stresses, while the cultures of Tiamat and the Hegemony are brightly painted. She's an enthusiastic writer, and a great describer of place and character. If I have any strike against this book, it's that it's actually too quickly paced. I think the story could've been done better as two volumes or a trilogy, with a little more room to breath.
Not that my audience needs any reminders, but The Snow Queen is proof that great stories can be written by women, about women, for everybody.
Great book. A complex world with a complex plot, where the main protagonists learn about who they are while they slowly learn the truth about their political leaders and their home world's religion.