A science fiction novel based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same title. I read this book when I was eighteen and absolutely loved it. ( )

p. 71. Reads like fantasy. Too much nastiness. Too much going on besides the story of the childhood sweethearts. All the politics & intrigue and cruelty & clannishness that I despise reading about. Sorry, group.

The first time I read this I bounced because I was expecting something reminiscent of the fairy tale and didn't see it. This time I read far enough to see it.

Being novel-length it also fits in a whole lot more science-fictiony goodness: stellar phenomena causing a fascinating society divide, an anti-aging serum, sibyls who can channel the databanks of a mysterious computer, the appropriately named Hegemony restricting the technology the planet gets so it can continue to exploit its longevity drug.... The tech-free summer and tech-full winter cycles on the planet are in a way echoed by the way the Hegemony itself is a relatively ignorant successor to a far higher-tech fallen empire. I wonder if that's intentional; I see there a sequels so perhaps one day will find out. ( )

This was a childhood favorite of a friend of mine. I seem to have front-loaded my year with sci-fi so I was not that excited to start this. But the writing is quality, there's good characterization and world-building, and a commentary on politics and colonization. I also read it very much in the context of its time and the mindset of the teen who loved it. ( )

primele 2 treimi, 4/5: curge foarte lejer, lumea e construită destul de complex (deși prezentată naiv, școlăresc), fundalul cultural interesant, însă personajele-s banale și unidimensionale. Ultima treime, 2/5: totul devine un teatru de marionete unde indivizii acționează șablonard și infantil doar pentru că exact așa trebuie ca să i se lege autoarei ițele, iar lungeala fără rost e enormă și plictisitoare. Medie: 3/5 Cum o fi câștigat Hugo? Oare chiar nu au contra-candidat decât porcării? ( )

Engrossing and well-written science fiction with fantasy elements that takes place in an imaginative and sprawling universe. I'm glad there are more books in the series as the setting is so interesting that I'm not ready to leave it yet! Due to the expanse of the plot, the character development does leave a bit to be desired but it didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the story. ( )

Didn't finish it, just couldn't get into it at all. ( )

One of my favourite SF novels, first read many years ago. And it now seems very prescient. ( )

This was an excellent read. It is certainly worthy of the accolades it was awarded when it was first published in 1980. I am surprised that it took me this long to read. It has an interesting setting, diverse full characters including non-bipedal aliens, and interesting interstellar politics. I am looking forward to reading The Summer Queen to see how the mysteries that were partly revealed in The Snow Queen are resolved.

I like this rating system by ashleytylerjohn of LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/profile/ashleytylerjohn) that I have also adopted:
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.) ( )

A terrific book about power and love and following your destiny. ( )

When I read this novel the first time, 39 years ago (!) when it was first published, I remember believing it was likely the best novel I'd ever read. In fact, I was somewhat haunted by it. I simply loved everything about it. The characters, the plot, the ideas, the intrigue.

Of course, that made me worry that, re-entering this world four decades on would prove disappointing. I shouldn't have worried.

Yes, it took a bit to get going, but once it did, I simply fell in love with this novel all over again.

I can't say it's the best novel I've ever read anymore, but forty years on, it definitely holds up. Hopefully the rest in this series are as good. ( )

A Sci-Fi story broadly inspired by, but not really similar to, the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. There are also elements of the Snow White story integrated in there, and plenty of original material to pad it all out.

The premise and world of this story is really great. A planet is ruled by a monarch who provides a rare natural resource that extends human lives indefinitely to offworlders in exchange for technology for hundreds of years until cyclical extreme climate change occurs, then the offworlders can't visit and power is handed over to luddites for a few centuries until the climate switches back. But the current monarch isn't about to give up easily and has developed some schemes to stay in power.

Some of the supporting characters are really great, particularly a couple of duty-focused police officers and a thuggish laborer, but the central characters are unfortunately generic. There are also a couple of overwrought love triangles that I never really felt invested in. ( )

The science fictional subject matter, tone, characterization, and prose are quite contemporary, despite this book being over 35 years old. It's no wonder it won a Hugo - it must have been remarkably ahead of its time. ( )

I had heard great things about The Snow Queen, but the reality was disappointing.

The setting is interesting. Unfortunately, the narration didn't convey any emotional weight to me. Moon trying to reunite with Sparks seems like it's supposed to be the emotional core of the story, but we don't get any information about their relationship other than being told over and over that they're in love.

The frequent time skips omitted a lot of scenes that might have made me more invested in the characters. I felt like the story kept jumping from one static situation to another: a few months pass and now character X feels *this* way. Some more time passes and now she is good friends with character Y but that relationship happened entirely offscreen. ( )

A science fiction almost retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson story, except that the young woman who goes to rescue her friend from the Snow Queen, is a power in herself. And almost completely without demonstrated personality, as dull as many male SF protagonists who may say they love, or require, but whose feelings aren't sharable. It is Sparks weakness that are more real and the conflicts of the Blues that give the rather fractured story telling it's emotional load. And of course there is the stunning creation of Tiamat. ( )

The Snow Queen is the first book in the four-book Snow Queen Cycle, a science fiction series with some really interesting world-building. There were a lot of things I liked about this, and also some things that annoyed me. The first half went a bit slow for me at times despite being interesting, but picked up in the second half.

The setting is an interesting one. Although it’s definitely science fiction and there are science fiction explanations and back stories for everything, there are parts that have more of a fantasy feel. The story is set on a world called Tiamat which is caught in a cycle that makes it accessible to other inhabited planets for 150 years, then cut off for another 150 years. The story starts a few years before the end of the accessible part of the cycle. Tiamat has two factions among the native population – the Summers, who live primitive lives without technology, and the Winters, who embrace alien technology. Because Tiamat has a resource that they can’t get anywhere else, the people from other worlds keep Tiamat technologically repressed, allowing the Winters to share some of their technology while they can access the world, but ensuring that they can’t become technologically self-sufficient during their absence. The Winter faction reigns while their planet is accessible, but at the end of that period they’re forced to turn control over to the Summer faction. The current Winter queen, Arienrhod, naturally isn’t looking forward to the end of her reign, which will require her death, and she has a plot or two.

Although I liked some of the characters, I think the world-building and the story were the more interesting parts to me. I really enjoyed the concept of the sibyls, I loved seeing characters with minimal exposure to advanced technology suddenly getting a bigger taste of it than they ever imagined, and I wanted to see Tiamat become technologically self-sufficient while yet hating everything Arienrhod did.

My feelings about the characters were more mixed. I liked some of the secondary characters quite a bit once we got to know them more. As far as the main characters went, I mostly liked and sympathized with Moon, but I didn’t agree with some of her decisions. I initially liked and sympathized with Sparks too, but that didn’t last long. I hated him pretty strongly by the end. He was a wimpy, whiny, flip-flopping jerk. He became whatever the girl he was with wanted him to be and had no spine of his own. When they were young, he wanted to be a sibyl because Moon wanted to be a sibyl. As soon as he had sex with the queen, he decided he wanted to be the next Starbuck and essentially become all of the things he had believed were morally wrong. Then when Moon found him again they had sex and instantly he flip-flopped back to being good again, feeling guilty about all the things he had done and ready to do the right things again because that’s what Moon wanted of him. I never felt like he did anything because it was the right thing to do; he was driven by his emotions and what the people influencing him wanted. And so I was really annoyed at Moon for saving him and continuing to love him. I couldn’t understand how she could love somebody who had such a weak moral center that he would do the things he did, to the point of being complicit in the attempted murder of all of his people. Feeling guilty about doing horrible things doesn’t redeem you if you still did those horrible things when you knew better. Yeah, I think he made me a little angrier than I even realized until I sat down to write this review! :)

Aside from my spoiler tagged tirade about Sparks, I sometimes wished the story was a bit less romance-y. It wasn’t enough to really annoy me, because there was still a lot of interesting world-building and story to hold my interest, but there really was quite a bit of romance once you list it out. There were two connected love triangles, with offshoots. There was also a separate angsty romance, but it received very little page time. Moon-Sparks-Arienrhod make up one triangle, and Sparks-Moon-BZ make up another. Then you have Herne obsessed with Arienrhod and hints that Cress had a thing for Moon. Then Jerusha and Ngenet.

I always find it easier to rant about my complaints than the things I liked though, and the things I liked outweighed the things I didn’t by quite a lot. Although this book tells a complete story, I’m really looking forward to finding out what happens next on this world and plan to continue the series. ( )

Had this on my shelf forever (seriously, bought it like, ten years ago at a library sale in Iowa). I know it's an award winner and it is good, but I don't think it's aged well. Worldbuilding good, plot okay, characters hit or miss. Drags a little at parts, but does come together reasonably well at the end. ( )

Combining old fairy tale and far future, post space exploration setting to obtain a positive and nice story. The combination is very well made, relying on some people taking technology as cvasi-magical and the struggles of humanity to rise again from the ashes of a fallen empire. Characters are a bit linear/driven only by strong forces beyond their will (one of the more interesting character is the women police commander that struggles for meaning and recognition and her captain). The male characters (Sparks) seems a bit teenagaer-ish from start to finish, and he is redeemed although he does nothing. Most characters are painted in a rather positive light, with their motive explained and not being really evil (even the snow queen. Overall an enjoyable lecture with some twists but an expected ending. ( )

Tiamat is a planet inhabited by two (nearly literally) polar opposite peoples - the Summers and the Winters. They trade rule back and forth in 150-year jaunts. The story takes place during a Winter reign, and Arienrhod is the Snow Queen ruling over the entire world and who (by nefarious means, of course) has kept herself alive and young for all of her 150-year time as ruler. There is a police force, though, representing The Hegemony, a multi-world governing body, which holds power over Tiamat and holds their culture and society back for their own reasons. Moon and Sparks are a part of this world: Summers, cousins and lovers, who find themselves torn apart on many levels, fighting to find each other again, and playing more important roles in the turn of events than they would ever have dreamed.
Slow in places, but the story is a good one overall. Interesting premise, cool world building and solid characters. ( )

I read this book ages ago and have been trying to figure out who wrote it. It was very original, in my mind when I read it. I will be going back to re-read it now that I found it again.

It really irritates me that I can't remember why I sought out this book. I have made a concerted effort recently to find SF written by women, but still, some one or some article must have recommended this book in particular, and I don't remember what that was. It was a like a mosquito buzzing around my head the entire time I read this book.

But onto the book itself! Like Dune, the planet of our particular interest (in this case, Tiamat), is the only source of an amazing substance with powerful effects. Like in Dune, the rules of the known universe conspire to keep this planet subjugated in order to enjoy continued supply of said substance. And like in Dune, there is one character who seems uniquely predestined to rule this planet and lead it out of its subjugation. (Also, like in Dune, this doesn't really rely on exploiting the substance, but rather halting its production altogether.)

The Snow Queen is a highly ambitious book. Unfortunately, I didn't find Moon nearly as relatable as Paul. (Paul? Relatable? It seems strange to say such a thing, even in comparison.) Moon is foreign from top to bottom -- starting out as a Lady-worshiping, cousin-loving island girl, transformed into a sibyl for the Lady herself, then as she discovers what a sibyl truly is and finally learns that she is a clone of the Snow Queen, ruler of Tiamat, created in an attempt to retain power past the Change...

It was the minor characters and the fate of the planet itself that finally drew me in, until I was reading voraciously, turning each page with both increasing hunger and certainty that the ultimate fate I yearned to learn wouldn't be revealed until a later book. (Indeed! There are at least three more books in the series.) I fell in love with the mers, with Fate, with PalaThion, Miroe, BZ, Tor and her faithful Pollux. Some readers criticized that Snow Queen was too long, and maybe during the long, slow buildup I would have agreed. But by the end I wanted more, more more. Chapters, entire books devoted to these fascinating support characters! And more about Moon's plotting for Summer! I guess this all means I'm on the hook for at least the next book in the series... ( )

An epic story composed of various themes. The main characters were a bit dim at times but the world-building is first-rate. Despite a slow pace the story remained intriguing enough to keep me reading. The showdown between Arienrhod and Moon seemed anti-climactic and the lengthy denouement lowered my rating a bit. Still, this is quite a good book that contains some very cool concepts. I'm glad I have the next two books in the series waiting on my shelf. ( )

An especially poignant coming of age novel, this book is a unstinting foray into "talent" and what it can entail - both the resolve and responsibility. ( )

I always found the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale [b:The Snow Queen|139987|The Snow Queen|Hans Christian Andersen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320401869s/139987.jpg|2535765] 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 [b:Cowboys and Aliens|10904100|Cowboys and Aliens|Joan D. Vinge|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1318919765s/10904100.jpg|15820209] novelization. What is the world coming to?? ( )

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 another planet entirely. Characters’ relationships are also constantly developing–whether people are lovers, friends, enemies, uneasy allies, or lackeys, chances are that relationship will shift to something else before long.

Unfortunately, I felt the end tried to be more capital-T Thematic than it needed to be. Writers get across a sense of Theme by slipping in universal statements that apply not only to their characters’ specific situation, but also to humankind in general. However, staying too long in the Platonic plane of Theme makes the story more of a philosophical essay, and I think Vinge uses Moon as her mouthpiece for Theme a bit too much in the last 150 pages. ( )