The Snow Queen

I ended up enjoying this book, but a lot of it took me a long time to finish it. I think the main reason for that is I didn't really enjoy either of the main characters. Moon was ... fine, but her obsession with Sparks sorta lost her for me. Sparks starts awful and gets worse. I never enjoyed a seen with him. The side characters were so much more interesting, and if the whole book was just from Jerusha's perspective, I would've been happy. The worlds are intriguing, the writing is really good, and the complexity of many of the storylines is really unique, especially for the time period, but overall I think I'll forget a lot of it and probably not pick up the sequels.

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?

I found this ultimately a satisfactory tale, although there were a few too many coincidences for the story to feel entirely naturalistic. Plus, a lot of the tension is derived from person A just managing to miss person B, which I personally find more frustrating than exciting.

In any event, I'll be generous and give this a 4. I can see someone who is more willing to be swept along by the story greatly enjoying this.

Executive Summary: Slow at times, good at others. I'm a bit curious about what happens next, but not enough to continue on.

Audiobook: Ellen Archer was ok as a narrator. Some people in my book club complained about her bad accents but I found them useful to distinguish between characters. I probably would never have gotten through this book in text, so for me the audio was good enough.

Full Review
This book came on my radar a few years ago mostly because it was out of print and had won the hugo. It seemed strange to me that an award winning book would be go out of publication, but I suppose that's not as unusual as I'd think. With its return to availability Sword & Laser chose it for its November pick.

At times this book felt more like fantasy than sci-fi. There are elements of technology and space, but I guess since it was based on a fairy tale it's hard to completely move away from that fantasy feeling.

I didn't really connect with either of the protagonists. I didn't really care whether they succeeded or failed. Normally that would probably be enough for me to want to roll off on a book, but there was enough in the world building and story to keep me somewhat attentive.

I think the world building was probably the part that I enjoyed the most. I'm fascinated by the cycle of politics and technology. It still wasn't enough though. While I'd like to find out what happens next, I won't be picking up any of the sequels.

First book of the year, woot!

Another random stumble-upon at B&N. It was the cover that caught my eye, that lovely mask, so lovely I almost want a tattoo of it. And I was pleased to be reading a Hugo Award-winning book by a woman. So I bought it.

I quite liked it. Not the most amazing thing I've read, but definitely one of the better sci-fi/fantasy books I've read in the past few months. Sort of a space opera/political intrigue/sci-fi soap opera, but better written. Especially the first half.

I'm going to say straight-up right now that I hate Sparks. He's lousy, selfish, stupid and awful. Sorry. Ghundalinu is much better. Yes, he is an elitist bigot, but he changes for the better and ends up being pretty cool. Sparks is just a poop.

Anyway. On the planet of Tiamat, the time of Change is coming. The Winter tribes led by Arienrhod the Snow Queen are about to lose their positions, their power, their technology, because the Summer tribes are taking over when the off-worlders leave the planet. Their planet is run by the Hegemony, a group made up of eight planets, including Tiamat, and led mostly by the leading planet of Karemough, a strict, caste-striated society from whence most of the technology seems to come. The worm hole that allows the Hegemony access to the planet is closing for a century, so all the off-worlders leave before that happens, taking all tech with them. Thereby leaving Tiamat techless and essentially in the Dark Ages.

Arienrhod is not keen on this happening. So she makes herself nine clones, in the hopes that one will turn out well and be able to take over for her, when her rule ends at the Change.

Enter Moon, her clone, and a sybil–a sort of holy person connected to what seems to be the Goddess of the planet, but who is really something much more.

And largely, this is about Moon's coming of age and journey to becoming Summer Queen and finding out what really goes on with the Hegemony. It is also a love story between her and Sparks. And a tale of eco-destruction and giant empires treating small colonies like crap. Ahem.

There are some good characters here. I quite like Jerusha and Tor and Pollux (whose tale probably moved me the most in the end). And I love that there are competent women dealing with rampant sexism and prejudice. But there are times I feel like Ms Vinge tried to pack too much into too few pages. There are jumps in events and relationships that are jarring at first, as if she couldn't think of how to provide information, or as if she edited that information out to save time and space.

In the end, though, I'm glad I read this classic. And I'm glad I got to experience Arienrhod, although I wish she had gotten more page-time in the end. She is a wonderful villain. She does horrible things, and she takes ambition in dangerous directions, but she also wants her planet to be powerful and self-sufficient and not completely spoiled by the Hegemony. She's complex.

But I really don't know why either she or Moon give a crap about Sparks.