Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a delightful insight into the binary world of humanity, 12 May 2001
By A Customer
The "Snow Queen" is a disturbingly accurate description of the dark conflict which exists between purity and corruption, a conflict which is blatantly displayed in this narrative, yet will also be easily recognised in the realms of our current reality. Although Science Fiction, this novel is a sure demonstration of the inherent instability of this world of ours - as we know it - and in addition to invoking some wondrous moments of imaginative escapism, it certainly generates much discomfort in regards to mankind's sad failings, despite its attractively addictive and most intriguing format. It draws largely on human experience and its predictably complicated manifestation - something which is actively portrayed through the trials and successes of three major characters, the Snow Queen herself, her insubordinate clone, Moon, and their joint - if somewhat confused and malleable lover - Sparks. Joan Vinge has the extraordinary ability to mould wonder with wisdom, fantasy with fact - and her style of writing is quite remarkable in the sense that one is rapidly transported to a vast, enthralling world of new dimensions whilst still governed by throes of one's own human emotion. It is an outstanding story controlled by the eerie evolution of some wild futuristic wonderment, though moulded still by some sense of the current. This book's adventure is a must-read, the exciting world made visible by this woman's untouchable clarity is one that would be sadly missed if not indulged. Her manner is untouchable.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AWESOME!, 10 Aug 1999
By A Customer
This book is the first science fiction novel I've ever been able to relate to, and really get into! Vinge is now one of my favorite authors, and it really depresses me that 'Summer Queen' is out of print, 'cuz I was really looking forward to reading it, once I knew it had been written!
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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Flabby melodrama, 2 May 1998
By A Customer
Although epic in size and complications, this book fails to deliver on almost all accounts. The characters are like paper puppets, jerked around unconvincingly as the author drags them through scene after overwritten scene. It's too bad--a decent SF plot is dragged down by poor writing and soap-opera romance. My vote for the silliest, most-contrived scene goes to chapter 33, when a female teenage nomad who has captured two of our heroes (and has, ridiculously, been keeping them along with a variety of wild animals in a personal "zoo" in her tribe's cave), decides to let the good guys (and some of the creatures) go free, because...well, we don't know why, really. It doesn't make much sense; she has just killed one of her brothers after he tried to rape the heroine, so we guess that she has a Good Heart after all, and has learned from these Good People she's kept hostage. If you're looking for epic planetary romance, read DUNE (Frank Herbert), HYPERION (Dan Simmons), ARISTOI (Walter John Williams), NEVERNESS (David Zindell), or A FIRE UPON THE DEEP (Vernor Vinge). Stay away from THE SNOW QUEEN.
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