Rating: 
Summary: Dark, breathtaking at moments, flawed.
Review: Miss Smilla is a woman "betweenworlds", who inhabits the uncomfortable margins of Danish life from behind a wall of ice. The ice is her memory of and longing for Greenland, its climate and topography, and the fragmenting Inuit society into which she was born - where her consciousness formed under her mother's tutelage. Since that mother was an Inuit hunter, she is sensible to ten thousand messages about the element of cold - its manifestations, its demands - which most Europeans cannot even begin to see. Forcibly brought home to Denmark at her mother's death by her father- an implausibly wealthy and successful Danish doctor - she has spent most of her life depressed and resentful, a kind of sociopath. Despite talent, intelligence, physical resilience and the availability of apparently unlimited financial resources (thanks to her despised yet doting pater), she can find nothing to hold her life together. But when another displaced Greenlander - a neighbor's neglected child whom she has befriended - apparently falls off a roof, her suspicions and sadness combine, leading her to commit herself absolutely to revealing the truth behind the incident. She begins to investigate the murder. By far the best sections of this book deal with Smilla's Greenlandic consciousness - the minutiae of her "feelings for snow" which are explored in beautiful detail, exploring pack ice, glacier ice, ice-hunting and ice formations; and the pressures upon her to assimilate - lose who she is and what she was born to. It is a very sharp study of alienation, and the battle between the elemental and civilized worlds she represents. But in conceiving a set of conflicts as enormous as these, Peter Hoeg runs into trouble. In trying to contain the forces described within a plausible narrative, he struggles to find a plausible form, and instead reels unhappily between science and detective fiction and the world of James-Bond, which all vie with a somewhat uneven psychological realism for the reader's attention. The combination is not always satisfying. In the end, the territory Hoeg creates for Smilla is better served by film than in the novel. In film, "Ingmar Bergman meets a female Indiana Jones in mukluks" is not quite such an implausible concept, and sumptuous visuals can help the viewer across gaps in characterization or plot. And, of course, this is exactly what happened to the book - it went straight to celluloid.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent fron start to finish
Review: I found this book so gripping, both emotionally and plot-wise, that I finished it in two days. It made me afraid to go to sleep, it was so tense and menacing, and yet, it had none of the conventions of a usual suspense novel, which is a genre I usually avoid entirely. The main character is so contrary, intelligent and angry at life, yet so uniquely portrayed, with nary a cliche in sight. Hoeg's insight into a woman's psyche was just incredible ---- the book was more about social politics and power struggles between the sexes, told as an undertone adding to the book's sense of menace, yet Smilla is no whiner --- she is strong and resourceful in a believeable way, although once in awhile she seemed too capable, to the point where it got silly. Still, the compassion for downtrodden human beings that develops out of a general misanthropy is believable and touching. The pseudo-scientific gobbledygook plot twist at the end lost me, and I thought the movie was pretty bad, but otherwise I loved Smilla. It's one of my all-time favorite books. I haven't found Hoeg's other books to approach it in terms of depth and compassion, at least not Borderliners or The Woman and the Ape.
Rating:
Summary: Hoeg's Sense of Smilla
Review: Okay, I admit, I saw the movie first & it was so intriguing that I had to go out & purchase the book because I knew it would be that much better than the movie. I was NOT disappointed. I applaud Hoeg's successful portrayal of a strong, female protagonist. Still & all, SMOS was a great read & money well spent.
Rating:
Summary: I have read this masterpiece for three times!
Review: From the very first page, this book cought me strongly. It's so original, it makes you laugh. So impressing, that any man ever would be able to write something like this. I don't know how it's translated, but the original, Danish version is so pure in quality, and I love every page. A fantastic story, nothing less. I have read it three times now, and i consider reading it for the 4th time. Learn Danish from today and read the book. Or, if you are not Danish, read it afterall. You will love it like... There are nothing like this book. I can't explain it, although I know it so well. It's a must-have. Therefore, buy one in your own language and one in Danish, whether you want to learn Danish or not! That's it.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor snow job
Review: I found this book to be too long, too humorless and too stodgy to bear. I made it halfway through, and although I did find the mystery intriguing and the idea original, the cardboard characters, because of the monotonous and unimaginative descriptions, and the perpetual whining of Smilla, I didn't have a snowball's chance in the Equator of getting any furthur.
Rating:
Summary: original, exciting and interesting
Review: i read the book a few years ago and even though ive read many since, "smilas sense of snow" sticks in my mind as being one of the most interesting, original and exciting books ive ever read. the movie was also great.
Rating:
Summary: exotic and mind-opening
Review: It's hard not to connect with Smilla, especially if you are the type who appreciates Hoeg's introspective and unassuming style. Smilla is the archetype of post-feminism: completely aware of herself as a person and unwilling to connect with a world she sees as unfair to her (as well as her people). The book is surprisingly character-driven, given its plot line, but that does not hurt the suspense in any way. I was guessing until the very end since there seemed to be so many twists that Hoeg needed to tie up. If you bypass all of the technical mumbo-jumbo Hoeg literally LISTS in the end, you will be satisfied, possibly even touched, by this book. Also, I really loved getting such a subversive look at Denmark. I had no idea there was so much tension between Greenlanders and Danes. I recommend this book to readers who like a little fiber in their literary diet... it goes down smooth but it leaves a lot to think about.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly original work
Review: This book is definitely worth reading. I could not remotely imagine where the story was going--the "answer" was a complete surprise and just kept me reading faster and faster. I loved the Danish/Greenlander perspective--very foreign to American readers, but Hoeg made it quite accessible. Smilla was one of the most developed characters I've ever read--loved her!
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books i have ever read
Review: normally i tend to shy away from narratives because i find them grossly one-sided. but Hoeg weaves a tale that is told from the perspective of a single character and managed to pull off a spellbinding novel that i couldn't put down. the characters created were amazing. i have a very liberal translation of the novel and i'm a bit worried because i cannot tell what is Hoeg and what is the translator. in any event, the book was a great buy and well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I enjoyed reading this book! It's a pity to read the translation, better read the original! May be in future I'll speak Danish. I'm very glad of meeting this book in my life!!!
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