Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Read!
Review: A masterpeice and my all time favorite book! Author, Ms.Vinge's past experience in Anthropology comes through in this writing as the various cultures displayed here (the Winters vs. the Summers vs. the Off-Worlders) are very believable. The characters are fascinating and the settings are beautifully described. It never ceases to amaze me how Ms. Vinges makes me *feel* as I actually *know* the characters and that I've traveled with Moon, BZ, Sparks, Pala-Thion, and even Arienrhod upon their adventures. An amazing story!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Frosty Treat (and it's not Dairy Queen)
Review: A wonderful, complicated book. I can't even begin to describe it with my maximum of 1,000 words in this review. Buy it immediatly, and get its sequels, "World's End" and "The Summer Queen."
Rating:
Summary: A storytelling genius at work
Review: A writer with Joan Vinge's talent crosses all genres because she has that unique ability of writing a story about people. Her sci-fi rendition of Andersen's Snow Queen is phenomenal. Its got fascinating elements of sci-fi: a fallen Empire, dozens of cultures and races, twin suns, century-long seasons, and corruption of immortality. Its brimming with eye popping oohs and awwws; Vinge twists the scientific into the fantastical. Her characterization evokes genuine interest in their lives and struggles. She's become my favorite author since then. I just wish she'd get back into writing - though I understand genius can not be rushed.
Rating: 
Summary: Hold your judgement until you read the sequel!
Review: All of the reviews here are on the mark in their own way. Joan Vinge IS a wonderful storyteller, with a fascinating view of people and their motives. You must realize that all the people that populate this novel--or at least the principals--are in some form, Ms Vinge herself, and the brilliant impetuosity and insanity there is the fulfilment of the dreams of the author. She succeeds to the extent that we can identify with some of those dreams. If we fail to do so, it could be that those dreams are not universal. But who wants to read a book that is merely a working-out of everyone's own, common dreams? It is the strange-yet-familiar quality of the story that would attract some of us to the story and to the characters. But this book is just the set-up for the denouement in The Summer Queen. There, all the careful planning goes crazy. Suddenly, all bets are seemingly off, and one begins to despair for the characters one has grown fond of. Is it manipulation? Of course it is. Does one resent it? One almost does! The repetitious, obsessive quality of Vinge's writing--described by some as turgid--does indeed impart a certain flavor to the narrative. If the plot moved along too merrily...it wouldn't be the same would it? It might be a better book, but then again, it might not! My advice: after reading this book, read the sequel from a library, if you can; or buy both books. Arch
Rating: 
Summary: Flabby melodrama
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: As a voracious reader of s&sf, particularly enjoying fun and extremely well-written, stories with reference to mythology, wonderful female characters, and alternative social structures, this book has been on my top 5 list since I read it (mumble...) YEARS ago. I haven't loved Vinge's other books like this, but this is on par with Le Guin, one or two of MZB, and some of the best of Andre Norten and James Triptree Jr.
Rating:
Summary: The SnowQueen-artistry and imagination
Review: Captivating, astounding, mesmorizing, thse are the workds i would use to discribe the SnowQueen, it is an amazing story based on a belivable world, about an ageless ruthless queen who would stop at nothing to continue her reign, and thus implicates the lives of many people, including her clone daughter moon, and her lover sparks dawntreader. Pulling the characters lives together in a seeminless easy manner Joan D Vinge has created the greatest story with the most mysticysm,and realism out there , deffinetly before its time and still relevent today :)
Rating:
Summary: A favorite story revisited
Review: During the early 80s, a young man came upon me pensively fingering THE SNOW QUEEN in a local bookstore. "Go for it," the voice behind me said. "It's a good one." I had tended to avoid the science fiction genre, considering it rather cold and--well--sexist. I soon became grateful for that anonymous recommendation. What drew me to the book was the promise of strong female characters from the imagination of a female author. To my delight it was also loaded with many other elements that warmed the heart of my twenty-something self, among them a goddess myth, ecological awareness, the struggle of indigenous cultures, and romance too! I devoured THE SNOW QUEEN and named it one of my Very Favorite Books. After many years, I recently revisited The Snow Queen universe. What does my forty-something self think? Joan D. Vinge's creation is marvelously complex. The decadent city Carbuncle on watery Tiamat is temporary home to a variety of cultures. Their confluence is rendered in fluid detail. Thoughtful characters struggle with themselves and each other. There is no warfare but there is plenty of adventure. Themes of traditional stories are interwoven with sci fi and contemporary elements to create a colorful, grown-up tale. The book has a refreshing variety of female characters, in both lead and supporting roles. Even in today's adventure genres, women are still grossly outnumbered, and their population is dominated by manipulative harpies and swashbuckling babes. Not so with THE SNOW QUEEN. For example, Arienrhod the Queen is indeed cruel and manipulative, but she is also fighting the imposed subordination that paralyzes her world. And although police officer Jerusha PalaThion is admirably tough, she is also overwhelmed by her circumstances. And refreshingly, NOT a babe. Ms. Vinge excels at getting us into the minds of her characters as they attempt to sort out emotions and moral choices. Alas, she is not always a master of dialogue. Sometimes the characters utter banalities and heavy-handed pronouncements, as if they've become aware that they are partaking in an epic story. Some characters who are shown only through their words and deeds, such as thieving nomad Blodwed, are not convincing. OK, so the book isn't perfect. But I love it. At times Moon the heroine seems like a vacuous flower child, to whom captive animals are drawn as if she's a Disney princess. But she's also determined and plucky. As her awareness of the greater universe grows, she works hard to ensure her place in it. So I root for her. When she communes with the intelligent dolphin/seal/whale-like mers, I think, wow, what a great Girl fantasy. When she bites her sadistic captor I think, "Hooray, I'm relieved she didn't try to win him over." When she has fulfilling sex with two different men within twenty four hours, I think, "You go!" Simply put, THE SNOW QUEEN is a terrific story. Journeys are taken. Characters grow and change. Love can be consuming and life-altering--or confusing and mushy. Endings can be satisfying without being happily-ever-after. "Go for it, it's a good one."
Rating:
Summary: A Fantasy/SciFi Favorite
Review: From page one of this book, I was hooked. Published in the 1980, this book was cutting edge with one dreamt about ideas of successful cloning. Amazing how the power and awe of this book lasts today. The story is a futurized version of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen." Personally, I'm an admirer of writers who can successfully translate traditional stories into modern literary works, and Joan D. Vinge pulls it off spectacularly. Her main character, Moon, is a loving young woman who loves her cousin Sparks and goes through several trials and torments to save him from her clone, the ruthless, power-hungry, and vain Snow Queen Arienrhod. But Sparks isn't the person Moon remembers. He gets swept up in the crazy city of Carbuncle. Soon, Moon is also swept up in this whirlwind. Love, suspence, action, and a mystery more cosmic than the people of Tiamat realize. This is a substantial book (but not quite as much as its sequel) that leads the reader beyond the imagination and into a whole new world.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantasy/SciFi Favorite
Review: From page one of this book, I was hooked. Published in the 1980, this book was cutting edge with one dreamt about ideas of successful cloning. Amazing how the power and awe of this book lasts today. The story is a futurized version of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen." Personally, I'm an admirer of writers who can successfully translate traditional stories into modern literary works, and Joan D. Vinge pulls it off spectacularly. Her main character, Moon, is a loving young woman who loves her cousin Sparks and goes through several trials and torments to save him from her clone, the ruthless, power-hungry, and vain Snow Queen Arienrhod. But Sparks isn't the person Moon remembers. He gets swept up in the crazy city of Carbuncle. Soon, Moon is also swept up in this whirlwind. Love, suspence, action, and a mystery more cosmic than the people of Tiamat realize. This is a substantial book (but not quite as much as its sequel) that leads the reader beyond the imagination and into a whole new world.
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