Rating: 
Summary: One word: boring
Review: Snow Queen was magnificent!
Tangle Up in Blue was a solid sequel.
The Summer Queen falls flat.
It is long, slow, dull, uninspired, and seemingly directionless with well-known characters who no longer evoke empathy in the reader. Skip it unless you need a doorstop.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing characters, unpolished storyline
Review: The Winter clan's century and a half reign over Tiamat is ended and now its Summer's time to rule with Moon as the leader. Moon, vowing a different economic path through technology, has ended the harvesting of the Mers whose blood was the cash crop sellable commodity, providing off world longevity to clients. The Hegemony also has left the planet.Moon's former lover, Gundhalinu, attempts to save the Hegemony by trying to gain control over stardrive plasma spilled from a wrecked Old Empire ship. If he succeeds, faster-than-light travel will become available as it once was and Tiamat will no longer suffer periods of isolation. However, the Brotherhood seeks the immortality elixir allegedly found only on Tiamat while Moon clashes with opponents over the fate of the Mers, as these intelligent beings are the source of the elixir. She also must keep safe the ancient computer hidden under the planet's prime city that links the galaxy's clairvoyants. If the Hegemony obtain either the people of Tiamat will face endless winter, but if the Hegemony gain both the people of the galaxy will face eternal winter. Surprisingly the sequel to THE SNOW QUEEN is a tighter, albeit still very complicated, planetary thriller. The story line is loaded with many concepts though some get shortchanged because of the abundance. The key charcaters are fully developed (critical in this novel) so that the audience appreciates Moon's troubles and her former lover's endeavor. Joan D. Vinge provides readers with a strong galaxy tale that shows why she was nominated for a Hugo for this work (and won with the first story). Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: strong galaxy tale
Review: The Winter clan's century and a half reign over Tiamat is ended and now its Summer's time to rule with Moon as the leader. Moon, vowing a different economic path through technology, has ended the harvesting of the Mers whose blood was the cash crop sellable commodity, providing off world longevity to clients. The Hegemony also has left the planet. Moon's former lover, Gundhalinu, attempts to save the Hegemony by trying to gain control over stardrive plasma spilled from a wrecked Old Empire ship. If he succeeds, faster-than-light travel will become available as it once was and Tiamat will no longer suffer periods of isolation. However, the Brotherhood seeks the immortality elixir allegedly found only on Tiamat while Moon clashes with opponents over the fate of the Mers, as these intelligent beings are the source of the elixir. She also must keep safe the ancient computer hidden under the planet's prime city that links the galaxy's clairvoyants. If the Hegemony obtain either the people of Tiamat will face endless winter, but if the Hegemony gain both the people of the galaxy will face eternal winter. Surprisingly the sequel to THE SNOW QUEEN is a tighter, albeit still very complicated, planetary thriller. The story line is loaded with many concepts though some get shortchanged because of the abundance. The key charcaters are fully developed (critical in this novel) so that the audience appreciates Moon's troubles and her former lover's endeavor. Joan D. Vinge provides readers with a strong galaxy tale that shows why she was nominated for a Hugo for this work (and won with the first story). Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: An intimate epic
Review: This huge book is an intimate story built around big themes. Action fans, beware! Although there are generous servings of adventure and suspense, this is essentially a character-driven story, even more so than its marvelous predecessor, THE SNOW QUEEN.
At the heart of the story is the ancient, mysterious repository of the human knowledge gleaned from cultures past and present, worlds known and lost. Throughout history and across galaxies, the machine and its revered human conduit, the Sibyl Network, have been relied upon for answers to all manner of questions--trivial and profound, personal and technological. The Sibyl Mind binds humanity together. But it is showing signs of failure. To lose it would be to lose civilization. The task of saving civilization becomes entrusted not to warriors or superheroes, but to a small group of living, breathing people.
The Summer Queen, Moon, has learned that the machinery behind the Sibyl Mind resides on her undeveloped planet, Tiamat. She must find a way to protect and heal the Mind without exposing it. This is no mean feat for a country girl on a repressed world where ignorance and culture clashes have been encouraged by powerful offworlders to their own advantage. Moon grows up in a hurry. Her determination is unwavering, but the burden of her responsibilities puts a strain on her compassionate nature. For her, it isn't much fun being Queen!
Worlds away is BZ Gundhalinu, who, after many personal trials, has become a hero by restoring the means of faster-than-light travel to the empire-building Kharemoughis. Although relatively at peace with himself, he must walk a dangerous, duplicitous path if he is to shield his beloved Moon and her Tiamatans from the very exploitation that he has made possible.
On yet another planet is the third major player, a brilliant biochemist of unknown origin, Reede Kullervo. Kullervo's search for a moral core and sense of purpose is hampered by amnesia, a horrific drug addiction, and his indentured servitude to the lords of organized crime. Vinge effectively conveys the charisma behind his arrogance and dangerous volatility.
THE SUMMER QUEEN lacks THE SNOW QUEEN's tidy structure. Subplots and characters are widely scattered. Sometimes the story lingers in one setting, sometimes it leaps about more rapidly. As time goes on, the pace accelerates as the plots converge.
Most of the narrative takes place within the thoughts of the many characters, some familiar, some new. A couple of them seem to exist primarily to plug holes, and some are unrelentingly hissable, but the vast majority show great depth as they face complex political, social and personal dilemmas. There are no simple, permanent solutions, no actions without consequences. Perspectives and emotions shift during the two decade span of the book.
Much of the conflict arises between rival factions of the ancient, secretive, and manipulative society known as Survey. This device helps limit the conflict to a handful of known individuals. It also ties the story to the long lost past and the origins of the Sibyl Mind. But after a while it seems that everyone is a member, and Survey's pretentious attitude becomes more tiresome than interesting. (Fortunately, Moon agrees!)
Yes, the book is sprawling. But I regretted leaving the characters at the end of the book, and imagined them continuing their lives somewhere beyond my reach. I can't think of a greater compliment to an author's work.
Rating:
Summary: A complex and fascinating novel - well worth a read
Review: This story follows on from The Snow Queen and World's End, which would be useful to read first (World's End is not so crucial, but it does provide some essential information). The world, Tiamat, is under the domination of the Hegemony, which slaughters the 'native' sea mammal population. At the start of this story, the Hegemony have just rediscovered the space drive technology to enable them to return to Tiamat (they had been unable to get there for several years due to difficulties in galactic travel) The Summer Queen, Moon, has to deal with the threat of the returning Hegemony, as well as dealing with unrest amongst her own population. The Kirkus review for this book talks about flabbiness and too many subplots. In my opinion, to leave out any of the subplots would detract from the story; Vinge succeeds in smoothly bringing all the threads together in the end. At no time did I find that I couldn't follow the action - the plot may be complex in parts, but it is still a plot, with beginning, middle and end. As for 'flabbiness', the pace did slow down with the dilemmas that Moon experienced with her family - and that could perhaps have been tightened a little - but, again, the background is essential to the story resolution. If you want a story with hard sci-fi shoot-em-up action, or a nice linear quest with a magic ring at the end, this won't be the story for you. If you want a intelligent story that deals with emotions and relationships as readily as technology and politics, with vivid characterisation and scene setting, then give this one a go.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful long-awaited sequel to The Snow Queen
Review: We finally return to the incredibly complex universe and world of Tiamat. After reading The Snow Queen many years before, I was thrilled to see that Vinge had finally written a sequel. Vinge weaves a marvelously complex tapestry in this mammoth novel. The new Summer Queen must hold off the galactic powers who want to exploit her world, specifically the mers, whose blood has life-lengthening properties. What these same galactic powers don't realize is that the mers hold the key to the sibyl network on which much of Galactic civilization is founded. Destroy one and you destroy the other. A magnificent read. The publisher was incredibly foolish to allow it to go out of print.
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