A review by manuphoto
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It’s not every day that I read a sci-fi novel based on a Danish fairy tale, so I had no idea what to expect from this book. Add to that the fact that it was my first Joan D. Vinge novel, and I was really going into the unknown.

The book started fairly slowly, with Vinge establishing the rules of her universe step by step, with just enough characters and locations to make the whole thing seem coherent and interesting. I thought she did a great job with her world-building, presenting it through the eyes of multiple characters. It felt a bit like a mix of Asimov’s Foundation universe with a bit of Dune’s fantasy. Although Vinge’s characters are much better than Asimov’s, and her writing is better than Herbert’s (at least in Dune), her concepts are not as creative or original. Nothing is perfect, I guess!

The whole novel is centered around a love story, something I usually don’t care for much. It actually works well here, even if it was a little tedious at times. But that tediousness was compensated by the actions of secondary characters who kept the whole thing moving forward, at least in the first half of the book.

In the second half, things get bogged down. The central character, Moon, proves to be quite uninteresting, although the rest of the cast is multilayered. I cared a lot more about them than her. They all seem to have arcs; she just goes through the motions with a clear goal in sight. She’s consistent, but I found her development thin, especially compared to the other characters.

An example is Jerusha, the police officer. She’s very well handled, and Vinge uses her to demonstrate very intelligently how sexism happens at every level of power structures and how the game is rigged against women. Very well done here.

The novel also tackles colonialism, prejudice, and bigotry in good ways. But it does so a bit too slowly and sometimes with a lack of focus or pacing that makes the whole thing feel dense.

So, this novel has many qualities, but sadly it’s not better than the sum of its parts. It’s good, tackles some very important themes, and has some very compelling characters, but it lacks something. A layer of coherence or improved pacing to make it an excellent novel. It’s frustrating, especially given how good Vinge’s prose is; I can see a great novel here, but I’m only reading a good one. A tad disappointing, in a good way, if that makes sense.