The Snow Queen Series

The Snow Queen Series, by Joan D. Vinge, is a series of four books set in the far future world of the Hegemony. The first and titular book, The Snow Queen, is a multifaceted, old-fashioned space opera cast in the form of a high-tech fairy tale, with nods to Dune and Welsh mythology. It won the 1981 Hugo Award for its author.

Tiamat is a mostly oceanic world which orbits a black hole, and seasons there last for hundreds of years. In the warm years, the Summer Queens rule and the planet reverts to primitivism; in the cold years, a single Snow Queen kept perpetually at age 18 by the water of life, a youth serum extracted from the blood of a native sea mammal. In the Winter years The Hegemony, remnants of a once mighty star-spanning empire, are able travel through the nearby black hole to exploit Tiamat’s resources and use it as an R n’ R stop; in the Summer years, the black hole becomes too unstable for space travel, and the planet loses whatever luxuries and technology it had.

The story begins when Arienrhod, a Winter Queen whose reign is soon to end, seeks to break the cycle of exploitation by cloning herself among the Summer fisherfolk, with the idea of retrieving her daughter at adolescence and having her reign as the next Summer Queen. However Moon, her clone daughter, has other ideas for her life; raised among simple villagers, she falls in love with her cousin Sparks, becomes a sacred advisor/prophetess known as a Sibyl, and is kidnapped and taken off-world where she learns the true nature of the sibyl network and the decay of the former Empire. Sparks, meanwhile, travels to the capitol city of Carbuncle to find his fortune and becomes the Snow Queen’s lover and chief huntsman responsible for the slaughter of the sacred mers that provide the means to eternal youth. This is only the rough outline of the plot.

Basically there is something for everyone in this book, feminism, adventure, romance, empire building, love triangles, exotic cultures. A sequel, The Summer Queen, was later written as well as two ancillary novels, World’s End and Tangled up in Blue, which fill in the plot and answer questions about what happened between the two longer books. The books were published in this order:


 * The Snow Queen (1981)
 * World's End (1984)
 * The Summer Queen (1991)
 * Tangled Up in Blue (2000)

However, the timeline of the books is as thus:


 * The Snow Queen
 * Tangled Up in Blue
 * World's End
 * The Summer Queen


 * After the End: The Hegemony is all that remains of a once mighty human starfaring Empire.
 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot
 * Bizarre Seasons: Though the exact length in Earth years of Tiamat's two seasons is never explicitly stated, Arienrhod reflects she has barely been given two (human length) lifetimes for her reign, so 160 for each is a good guess. Enough to turn over 8 generations.
 * Blind Seer: Fate Ravenglass. She even has a third artificial eye in the form of a band across her forehead.
 * Cloning Blues: Moon differs significantly from her clone-mother Arienrhod.
 * Cool Chair: Arienrhod's throne is made from clear, ornate glass, with a velvet cushion for her head.
 * Corralled Cosmos: The Hegemony comprises at least eight planets, but because interstellar travel is only possible through black holes, they are in actuality thousands of light years apart.
 * Criminal Mastermind: The Source, who also The Faceless because of his aversion to light.
 * Dark-Skinned Redhead: Sparks Dawntreader, who is half Kharamoughi (a dark-skinned offworlder race.)
 * Deadly Decadent Court: Arienrhod's nobles are described as favoring bizarre, androgynous fashions and trying to play-kill each other with stunguns. They are also hinted to have group sex with each other.
 * Evil Albino: Arienrhod, although she is not so much evil as ambitious and decadent. However,
 * Evil Is Sexy: Arienrhod, and she is not afraid to use it.
 * Fantastic Caste System: There are several.
 * The Tiamatans are divided into two great clans, Winters and Summers. Winters favor technology and dominate when the offworlders reside on Tiamat, while Summers are more religious and primitive, and dominate when the offworlders leave.
 * The planet of Kharemough, which dominates the Hegemony, has three castes: Tech, Non Tech, and Unclassified. Techs are the highest, Nontechs comprise artists, and Unclassifieds act as Untouchables.
 * The planet of Samathe has two: Talls (normal humans) and Shorts, who have been dwarfed by genetic damage.
 * Fantastic Drug: The Water of Life, the youth serum extracted from the blood of mers.
 * Going Down with the Ship: Elsevier.
 * Going Native
 * Heroic Albino: Moon Dawntreader, though not technically an albino, is described as having pale skin and hair like cream, with light green eyes the color of moss and mist agate.
 * Immortality Immorality: The wealthy, decadent few who can afford to take the Water of Life.
 * Love Triangle: Moon, Sparks, and BZ Gundhalinu; also Arienrhod, Moon, and Sparks.
 * Jerkass: Herne, and arguably
 * Junkie Prophet
 * Masquerade Ball: These are held by the Snow Queen to honor the Hegemony's periodic visits. Moon was implanted in a Summer woman at one of them.
 * New Meat: BZ Gundhalinu.
 * Reentry Scare: When Elsevier takes Moon back to Tiamat, their ship is shot down.
 * Sapient Cetacean: The mers, even though they are more seal-like. They sing like whales though.
 * Single Biome Planet: Tiamat is a water world with a few scattered islands.
 * Spice of Life: Because of its youth-extending powers, The Water of Life is a hot commodity on the interstellar market.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Moon and.
 * Supervillain Lair: The Royal Palace, which is full of CCTV networks so Arienrhod can spy on her court, as well as a bottomless pit filled with dangerous winds all visitors must cross.
 * Vice City: The capitol city of Carbuncle, because, according to the author, "It can be either a jewel or a fester, depending on your point of view." In Winter times, it is a city dedicated to the pleasure of the offworlders, and criminal gangs, smugglers, and worse run rampant.
 * World Building