The Snow Queen (Vinge novel)
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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
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| Author | Joan D. Vinge |
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| Illustrator | Michael Whelan |
| Cover artist | Leo and Diane Dillon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Snow Queen Cycle |
| Genre | Science fiction/fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Dial Press |
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Publication date
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1980 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 471 pp |
| Award | Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1981) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 5412267 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.V78 Sn PS3572.I53 |
| Followed by | Worlds End (1984) |
The Snow Queen is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Joan D. Vinge, published in 1980. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1981.
Based on the fairy-tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen takes place on a mostly oceanic planet called Tiamat, whose suns orbit a black hole, which facilitates a type of interstellar wormhole travel and connects Tiamat to the rest of the civilized galaxy (the "Hegemony", the remnants of a fallen Galactic Empire).
The residents of Tiamat are split into two clans: "Winters" who advocate technological progress and trade with offworlders, and "Summers" who depend on their folk traditions and rigid social distinctions to survive on this marginal planet. Every 150 years, the suns orbit around a black hole dramatically impacts the planetary ecology and to keep the uneasy peace, the government switches from Winter rule to Summer rule under a matriarchal monarch. Interstellar travel between Tiamat and the Hegemony is only possible during the 150 years of Winter rule, and a single woman rules the entire planet: a "Snow Queen" in Winter, a "Summer Queen" in Summer.
The Hegemony's interest in Tiamat has to do with the "mers", sentient sea-dwelling creatures whose blood provides the "water of life", a virus that halts the aging process. Mers are hunted as frequently as possible during the Winter years, to the brink of extinction. This also allows a single Snow Queen to reign for the entire 150-year season, and it is with the Snow Queen, Arienrhod, that the story begins. She has secretly implanted several Summer women with embryos, clones of herself, in the hopes of extending her rule past her ritual execution at the end of Winter.
The novel follows Moon, the only one of these clones to survive to adolescence. She and her cousin Sparks are lovers, and both are "merry-begots", conceived during the planetary festivals held every 20 years to remind Tiamat of the cycle of power. Moon becomes a sibyl, a position of high status among the Summer people, since they are keepers of knowledge freely available to anyone who asks. Sibyls enter a trance and by mysterious means, can answer questions. Sparks, unable to join her among the sibyl mystics and curious about his offworld heritage, travels to Carbuncle, Tiamat's capital, where he is immediately caught up by Arienrhod and eventually becomes the "Starbuck": her consort and commander of the mer hunts.
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