![]() She examines the tension between nature and nurture. ![]() The redemptive power of love lies at the heart of the novel.īut Vinge overlays on that, some very contemporary concerns, informed by her background as an anthropologist. Her female lead, Moon, is the one on a quest to rescue her lover, who has fallen under the sway of Arienrhod, the titular Snow Queen. Like in Anderson’s original story, Vinge flips fairy tale tropes on their heads. As Winter changes to Summer, and the planet moves too close to its nearby black hole to enable safe interstellar travel, the interplanetary Hegemony (which has a monopoly on all technology) will withdraw, leaving the planet’s inhabitants to revert to a pre-industrial society for a further 150 years, until Winter when the Hegemony can return again. ![]() ![]() Tiamat is nearing the end of its 150 year ‘Winter’ season, which will lead to great change. But Vinge moves the setting to the colony planet of Tiamat in the far future. The novel is very loosely inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale of the same name. But that doesn’t stop it reeking of the 1980s from every pore. For a 35 year old novel, Joan D Vinge’s The Snow Queen still feels relatively fresh. ![]()
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