The Snow Queen

By: Joan D. Vinge

Narrated by: Ellen Archer

Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. All is not lost if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space.

©1980 Joan D. Vinge (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1981

A magnificent performance of an old favorite

What about Ellen Archer’s performance did you like?

Fantastic performance - the characters truly came alive!

Any additional comments?

I was thrilled to find this old favorite amongst Audible's new releases, and Ellen Archer's performance truly did it justice. I am very much hoping to see World's End and The Summer Queen follow it up!

Excellent performance of a sci-fi classic

Very pleased with this performance of a much loved book. The narrator did a superb job matching voice to character. Also, kept the complex tale moving forward between the various locales and character groups.

I very much hope that Audible.com will take on Joan Vinge's other works such as the Summer Queen and the Cat/Psion series.

wish they would do them all.

I really love this series, and the performance was done so well. I wish Summer Queen had been done, too, and perhaps some of the in-between novellas.

Masterful performance of one of my favorite novels

I was a science-fiction nerd as a teenager and absolutely fell in love with this book when I read it years and years ago. I was feeling nostalgic and decided to give this audiobook version a shot and was really impressed with Ellen Archer’s many voices. I was a little shocked and surprised at some of the accents because I never imagined them sounding that way, but I am going to assume that Vinge gave that Creative Direction perhaps? Anyway I shrugged off the unexpected Scottish burrs, English posh dialect, etc. and continued on. I think overall the accents made it easier to tell the different characters apart. Really great performance and I will probably listen to this again eventually. Very enjoyable.

excellent reader, good at accents

This book is probably more enjoyable if you are not familiar with the Hans Christian Anderson tale. I wasn't, and thought the world building and plot were fantastic. great reader. The ending got a little too flowery and drawn out, but by then I was well invested.

phenomenal.

was amazed how long ago it was written. has definitely not lost its touch unlike many other sci-fi books of its age.

Adult fairy tale

Great story, had read it before years ago but had completely forgotten it... It was like reading it for the first time! The narrator was fabulous, I loved her voices for the characters - amazing... I was saying to my daughter that if it had been written nowadays it would have had a couple of sequels. This is my first time to listen to a book and I found it odd at first, but ended up loving it.

Love this book!

I love this book. It's one of my favorites that I read over and over. The narration was great. I enjoyed listening to it for a change. I'm so glad audible added this to their library . I can't wait till they add the rest of the collection comes out.

great book

I liked this book. Several spots were predictable but it was overall great. It has the depth and feel of dune meets Hans Christensen; the snow queen is a jewel.

Star Wars meets Hans Christian Anderson

A true Sci-fi classic, given a terrific performance. The basic plot focuses on a hero with mysterious powers on a journey to defeat a malevolent space emperor, so Star Wars comparisons are inevitable. Still, published in an era where pulp sci-fi novels were short, morally simplistic, and largely targeted at young boys Joan D. Vinge did something very ahead of it's time. Not one to be missed.