The Snow Queen Trilogy by Joan D. Vinge
The Snow Queen Trilogy is a science fiction series set on the planet Tiamat, which faces a significant transition known as "The Change." This event results in the planet being isolated from the greater empire for 150 years, during which a new queen will emerge. The primary character, Arienrhod, the Snow Queen, clones herself to ensure her legacy, intending for her clone, Moon Dawntreader Summer, to prepare for rulership. However, Moon's journey is complicated when she is abducted by smugglers and later becomes embroiled in a hunt for the bioengineered mers, creatures vital for their longevity properties.
As the narrative unfolds, themes of love, betrayal, and power emerge, with Moon finding romance with BZ Gundhalinu, a policeman. The trilogy explores the dynamics between off-worlders and the native Summers, the latter being the less technologically advanced inhabitants of Tiamat. Arienrhod's increasingly ruthless tactics to assert control culminate in her downfall, leading to significant changes for both Moon and BZ. The subsequent novels delve into their struggles, the impact of a powerful virus, and the quest for stability in the face of personal and societal upheaval. Ultimately, the series weaves a tale of redemption, identity, and the intricate dance between technology and nature, culminating in an evolving understanding of power and legacy.
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The Snow Queen Trilogy
First published:The Snow Queen (1980), World’s End (1984), and The Summer Queen (1991)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Fantasy—alien civilization
Time of work: An unspecified time in the future
Locale: An unnamed galaxy
The Plot
The Change is coming to the watery planet Tiamat, which will be closed to the rest of the empire for 150 years. A new queen will rule. To protect herself, Arienrhod, the Snow Queen, has cloned herself. Arienrhod plans for the clone, Moon Dawntreader Summer, to come to Carbuncle, the planet’s only major city, to prepare to become the next queen. The Change means that the less sophisticated Summers will rule and that the off-worlders will leave, taking their technology with them.
Arienrhod’s original plan is aborted when Moon inadvertently is taken off the planet by smugglers while on her way to visit Sparks, her lover. Moon is a sibyl, a person infected by a bioengineered virus that makes her capable of tapping into the Old Empire’s hidden computer library. Believing Moon to be dead, Sparks eventually becomes consort to Arienrhod and is progressively corrupted.
Moon eventually returns and accidentally is gathered up in an illegal hunt for mers, led by Sparks. The intelligent, aquatic mers are creatures bioengineered by the Old Empire. Their blood contains the “water of life,” a longevity substance. Moon meets and falls in love with BZ Gundhalinu, a Kharmoughi policeman. Attracted to BZ, Moon makes love with him.
Arienrhod’s plan was to free Tiamat from the control of the Hegemony, the current empire, by preserving as much technology as possible. As her plans are thwarted, she becomes more ruthless, finally arranging for a plague to kill most of the Summers at the Festival of Change. That scheme also is foiled, and Arienrhod is sacrificed to the sea. The off-worlders leave, and so does BZ.
World’s End chronicles BZ’s journey of self-redemption. Stationed on a planet named Number Four, in self-imposed exile, BZ leaves his police job to find his two brothers and a mad sibyl named Song. “World’s End,” an uncharted wilderness, boasts great mineral wealth but is a nightmare. At its center is Fire Lake, which proves to be filled with runaway stardrive plasma used for the Old Empire’s faster-than-light ships. It drives some people mad and disrupts the fabric of space and time. On the lake shore is a city called Sanctuary, where BZ finds his brothers enslaved and Song in charge. He makes love to her, confusing her with Moon, and she infects him with the sibyl virus. He finds the wreckage of a thousand-year-old Old Empire ship in the lake and is rewarded handsomely for it.
The Summer Queen begins shortly after the Change. Moon is queen, is pregnant with twins fathered by BZ, and is married to Sparks. This novel, like The Snow Queen, has two principal plots, following the story of Moon and BZ and that of Reed Kullervo. Moon deals with the return of the off-worlders, her growing feelings for BZ, and the seeming failure of the sibyl net, the collective ability of the sibyls to tap into the computer without hardware. Reed, a brilliant biotechnologist, frees himself from various forms of enslavement, particularly from “the water of death,” his own failed attempt to counterfeit the “water of life.” BZ and Reed stabilize the stardrive plasma, which will permit the Hegemony’s early return to Tiamat.
Meanwhile, BZ imagines that he is someone named Ilmarinen. Reed ends up working for Jaakola, a criminal who keeps him under control by doling out doses of the water of death. Reed eventually learns that Mundilfoere, his former lover, put another mind into his body. BZ is appointed chief justice of Tiamat. Tammis, Moon’s son, eventually dies trying to fix the failing sibyl net, and Ariele, Moon’s daughter, falls in love with Reed when he appears on Tiamat to synthetically replicate the “water of life.” It becomes increasingly clear that the mers’ song will reprogram the net. BZ, put into the position of trying to protect the mers while harvesting them, is betrayed by a subordinate and sentenced to prison.
Reed discovers his personality implant to be the legendary Vanamoinen, who, with Ilmarinen, constructed the original sibyl net and who has existed electromagnetically within the net for thousands of years. Moon and BZ finally come back together. The mers remain safe.