The Summer Queen

I avoided reading this book because I feared that it, like the sequel to Dune, would not be as engaging as the original. How wrong I was! This book is better than the original, and since the original was a Hugo award winning classic, that is saying an awful lot. Moon's major quest is not just to recapture her lost lover; it is to save an entire race of intelligent sea creatures. And her adversary is not one woman, her genetic equal; it is the entire might of the Hegemony. As in the first, her undeniable pluck and good will help her overcome the most difficult obstacles only to find herself faced with more hardship, so much that your heart cries out to her and everyone around her. As Moon has grown up, I think Vinge also has grown up. The relationships in this book are much more mature and complicated, and I was constantly reminded of true feelings in my own life as I read this book. I think Vinge also fell in love with BZ, because he becomes so much more dear in this book, so much more complete. There are flaws, of course. The first book was much tighter; Vinge is contantly re-iterating events from the past, particularly concerning BZ, extending the pages with excessive exposition. And it does not have the same "Ah-Ha!" revelation as the first one, as the story is pretty clear to the reader from the beginning. It more than makes up for it, though, in small surprises, in moments of beauty and tragedy that forced me to read the last 300 pages in a single day... There is something about this book, something so much more than real, that makes it hard for me to stop thinking about it. I think what makes it so wonderful is that even though, in the end, Moon and her cause accomplish so much, they lose so much in the process. It is a bittersweet ending, both happy and sad, and there is nothing better.

This huge book is an intimate story built around big themes. Action fans, beware! Although there are generous servings of adventure and suspense, this is essentially a character-driven story, even more so than its marvelous predecessor, THE SNOW QUEEN. At the heart of the story is the ancient, mysterious repository of the human knowledge gleaned from cultures past and present, worlds known and lost. Throughout history and across galaxies, the machine and its revered human conduit, the Sibyl Network, have been relied upon for answers to all manner of questions--trivial and profound, personal and technological. The Sibyl Mind binds humanity together. But it is showing signs of failure. To lose it would be to lose civilization. The task of saving civilization becomes entrusted not to warriors or superheroes, but to a small group of living, breathing people. The Summer Queen, Moon, has learned that the machinery behind the Sibyl Mind resides on her undeveloped planet, Tiamat. She must find a way to protect and heal the Mind without exposing it. This is no mean feat for a country girl on a repressed world where ignorance and culture clashes have been encouraged by powerful offworlders to their own advantage. Moon grows up in a hurry. Her determination is unwavering, but the burden of her responsibilities puts a strain on her compassionate nature. For her, it isn't much fun being Queen! Worlds away is BZ Gundhalinu, who, after many personal trials, has become a hero by restoring the means of faster-than-light travel to the empire-building Kharemoughis. Although relatively at peace with himself, he must walk a dangerous, duplicitous path if he is to shield his beloved Moon and her Tiamatans from the very exploitation that he has made possible. On yet another planet is the third major player, a brilliant biochemist of unknown origin, Reede Kullervo. Kullervo's search for a moral core and sense of purpose is hampered by amnesia, a horrific drug addiction, and his indentured servitude to the lords of organized crime. Vinge effectively conveys the charisma behind his arrogance and dangerous volatility. THE SUMMER QUEEN lacks THE SNOW QUEEN's tidy structure. Subplots and characters are widely scattered. Sometimes the story lingers in one setting, sometimes it leaps about more rapidly. As time goes on, the pace accelerates as the plots converge. Most of the narrative takes place within the thoughts of the many characters, some familiar, some new. A couple of them seem to exist primarily to plug holes, and some are unrelentingly hissable, but the vast majority show great depth as they face complex political, social and personal dilemmas. There are no simple, permanent solutions, no actions without consequences. Perspectives and emotions shift during the two decade span of the book. Much of the conflict arises between rival factions of the ancient, secretive, and manipulative society known as Survey. This device helps limit the conflict to a handful o

Joan Vinge developes characters like none other, by the end of the book you are left with a "leaving camp" feeling...like you just spent a week at camp making new friends and now it's time to go. Sure other books develope one or two, but Joan has nearly a dozen going by the end that are all wonderfully done.Which has it's drawbacks, you get the feeling thoughout the read that Arienrhod is constantly being dwelled upon, and much of the 600+ pages are spent backtracking on character developments. This detracts from what could have been one of the better storylines in sci-fi, I wanted to hear more about the Sibyl net and the mers. I feel perhaps a character could have been cut, or a development cut to make way for this. At any rate, if you liked the Snow Queen then you need to be reading this, however don't expect to finish with a pleasent feeling. There are some slow parts in the beggining and middle, but once you hit the home stretch it can't be put down :)

This story follows on from The Snow Queen and World's End, which would be useful to read first (World's End is not so crucial, but it does provide some essential information). The world, Tiamat, is under the domination of the Hegemony, which slaughters the 'native' sea mammal population. At the start of this story, the Hegemony have just rediscovered the space drive technology to enable them to return to Tiamat (they had been unable to get there for several years due to difficulties in galactic travel) The Summer Queen, Moon, has to deal with the threat of the returning Hegemony, as well as dealing with unrest amongst her own population. The Kirkus review for this book talks about flabbiness and too many subplots. In my opinion, to leave out any of the subplots would detract from the story; Vinge succeeds in smoothly bringing all the threads together in the end. At no time did I find that I couldn't follow the action - the plot may be complex in parts, but it is still a plot, with beginning, middle and end. As for 'flabbiness', the pace did slow down with the dilemmas that Moon experienced with her family - and that could perhaps have been tightened a little - but, again, the background is essential to the story resolution. If you want a story with hard sci-fi shoot-em-up action, or a nice linear quest with a magic ring at the end, this won't be the story for you. If you want a intelligent story that deals with emotions and relationships as readily as technology and politics, with vivid characterisation and scene setting, then give this one a go.

We finally return to the incredibly complex universe and world of Tiamat. After reading The Snow Queen many years before, I was thrilled to see that Vinge had finally written a sequel. Vinge weaves a marvelously complex tapestry in this mammoth novel. The new Summer Queen must hold off the galactic powers who want to exploit her world, specifically the mers, whose blood has life-lengthening properties. What these same galactic powers don't realize is that the mers hold the key to the sibyl network on which much of Galactic civilization is founded. Destroy one and you destroy the other. A magnificent read. The publisher was incredibly foolish to allow it to go out of print.