Last week I finally completed the Snow Queen Cycle (pictured above), which I first began to read over twenty years ago. From one of the queens of SF, it's a particularly good series - especially the third book, The Summer Queen, is a real blockbuster - featuring two amazing queens.
Set primarily on the world of Tiamat (book two, World's End, is set elsewhere), the series follows Moon, a member of the Summer clan, first as she seeks her lover in Tiamat's one city, Carbuncle, and then as she seeks to write a heinous wrong (which I won't disclose). Tiamat is one of the worlds under the thumb of the Kharemough Hegemony, whose primary interest in the world is a species of sentient creatures that live in its waters, called mers. The blood of these mers is known as the Water of Life, and is sought after for its longevity properties. Arienrhod, the titular Snow Queen and a member of the Winter Clan, has, for example, ruled Tiamat for 150 years, keeping herself alive and physically young through use of the Water of Life.
When Moon becomes a sybil, a human portal to an ancient repository of knowledge, her lover Sparks Dawntreader Summer leaves the Summer islands for Winter Carbuncle in disgust. And so the unfolding action is set up, leading Moon not only to Carbuncle, but to Kharemough in her quest to rescue Sparks.
And there I'll leave it. This Cycle has been likened to Dune, and arguably, yes, I'll agree with that. It really is an understated, amazing story, and I loved reading every page.
What's your favourite SF series - and why?
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