Customer Reviews

The Snow Queen (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 4)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Show Queen is not up to Ms. Lackey's usual level. This book qualifies as a light, entertaining read that goes well with its publishing as a Luna romance, but her previous Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms were more engaging. I liked that she did not have explicit sex in this novel, which means I won't have to hide it from my kids, but the romantic relationships lacked the attraction, tension, longing, and the sizzle that make her books enjoyable. Also, the only character development I noticed was in the spoiled children learning their lessons and Ilmari learning to appreciate someone his own age. I don't expect depth from a romance novel, but it would be nice to see some reason for attraction between the mature protagonists besides the usual "she's beautiful, smart and brave" meets "he's strong-bodied and brave, yet willing to learn from her superior female viewpoint." (Quotes are my indication of a cliche, not actual quotes from the book.)

The most annoying thing was the poor editing. There are some glaring problems with internal consistency and continuity. As just one example, Ilmari is described in Chapter 4 as having "gray in his hair and beard," but in Chapter 14 "his hair was not yet graying." There are many others, and they were distracting and annoying.

The first and second books in this series were well-written (for the genre) and engaging. The third was cute enough and was interesting for expanding into Russian folklore. This fourth book feels like a draft, not a finished novel. There are some fun passages in here, and it does have the feel-good, "this is how it should be" ending that she referred to in her Author Note, so I won't give up on the series yet. Here's to hoping she returns to her usual level and gets better editing.

On par with the first and third volumes. My one quibble would be that Harlequin/Luna needs to hire a decent proof-reader. As in 'The Fairy Godmother,' there are goofs where characters are referred to by the wrong name entirely, with the addition of a continuity error or two. Engaging story, great concept, but mistakes like that tend to be jarring and diminish my enjoyment of the book.

I adore Lackey, and this may be her worst book to date. The first third is a nice coherent story, the remainder is a rather rushed and hodge-podged mess.

The 'romance' aspect is entirely gone. The two characters that are in love are together on only the last 5 pages. And the ending is very very forced. Very fairy tale - but not the well crafted story I expect from her.

I found this book to be very disappointing. It simply lacked any emotion or real feeling of tension. It felt like watching a rerun of a TV show that you have seen dozen times before, and did not really like the first time. Everything was oddly familiar and nothing surprised. Rather than having the events create tension, the author had the characters stand around telling you why this was hard. She introduced this strange magical effect "older and more powerful than the tradition", but it operated just like the Tradition and its "oddness" had no effect on the story outcome at all. Even the finale with the heartless Snow Queen had all the suspense and excitement of watching someone make pancakes. The first book, the Fairy Godmother, was interesting, and very creative. This one is neither.

While this is a well-written book, it isn't my favorite in this series, or my favorite of Mercedes Lackey's books. I agree with several of the reviewers that the unpredictability of the plot, and the overall much darker tone of this book did not endear it to me. I actually prefered One Good Knight because of the plot twists (Go George!), and my favorite so far in the series is Fortune's Fool.

What does fascinate me about this series is the intermingling of fairy tales and cultures. The Snow Queen, the Katchei, the Bereginia, and most of all, the Godmothers. Having spent part of my childhood in Europe, I'm more familiar than some with the fables and tales of other countries, and really LIKE Misty for mining them for her series!

I'm still wading my way through the story but got so fed up by the inconsistencies and bad editing, I had to vent. The spelling errors have been bad enough but when the characters' names are being mixed up, it's just too much. One minute we're reading about Aleksia making her preparations in a cave and the next we're reading that it's Annukka that's doing it. There'a also a few paragraphs that is repeated in two different places. Bad quality control. Seriously.

I have read all four of the books in the Five Kingdoms series so far. Although the fairy tale background for the Snow Queen was wonderful, the actual story came across as disjointed and poorly connected. The adventures of the two storylines (Aleksia and Anukka/Kaari) are sketchy and not well fleshed out. The character development is minimal, and the romance is tacked on to the end between couples that have only known each other for a few days. The meshing of the storylines feels contrived as well.
If you enjoy Scandinavian fairy tales, you will enjoy the weaving of traditional tales into the story. If you are looking for a book with depth and excitement, this book will disappoint you. Good for a light read, as Mercedes Lackey's stories always have a good sense of humor

The Snow Queen (2008) is the fourth fantasy novel in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, following Fortunes's Fool. In the previous volume, Guiliette forgave Rheinhardt and herself and a beam of light took her into the heavens. Katya, Sasha, the Queen of Copper Mountain and the dragons returned the Jinn to his bottle, then sent the bottle to the City of Brass to hold until the Jinn reformed.

In this novel, Aleksia is the Snow Queen and the Ice Fairy, the Godmother of her domain. Although the ice and snow come from the position of her palace high in the mountains, she does have the northernmost Godmother domain. She almost exclusively deals with boys who are following traditional paths into evil ways.

While Aleksia has the brownies for company and mirror contact with Godmother Elena, most of the time she is dealing with self-centered boys and love-struck girls. Her days get quite lonely and irritating. She is beginning to detest sulky boys and naive girls.

Kay is her latest project. He is very clever and even more spoiled by his parents. He wears black garments despite his fair coloring and tends to stick out his lower lip when he is frustrated. Kay is well on his way to becoming a Clockwork Artificer.

Gerda is a very determined -- yet dependent --- maiden who loves Kay. Unfortunately, she is currently incapable of denying him anything. She is well on her way to becoming the forgiving, defensive and verbally abused wife of an arrogant man.

In this story, Aleksia has brought Kay to the Palace of Ever-Winter and given him everything he desires except company. She is acting ever so haughty toward him and has made the brownies invisible. Moreover, she is keeping the Palace rather cold so that he is always chilled. Hopefully, he will soon become so lonely that he recognizes the worth of Gerda.

Meanwhile, Gerda is traveling toward the Palace to rescue Kay. She is so nice that farmers and other travellers have given her rides most of the way. But now she is traveling cross-country and is soon to be accosted by a band of robbers within the woods.

Overall, everything with Kay and Gerda is following the script devised by Aleksia from long and boring experience. While she is waiting for developments, Aleksia receives a mirror call from her friend Alena. It seems that someone is impersonating the Snow Queen and something else called an Icehart is killing people.

The problem appears to be restricted to the land of the Sammi. These reindeer herders are not directly served by a Godmother, but are vaguely within Aleksia's rather extended domain. At least, she is the only nearby Godmother.

Aleksia starts gathering information on the impostor. Her mirror spirit Jalmari searches for mentions of the Snow Witch while she finishes up the situation with Kay and Gerda. However, the data provided by Jalmari convinces Aleksia that she must become directly involved in the new problem.

This tale takes Aleksia into the Sammi Underworld to question the dead villagers who were killed by the Icehart. The problem she faces is not getting into the Underground, but rather getting out. The task gains her a little more knowledge, but ruins her clothes and requires a major soak and shampoo to take away the stain and stench.

Like the previous volumes, this is a tale of high romance. It may be the most romantic of the whole series so far, at least by the couple count. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Lackey fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of fairy godmothers, magical quests, and high romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I have read and enjoyed all the books in Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series. "The Snow Queen" while enjoyable was still easily my least favorite.

The basic premise is the snow queen Aleksia is the Godmother over an icy territory called the Sammies. Like every good Godmother she watches over her Kingdom and aids or hinders the magic of the Tradition on her people. "The Tradition" finds certain people in situations where they can be manipulated to follow a familiar fairy tale path. For example, a girl who suddenly inherits a not-so-nice stepmother can be manipulated into a Cinderella-like situation. Aleksia is lonely in her snow palace until she learns another sorceress is calling herself the Snow Queen and causing great harm.

I like the character of Aleksia a great deal. Her peronality was very distinct and she has a very unusual sense of humor. However, the story of Aleksia would have been better if her background was expanded on. What happened to get her to the position of Godmother really had an impact that was lessened because Lackey didn't spend enough time on it.

On the other hand, there was a lot of parts of the book that seemed to drag. In my opinion that is rare in a 500 Kingdoms novel. For example there are at least two long examples of Aleksia in another form hunting for food. They added nothing relevant to the story and were boring on top of that.

The editing of the book was worse than in any mass market paperback I have ever read. Misspelled words, run on sentences and grammar problems were rampant. Chapter Four ends in this sentence: 'the look of terror in his eyes did not make up'. It stopped mid-sentence! The next chapter begins a fresh scene with a different character's perspective. I ofund this supremely frusterating!

There was much to enjoy about "The Snow Queen" however. The fairy tale bits were beautiful. The adventures and the questing party parts were entertaining and fun to read. The resolution was uplifting as any good fairy tale should be. Everyone gets their happy ending. I'd love to see Lackey write about Aleksia again, but in a crisper, well-edited story.

I find Mercedes Lackey's ability to put a new spin on old favorites delightful. I would highly recommend this book and all the books in this series to anyone who enjoys fantasies