Tangled Up in Blue [Hardcover]

Joan D. Vinge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2000

Joan D. Vinge returns to Tiamat, the world of her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its bestselling sequel The Summer Queen.

Set during the time of The Snow Queen, BZ Gundhalinu is a by-the-book "Blue" on the trail of high corruption within the force. When a police raid goes horribly awry, BZ finds himself teamed up with Nyx LaisTree, a hard-nosed cop with no respect for the rules, and Devony Seaward, a beautiful hooker with a heart of gold. Together these three must fight the corruption of Tiamat and try to expose it before they all end up dead.

This novel marks the exciting return to the much-loved Snow Queen universe. While taking place during events in The Snow Queen, this novel is a stand-alone masterpiece of noir suspense -- taking a story you think you know and showing you just how deep and vast the waters really run.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joan D. Vinge lives in Madison, WI.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1
 
"You two! Patrolmen! Wait a minute--"
Hegemonic Police officer Nyx LaisTree stopped at the exit of the station house, his hands already pushing open the windowed doors. He turned, along with his partner, to see a Kharemoughi sergeant gesturing them back toward the dispatch desk. "Damn!" Tree muttered. "It's Gundhalinu."
"Relax." His partner, Staun LaisNion, laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "He's a Technician; he doesn't even know our names. It's probably nothing." Grudgingly they reentered the obstacle course of work stations, and backtracked through the human gridlock created by the evening's shift change.
They halted at last in front of Gundhalinu. "Sergeant, we just got off duty," Staun said, somehow keeping his face expressionless and his voice respectful. Gundhalinu didn't deserve their respect any more than he deserved to be a sergeant, not when he was barely old enough to spend his pay in the kinds of places they'd just spent their shift policing.
Tree glanced over at Haig KraiVieux, the duty officer observing their interaction from his seat at the dispatch desk. KraiVieux had been a Blue longer than Gundhalinu had been alive, and he was still only a sergeant. But then, he was a Newhavener, not a Kharemoughi. Most of the force stationed here on Tiamat were from Newhaven; but Kharemough, Gundhalinu's homeworld, was first among equals in the Hegemony. Members of Kharemough's aristocratic Technician caste tended to advance rapidly within the Hedge's bureaucracy. They dominated the highest levels of its foreign service, including its paramilitary peacekeeping force, the Hegemonic Police.
"We had plans--"
"They'll have to wait." Gundhalinu cut Staun short with the unthinking arrogance of every Technician that Tree had ever met; and he had met a lot of them since joining the Hegemonic Police. The more of them he knew, the less he liked about them. "We need extra men working tonight."
"Why, Sergeant? Is there some kind of trouble?" Staun asked.
Gundhalinu shook his head. "The Snow Queen has requested extra security at the palace. She's having a party."
"Another one?" Staun said glumly. "Why do we have to do guard duty at these things? She's got all of Carbuncle's city constables, plus her own private security force."
"The Winters are celebrating another successful mer hunt, I suppose," Gundhalinu said. "Since the Queen controls our access to the water of life, it's in the Hegemony's best interest to humor her."
Tree grunted in disgust. Tiamat's seas were a fountain of youth, from which only the richest and most privileged could afford to drink. The most convenient way of obtaining die extract that humans euphemistically referred to as die "water of life" was to cut the mers' throats and let them bleed to death.
It didn't seem to bother die human users that what it all came down to was drinking blood. What was the life of an animal, compared to their own? The kind of people who were willing to pay anything for eternal youth would probably cut their neighbors' throats and collect the blood in a bucket to get it.
Tree had no doubt at all that the Snow Queen would do it. The water of life was die only resource tins godforsaken planet possessed that was valuable enough to make Tiamat worth the Hegemony's trouble. And besides, the Queen herself used die drug every day, for free. She had ruled for nearly a hundred and fifty standard years; she didn't look a day over twenty.
All of which had nothing to do with him personally--but everything to do with the fact he and Staun were stationed here in Carbuncle, and suddenly faced with the prospect of standing guard at the Snow Queen's palace all night, after patrolling the streets of Tiamat's starport capital all day. He remembered the last time they had pulled this duty: how they had been forced to watch the Queen's favorites drink the water of life in front of them and then smash the crystal vials at their feet…rubbing their noses in the fact that two Hegemonic patrolmen wouldn't earn enough in both their lifetimes combined to taste even a drop.
"Hey, you slugs!" Gil MarDesta came in through the double doors of the station house shouting in their direction. "Get your fubar butts in gear. SudHalek's waiting--"
Tree shrugged helplessly. He looked back at Gundhalinu as Staun repeated, "Sergeant, we had plans--"
"We've already got a party to go to," Tree said, frowning.
Gundhalinu scowled as their eyes locked. "Your plans have changed, Patrolman."
Tree glanced pleadingly at KraiVieux, the duty sergeant. "We already signed out, Sarge. Can't you get him somebody else? It's SudHalek's nameday party at RedFutter's Tavern."
KraiVieux looked chagrined as Gundhalinu snapped, "I'm in charge of this assignment, Patrolman, not Sergeant KraiVieux. It's up to me to decide who goes."
"Then find somebody else, Gundhalinu. You've got a whole station house full--" Tree felt Staun's warning hand on his arm. He shrugged it off and started back toward the exit where MarDesta stood waiting.
He heard Gundhalinu order him to stop; heard Staun call his name, and KraiVieux saying something he didn't listen to.
"What's the problem--?"
It took a woman's raised voice to stop him in his tracks. Staun reached him and hauled him around just as Inspector Jerusha PalaThion came down the hallway from her office.
"Shit," Tree muttered, before his eyes even registered her face. PalaThion was the only woman on the force. And since Gundhalinu was her assistant, he'd probably been acting on her orders. "We're dead."
"Shut up," Staun said, his sudden tension surfacing.
"What's going on, huh?" MarDesta trailed after them, typically oblivious to context, as they retraced their way through the milling chaos toward PalaThion. She waited, arms folded, at an intersection they could not possibly avoid passing. Her gaze was fixed on Staun's face; Tree made himself as unobtrusive as possible in Staun's shadow.
"Inspector PalaThion," KraiVieux called suddenly. "Can I speak with you, ma'am?"
Looking surprised, PalaThion turned toward him, and nodded. With a final warning glance in their direction, she went on to the dispatch desk.
Tree glanced longingly over his shoulder at the exit. But Gundhalinu's stare was still fixed on them like a targeting beam; reluctantly, they followed PalaThion back to KraiVieux's station.
A pair of Blues coming in off duty shoved their way past Tree, ignoring his protest as they forced a path through the foot traffic ahead of them. The two men squeezed up to the counter in front of PalaThion, who frowned.
KraiVieux's matching frown at their show of disrespect became a smile of sudden inspiration. "Gilles-Fort and TierPardée--just the pair I wanted to see. This is your lucky night; you're going to the Queen's ball."
"Aw, Sarge.…" TierPardée groaned, raising his gauntleted hands in despair.
"Enough of that!" KraiVieux said. "You both need the overtime, to pay off your gaming tabs. These men will do die job for you, Sergeant Gundhalinu." He gestured; the same motion signaled Tree and Staun away from the desk again with subtle urgency.
Tree saw his own profound relief mirrored in Staun's face as they swung around and headed back toward the exit, somehow avoiding even eye contact with either Gundhalinu or PalaThion.
Herding MarDesta ahead of them, they made it through the doors and out into the street without being called back again.
* * *
"Inspector--?" KraiVieux said again.
Inspector Geia Jerusha PalaThion turned back from watching the two relieved patrolmen scramble for the exit like truant schoolboys. Gundhalinu went on glaring at them until they disappeared through the station house doors. Jerusha saw him throw a brief, annoyed look KraiVieux's way, before he began to give instructions to the men who had replaced them.
She leaned on the dispatch counter, wondering wearily whether the men had been more eager to avoid the Snow Queen's company or her own. There was hardly a Newhavenese Blue on the force who would look her in the eye when he spoke to her. And even if any of them did, she knew the kinds of things they called her when she turned her back. "The Warrior Nun" was the least humiliating…and probably the most accurate, considering the state of her social life. She glanced over her shoulder a last time at the station doors, and kept the sigh to herself.
"What is it, Sergeant?" she said to KraiVieux. The unexpected somberness of his expression kept her tone neutral.
"It's Sergeant Gundhalinu, ma'am…there's been a death in his family." KraiVieux kept his voice down, glancing in Gundhalinu's direction as he produced a message transcript. "I just received this file from the starport data center. I thought, since you're…that is, you're his superior officer, well, I figured you would be the best one to give him the news." He looked down as he pushed the transcript at her, avoiding her startled gaze.
Ordinarily she would have expected KraiVieux to deliver a message like this one himself. He was a veteran officer; the Newhavenese Blues who patrolled the streets all trusted him, because he was one of them. That generally made him better at helping them deal with their grief than some counselor called in from down at the Med Center.
But Gundhalinu was Kharemoughi. He wasn't one of them, any more than she was. She might come from the same homeworld, and even the same city, as most of the men on the force--in her own family, wearing the blue uniform of the Hegemonic Police had been a tradition for generations. But it was a tradition for sons, not for daughters. The women of her family didn't wear the uniform, they married the man who did. They kept the home fires burning, raised the children, tended the sick and the injured.…
They comforted die bereaved.
With a final glance at KraiVieux's averted face, she began to read the transcript. It contained a brief, impersonal message saying that Gundhalinu's Technician-caste father had died, that his oldest sibling was now head-of-family, in possession of all estates and properties. It w...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 235 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312871961
• ISBN-13: 978-0312871963
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,668,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vinge has written another winner, June 12, 2000

By 

Catherine Asaro - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tangled Up in Blue (Hardcover)

In Tangled Up In Blue, Joan D. Vinge returns to the universe of her Hugo-Award winning novel, The Snow Queen, with another top-notch adventure. Set on the world Tiamat, the book takes place in the city of Carbuncle during the reign of the Snow Queen. Several officers in the police force carry out an unauthorized raid on a warehouse chock full of forbidden smuggled technology. Unexpectedly, two other groups of officers show up--and what should have been a simple raid goes explosively wrong.

It fast becomes clear that far more is going on here than your garden-variety smuggling. The complications faced by the officers in blue are soon folding one on top the other, all of it tangled up in the machinations of the Snow Queen and the intrigues of enigmatic offworlders.

Tangled Up In Blue is a stand-alone novel, so you don't have to know the other Tiamat books to enjoy this one. New readers may find it a bit hard at first to follow the world-building, but it comes together fast. The story pulled me in and kept me reading all night. It also made me want to read The Snow Queen again.

However, comparing Tangled Up In Blue to the The Snow Queen is like comparing a sapphire to a diamond. Both are gems, but different. The Snow Queen is a sweeping adventure in the tradition of The Heritage of Hastur, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Lord Valentine's Castle, by Robert Silverberg. Blue retains the emphasis on character and world-building of those books, but with less of the planetary sweep and more focus on the events unfolding in Carbuncle. It also has an edgier feel, bringing forward the action and mystery aspects of the plot.

This book combines a sensibility of today's science fiction with the best of the qualities that brought many of us to the genre. Vinge's work takes the sense of wonder that defines the top science fiction and blends it with a depth of world-building. At the same time, she has a gift for characterization. She can catch the bittersweet quality of human interaction and make a reader care about the people she creates. Subtly worked into the weave of her stories, those threads offer thoughtful insights into human nature.

If there was anything I wanted to see more of in Tangled Up In Blue, it was, well -- more. The story is complete, but the novel is on the short side. It leaves some tantalizing loose ends, encouraging the reader to hope that more of Vinge's rich Tiamat stories are yet to come.

Tangled Up In Blue has it all: a fast-paced plot that won't let go until its thrilling climax, clever ideas drawn from science, romantic interludes, a great cover by Michael Whelan, and a plot with more twists and turns than the exotic alleys of Carbuncle. Vinge has written another winner.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TUiB: "Buddy Cop" Noir set in the Tiamatan Underworld, June 5, 2000

By 

Gray Haddock - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tangled Up in Blue (Hardcover)

Returning her focus to the planet Tiamat at the end of the Snow Queen's reign, Joan D. Vinge provides a bittersweet vignette of pain, loss, vengeance and recovery that will no doubt leave many loyal readers ecstatic that they are allowed to glimpse some of their favorite characters in action again, while simultaneously saddened that the trip is over all-too-quickly after such a long wait.

A group of the cops (known as Blues for their uniforms) that serve as the peacekeepers between the Tiamatan natives and the offworlders have turned vigilante -- the only method left to them for serving justice while their official capacity is left impotent by the local politics. Their actions land them in the middle of a literal crossfire between two warring factions of a secret society, and the criminal underworld manipulated by the Snow Queen herself. Two survivors from different elements of the bloody massacre, Patrolman Nyx LaisTree and Sergeant BZ Gundhalinu (!), must come to grips with their far-reaching political and societal differences in order to solve the mystery of exactly who the other participants in the slaughter were, and what they were after. The story follows them on their journey through the spectrum of grey that is life in the criminal underworld of the city of Carbuncle.

"Tangled Up In Blue" is an expertly solid retelling of vice cop drama set in the lavish reality that Vinge created over the course of the original epic. The brilliant rookie officer from high society, our young Sergeant Gundhalinu from the original stories, must begin to apply his theories of justice to the realities of law enforcement. The more weathered beat cop with a tragic past, Tree, plays the loose cannon as he goes on a regulations-be-damned trip through the seedy side of Carbuncle to determine who is responsible for the death of his older brother. While running headlong down his suicidal path, Tree also finds himself under the spell of the wildly attractive Devony Seaward, a shapeshifting, prostituting informant for the Snow Queen. The questions become: Is it remotely possible Dev has fallen for Tree as well? Can these loners overcome their hardened fears and distrust and bridge the gaps between them? Will they even survive the climactic fray?

While some readers may argue that not much new ground is covered in terms of the basic elements of noir storytelling, it must be argued that Vinge is a mistress of playing the heartstrings to full effect. There is something to be said for taking a formula and executing on it so well.

The feel of the book is a particularly enjoyable blend of the lonely desperation and longing that permeated the mood of the second installment in the Hegemony books, "World's End," and the grittiness of the Cat stories, set in another of Vinge's realities. Readers who are familiar with the previous books in the "Snow Queen" cycle will be more than rewarded with a solid taste of the same magnitude of emotional undercurrents that were so prevalent in those books -- despite the shorter nature of this story.

While this is more or less a complete storyline that transpires early in the overall chronology (contained entirely in the space between a couple of the opening chapters of the first novel, in fact) first-time visitors to the Hegemony should reconsider before beginning here. The layers of political intrigue are peeled back so deftly in the previous books, and the timings of those revelations are chosen with such great effect, that it would be a shame to read this first and see what cards everyone is holding so early in the game. Also, new readers may find themselves overwhelmed by the several brief but dense explanations of the greater forces at play. It wouldn't do if a reader's attention was to wane whilst attempting to keep track of the political background to the tale, merely chalking the story's scope up to "the bad guys versus the less-bad-guys." The format is exactly what it needs to be, however, in allowing returning readers a refresher without having to break out the older books.

Furthermore, the exquisite warmth (or dread) provoked by cameos of certain original supporting characters will also be lost to the new reader. And it would be something of a small tragedy if even one of these were not appreciated -- even if it were something as atmospheric as a half-sentence allowing us to glimpse in passing a youth on a streetcorner playing his flute.

On a personal note, I was introduced to "The Snow Queen" at just the right time in my younger days, and it left an indelible impression on me and my outlook on life and relationships. Years and years later, they still hold a most special place in my heart and serve as a bond between myself and my closest friend. Thank you, Mrs. Vinge, for allowing us to visit Tiamat again. Here's to hoping that we might make another trip back someday...

Warmest Regards, Gray G. Haddock [e-mail]

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Minor new Entry in Vinge's Tiamat series, August 24, 2000

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tangled Up in Blue (Hardcover)

Joan D. Vinge won the Hugo Award for her big 1980 novel The Snow Queen, set far in the future on the planet Tiamat, source of the immortality serum called the Water of Life. Two more novels followed, World's End (1984) and The Summer Queen (1991), and those seemed to neatly round out a trilogy. Tiamat was a primitive planet, only valued for the Water of Life, and only accessible to the rest of the human-colonized Hegemony planets during the "Winter" period of its orbit. The original trilogy eventually told the story of great changes for both Tiamat and the rest of the Hegemony. The three novels were quite enjoyable, and all three differed greatly in style and structure.

Now Vinge has chosen to return to Tiamat for a sort of pendant to the original trilogy. Tangled Up in Blue is set parallel with the earlier part of The Snow Queen. Indeed, if reading the Tiamat books in internal chronological order, it would have to come first. That said, I'd say it's best left to last: it isn't spoiled by reading the other books, but there are some things revealed here that might affect the reading of, in particular, The Summer Queen.

This book is about the Hegemony police force in the Tiamat capitol city of Carbuncle. One main character is a young policeman name Nyx LaisTree, who is involved in some illegal activities. Before long the stiff Police Sergeant BZ Gundhalinu (a major character in the original trilogy) is involved, and so is a "whore with a heart of gold": a Tiamatan named Devony Seaward. Devony is a spy for the Snow Queen, but she finds herself falling for LaisTree. Soon the three of them, unsure if they can even trust each other, are forced into an alliance against unknown enemies: possibly even higher-ups in the Police force, but certainly underworld figures controlled by the mysterious man called the Source. And into the mix steps the offworld woman Mundilfoere, who seems to want the same thing the Snow Queen wants, and LaisTree's superiors want, and the Source wants.

All plays out in a fast moving and fairly enjoyable fashion. The story is a good enough read, though its reliance on coincidence and such cliches as Devony and LaisTree falling instantly in love make it a bit contrived at times. Also, the whole thing is somewhat uneasily shoehorned into the existing structure of the trilogy. This turns out to be a story about something that gains great importance in The Summer Queen, but that importance is not clear to anyone who reads just this book. Which is to say, the mystery here is something of a McGuffin chase, absent knowledge of the events of The Summer Queen. At the same time, this book's use of, in particular, Gundhalinu and Mundilfoere, major characters in The Summer Queen, constrains both the author's choices and the reader's expectations (for those who have read the earlier/later book). In summary, I'd rate this as enjoyable light reading, an interesting addition to a fine series, but not an essential book.