World's End [Hardcover]

Joan D. Vinge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1984

BZ Gundhalinu left Tiamat before the Stargate closed, cutting himself off forever from the woman he loves: Moon Dawntreader Summer is now the Summer Queen and BZ knows he can never again be her lover. This novel is volume two in "The Snow Queen" cycle.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1ST edition (June 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312944683
• ISBN-13: 978-0312944681
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,644,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unexpected Sequel, May 30, 2004

By 

L. McCall (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: World's End (Snow Queen) (Hardcover)

It's impossible for me to review this book without putting it the context of its classic predecessor. Probably I would not rate it so highly as a stand-alone book.

The fate of police inspector BZ Gundhalinu brought bittersweetness to end of THE SNOW QUEEN. If you care about the character, by all means read WORLD'S END. (Don't settle for the fractured summary found in THE SUMMER QUEEN.)

While reading THE SNOW QUEEN, I initially decided that I liked the officious technocrat Gundhalinu because of his unwavering support of his beleaguered commanding officer, Jerusha PalaThion. That BZ would expand his supporting role, undergo an intense personal upheaval, and emerge as a romantic renegade came as a delightful surprise. Even so, at the end of THE SNOW QUEEN, I assumed that BZ was an unfortunate bit of flotsam in the sibyl machinery's Greater Plan, and that the doors on his story had closed as tightly as the gate to Tiamat. I was happy to discover that Joan D. Vinge felt his journey worth continuing in WORLD'S END.

We catch up with Gundhalinu a few years later, burying himself in his police duties on the planet Four. Having experienced love on Tiamat did nothing to break the shackles of his Patrician background. BZ is still every bit the snob--defining nearly everyone--especially himself--according to the rigid terms of his hierarchical culture. And that culture judges him a coward and a failure.

More ghosts of the unresolved past surface when BZ's brothers, having squandered their aristocratic family's estates and good name, come to Four to seek their fortune in the notorious wilderness known as "World's End". They are presumed lost, and BZ embarks on what he assumes is a futile quest to set something right--to locate his brothers and perhaps regain his family's honor.

The quest is a Heart of Darkness-type journey, in which the increasingly surrealistic landscape reflects Gundhalinu's state of mind. A mysterious force in World's End creates disturbing anomalies in the harsh environment. As time passes, BZ succumbs to its maddening influence and loses his will to suppress his personal demons. At a shocking turning point, those demons are suddenly swept away as the demanding, insane consciousness behind World's End's anomalies invades BZ's mind. From then on he struggles to regain control and solve the mystery of this time- and space-defying wilderness.

The story is effectively told in the first person, through BZ's irregular journal entries. One can squirm experiencing the tumble towards insanity and the effort to return from the brink. The book is short, which saves it from becoming a wallow. But in spite of its brevity, it feels complete. A long, exhausting journey has taken place. Although the tone is unrelentingly grim, take heart! There is hope, enlightenment and rebirth at the end of the tunnel.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story, June 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: World's End (Snow Queen) (Hardcover)

World's End is a wonderful book that adds depth to the character BZ and I loved the way BZ descended into madness. It reminded me of the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." This book was not as complex or descriptive as the Summer Queen or the Snow Queen, but I could clearly see this desolate world. I enjoyed the Summer Queen more after reading World's End. When I first read the Summer Queen I had no idea what had happened to BZ on World's End, so some parts in the Summer Queen confused me.

I thought this book is well worth reading and adds more to the Summer Queen.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Minor novella that probably came from editing Summer Queen, October 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: World's End (Snow Queen) (Hardcover)

If you're bound and determined to continue with Vinge's tales of Tiamat, the Hegemony and the Water of Life by reading Summer Queen, you'll need this little ditty to understand how Gundhalinu became a sibyl and re-discovered the singularity drive.

My low rating isn't from lack of quality, but because--in my opinion--the contents of this book belong in Summer Queen.

Having read this one and Summer Queen, I can only presume that World's End comes from editorial cuttings of Summer Queen: most of the action in this novel is concurrent with the beginning of Summer Queen. Further, you get snippets of "cross-pollination" between the two novels: adding depth to World's End and detracting from Summer Queen. If you hadn't read World's end before Summer Queen, you'd know there was a lot missing in certain scenes; Worlds End fills in the gaps.

On its own, World's end clearly assumes you know a thing or two about the world introduced to us in Snow Queen: the Hegemony and Gundhalinu's people, especially their sense of pride and honor. Told in the narrative from Gundhalinu's POV, Vinge does a fine job of echoing BZ's state of mind.

For the same reason, however, readers will need to re-read the last section of the book (several times!!!) when BZ finds his brothers because his near-psychotic reaction to the sibyl virus is almost too well presented.