Joan D. Vinge

I feel like I'm coming out of dreamfall myself—a long waking dream that started when I began reading the Cat series. Book lovers know what I'm talking about: your non-reading time feels like a haze, because you're not aware of the here and now. You're still inside the novel.

While Psion was more of a coming-of-age/adventure and Catspaw more political intrigue, Dreamfall felt like a film noir, with Cat uncovering a mystery that leads him to the ghetto streets of Freaktown and eventually the show more corrupt and cold-blooded men that keep up the status quo. It's not as hard-bitten in style as something like The Big Sleep, though. Cat's longing for connection and forgiveness soften the tone, although he has some dark musings about human nature. Cat's thoughts added such texture to the story. He would often think with the delicacy of poetry, but switch to say something incredibly hard-as-nails out loud. Those reversals were so delightfully surprising.

There was an overall feeling of isolation in this book. The isolation of your own biology, of a community kept at arm's length. The isolation we impose upon ourselves. Of how another being, whether human or alien, is ultimately unknowable. That sense of being blocked in wasn't obvious, but kept the events tied together nicely.

Dreamfall is the third—and sadly, last—book in this series, and it feels more like an Empire Strikes Back than a Return of the Jedi; that soft minor chord before the music swells to a magnificent crescendo. There were many things left open-ended: Miya's new tech skills; Cat's mysterious tattoo; whether he'll ever fully get his telepathy back; when/if he'll return to Refuge; and the implication that Cat may be something more than either Human or Hydran. It's ripe for a triumphant final installment in the series. I'll just have to hope that Joan Vinge recovers her health and finds the right spark that will set her hand to writing it.

Still, this book works well as a stand-alone, although readers will have a greater emotional connection if they read the series from the beginning. I hope those who pick it up have their own dreamfall. show less

I actually went to the trouble of ordering the physical book to read this one. It all started years ago, when I was reading a magazine called Univers that published French translations (and some original French) of SFF stories. There were a few that stayed with me, and one in particular that kept coming to my mind when I read about @KeithChaffee’s endeavors to read SF awarded stories. Of course I didn’t remember the title or the author’s name, but that’s what the Name that Book group show more is for. And so I now had an author name, and managed without too much trouble to locate this book, first on archive.org, and then the first story was so intriguing I decided to buy it.

Eyes of Amber was very intriguing. It felt very original to me, although I’m not that familiar with vintage SFF. I was rather confused by the ending, but I felt it was very modern in its take on media and power.

To Bell the Cat was another very modern, original and thoughtful story of first encounter.

View from a Height was again original and thoughtful (am I repeating myself here?).

Media Man was the weakest of the lot. It felt very naive and simplistic, which the others were definitely not.

The Crystal Ship was a bit less believable maybe, but moving. Probably not the best of the lot but the almost romance got to me. I resent the epilogue a little, I think an open ending might have worked better.

Tin Soldier, ah, finally, the reason I bought the book in the first place! This one is more old fashioned romance, which is probably why it has stayed with me all these years. I still love it, but it feels less mature than the rest. Maybe I only say that because it was the first story she wrote.

Anyway, I’m very happy I bought and read this book, and I might look for a novel of hers. The book cover says that she is the author of [The Snow Queen]… show less

I don't know why I got away from this book like I did. It shouldn't take that long to read, and it's very, very good.

I love that the main characters in the book are strong women. I love that the world building is fully fleshed out. I love that it's a coming-of-age story that's not weak. I just kinda loved it all.

The story takes place on Tiamat (also, yeah, loving Vinge's use of names), which is a planet in the "Hegemony", that due to an astronomical fluke is "available" to the Hegemony for show more 150 of every 300 years.

When the Hegemony has access to Tiamat, the techno-forward, environment destorying "Winters" rule the planet (complete with it's Winter Queen) and during the inaccessible time, the primitive nature worshiping "Summers" rule.

This story takes place at the time of transition. The Winter Queen will do whatever it takes to keep her power, the Hegemony will do what it needs to to make sure that the transition happens (for reasons that are revealed, brilliantly, in the book). Arienrhod is the titular Snow Queen, a hard and scheming woman, who is not one dimension (for a refreshing change). Moon, the second of three main characters, is a product of Arienrhod's scheming, she is a Summer, who has the calling to become a sibyl. Thanks to her calling, she must end her relationship with her cousin, and their estrangement begins her journey that takes her off-world and then to the heart of the Hegemonic city. Jerusha PalaThion is a female "blue", basically the Hegemonic law enforcement. She struggles, dealing with the discrimination dealt to her from the men of her department, as she tries to unravel whatever it is that Arienrhod is up to (and she's pretty sure she's up to something). She's probably my favorite character in the book (right after Arienrhod).

I've seen numerous comparisons to other big works of sci-fi (most notably Dune, and to be honest, I think there is some truth to some of the comparisons). And while this does use some major themes/trops, it's also refreshing with it's strong female component.

Vinge's prose is also fantastic, and her world building is absolutely complete. The scraps of science and the reasoning behind motives is interesting and fascinating. Is it the most original thing ever? Probably not, but it's easily one of the best books I've ever read. As soon as it's available on kindle, I'll own it. show less

I don't quite understand the hate piled on this one. All the "waste of time" reviews.

Yes, this is a much smaller story than Snow Queen but it's still an important one, as it opens up the world that Vinge had kept locked down for so long.

No, Gundhalinu likely wouldn't have been my first choice to lead the sequel, but Vinge did a good job of rounding out his character and allowing him to dig into another mystery.

What I didn't like was the first third or so of the story. While it was a touch show more interesting, and set up what was to come, it largely felt like filler to bring a novella-sized story to the bare minimum for novel size. I won't go into what happens, but I think anyone who reads what they were originally going after, and what they found will agree, it was unnecessary, and didn't serve the second half of the book in any way. show less