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Falsely accused of unleashing evil on nearby villages, Aleksia, the ice fairy and Queen of the Northern Lights, realizing that a heartless imposter is ruining her reputation, sets out to face down a formidable foe.Tags
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Once again, I was enchanted and delighted to read Lackey’s retold fairy tales, set in the Five Hundred Kingdoms. This one, in particular, involve three women who must gather their wits, find courage, and trust friendship, all to save the people they love and the people they are sworn to protect.
With a lovely Russian tone, Lackey gives us strong, well-developed characters, living in a world of rare and dangerous magic, and sets them on a journey in a fast-paced plot with lots of action and suspense. Our Fairy Godmother, Aleksia, who often plays the “Snow Queen” in the Tradition (usually to the benefit of those she encounters) must leave her Ice Palace and trek across the frozen tundra to find the person who is killing entire show more villages in her name. She will cross paths with heroes and witches, good-hearted girls, and frozen gods, and she will be forced to face her inner trials even as she struggles to turn the magic from evil to good.
For anyone with a love of fairy tales, particularly those of Russian origins, and who wants to read a story with strong female characters, this is your book! show less
With a lovely Russian tone, Lackey gives us strong, well-developed characters, living in a world of rare and dangerous magic, and sets them on a journey in a fast-paced plot with lots of action and suspense. Our Fairy Godmother, Aleksia, who often plays the “Snow Queen” in the Tradition (usually to the benefit of those she encounters) must leave her Ice Palace and trek across the frozen tundra to find the person who is killing entire show more villages in her name. She will cross paths with heroes and witches, good-hearted girls, and frozen gods, and she will be forced to face her inner trials even as she struggles to turn the magic from evil to good.
For anyone with a love of fairy tales, particularly those of Russian origins, and who wants to read a story with strong female characters, this is your book! show less
I like Aleksia almost as much as Elena - it's a fascinating take on the Snow Queen tale. I love her excitement at being allowed (required) to actually enter the story... Anukka is even more interesting, and Kaari is sweet (and unexpectedly determined). The men are less interesting (which fits with the standard Snow Queen tale - Kay is always pretty flat compared to Gerda. The romances aren't all that interesting - actually, I think Anukka has a better chance of real romance than Aleksia. The shape-changing is interesting, and the myths that aren't what I'm familiar with. Enjoyable, and rereadable (I suspect I'll find things I missed on a reread).
Aleksia is the Snow Queen and a fairy godmother. Her job is to nudge (or bludgeon depending on how stubborn someone is) the inhabitants in her area so their respective fairy tale paths will end in happiness and prosperity instead of carnage and possibly death. The Tradition is an amorphous power that emanates throughout the land that influences people in a path that is seen time and time again in folk and fairy tales. Aleksia must work with this power to ensure happy fairy tale endings. She lives in an ice palace far from everyone and feels very lonely. She has never been involved in any sort of adventure before and longs for more human contact. One day, Aleksia hears rumors of a witch impersonating her and destroying whole villages show more with her magic. In order to save her own reputation and the lives of her imposter's victims, she must embark on an adventure of her own. Unlike the people she observes, she has no idea where the Tradition will lead her.
This is the fourth book in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series and I still can't wait to see more. I love this world where fairy tale characters are a part of everyday life. In many traditional fairy tales, women just sit, wait for a handsome prince to come rescue them, and look pretty. There are very few tales where a female character be active and try to solve her own problem. This world features a plethora of strong, driven women who aren't afraid to go on adventures of their own. It's a theme that goes through all of the books in one way or another and I really like this feminist updating of fairy tales. In this book, not only does Aleksia fight to overthrow her imposter, but a young woman named Kaari goes on a quest to rescue her love from the imposter snow queen. Mercedes Lackey is making fairy tales relevant to our time by making changes to them, just as the Brothers Grimm did in their time.
Even though I really like Aleksia and the world she inhabits, this is still my least favorite of this series. The pacing feels really strange. There would be long drawn out and unnecessary scenes of Aleksia hunting as an animal or inessential drama in the Sammi village. The major problem of the novel isn't even addressed until the last 20 pages. It felt incredibly rushed and tacked on. The same goes for Aleksia's romance. There was really no chemistry or tension or even remote interest between the two characters until the very last page of the book. There just seemed to be no reason for it to be there at all. Editing errors were present throughout the narrative. The most glaringly obvious ones were conflicting descriptions of characters. There was also one chapter that literally ended midsentence. I had never seen anything like it and I wondered how something like this could escape an editor. I contacted the book publisher and they sent me a hardcover version which did include the missing page. The paperback seems to be the only version with this problem.
Overall, the plot and numerous editing problems really disappointed me, but the characters and the universe were still interesting as with the previous books in the series. I hope the next in the series, The Sleeping Beauty, will be a decided improvement over this one. show less
This is the fourth book in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series and I still can't wait to see more. I love this world where fairy tale characters are a part of everyday life. In many traditional fairy tales, women just sit, wait for a handsome prince to come rescue them, and look pretty. There are very few tales where a female character be active and try to solve her own problem. This world features a plethora of strong, driven women who aren't afraid to go on adventures of their own. It's a theme that goes through all of the books in one way or another and I really like this feminist updating of fairy tales. In this book, not only does Aleksia fight to overthrow her imposter, but a young woman named Kaari goes on a quest to rescue her love from the imposter snow queen. Mercedes Lackey is making fairy tales relevant to our time by making changes to them, just as the Brothers Grimm did in their time.
Even though I really like Aleksia and the world she inhabits, this is still my least favorite of this series. The pacing feels really strange. There would be long drawn out and unnecessary scenes of Aleksia hunting as an animal or inessential drama in the Sammi village. The major problem of the novel isn't even addressed until the last 20 pages. It felt incredibly rushed and tacked on. The same goes for Aleksia's romance. There was really no chemistry or tension or even remote interest between the two characters until the very last page of the book. There just seemed to be no reason for it to be there at all. Editing errors were present throughout the narrative. The most glaringly obvious ones were conflicting descriptions of characters. There was also one chapter that literally ended midsentence. I had never seen anything like it and I wondered how something like this could escape an editor. I contacted the book publisher and they sent me a hardcover version which did include the missing page. The paperback seems to be the only version with this problem.
Overall, the plot and numerous editing problems really disappointed me, but the characters and the universe were still interesting as with the previous books in the series. I hope the next in the series, The Sleeping Beauty, will be a decided improvement over this one. show less
3.5 stars
Aleksia is the “Snow Queen” or “Ice Fairy”, one in a long line of snow queens – she took over for someone else in the position. This also makes her one of the Godmothers of the kingdoms. As she goes about her usual business, she discovers that someone seems to be impersonating her to do terrible things. She must find out who is doing this and put a stop to it.
This actually had a few different storylines, which made it a bit confusing for me at the start. I enjoyed the second half much more after one of the storylines wrapped up (Aleksia’s “usual business”) and the other two storylines (including searching for the imposter) joined up.
Aleksia is the “Snow Queen” or “Ice Fairy”, one in a long line of snow queens – she took over for someone else in the position. This also makes her one of the Godmothers of the kingdoms. As she goes about her usual business, she discovers that someone seems to be impersonating her to do terrible things. She must find out who is doing this and put a stop to it.
This actually had a few different storylines, which made it a bit confusing for me at the start. I enjoyed the second half much more after one of the storylines wrapped up (Aleksia’s “usual business”) and the other two storylines (including searching for the imposter) joined up.
I enjoyed this book, but I've always loved the Snow Queen myths. I like the way this one was set up, though I did predict many pieces of the ending. (The books of the 500 Kingdoms are NOT ones I read for unexpected plot twists. They are ones I read for the Happily Ever Afters.)
I do think I liked book 1 of this series best still, but I really enjoyed this one. . . more than I had expected to based on the descriptive blurb and even the beginning of the book itself.
I do think I liked book 1 of this series best still, but I really enjoyed this one. . . more than I had expected to based on the descriptive blurb and even the beginning of the book itself.
I read this in late September/ early October, which was perfect since despite the winter it did take place in the Fall. It had some spookier scene which was good as we headed into the spooky season. The journey to the afterlife gave me chills, which was perfect for this time of year. This book is darker than the first book in the series, so much death compared to the first one. This was a beautifully written. I love the different magics and people, and we see people that exist kind of outside the 500 Kingdoms who have no clue about the tradition or Fairy Godmothers and have their own ways.
Fun, fast read. It definitely has some storyline consistency issues towards the end of the book, of things like characters being told something on one page only to cover the same ground again a few pages later or where the character knows something differently than what they'd been told; there are a number of glitches that should have been caught by the editor, things like the wrong name being referenced in a conversation; and the last few pages of the story are quite weak, but the story as a whole is light fun. I much preferred this book over "The Fairy Godmother" in that throughout the book M.Lackey always remembers that she is writing a fairy tale with a strong heroine, unlike in "The Fairy Godmother" where it seemed she would show more sometimes forget that she was writing a fairytale and not a bodice ripper. Thankfully, this book has none of the porn undercurrent that ruined "The Fairy Godmother" for me (which other than that undercurrent, I thought was a good tale). show less
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Fantasy fiction author Mercedes Richie Lackey was born in Chicago on June 24, 1950, and she received a B.S. from Purdue University in 1972. She is also a professional lyricist and has rehabilitated raptors. Lackey started writing her own short stories when her favorite science fiction and fantasy authors weren't producing new books fast enough for show more her. She began writing professionally with the encouragement of author C. J. Cherryh, whom Lackey had met at a science fiction convention. Many of Lackey's books, including the Queen's Own trilogy, the Vows and Honor series, Valdemar: family Spies, and the Last Herald-Mage and Mage Winds trilogies, take place in the imaginary world of Valdemar. She has authored numerous series, including the Bardic Voices series and a series of occult mysteries featuring Diana Tregarde, a modern-day witch. Lackey enjoys collaborating and has co-written books with authors such as C.J. Cherryh, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mark Shepherd, and Ru Emerson. Her title Redoubt made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Snow Queen
- Original publication date
- 2008-06
- People/Characters*
- Godmother Aleksia (a.k.a. The Ice Fairy a.k.a. The Snow Queen); Gerda; Godmother Elena; Kaari; Veikko; Annukka (show all 7); Kay
- Dedication
- Dedicated to the memory of
Alex the Grey
www.alexfoundation.org - First words
- "You're not like any fairy godmother I ever heard of," young Kay said, sullenly, his voice echoing in the enormous, and otherwise empty, throne room.
- Quotations
- There is an empty space where you should be, the song said. It is a mortal wound that I will never recover from. Where are you? I would give all that I have to join you. Without you, the sunlight is dim. Without you, food is ... (show all)tasteless, flowers have lost their scent, birdsong has no melody. Without you, why it there Spring? Without you, life has no meaning. My friends try to comfort me, but there is no comfort to be had. I am alone in the darkness and cold of my own soul, and there is nothing good in the world without you. Page 357
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"We'll...see".
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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