Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Tor Books (1993), Hardcover, 288 pages
Description
Book two of Joan Vinge's belovedSnow Queencycle of classic science fiction, back in print! When BZ Gundhalinu's irresponsible older brothers go missing in World's End, a badlands rumored to drive people mad, he begrudgingly goes after them. The further in he travels, the stranger things get. The Snow Queen Series The Snow Queen World's End Summer Queen Tangled Up In Blue Other Books 47 Ronin Catspaw Cowboys & Aliens Dreamfall
User reviews
LibraryThing member Crowyhead
A sequel to The Snow Queen that focuses on what happens to BZ Gundhalinu after he leaves Tiamat. His life is not what it should be; he misses Moon painfully, and in his own society he is an outcast because he is a failed suicide. In an effort to recapture his sense of himself, he journeys to
This book is, as near as I can figure, out of print, which is unfortunate. I've been told that it's not a problem to go straight from The Snow Queen to The Summer Queen, and that the events in World's End are summarized in Summer Queen. This is probably true (I haven't read Summer Queen yet), but since BZ became one of my favorite characters in Snow Queen, I am pleased and grateful to have found this book at my local used bookstore. It's a great story in its own right, and a great chapter in the saga that began with The Snow Queen.
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World's End, a hellish backwater planet, where his two brothers have disappeared. Along the way, a sibyl named Hahn recruits him to locate her daughter, Song, while he searches for his brothers. What follows is a descent into madness and finally redemption, as BZ is effectively reborn. This book is, as near as I can figure, out of print, which is unfortunate. I've been told that it's not a problem to go straight from The Snow Queen to The Summer Queen, and that the events in World's End are summarized in Summer Queen. This is probably true (I haven't read Summer Queen yet), but since BZ became one of my favorite characters in Snow Queen, I am pleased and grateful to have found this book at my local used bookstore. It's a great story in its own right, and a great chapter in the saga that began with The Snow Queen.
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LibraryThing member suzemo
This is the second and (apparently - if the reviews I've read are correct) very overlooked book in the Snow Queen cycle.
It does not take place on Tiamat or really deal much with Tiamat. The main character is BZ, an inspector on Tiamat who loses his honor in his very strict culture, and tries to
He goes on a mission to rescue his brothers after becoming obsessed with the fact that they're missing, and what happens is a mystery and deep character study, with a generous helping of descent into madness. There's more information about the sybil network, which is the best part of the storyline, in my opinion, which I think warrants reading as long as you know that this story is linked to, but not anything like, Snow Queen.
It's a good story, and a good short novel. Unfortunately it suffers from coming after an epic and huge novel/story, so it feels like a bit of a letdown.
It does not take place on Tiamat or really deal much with Tiamat. The main character is BZ, an inspector on Tiamat who loses his honor in his very strict culture, and tries to
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find it again.He goes on a mission to rescue his brothers after becoming obsessed with the fact that they're missing, and what happens is a mystery and deep character study, with a generous helping of descent into madness. There's more information about the sybil network, which is the best part of the storyline, in my opinion, which I think warrants reading as long as you know that this story is linked to, but not anything like, Snow Queen.
It's a good story, and a good short novel. Unfortunately it suffers from coming after an epic and huge novel/story, so it feels like a bit of a letdown.
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LibraryThing member ScoLgo
Quite a good tangential story to The Snow Queen. Picking up the tale of BZ Gundhalinu after he has left Tiamat in disgrace, it is told in the form of BZ's diary entries looking back at his time on World's End, from where he was trying to rescue his brothers. Once he reaches World's End, he is
This first-person introspective is a disjointed and disturbing study of one man's descent into insanity. Or is it? The reveals that come near the end of the story will clearly have huge ramifications for Tiamat as well as for the rest of the Hegemony. On to the Summer Queen to see how this all plays out!
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recruited by her mother to also rescue a sybil named Song.This first-person introspective is a disjointed and disturbing study of one man's descent into insanity. Or is it? The reveals that come near the end of the story will clearly have huge ramifications for Tiamat as well as for the rest of the Hegemony. On to the Summer Queen to see how this all plays out!
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LibraryThing member elenaj
Where The Snow Queen struck me as surprisingly contemporary (or maybe timeless), World's End did seemed stuck in the 1980s. Both the outdated approach to gender and sex and the actual prose were not to my tastes.
Beyond that issue, I also found much of the story to be a miserable slog, and the older
Beyond that issue, I also found much of the story to be a miserable slog, and the older
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I get the less interested I am in stories that are heavy on unrequited pining. The plot itself was pretty interesting, but all in all, I'm hoping the other two books in the series bear more in common with The Snow Queen than with World's End. Show Less
LibraryThing member stephkaye
World's End is not as intricately plotted as The Snow Queen, and though it's much shorter, the plot drags more slowly in places. One character, Spadrin, seems to exist solely to annoy the reader for no reason at all for many pages. Finally, all comes neatly together in an exciting reveal, but the
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novella could have been half as long. (I wonder if this started as a short story that the publishers wanted to stretch to book length.) Looking forward to The Summer Queen and hoping it's more like The Snow Queen than World's End. Show Less
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
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
What I didn't like was the first third or so of the story. While it was a touch 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.
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
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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 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.
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Subjects
Awards
Chesley Award (Nominee — 1985)
Language
Original publication date
1984
Physical description
288 p.; 8.3 inches
ISBN
0812523687 / 9780812523683