Snow Queen
Jun. 28th, 2011 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetThe Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines arrived at my local bookstore today. I pre-ordered a copy a few weeks back, so all I had to do was stroll in and pick it up.
So far I'm about 130 pages into it. [SPOILER ALERT]
Blah blah I like what I've read so far blah blah. Now onto things you may not have expected :O
Queen Bea's death was sad, but not surprising. Jim's been preparing us for it since the end of Mermaid, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's to whom he was referring when he made that "Should I kill [character]?" post a while back. (Though I have further suspicions, which I will get to later.) (Also, Jim, I'm fairly certain you're reading this, and it's very strange to write about you in the third person knowing this.)
As soon as Gerta shared her full name, I recognized her as Rose Red. The stories Snow made up about them when they were little confirm it and then some X3
I picked up a BBC adaptation of The Snow Queen a year or so ago to brush up on the story, since I apparently couldn't be bothered to finish actually reading it 9_9;;; I'd known the basics from even before, when a local puppet theater troupe put on an adaptation. There's definite parallels. The mirror is about the same, the mirror shards are almost exactly the same, Jakob has taken on Kay's role, and Rose Red merged with Gerta and was joined by Talia and Danielle for that role. I'm looking forward to finding out where else the stories meet. I somehow doubt we'll get the talking flowers, alas, but oh man, am I ever anticipating the final showdown.
I've already got working theories on Gerta :P Jim told us that Snow was looking for a way to make a new body for Bea, so she would have had the knowledge from studying for that. Gerta herself is definitely part safety measure, someone to stop Snow if she were to lose herself to the demon; I suspect Snow also put everything she wanted to "keep" into Gerta as well, for exactly that reason - including, I'm thinking, her love of Talia.
And now we revisit my suspicions about who was going to die. As I mentioned, Jim's prepped us for losing Bea, and has even pushed it back more than a little; IIRC, she was originally supposed to die at the end of the second book. However, he was ambiguous enough in that particular post I mentioned that it could indeed have been a different character.
Knowing what happened to the original Snow Queen, and knowing also what happened to Snow's mother, it would not entirely surprise me if Snow ended up dead herself by the end of the book. It also wouldn't surprise me however if she "merged" with Gerta, allowing Gerta to be fleshed out with more of Snow and the demon to be destroyed with Snow's old body. The demon is gone and Snow is saved (more-or-less) by being given a new identity to hide behind; meanwhile, "Snow" is sacrificed to an angry populous, allowing everyone else to escape basically unharmed.
Or maybe Gerta will pull the self-sacrificing bit. It seems likely, given her character build. Or maybe they'll both be alive at the end of the book. I guess I'll have to read it to find out. Must not skip ahead. Must not skip ahead. Must not skip ahead...
Edit: Welp! Looks like the flowers made it after all. Also, my hypotheses are getting more evidence. Back to reading...
More comprehensive review when I actually finish the book. If I'm not done by tomorrow evening, I will be quite surprised.
So far I'm about 130 pages into it. [SPOILER ALERT]
Blah blah I like what I've read so far blah blah. Now onto things you may not have expected :O
Queen Bea's death was sad, but not surprising. Jim's been preparing us for it since the end of Mermaid, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's to whom he was referring when he made that "Should I kill [character]?" post a while back. (Though I have further suspicions, which I will get to later.) (Also, Jim, I'm fairly certain you're reading this, and it's very strange to write about you in the third person knowing this.)
As soon as Gerta shared her full name, I recognized her as Rose Red. The stories Snow made up about them when they were little confirm it and then some X3
I picked up a BBC adaptation of The Snow Queen a year or so ago to brush up on the story, since I apparently couldn't be bothered to finish actually reading it 9_9;;; I'd known the basics from even before, when a local puppet theater troupe put on an adaptation. There's definite parallels. The mirror is about the same, the mirror shards are almost exactly the same, Jakob has taken on Kay's role, and Rose Red merged with Gerta and was joined by Talia and Danielle for that role. I'm looking forward to finding out where else the stories meet. I somehow doubt we'll get the talking flowers, alas, but oh man, am I ever anticipating the final showdown.
I've already got working theories on Gerta :P Jim told us that Snow was looking for a way to make a new body for Bea, so she would have had the knowledge from studying for that. Gerta herself is definitely part safety measure, someone to stop Snow if she were to lose herself to the demon; I suspect Snow also put everything she wanted to "keep" into Gerta as well, for exactly that reason - including, I'm thinking, her love of Talia.
And now we revisit my suspicions about who was going to die. As I mentioned, Jim's prepped us for losing Bea, and has even pushed it back more than a little; IIRC, she was originally supposed to die at the end of the second book. However, he was ambiguous enough in that particular post I mentioned that it could indeed have been a different character.
Knowing what happened to the original Snow Queen, and knowing also what happened to Snow's mother, it would not entirely surprise me if Snow ended up dead herself by the end of the book. It also wouldn't surprise me however if she "merged" with Gerta, allowing Gerta to be fleshed out with more of Snow and the demon to be destroyed with Snow's old body. The demon is gone and Snow is saved (more-or-less) by being given a new identity to hide behind; meanwhile, "Snow" is sacrificed to an angry populous, allowing everyone else to escape basically unharmed.
Or maybe Gerta will pull the self-sacrificing bit. It seems likely, given her character build. Or maybe they'll both be alive at the end of the book. I guess I'll have to read it to find out. Must not skip ahead. Must not skip ahead. Must not skip ahead...
Edit: Welp! Looks like the flowers made it after all. Also, my hypotheses are getting more evidence. Back to reading...
More comprehensive review when I actually finish the book. If I'm not done by tomorrow evening, I will be quite surprised.
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 12:01 pm (UTC)Not going to spoil anything, of course, but this post makes me happy. Glad you caught on to Rose Red so quickly. I know not everyone's familiar with the "lesser known" fairy tales, but I had fun twining things together :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 08:05 pm (UTC)Bah, spoilers! What do I need spoilers for? I've already got the book, I can find out on my own!
I looked up Snow White and Rose Red a while back with designs on a story of my own. And then self-discipline didn't happen 9_9a Ah, well; it's not like the plot's going to go anywhere without me.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 10:36 pm (UTC)I clicked.
Man, this book sounds AWESOME. I hope I have a chance to get it soon. :(
no subject
Date: 2011-06-30 06:20 am (UTC)It should be out everywhere soon! Next Tuesday at the latest. Unless your bookstores inexplicably don't carry Jim's stuff. I'm crossing my other fingers for you, at any rate :)b
no subject
Date: 2011-06-30 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-02 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-14 11:52 pm (UTC)Man. Losing Snow sucked. But at the same time, it isn't completely surprising considering that she kept giving up years of her life, damaged from the mermaid attack.... She worried me about burn out in the first book. :( I'm sad not to have any more of these to look forward too though.