About the Book
Title: The Snow Queen
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: Five Hundred Kingdoms #4
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 336
Edition Read: Kindle eBook
Dates Read: August 1-8, 2024
Blurb: Aleksia, Queen of the Northern Lights, is mysterious, beautiful and widely known to have a heart of ice. No one would seek her wisdom except as a last resort. But when she’s falsely accused of unleashing evil on nearby villages, she realizes there’s an impostor out there far more heartless than she could ever be.
And when a young warrior following the Tradition disappears, leaving his sweetheart and mother to fear the worst, Aleksia’s powers are needed as never before.
Now, on a journey through a realm of perpetual winter, it will take all her skills, a mother’s faith and a little magic to face down an enemy more formidable than any she has ever known.…
Review
In general, I usually like Mercedes Lackey’s books. They are usually fairly simple fantasy that is easy to consume and a lot of fun to read. She is a very prolific author and also a very nice person. I actually got to meet her once, which was super cool.
That said, some of her books are a bit hit or miss for me and, unfortunately, this one was one of them. I remember starting the Five Hundred Kingdoms series several years ago (2012 according to GoodReads) and really enjoying them. The magical system is called The Tradition. Basically what it does is try to direct people into various traditional paths from stories and fairy tales, like Cinderella, Snow White, and such. There are also paths that create Heroes and Champions, Evil Stepmothers, Dragon Slayers, etc.
What’s usually fun with this series is how different fairy tales are turned on their heads and woven together. Maybe it’s because I’m not too familiar with the Snow Queen story, but I had a hard time connecting to this one. There were pieces of the story that didn’t seem to fit in and it made it difficult to pay attention to the main plot at times. The villain of the story doesn’t come in until the very end and the resolution felt very rushed, as if things needed to be wrapped up quickly.
What is nice is that the books in general can be read as standalone novels that just happen to be set in the same universe. The main character of the first book, Elena, is mentioned, but all you really need to know is that she’s a Godmother now and everything that status entails, which is explained to you in Aleksia’s story. It makes it very easy to slip back into the series without having to go back and reread the other books to refresh yourself on what’s going on. So that was nice.
Overall, I felt bad not enjoying this one as much, but it was just so-so.
GoodReads rating: 3 stars
Categories: Books I've Read
Life With No Plot 
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