Queen of Ice Review

 

BOOK TITLE: Queen of Ice

AUTHOR: Emma Miles

DESCRIPTION OF BOOK COVER: Black cover with the silver white silhouette of a large raven

GENRE: Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery sub genre)

PAGES: 352

BLURB:

She’d killed a boy.

His face haunts her dreams.

With no notion of what she is seeking, Catya flees to the frozen and unknown province of Snowhold, leaving her friends and the Raven Scouts behind her. A glimpse of an intriguing face in a blizzard sets her on a path where her fate collides with that of ancient beasts, and a mysterious hidden people. Can she survive alone in a land where women are still slaves, and sorcerers rule?

Perhaps there is a chance for redemption. Perhaps she can lay the ghost of the boy to rest.

It’s time to choose; to be a hero, or a monster.

# OF STARS: 4.5

***

When I thought back, I realized that it had actually been a while since I read sword and sorcery fantasy (probably my last binge through Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series was the last time). I don’t really know why because I generally like sword and sorcery, as long as it’s not too one dimensional.

Queen of Ice is not one-dimensional and it is definitely sword and sorcery – Catya providing the sword, and Dys providing the sorcery, though she’s not in it as much as I would have liked. It’s got all the hallmarks: lone warrior(warrioress) in this case, inhospitable terrain (kinda reminded me of home to some extent, haha), and monsters, though the monsters are human, not the monsters. Even some slavers!

So definitely a sword and sorcery, but with some twists. It’s LGBT+ friendly, which I appreciate on the general principle that it’s rare to see it done and done in such a way that it’s not front and center. The romance, such as it is, is matter of fact and simply there, not remarked much upon or highlighted, just there. The non-human beings (rakinya) are well developed and unique with a well thought out culture, and the bad guys are really bad (I’m a simple soul. I like my bad guys to be bad). Though the bad guys were only really in it near the end.

Some other good points: I like that it takes place in the far north, giving some scope for loneliness in the terrain and in the main character’s way of looking at things. She’s done some bad things in the past and made some mistakes, and the terrain follows her progression from lone warrior to a leader. I enjoyed the battle scenes and the plot itself was well paced and easy to get into.

But damn it all, endings. Arg.

If the story had ended and the epilogue didn’t exist, I would have given it a full five stars (well, 4.75, but close enough to 5 to be 5). But the epilogue really knocked it down for me. No spoiler, but while I get what the author was leading towards, this was not the way to do it. It was jarring, made no sense from a character growth perspective, and kinda made both of the characters look dumb, desperate, and shallow.

Which is a damn shame because otherwise I quite enjoyed Queen of Ice.

I’m looking forward to reading Raven Tower and that trilogy because I want to meet the people who shaped Catya! There’s a lot of references to them and I want to know more (you don’t need to have read the Firewalker series to enjoy this book, but I suspect it helps).

Pros: Excellent example of a more modern day sword and sorcery fantasy with the tropes of the lone warrior and magic well done and tinged with their own uniqueness. Loved the non-humans and the setting.

Cons: Don’t read the epilogue and you’ll enjoy it a lot more. (Well, I think).

I can definitely recommend Queen of Ice, particularly for older adolescent readers, those who enjoy a good Sword and Sorcery fantasy, and those looking for an LGBT romance in a book without it being a Romance Novel.

You can get Queen of Ice by Emma Mile here.