The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines
I generally like the “Princess going butt-stomping” narrative line and so I went and got the next installment of Jim C. Hine's Princess series.
Queen Beatrix is dying and Snow's last ditch attempt to save her goes terribly wrong. Snow gets possessed by a demon and it's up to Talia and Danielle to save her before she starts a war or three.
Well aside from the obvious lesson of “trying to mess with mortality will always cost you dear,” this seemed like a book of transitions more than anything else. While the story does close nicely, there are a lot of loose ends left hanging. There weren't so many that I felt cheated, but it seemed pretty clear that there will be a new installment forthcoming (at some point anyway).
I really wasn't sure what to make of Gerta, the new character introduced in this book. On the one hand, I could see how she functioned in relation to her sibling and I understood why she came about. On the other hand, I just had some really mixed feelings about how some character tensions were tied up using her. I will have to wait and see what that develops into.
On a lighter note, I really liked the corruption angle used with regards to the demon and how it was tied up with mirrors and appearances. There's probably some underlying commentary about what inner beauty actually means when all the focus is on the exterior, but what found most interesting was that the demon never really had its own voice. Instead the inner denigrations seemed all that more vicious for being delivered in Snow's own voice.
Lastly, steal-your-baby elves and fairies are awesome. That is all.
I would like a “next book.” I want to see where it goes from there.
Queen Beatrix is dying and Snow's last ditch attempt to save her goes terribly wrong. Snow gets possessed by a demon and it's up to Talia and Danielle to save her before she starts a war or three.
Well aside from the obvious lesson of “trying to mess with mortality will always cost you dear,” this seemed like a book of transitions more than anything else. While the story does close nicely, there are a lot of loose ends left hanging. There weren't so many that I felt cheated, but it seemed pretty clear that there will be a new installment forthcoming (at some point anyway).
I really wasn't sure what to make of Gerta, the new character introduced in this book. On the one hand, I could see how she functioned in relation to her sibling and I understood why she came about. On the other hand, I just had some really mixed feelings about how some character tensions were tied up using her. I will have to wait and see what that develops into.
On a lighter note, I really liked the corruption angle used with regards to the demon and how it was tied up with mirrors and appearances. There's probably some underlying commentary about what inner beauty actually means when all the focus is on the exterior, but what found most interesting was that the demon never really had its own voice. Instead the inner denigrations seemed all that more vicious for being delivered in Snow's own voice.
Lastly, steal-your-baby elves and fairies are awesome. That is all.
I would like a “next book.” I want to see where it goes from there.