While this wasn't bad, and Vinge managed to slot it into her larger Snow Queen world fairly well, overall, it felt largely unnecessary, and somewhat forced to me. Like pounding that puzzle piece into the wrong spot because it's close to the same shape.

There were little nods to the other novels, as was the central MacGuffin, but the fact that, going back to any of the other three novels and not finding some of the central characters feels a little invalidating here.

It's a decent story, but it really should have come either just before, or just after [b:The Snow Queen|139986|The Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle, #1)|Joan D. Vinge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388298425l/139986._SX50_.jpg|522872], with some mentions of Devony in that book to make it work better.

Largely unnecessary, but not a bad read for completists. ( )

A perfectly fine cop/crime solving novel. But it's pretty much a straightforward genre adventure, and it really suffers in comparison to works of the scope and ambition of Snow/Summer Queen. If it wasn't advertised as a sequel to those two excellent works, I think I would have liked it more. Still, an enjoyable adventure. ( )

I had absolutely no idea this was a part of any series at all, so I was understandbly confused when I started reading the book. After a while I fell into the rhythem of the story, and got a clue to what was going on, somewhat in any case. The writing was very good, but the story itself wasn't very compelling for me, perhaps this is because I didn't read all the other books. ( )

I had absolutely no idea this was a part of any series at all, so I was understandbly confused when I started reading the book. After a while I fell into the rhythem of the story, and got a clue to what was going on, somewhat in any case. The writing was very good, but the story itself wasn't very compelling for me, perhaps this is because I didn't read all the other books. ( )

Not my favorite of the Snow Queen series, this book nevertheless has the compelling characters and atmosphere I expect from a Vinge novel. I was surprised by what a quick read it was -- I hadn't noticed the time passing, and then the book was over. ( )