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Oh, the places you’ll have snow! Friends, I don’t know where you are right now, but we are getting a spanking from Mother Nature here in Maine to make up for the relatively tame winters we’ve had the last few years. As I write this, the sky has just dumped eight inches of snow on top of a foot of existing snow and the wind is blowing 43 m.p.h. I hate it.
Luckily, I don’t enjoy any hobbies that require me to leave my cozy nest, at any point in the year, really. Books can be enjoyed inside, so that’s where I stay. But I don’t mind reading books set in snowy places, which is why I made you this list of stellar sci-fi and fantasy books set in winter climates. Whether it’s trudging through winter landscapes in tunics, or freezing your phaser off on icy planets, winter weather can be fun in books! So, my little tauntauns, grab your shovels and get ready for these chilly reads! Let it snow (there), let it snow (there), let it snow (there).
Cold Welcome (Vatta’s Peace) by Elizabeth Moon
After a long time away fighting for peace, space fleet commander Kylara Vatta expects to return to her home planet for a break. Instead, she ends up stranded with a bunch of strangers, fighting to beat the elements and the danger as they navigate the landscape and stumble upon conspiracies in the higher ranks. Meanwhile, Ky’s family and friends are working to find her and bring her home, hopefully before the danger Ky and her companions have uncovered destroys the planet.
Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort
In a desolate frozen world, a few lucky residents are given an opportunity to come in from the cold. Snowglobe is a climate-controlled city where it’s perfect all the time, thanks to the electricity they get from the power plant in the outside world. Only a very select few people are admitted to the city and in return, they agree to have their lives broadcast to the world outside twenty-four hours a day. Chobahm thinks her dreams have come true when she is picked to move to Snowglobe. But underneath its sparkling facade, the city hides dark, dirty secrets, and Chobahm is about to discover them.
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Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
I am not one to recommend series out of order, but the Discworld books can be read in any order. Or you can read all the books in the series to get to this one, possibly the funniest of the bunch. It’s about the Hogfather, who goes out on Hogswatchnight in his sleigh pulled by eight hogs, to spread presents around Discworld. But when Hogfather goes missing, someone needs to take his place while they search for him. Who is a natural replacement for Hogfather? Death, of course! Death must take on the criminal elements of the world with the help of his granddaughter, Susan, if they want to keep Hogswatchnight from going to the hogs. Er, dogs.
Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling
It’s secret agents in the snow in this near-future dystopian read! Rose is one of the Blooms, the girls hired to entertain at Camp Zero in northern Canada. Camp Zero is the brainchild of an architect looking to start a new place for civilization. But Rose is actually a spy at the camp, reporting on the architect to secure a spot for her displaced Korean mother and herself. And along with a professor and a women’s military group, the story of Camp Zero and what happens in the cold, cold world will be nothing like they expected.
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
This Hugo- and Locus Award-winning novel from 1981 involves intergalactic politics and the Snow Queen. The planet Tiamat has been under the thumb of the Winter colonists for over a century, but a new season is on the horizon. The planet will soon be cut off with the closure of a stargate, and will switch to 150 years of rule by the Summer primitives. But not if the Snow Queen has anything to say about it. She will have to fight her nemesis, Moon, from the Summer tribe, if she wants to keep hold over Tiamat. Which is something that she is willing to do anything to make happen.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the Book Riot podcast All the Books! and on Bluesky and Instagram.
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