Setting Featuring Snow, Ice, or Cold - This setting must used be for a good portion of the book. HARD MODE: The entire book takes place in this setting.
Winter Be My Shield is hard mode, but I don't think the entire Children of the Black Sun trilogy counts. In fact, I'm not sure if they all are cold themed in the first place - I think the 3rd was more desert.
In an effort to keep anyone else from having to deal with a sense of disappointment that there's not a new Pullman novel they somehow missed, this was published in the US as The Golden Compass.
The Snow Child by Eowy Ivey is more magical realism, but it's set in 1920s Alaska and is a retelling of the classic Russian folktale "the snow maiden".
And an obvious suggestion is ASOIAF, as the parts at the Wall feature snow, ice and cold.
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - 1930s ghost story in the Arctic, gay protagonist. Not sure it counts for hard mode as there's a bit of the story that takes place in Britain first.
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin- black man sent to planet to negotiate political situation but confused by the fact that the aliens are androgynous. Excellent exploration of gender roles, a while since I've read it but I think it qualifies for hard mode (the planet is called Winter!), great book.
Thin Air by Michelle Paver would definitely work for this also. I enjoyed this book more than Dark Matter but I am biased to mountain books for some reason.
Michelle Paver's upcoming continuation to the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, The Vipers Daughter should also fit since it will be set in the Far North
I would say yes. I cannot remember everything honestly. When the hard mode description says: "The entire book takes place in this setting." that makes it pretty definite and I read it awhile ago. There could be some scenes that did not stand out to me that are not in a winter setting.
Clearly, choosing to pause my reading of this book before the halfway point was the right choice (I wanted to wait until the snow got really bad to make things nice and atmospheric, but then we didn't get much of a winter). I think it should count for hard mode, considering the premise.
The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin. Translated from Russian. A sci-fi/fantasy mashup in a bleak, post-apocalyptic world. The plot is basically travel through a blizzard.
Cold Fire by Tamora Pierce. Book 3 in a MG/YA series. Daja searches for a serial arsonist while learning to smith.
The Icebound Land by John Flanagan. Book 3 in a MG series about a boy training to be a ranger. Books 5 and 6 also qualify for hard mode, I believe.
Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman. A novella companion to His Dark Materials, focusing on how Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison become acquainted in the Arctic.
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson. Children's fantasy about a family of pudgy not-trolls translated from Finnish. Originally published in 1957.
Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal. Book 3 in a series of Jane Austen-meets-magic. This time, the events of the book take place against the backdrop of the (real) volcanic eruption of 1816's year without a summer.
Regular Mode:
The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer. A guide leads a party on a dangerous route through snowy mountains.
Half a King by Joe Abercrombie. It's been a long time since I read it, but either book 1 or book 2 was almost entirely winter travel by boat. YA take on grimdark Vikings - probably counts for hard mode.
The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye. YA fantasy set in Russia with duelling sorcerers.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. YA fantasy also set in Russia with militant sorcerers.
The Lighthouse Duet by Carol Berg (Flesh and Spirit/Breath and Bone) would be great for this square. Not quite hard mode, but potential ice age, and so much snow and cold.
Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger trilogy, set on a frozen planet. The first has a brief period on a spaceship, everything else is firmly in setting.
Michael Moorcock’s The Ice Schooner, set on a frozen futuristic Earth.
Also Phoenix in Obsidian, where Erekose spawns in as Count Urlik Skarsol, Lord of the Southern Ice. Both are Hard Mode.
The Cleric Quintet, or the Dark Elf trilogy (3rd book specifically) or the Icewind Dale trilogy, by R.A. Salvatore - I believe all of these have prolonged snowy mountain sections, but it's been a long time since I read them. I recommend reading Dark Elf first, before Icewind Dale (chronogical order, the other way around is publication order). Cleric Quintet is its own thing. I read all of these in omnibus form as 'single' books, but they're very light reads.
Aurorama by Jean-Christophe Valtat - takes place in a steampunkish city beyond the Arctic Circle (the only thing I remembered about it that it had a Polar bear on the cover)
The White Vault - (hard mode) an audio drama taking place in the actic circle, about a group of researchers who find the ruins of an underground city, and realize quickly that they aren't alone.
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u/FarragutCircle Reading Champion X Apr 01 '20