Uprooted - Naomi Novik

The second of my May new releases is Uprooted - yes, I'm still behind. The eternal state, it seems. Although I just received my preorder for my June release, so hopefully I can start that next, and get back on track.

US cover still the best cover.

Uprooted is a fairy tale at it's heart, and although still European-based, I can't fault it for that given the specificity with which Novik writes. I talked previously about a boredom with your typical Medieval-England based white fantasy, but Novik skirts these issues by drawing from Polish folklore and naming conventions. It makes it feel sufficiently "new" that it doesn't immediately ping my trope-dar, though I'll admit, I went into the story with reservations. I think Novik deliberately plays with our expectations of a fairy tale, starting with an unexpected heroine being chosen as a sacrifice to the Dragon. But as the story unravels it gets fuller, and richer, and much more enjoyable. The Dragon is really a wizard who lives in a tower near their villages, keeping watch over the mysterious Wood. The Wood itself is a central character and the primary villain, a mysterious and malevolent forest that steals villagers and corrupts them, sometimes sending them back to wreak havoc on the human world. Agnieszka is chosen as the 'sacrifice', a valley girl that the Dragon finds has an aptitude for magic, and she learns about her own power and how she can use it and work with the other wizards to save her friend Kasia, her valley, and even the entire kingdom.

I'm not wild about the romantic subplot between Agnieszka and the Dragon given their extreme age difference (hundred+ years yo) and their teacher-student power dynamic. I get that part of their story is overcoming that dynamic to emerge as peers, but it still leaves me with a squicky taste, especially when you add the trope of "woman fixes broken man and teaches him to love again". It works just fine for some people--just not my cup of tea. I think this book could have accomplished its goal without the romance at all, which would alleviate many fans' discomfort with their uncomfortable relationship.

I really like, however, the character of Kasia. Originally everyone thought she would be the girl that the Dragon chose--the prettiest, most graceful, most accomplished of all the Dragon-born girls. She prepared her whole life to leave her home to go to the tower, and by consequence her parents never really opened up to her in the same way they did to their other children, and it's no wonder that some resentment took root there. When she wasn't chosen, it was both a relief and a disappointment: what was she to do now? But the way Kasia ends up this brilliant, fierce, indestructible warrior woman--well, I just like that in a fairy tale. She's strong without resorting to being an unlikeable character. She only has to learn how to use her new strength and invulnerability to become a fearsome fighter.

Yet again, this is another new release where I've heard word of being optioned for film right away. So hooray! I wonder, though, if Novik isn't holding her breath, what with the Temeraire film 10 years in the making with no progress. Fantasy is an awfully big market for Hollywood right now, and they seem to be grabbing onto any book adaptation they can: I just want someone to follow through and actually make them into good films that deserve the same title.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. Novik's writing style is unobtrusive and flows well, and I especially enjoy how she articulates things that are hard to articulate, like how Agnieszka uses her magic. It's all very vague, but it still has a certain internal logic, and it works very well in this book. I would not recommend this book for children, despite the fairy tale label, what with the sex scene and all. But it could fly for YA and any adult fantasy lover just fine.

He spent the next hour interrogating me as to every particular of how I had cast the spell, growing ever more upset: I could scarcely answer any of his questions. He wanted exact syllables and repetitions, he wanted to know how close I had been to his arm, he wanted the number of rosemary twigs and the number of peels. I did my best to tell him, but I felt even as I did so that it was all wrong, and finally I blurted out, as he wrote angrily on his sheets, "But none of that matters at all." His head raised to stare balefully at me, but I said, incoherent yet convinced, "It's just--a way to go. There's ins't only one way to go." I waved at his notes. "You're trying to find a road where there isn't one. It's like--it's gleaning in the woods," I said abruptly. "You have to pick your way through the thickets and the trees, and it's different every time."

Overall: 5 stars

Amazon: Uprooted

More reviews: Uprooted on Librarything (Average 4.29 stars)

Uprooted on Goodreads (Average 4.32 stars)