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Loading... Uprootedby Naomi Novik
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Uprooted - Novak 3 (generous) stars I was very impressed with Novak’s Spinning Silver, but this book disappointed me. My opinion may be partly influenced by my dislike of the audiobook. Lacking time to sit with a book I had hoped for an enjoyable audio. The reader’s Russian accent did add an authentic atmosphere, but ultimately it was painful to listen to her distorted halting pronunciation. I enjoyed the book a bit more when I was able to sit with the text. At least, I was able to speed up my pace through an overly long story. I do think the book was too long, but strangely, I also feel that it was underdeveloped. The source and rapid acquisition of Agnieszka’s magic is never really explained. She leaps from incompetent novice to world saver in the nick of time. Magic, of course. But, as a reader, it was hard to buy into it. The book is full of personal and political complications that appear with little development. I kept waiting for the puzzle pieces to fit together, but when they did I wasn’t sure how it happened. The ‘happy’ ending felt overly convenient and unlikely. I’m left with the opinion the Uprooted was a good first effort at a fairytale retelling. Spinning Silver is the work of a more experienced and skilled author. There wasn't anything objectively bad about this book, but it never gripped me. The writing was solid and the plot flowed quite well, but I found the Wood as an enemy pretty nebulous, even after you learn what it is, and magic in the book is completely arbitrary. In that sense, it is much more of a fairy tale than a fantasy novel. For that kind of story, elongated from short story to novel form, it's one of the best I've read.
Uprooted is not, as I thought it might be after those first three chapters, any of the following: a Beauty and the Beast story; a somewhat quiet tale about learning one’s magical abilities and negotiating a relationship with one’s teacher; or a story that includes intrinsically-gendered magic. What it is, is a kingdom-level fantasy with great magic and an engaging narrator—which packs a surprising amount of plot into its single volume. I recommend it highly. The pages turn and the Kindle screens swipe with alacrity. An early expedition into the Wood to rescue a long-missing Queen is particularly white-knuckle. Temeraire fans will be pleased to know that a superb tower-under-siege sequence demonstrates that Novik has lost none of her facility for making complex battle scenes clear and exciting. And Agnieszka remains a scrappy, appealing hero throughout. It’s just that one can’t help but be reminded that Novik’s Temeraire series will conclude next year as a nine-novel cycle and wonder why a writer so skilled at pacing a long, complicated chronicle over multiple books has crammed this story into one. It’s as if Novik is overcorrecting for the kind of Hollywood bloat that causes studios to split fantasy-novel adaptations into multiple films. Here, she packs an entire trilogy into a single book. Agnieszka’s corridors-of-power adventures in Polnya’s capital have kind of a middle-volume vibe to them, while some fascinating late-breaking revelations about the nature of the Wood definitely feel like they deserve their own dedicated installment. I felt this most particularly in Agnieszka’s evolution as a character. While it’s thrilling in the book’s final third to read about her taking control of her own magical identity as a latter-day Baba Yaga, it does feel as though it’s happened without giving her the opportunity to explore a few blind-alley identities on the way there. Is contained inHas as a studyAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows--everyone knows--that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn't, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Novik's characters rub me the wrong way. I find it difficult to put my finger on it, but they are all just a little too precious, if that makes any sense. However, this was not as bad here as in Temeraire. Also I found the ending a bit anticlimactic, too easy and tidy after all the buildup.
Apart from that, however, the magic content, which is most of the book, is intense and outstanding, and the story is compelling and easy to enjoy. ( )