Hardcover, 435 pages
Published Aug. 7, 2015 by Del Rey.
"Our Dragon doesn't eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that's not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he's still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of use every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we're grateful, but not that grateful."
Initially took me a few days to get started (probably too tired), but then finished it in a couple of days. Really fun inner dialog of main character, nice pace and very nice first encounter with this author (I know, I know, I'm late to the party and now have to read all her other books..)
Content warning Spoilers.
This is solid fantasy book. I give it four stars for the magic, for the good (female!) protagonist, and the Slavic-fairy tale-theme.
For the first hundred pages, I was exited about this book. It felt new and interesting, and I loved the mystery of the valley, the theme of roots. But then around page 100, the protagonist marched into the dangerous wood to free her best friend. She does what nobody has done before, unlocks some powerful magic - and then nothing? The girl she moved earth and sky for is just a mute presence for the rest of the book. This could have been a story about friendship, but there was no connection, no shared moments, nothing. I will have to admit that I was rooting for a love story. I had Chris Riddell's illustration of Neil Gaiman's "The Sleeper and the Spindle" in my head the whole time. But I was disappointed. Instead of the witch-loves-wooden-girl-story we get the powerful, grumpy, oh so mysterious wizard? Oh come on. It wasn't done too badly, but still. The second aspect of the novel that I found frustrating was the protagonists naiveté. In the Temeraire series, Novik wrote suble, complicated politics, even though the protagonist wanted none of it. Here, it was just so simple, so naive. Oh well. One can't have it all.
There were good things: I loved the way the author twisted expectations, mixed in fairy-tales, and the (pseudo-)slavic spells and setting. And whenever the book took place in the valley, it was beautifully written.
Content warning Spoilers.
This is solid fantasy book. I give it four stars for the magic, for the good (female!) protagonist, and the Slavic-fairy tale-theme.
For the first hundred pages, I was exited about this book. It felt new and interesting, and I loved the mystery of the valley, the theme of roots. But then around page 100, the protagonist marched into the dangerous wood to free her best friend. She does what nobody has done before, unlocks some powerful magic - and then nothing? The girl she moved earth and sky for is just a mute presence for the rest of the book. This could have been a story about friendship, but there was no connection, no shared moments, nothing. I will have to admit that I was rooting for a love story. I had Chris Riddell's illustration of Neil Gaiman's "The Sleeper and the Spindle" in my head the whole time. But I was disappointed. Instead of the witch-loves-wooden-girl-story we get the powerful, grumpy, oh so mysterious wizard? Oh come on. It wasn't done too badly, but still. The second aspect of the novel that I found frustrating was the protagonists naiveté. In the Temeraire series, Novik wrote suble, complicated politics, even though the protagonist wanted none of it. Here, it was just so simple, so naive. Oh well. One can't have it all.
There were good things: I loved the way the author twisted expectations, mixed in fairy-tales, and the (pseudo-)slavic spells and setting. And whenever the book took place in the valley, it was beautifully written.
It's been many years since I read this book, although I remember really enjoying it and the somewhat fractured fairy tale in which the damsels are not in distress and the evil is not what it seems like.
Very engaging rework of fairytale ideas without ever strictly retelling source material. The main character's magical arc is a tiny bit Mary Sue but there's so much else going on (predatory forests, possession, court politics, Eastern European village customs) that it's forgivable, and the whole thing is beautiful, harsh, and immersive.
The kind of book that you hope never ends.
