Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the tenth day of the month is "Judgment." I have personally decided that I will pass judgment on a book on the tenth day of each month.
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Temeraire series
Spinning Silver (standalone novel)
Scholomance (trilogy)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik is a standalone fantasy novel. I have a mixed history with Novik's writings. If you care to peruse my reviews of her other books, the links are above. I thought the Temeraire series was mixed in terms of success of each individual novel, but have overall positive feelings about dragons, so am pretty fond of it overall; I thought Scholomance started off strongly and then trickled down into not great; and I thought Spinning Silver had an excellent first third and then became a slog. Whatever will I think of Uprooted?
I thought the beginning of the book was so promising. There's a magician in a tower and every ten years he takes a girl from the nearby villages as his servant. These women are allowed to leave after ten years, but they're not the same. Agnieszka is chosen and must go live with The Dragon. Great premise!
But. You guys. WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO SAY THIS?
The Dragon abuses Agnieskza over and over again. He starts by telling her she's dirty (which is kind of true), horse-faced, and a mess. He doesn't explain to her that she's a witch and that he's teaching her magic, but instead forces magic on her until she crumples into a heap. And yet I'm supposed to believe she just falls in love with him?!
I find myself IRATE.
I also find Agnieszka to be such a special snowflake that she's nearly insufferable (nearly because I like that she loves her mom and is a really good friend to Kasia). Oh, she's a witch and never knew it? Oh, she's not just a witch, but a special kind of witch who can only do magics that have been thought to be long lost? Oh, she's not just a special kind of witch, but she's specialized in a special special type of magic? OH REALLY?
I find myself annoyed.
2/5 stars (also, now I'm grumpy)
Line of note:
"I've had lovers now and then, mostly soldiers. But once you're old enough, they're like flowers: you know the bloom will fade even as you put them in the glass." (page 318)
Bleak.
I also have mixed reactions to Novik's books. Honestly, she's one of those authors that I feel I *should* love, but often don't. I may give her a pass from now on; life is too short for shoulds.
ReplyDeleteIf she ever writes about dragons again, I'll be all in. I'm reading through a list of Top Fantasy Books by Women and Novik is on there a few times, so I might have to read more, but I'm not nearly as excited about reading her as I once was.
DeleteHa ha, so this book was so annoying, you got grumpy writing the review? i agree the premise does sound fascinating, but I'll take your word for it and skip this one.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I really wanted was more growth from the main characters. It's like they went through all this trauma, but they're still the same as they were at the beginning and it was really frustrating. Writing the review did make me grumpy!
DeleteSeriously, thanks for the LOLs and the honest review. At least I know it's a skip for me ... a big no to falling for abusers.
ReplyDeleteI read some reviews that called this a feminist novel. I don't see how!
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