TBR Challenge: Naomi Novik - Spinning Silver

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father's inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.
When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk--grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh--Miryem's fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.
But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.
Channeling the vibrant heart of myth and fairy tale, Spinning Silver weaves a multilayered, magical tapestry that readers will want to return to again and again.

Comment: The TBR Challenge theme for May is "tales of old" and my personal interpretation went along the lines of something which was related to old stories or legends or the kind of things we might have heard from our grandmother. Anyway, it reminded me of stories that nowadays have gotten into myth/folklore status and that is why I chose this fantasy novel by Naomi Novik. I had previously read her book Uprooted and while the reading wasn't much fun, I liked it enough to feel curious about this one. Thankfully, now I can say this one was way more captivating for me. 

In this novel we meet Miryem, who after seeing how much her parents struggle because her father isn't assertive on his moneylender skills, she decides to do it herself and things improve, but one day she recklessly boasts about her abilities and the starik king, a fey-like creature, decides to take her to his kingdom so she can turn silver into gold. At the same time, Wanda, an impoverished woman, starts working for Miryem's parents, as a way to pay off a debt of her father. In yet another case, Irina must prepare herself for the fact the tsar, a very dangerous man, has chosen her to be his bride and she knows this might mean her life won't be long. These three women will see their path converse at some point, but will it there be time enough to save their loved ones and their land from a terrible fate?

I had a great time reading this story. One of those one feels immersed so well that when it was necessary to stop for some reason, I actually would feel annoyed by it. I think the author did a wonderful job in creating such a web that this felt complex and compelling.

Looking what what I thought about the other book by her I tried, I see this one was a lot more pleasant to read. There is some less than good content (plot wise) but somehow that wasn't as difficult to accept as I felt with what happened in the other book, in terms of how the characters had been affected by plot situations and their decisions. This doesn't have to mean anything in general but for me this made the reading experience more appealing, this idea that despite the problems, the characters had the moral compass and the love on their side as "tools" to help them navigate the choices made.

Of course this is highlighted closer to the end, after some things we believed to have happened one way actually had a different explanation. When the heroines make up a plan to save the world, so to speak, they discover key information a bit too late and this will affect how we think of them, but the author did a good planning and every action is paid. In fact, the content sits very heavily on this notion of a debt needing to be paid, and every action, every decision, somehow has to be paid or leveled so that the character in question can sort of move on. The writing is very intricate and even if one considers she based it on fairy tales or other stories, the shape of her work is complex and captivating indeed.

There is a lot to be said about the things included in this novel, and many reviewers have mentioned the Jew content, the feminist one, the cultural one... all this did help in creating a rich and compelling read but I will admit what caught my attention the most were the protagonists and their personal paths. I did like their paths connected and that at some moment they would need each others' help but I felt invested in them as individuals and I think their personalities were fleshed out very well, which means that, for me, each little thing from the other elements natural and more interesting to read about because of how they were like and how they behaved.

Meryem is fascinating, we could say she sparked the whole thing with bad timing but her path was wonderful to follow and while I dreaded the magical aspect of her being locked in the starik world, there was something about that that made me think about how important it would be for her in the end. Wanda, I feel, was the one with less gravitas, because her path didn't seem to conduct into a specific finale, she was more like a link between other characters and while I liked her a lot, especially thinking about her life before she joined Meryiem's family, I love that she found happiness, but I hoped for more for her. Irina proved to be one of those characters that goes from mouse to savior and her choices felt the most challenging, but I liked how what she does depended a lot on her own courage and assertiveness.

The magical aspects in this novel were all intriguing and added a lot of mystery and dread, as if something could happen at any time and we didn't see it coming because we didn't properly think things through. This, combined with the protagonists' "quests" made for a very addictive reading and even though we have a few more POVs, the three girls convinced me of the need of their choices and the difficulty of their tasks. This meant that when their final scenes happen, I was both relieved they succeeded and happy they had good things to look for.

This is not a romance story but for those who like it in fantasy as well, there's enough of it to suggest a HEA of sorts. In fact, if there is one element - besides how long it takes for certain situations to be set and happen, the story does drag here and there - the element I would complain the most about is how unclear some little things are. I understand the idea was to convey whimsical and that feeling of old tales when things were inferred, and alluded, instead of modern explanations for every single thing, but I do wish we had a bit more development on what happened after. I'm greedy and would have wanted more about the girls' lives after they win their HEAs.

This book convinced me and I will likely read more novels by the author.

Grade: 8/10

Naomi Novik - Uprooted

“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 us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
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. 

Comment: Months ago, I got interested in this novel because it was fantasy fairy tale for grown ups and I like the idea of authors using a fairy tale to create a whole new story but not the usual YA setting which I tend do avoid. It also helped readers mentioned a romance element and I was sold.

This is a story loosely based on the Baba Yaga legend, using traditional Polish tales. 

Every ten years, a wizard man called The Dragon goes to a village near his Tower and takes a young girl to be his servant. After the ten years, the girl is returned but soon leaves the village to be in a (often) better place somewhere.

The Dragon is keeping the area safe because it's close to The Wood, a forest area that is said to be corrupted by something evil and when someone gets there never returns, even if their bodies come back it's never the healthy sane person who entered.

This year,  Agnieszka is chosen because she seems to have some magic in her, a detail the Dragon finds out in the choosing day. Since she arrives at the Tower, however, Agnieszka realizes her experience is different from every other girl before her and she will have a task that can save everyone...

Well, this is certainly a well researched and well structured story. It has so many elements and detail that it's impossible it didn't take a long time for all to be in the right place. It's definitely not a simply story nor an easy fairy tale to follow.

I think the best part of this novel is precisely the eye for detail when it came to describe things and how engaged the reader gets among so much information, something not always easy to accomplish.

What makes me grade this book slightly lower than what I expected is the tone of the story, it simply is too dark.

Has the author the right to write as she wants? Yes.

Is this story the tale the author wanted us to read? I'm sure yes.

Is this a well done story? Completely.

Did I enjoy reading it? Not much, no.

I can understand perfectly why this is a dark fantasy story, filled with death and violence, but it had a lot of unnecessary description of bad deeds. I would have felt the same despair and impotence had I heard about most of the acts committed without actually seeing them. I know this goes against most reader's notions on writing, where being shown is better than being told but for me, I would have preferred that in this book.

At the same time, it was quite clever and insidious who the villain managed to corrupt and indirectly influence so many characters. Should I deduce all characters except the hero and heroine were weak minded and easy to manipulate? It just feels too convenient and overly dramatic.

Then the end comes, it's both too easy and appropriate in my opinion. But I liked the sort of HEA that happened and how some character's fates got to be. Too bad the cast of dead people was way bigger than any goodness that we got out in the end.

As for the romance, which I was looking for, as usual in fantasy books where romance is clearly not the main focus, I thought it was too subtle for the most part. But it ended up with such a positive note I was able to imagine their lives after....

All things considered, this is not a bad book. But I hated seeing so many characters die for the sake of the plot and it wasn't fun most of the time. Yes, artistic license and author's choice, all that is perfectly acceptable but I can also choose to enjoy or not.

In terms of writing style, nothing to say, and several scenes/situations were intriguing and well inserted within the fantasy mold and fairy tale. I just wish the positive aspects were more than the dark, scaring ones.

Grade: 6/10