Review - Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Good book.
Firstly, it puts a new first place up for Fictional Character I Totally Would (obviously, I am too mature to have an actual such list, and have been since I was 31). Sarkan is a good example of the trope "experienced, competent, refined, irascible and also lonely and needing to be rescued from his self-imposed emotional isolation". It is a trope which clearly pushes my buttons although in real life, given the lack of continuous opportunities to be thrown together and rescue one another from mortal peril, it would never work out.
For anyone not of this turn of mind, the book does have plenty else to recommend it.
- a good antagonist. Sneaky, smart and kudos to the writing for capturing that woods can both delight the soul and be really creepy.
- a good protagonist with a strong sense of herself and where she's from (essential given that her roots are important - a theme I find personally quite relevant although my roots unfortunately do not have magic powers). I like her village, her family, Kasia and mother, and the sense that there are many more characters than we're seeing (even explicitly at one point "I said Kasia was my friend, not one of my friends..."). I like the food descriptions and the festival descriptions and the way they give a real sense of a Balkanesque place and a real time.
- As mentioned, I liked the roots theme. I don't think I have seen that done before so well, and it struck a chord.
- I liked the way that my initial assumption for why the women coming back from the tower didn't stay in the valley - that once a peasant girl gets an education, a perspective, and a nest egg, she no longer wants to marry a local farmer - was not quite accurate.
- good pacing generally. It is a short book and has a lot of action, but finds enough quiet times.
I did have a few minor criticisms but on re-reading certain passages am deciding that they are mostly addressed (for example, the totally contrived situation and state of mind leading Sarkan to think that it is a good idea to take a young woman every ten years, and not realise that the valley people assume he is a sexual predator just like the court does. Though he's obviously never heard of Vitamin D).
One question/nitpick: it is implied in the text that Sarkan can read the narrator's mind, at least he says something in direct response to the narration several times. Since this is never explicitly stated, and would have major character implications if true, I'm assuming we are supposed to read either that the narrator says what she is thinking out loud, or that they're thinking the exact same thing. But I was expecting this to be a plot point by the end, and slightly surprised that it never came up.
Firstly, it puts a new first place up for Fictional Character I Totally Would (obviously, I am too mature to have an actual such list, and have been since I was 31). Sarkan is a good example of the trope "experienced, competent, refined, irascible and also lonely and needing to be rescued from his self-imposed emotional isolation". It is a trope which clearly pushes my buttons although in real life, given the lack of continuous opportunities to be thrown together and rescue one another from mortal peril, it would never work out.
For anyone not of this turn of mind, the book does have plenty else to recommend it.
- a good antagonist. Sneaky, smart and kudos to the writing for capturing that woods can both delight the soul and be really creepy.
- a good protagonist with a strong sense of herself and where she's from (essential given that her roots are important - a theme I find personally quite relevant although my roots unfortunately do not have magic powers). I like her village, her family, Kasia and mother, and the sense that there are many more characters than we're seeing (even explicitly at one point "I said Kasia was my friend, not one of my friends..."). I like the food descriptions and the festival descriptions and the way they give a real sense of a Balkanesque place and a real time.
- As mentioned, I liked the roots theme. I don't think I have seen that done before so well, and it struck a chord.
- I liked the way that my initial assumption for why the women coming back from the tower didn't stay in the valley - that once a peasant girl gets an education, a perspective, and a nest egg, she no longer wants to marry a local farmer - was not quite accurate.
- good pacing generally. It is a short book and has a lot of action, but finds enough quiet times.
I did have a few minor criticisms but on re-reading certain passages am deciding that they are mostly addressed (for example, the totally contrived situation and state of mind leading Sarkan to think that it is a good idea to take a young woman every ten years, and not realise that the valley people assume he is a sexual predator just like the court does. Though he's obviously never heard of Vitamin D).
One question/nitpick: it is implied in the text that Sarkan can read the narrator's mind, at least he says something in direct response to the narration several times. Since this is never explicitly stated, and would have major character implications if true, I'm assuming we are supposed to read either that the narrator says what she is thinking out loud, or that they're thinking the exact same thing. But I was expecting this to be a plot point by the end, and slightly surprised that it never came up.