There is No Story that Cannot be Improved by a Lesbian Werereindeer
Recent reading: The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher, which I believe we are allowed to know is the adults'-fiction pseudonym of Ursula Vernon.
Kay is born with frost in his eyes and cold in his heart. His very human neighbour and best friend from childhood, Gerta, has neither of these things. But, when the Snow Queen comes along in her sled drawn by flying otters and takes Kay away, Gerta's fierce loyalty means she is going to try to bring him back. This is not going to be easy. The Snow Queen lives somewhere north of north, which humans can't get to by themselves... and she is something much older and much, much more powerful than one young peasant girl.
But Gerta is nothing if not a trier, and she sets out on the journey... which takes her to some pretty strange places along the way. She meets witches, and a raven, and a reindeer, and a bandit girl... and, well, she finds her way through to the end of the story, and even to a happy ending, although it might not have been exactly what she had planned.
The only thing that wins, a wise old woman tells her, is love - and sometimes a sharp knife. Both love and a sharp knife figure in the solution Gerta finally finds.
This is Ursula Vernon retelling and thoroughly subverting fairy tales again, inserting real people with real reactions into the formula of a familiar story and making something quite new out of it. It's a story of the fantastic with both feet firmly planted in reality - with memorable characters, vivid description, and (unlike the Snow Queen) a solid core of warm humanity at its heart. In her afterword, Vernon says she doubts Hans Christian Andersen would approve of what she's done to the story... but, well, I approve, wholeheartedly. (See the title of this review. Or, better yet, read the book.)
The Raven and the Reindeer came out last year. I mentioned it was Hugo nominations time, didn't I?
Kay is born with frost in his eyes and cold in his heart. His very human neighbour and best friend from childhood, Gerta, has neither of these things. But, when the Snow Queen comes along in her sled drawn by flying otters and takes Kay away, Gerta's fierce loyalty means she is going to try to bring him back. This is not going to be easy. The Snow Queen lives somewhere north of north, which humans can't get to by themselves... and she is something much older and much, much more powerful than one young peasant girl.
But Gerta is nothing if not a trier, and she sets out on the journey... which takes her to some pretty strange places along the way. She meets witches, and a raven, and a reindeer, and a bandit girl... and, well, she finds her way through to the end of the story, and even to a happy ending, although it might not have been exactly what she had planned.
The only thing that wins, a wise old woman tells her, is love - and sometimes a sharp knife. Both love and a sharp knife figure in the solution Gerta finally finds.
This is Ursula Vernon retelling and thoroughly subverting fairy tales again, inserting real people with real reactions into the formula of a familiar story and making something quite new out of it. It's a story of the fantastic with both feet firmly planted in reality - with memorable characters, vivid description, and (unlike the Snow Queen) a solid core of warm humanity at its heart. In her afterword, Vernon says she doubts Hans Christian Andersen would approve of what she's done to the story... but, well, I approve, wholeheartedly. (See the title of this review. Or, better yet, read the book.)
The Raven and the Reindeer came out last year. I mentioned it was Hugo nominations time, didn't I?