Uprooted by Naomi Novik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Sensual, Romantic, and Contrived Magic Seventeen-year-old Agnieszka knows like everyone else in her village that the local wizard called the Dragon is going to take her best friend Kasia to live in his Tower for ten years. During that period she’ll never be seen by anyone outside, will learn mysterious things, and will presumably sleep with the wizard, after which period she’ll finally exit the Tower only to leave their valley forever. The Dragon has been doing this kind of thing every ten years for well over 100 years and always chooses a 17-year-old-girl with some kind of gift, for beauty or kindness for example, which is why Kasia, who is extremely beautiful and kind, is expected to become his victim. Of course, we are not completely surprised when the Dragon ends up choosing Agnieszka instead, because after all she is the first-person narrator, and her only gift seems to be the ability to stain and tear or otherwise damage her clothes. Naomi Novik’s Uprooted (2015) then depicts Agnieszka’s difficult instruction in magic, difficult because she can’t seem to manage the simplest cantrips because the Dragon teaches her an elegant, beautiful, systemized kind of magic at odds with her nature. We quickly learn that she is uniquely gifted but in a different more intuitive and spontaneous way. The stakes are high, because Agnieszka’s valley and kingdom (Polnya), along with that of their neighbor Rosya, are under threat from the malevolent magical Wood, which is constantly seeking to extend itself, presumably bent on turning the world into a foul forest. Thus it is given to sending demonic Wolves to corrupt people so they will murder their families or Walkers (like malignant Ents) to steal people into the Wood so they may feed its Heart Trees, and so on. Novik’s novel is an absorbing read because Agnieszka is an appealing protagonist, and it’s interesting to read about her learning about magic, her abilities, the Dragon, and the Wood, and to watch as she finds herself experiencing new things, ranging from the horrifying to the mystifying and from the brutal to the sensual. And supporting characters like the Dragon, Kasia, and the Wood are compelling, too. It is a novel by turns suspenseful, beautiful, horrifying, humorous, moving, and romantic. It does fall prey to the old author-can-do-anything-she-wants-with-magic plot contrivance temptation of much fantasy, for at key points Novik tends to make Agnieszka find or not find a useful spell or run out of or not run out of magical energy in ways that do not seem altogether consistent or convincing. But Novik does also interestingly tweak typical modern fairy tale fantasy tropes like heroic prince, amoral wizard, and malignant wood. She also does plenty of fine sensual and vivid writing, as when she describes the first time Agnieszka reads a book of magic aloud: “The words sang like birds out of my mouth, beautiful, melting like sugared fruit.” Or as when she does some magic: “My strength welled up through my body and fountained out of my mouth, and where it left me, a trembling in the air began and went curling down around my body in a spiraling path.” Her novel explores interesting themes like the costs of immortality associated with magic, for as one centuries-old witch with countless great-grand-children says, “Once you’re old enough, they [lovers] are like flowers,” so “You learn to love other things than people.” Agnieszka doesn’t want to accept that, but does she have a choice? And I am thankful that Novik’s novel may be read by itself rather than as the first in an interminable series. In that and in her fine writing and compact cast of appealing characters and themes about life and love and creativity and power, her novel reminds me of Patricia McKillip’s work. Fans of such fantasy (who like hot romantic lines like “I wanted to rub handprints through his dust”) should enjoy this book. But be ready for audiobook reader Julia Emelin’s thick Slavic (Polish? Russian?) accent! A few hours into the book I came to like it and the exotic eastern European flavor she imbues the story with, and she does a splendidly scary Wood voice when speaking from inside possessed people. The problem is that she also maintains throughout the novel a rather monotonous, stilted delivery, with odd pauses in mid-sentence that often made me think a sentence had abruptly ended only to have it start up again. So you’d best listen carefully to the sample before buying the audiobook and compare it to a sample of the newer version of the book read by Katy Sobey in a crisp British accent with more natural rhythm. View all my reviews
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