It's been awhile, but sometimes I like to profile an author whose books I've really enjoyed. This one may be a little out there for those of you who read this blog regularly. Naomi Novik is a fantasy writer whose stories are rooted in fairy tales and magical myths. I first discovered her several years ago when I read her stand-alone novel Uprooted, and it remains my favorite of her work.
Uprooted is the story of Agnieszka. She lives in a small village in a valley next to a malevolent Wood. She is chosen to live with the Dragon, the wizard who keeps the Wood at bay. He discovers in her an affinity for magic, although they clash regularly about the different methods they use to wield their power. Eventually the Wood must be dealt with permanently if the valley and the entire kingdom are to survive. I love the feel of this book. Agnieszka is untidy and clumsy and practical and her magic is similar. The Dragon is precise and ordered and wants his magic to work the same way. Reading about them figuring each other out and how to work together is fun.
More recently, I have been reading Novik's dark Scholomance
series. I wasn't familiar with the legend of Romania's school of black magic called Scholomance, but Novik takes a few elements of her story from it. In the first book,
A Deadly Education, El is in her junior year. In this world, young wizards are constantly being attacked by malefeceria, monsters that want to eat them for their mana. Mana is the magical energy that all sorcerers use. The school gives the students a 1 in 4 chance of surviving to adulthood (much improved over the odds outside the school) where they are much better prepared to protect themselves. El's great-grandmother prophesied that she would become a great dark wizard and destroy the world and El is determined not to fulfill the prophecy. I like El because she is grumpy and surly and unfriendly, but still determined to do the right thing, even to her own detriment. I finished the second book,
The Last Graduate, this week and the ending was SHOCKING! Now I have to wait an eternity for the last book in the series to be released.
Novik's older series, Temeraire, is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars. Now, to be honest, I didn't read this series for a long time even though I had enjoyed her other work because I just wasn't really interested in the Napoleonic Wars. I still have only read the first two in the series, but I enjoyed them very much. The story follows a British ship captain, William Laurence. When he captures another ship, he finds on board a dragon's egg very close to hatching. When a dragon hatches, whoever it accepts a harness from becomes its handler. Of course, to his dismay, Captain Laurence is chosen. He names the dragon Temeraire and must leave his ship and report to a training camp to learn how to become a handler. The first book,
His Majesty's Dragon, follows their training and their first battle. After the battle, it is revealed that Temeraire is in fact a Celestial dragon. His egg was a gift from China to France and China is not very happy that he was intercepted. The second book,
Throne of Jade, follows them as they travel to China and learn about Temeraire's origins.
Novik's other stand-alone novel,
Spinning Silver, is not my favorite, although from the reviews on Goodreads, I am in the minority. It is a loose play on the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin. When Miryem has some success in business she brags that she can turn silver into gold. Unfortunately her boast is overheard by fae and she is forced to marry their king. As I said, I didn't particularly enjoy this book so my memory on the details is fuzzy. Since I have enjoyed all of Novik's other work, I may need to revisit it soon and see if it improves for me on a second reading.
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