“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 …
“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.
Not sure why I stanned Scholomance for so long but slept on Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Naomi Novik is a master. I really loved this book - Agnieszka, first of all, is an absolute goblin and we love that for her. But as she comes into her own confidence and learns what she's capable of, and furthermore learns that those around her aren't as all-knowing as they think they are, this book just kept getting better and better until it was over. I had a great time with it.
This is solid fantasy book. I give it four stars for the magic, for the good (female!) protagonist, and the Slavic-fairy tale-theme.
For the first hundred pages, I was exited about this book. It felt new and interesting, and I loved the mystery of the valley, the theme of roots.
But then around page 100, the protagonist marched into the dangerous wood to free her best friend. She does what nobody has done before, unlocks some powerful magic - and then nothing?
The girl she moved earth and sky for is just a mute presence for the rest of the book. This could have been a story about friendship, but there was no connection, no shared moments, nothing.
I will have to admit that I was rooting for a love story. I had Chris Riddell's illustration of Neil Gaiman's "The Sleeper and the Spindle" in my head the whole time. But I was disappointed. Instead of the witch-loves-wooden-girl-story we get the powerful, grumpy, oh so mysterious wizard? Oh come on. It wasn't done too badly, but still.
The second aspect of the novel that I found frustrating was the protagonists naiveté. In the Temeraire series, Novik wrote suble, complicated politics, even though the protagonist wanted none of it. Here, it was just so simple, so naive. Oh well. One can't have it all.
There were good things: I loved the way the author twisted expectations, mixed in fairy-tales, and the (pseudo-)slavic spells and setting. And whenever the book took place in the valley, it was beautifully written.
Interesting worldbuilding, I like the writing style. Intriquing magic system rooted in real historical myths and superstition. If only it wasn't YA.
The main character is an average Young Adult protagonist, in pretty much every way. Clumsy yet likeable, doesn't succeed in things by going the normal way so goes her own way, which just so happens to also be much better...
Protagonist has stockholm syndrome. That doesn't make for a nice romantic plot. Not that I like to read romance at all in the first place (why do books not have warnings on the cover?).
The wood was a really interesting concept, a looming threat which I found really immersive. The conclusion to its story, however, was a bit.. meek? It felt a bit hurried, and like there ought to have been more depth to it than there was (or did I just not see it?). It felt almost …
Interesting worldbuilding, I like the writing style. Intriquing magic system rooted in real historical myths and superstition. If only it wasn't YA.
The main character is an average Young Adult protagonist, in pretty much every way. Clumsy yet likeable, doesn't succeed in things by going the normal way so goes her own way, which just so happens to also be much better...
Protagonist has stockholm syndrome. That doesn't make for a nice romantic plot. Not that I like to read romance at all in the first place (why do books not have warnings on the cover?).
The wood was a really interesting concept, a looming threat which I found really immersive. The conclusion to its story, however, was a bit.. meek? It felt a bit hurried, and like there ought to have been more depth to it than there was (or did I just not see it?). It felt almost like a different book tacked on at the end to offer some sort of conclusion. A conclusion not hinted at in any way for the rest of the book.
Disappointed the dragon wasn't a real dragon. I mean, that was pretty much the reason I picked up the book in the first place. False marketing.
Definitively would have benefited from being a trilogy or something rather than a single book.
I liked some of the characters (some Dragon remarks and Solya) and ideas (the encroaching wood mostly), but I really didn't care for the execution (writing / pacing). I found everything very predictable (this felt like very well trodden territory), the magic system disappointing (little explanation and unbelievable skill progression, maybe pacing issues?) and the romantic feelings between the characters rather off-putting.
3.5 Sterne Das Problem, was ich mit dem Buch hatte ist, dass die Geschichte oft zu unübersichtlich war. Oft passiert so viel auf einmal, dass ich die eine Wendung noch nicht greifen konnte, bis (zumindest gefühlt) sofort das nächste Ereignis eintrat.
"Uprooted" ist definitiv ein Buch, das ich irgendwann im Winter noch einmal lesen möchte, um die Geschichte dann hoffentlich komplett fassen zu können.
I picked this up thinking it contained dragons, but it doesn’t, only a wizard who bears their name. It does however play with the idea of a dragon taking a tribute or sacrifice, something that is common in folklore. The Dragon keeps the villagers safe from the Wood, but only if they offer him what they need.
Uprooted is firmly rooted in Slavic fairy tales and folklore. The Wood is a living, sentient thing, malicious in its actions. It is the thing that the people most fear. I’m not sure if the heart wood trees are something that have been around in folklore for a long time or if it’s borrowed from A Song of Fire and Ice, however these trees are not ones you would pray to. The idea of being trapped in a tree for months, years, but still alive is terrifying.
Traditionally, trees played an important part …
I picked this up thinking it contained dragons, but it doesn’t, only a wizard who bears their name. It does however play with the idea of a dragon taking a tribute or sacrifice, something that is common in folklore. The Dragon keeps the villagers safe from the Wood, but only if they offer him what they need.
Uprooted is firmly rooted in Slavic fairy tales and folklore. The Wood is a living, sentient thing, malicious in its actions. It is the thing that the people most fear. I’m not sure if the heart wood trees are something that have been around in folklore for a long time or if it’s borrowed from A Song of Fire and Ice, however these trees are not ones you would pray to. The idea of being trapped in a tree for months, years, but still alive is terrifying.
Traditionally, trees played an important part in Slavic religions, before Christianity came along. Each village would have a sacred tree, but they would also believe that some trees contained malevolent spirits. Baba Yaga is one of the best known characters from Slavic mythology and she gets a nod here, even if she isn’t in the story. Witches were always feared and here they have respect, perhaps out of fear, but do good for the land.
Agnieszka’s first forays into magic do not go well and the Dragon exasperates over her. As her abilities grow, it becomes clear that her magic is more organic in nature rather than the more academic style the registered wizards and witches prefer. Agnieszka has raw, unstructured magic, rather like the Wood perhaps.
Kasia is the girl everyone expects to be chosen by the Dragon. She has spent her whole life knowing what her fate will be and being groomed by her parents. She’s Agnieszka’s best friend and they worry about being separated. Kasia seems like the perfect fairy tale maiden but her role grows and grows, and she becomes a much more interesting character.
I liked the theme of being attached to a place, despite its dangers. And the walkers are basically giant stick insects but actually made out of wood. They were one of my favourite bits, and I don’t want to give too much away, but I loved their closing scene. It’s amazing how much a creature can evolve during a story, without it being the focus.
