Spinning Silver

Book Title: Spinning Silver

Author: Naomi Novik

Date Started: June 25th 2018

Date Completed: July 1st 2018

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Do you need a book to help your Katherine Arden cravings while you're waiting for the Winter of the Witch? (As much as I hate to compare books to directly, in this case it's just too perfect.) Do you want to stay inside when it's way too hot outside and read about the winter weather that's just as dramatic as this heat wave? Well, I've got the book for you, and you'll end up not being able to put it down even though the heat kind of breaks the imersion, but hey.

There's something about fairytale-style prose that is just enchanting. Haha, yeah, maybe not the more original choice of words, but that classical modesty about fantastical objects and happenings just gets me. Somehow, the lack of surprise at magic makes it seem all the more wonderous; it's almost commonplace. It's especially striking in a book like this, where we seem a historical setting just non-specific enough to feel timeless. It echoes through history, it's everywhere. However, it might be said that the objectivity this kind of narration brings can sometimes create anticlimaxes; the 'final stand' felt a bit... well, flat. Because the prose is almost nonchalant about it. It didn't ruin the book, but the climax felt like it was designed for a little more drama than the writing style allowed.

I assume there are three loose retellings running through this novel, with three protagonists spearheading each. I make a guess there because they're so well weaved together, and their paths cross so subtly that I can't tell. It feels like each story is being given its due in running its course - bringing it to a new audience, let's say - but they're elevated into something more by being combined with each other. Sometimes these kinds of multiple retellings can feel like a short story collection that's had its chapters mixed up, but Spinning Silver takes the themes and characters from each and places them neatly into a little world, letting them run their destinies into one another - presumably smiling at the chaos that ensues.

I'd like to think that a great deal of the books I come into contact with will have good female characters these days - or at least the ones I choose to read - but Spinning Silver caught me off guard. Because they weren't just good, they were proper characters. Let me clarify: to be good, they have to have a purpose, not be there as a decorative or to make a snappy comment every few pages; think of it like a literary Bechdel test. But to have proper characters, they have to have motivations, relationships, complicated personalities and developed backstories - which is hard for any character regardless of gender, it just happens to be seen more in male than female characters. Spinning Silver is led by three strong, varied women that all make (quite disasterous) mistakes, but won't take shit by the end. And what I especially loved was that we got to see them grow into those roles. Maybe one was born a bit of a rebel, one kindhearted, one inquisitive, but they learn to be more than their original persona, which I appreciate. They also learn through different experiences, and learn to be different things: I don't want to break it down to 'the cunning one', 'the brave one' and 'the bold one' because that would be simplifying their characters, but the point is that they aren't all the same by the end. To juggle that along with the other characters and storylines and have it pay off and be involved with the story is damn hard, but Novik does it and she does it well.

I really enjoyed Spinning Silver - it was a lot more classical than I expected it to be, but I say that with pleasant surprise. It's makes me happy that there are fantasy books that are coming out that keep the old European fairytale style alive. As mentioned, if you liked The Bear and the Nightingale, this'll be right up your street. I'm excited to go back to Uprooted by Novik (that's I've had for like three years, oh dear), and I look forward to more in this vein in the future.