Humans, nature and magic blended into a Fairytale

Naomi Novik is an acclaimed author and her fantasy novel „Uprooted“ received amongst others the highly prestigious “Nebula Award”. Most of the reviews of “Uprooted” are extremely positive or even exuberant and I can see why, a young and naïve heroine, unaware of her gift in witchcraft, the eternal battle between the forces of good and evil and a story with the touch and feel of a Grimm’s fairy tale. Naomi Novik skillfully blends old myths and legends with conflicts and concerns of our time, the struggle to reconcile human interests with the preservation of nature.

Naomi Novik’s prose is enchanting and pleasant to listen to. It reminded me of the bedtime hours of my childhood, when mother was reading stories to us children. I especially liked the reference to old Polish myths, which give the narrative a very unique and special touch.The way magic is described here, is also quite appealing. It is not just spells and waving of wands, but rather finding the essence of things and magnifying its properties.

The storyline is not overly complex. Agneieszka, a young village girl, is sent to the tower of the dragon, a sinister sorcerer, to serve him for a decade. To her surprise she finds out that she has a gift for magic and together with the dragon she tries to protect the valley from the dark forces hidden in the surrounding woods. It does not really surprise that there is a strong bond growing between both of them, a nice romantic touch.

Unfortunately there are also some parts of the tale, which spoiled some of the fun for me:
1.) The story is unnecessarily violent and cruel. Thousands of soldiers are killed in battle and mostly by dark magic and bloodthirsty monsters. The author lingers too long on these battle scenes and does not move on until the last man died.
2.) Nature, especially the woods, are described as a source of evil and mankind has to fight nature rather than live in harmony with it.
3.) The story is a little bit lengthy at times and the reader gets the impression that it does not go anywhere.
4.) It probably is true for most fairytales, but Naomi Novik’s characters are black or white, villains or saints. This reduces the quality of the otherwise nicely structured characters.

Regardless of all that, it is an unusual and decent fantasy novel.

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7 Leute fanden das hilfreich

for teenagers, LARPers ... at heart

This is basically the coming-of-age-story of a teenage girl. She has to leave her family and friends. She gets trained in an art completely new to her. Initally overwhelmed, she discovers she is actually very talented at it. She falls in love with her teacher, attracted to a man who mainly comes across as distant and arrogant, but extremely good at his job and quite attractive. She learns about sexual attraction and has pleasant and unpleasant encounters. She learns that the dangers of her world are actually very serious and out to get her, not just the fairytales she believed as a kid; and how she can put her talents towards making the world a better place. She has to face up to the conflicts of her childhood days and resolve them. Her horizon broadens as she moves to the big city and has to find her way in social circles that were alien to her before. She gains knowledge and courage and self-respect. And then all of this is put to the test in a big showdown to save her world.
It's just disguised as a fairy tale complete with magicians, enchanted woods, witches, beautiful princes and evil queens which is disguised as a fantasy novel.
It's a bit like the Outlander series really, but with more magic and a bit less sex.
If you enjoy escaping into such a fairy tale world, if you occasionally enjoy such teenage erotic fantasies, or if you are a LARPer who enjoys detailed and intricate descriptions of magical spells and healing rituals - or if you are all of this at once deep down in your heart, you'll like this book. If not, read something else.

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3 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Loved it!

Both the speaker and the story were very good; the book is an exciting take on fairytales and has a strong heroine. And Nieszka is a nice nickname. :-) I loved the ending very much (but no spoilers!)

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

A simply wonderful story

This is the best book I’ve „read“ in a long time! Katy Sobey couldn’t have read it any better! Simply a joy from beginning to the end. A wonderful story...

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Comfortable Fantasy Fairy-Tale

First up I think it's important to note, that I wasn't bored or struggled to continue throughout this 19h audiobook - that is an achievement in and of itself.
However, I do have some criticism. First is the awkward tonal shift near the beginning of the third act. In the first half of the book, the story has this wonderful Fairy-Tale feel to it, with a small cast of characters and stakes that are never raised beyond the survival or happiness of these characters. Unfortunately, the book then seems to change its mind and drifts more into a tolkienesque high fantasy affair. Which still works, but wasn't what originally drew me to the book. I'm also not a huge fan of the reveal of what the antagonist actually is.
All in all it is still a pleasurable experience read by an extremely pleasant actress.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Fantastic

A great story from one of the best fantasy authors.
There's everything from romance to adventure & bizarre magic.
Very deep & entertaining at the same time.

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very good, cool magic, solid story all over.

I finished this book faster than usual. It's very good. Probably gonna be one of my favs :)

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absolutely lovely book.

the description makes it sound like a classic YA romantasy story, however it reminds me much more of tamora pierces books. the focus is on the world building, the storyline which stays gripping with multiple peaks, and the coming of age of our heroine. the love story is very subtle but incredibly cute if you don't read into the dragon wrong. if you are determined to dislike him you could easily ruin the experience, which some other readers reported. I however loved his character as well as all the others.

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Great feminist fantasy story

This is one of those books that you can't stop reading (or listening) albeit dreading reaching the end. I loved every minute of this - to me - feminist fantasy.
Why do I find it feminist? I have to spoil a bit in order to elaborate so don't read on if you don't want to be spoiled.
First of all the obvious: the heroine is female. Just that by itself wouldn't make it feminist, though. The heroine has a close female friend and other women in her life who play important roles and are individual characters and their lives don't just circle around men (Bechdel test, the bare minimum, passed with flying colors!).
At first the heroine fears she is forced to be locked away from her friends and family for ten years in order to fulfill every whim of this cold and distant wizard, who they have not seen to be cruel and abusive - but why would he choose a young woman every ten years to live with him if not to force himself upon her? I don't think I've ever read a similar fantasy story/fairytale in which they talked about sexual abuse. Luckily, it doesn't actually come to that, but I loved the "no bullshit" way this was covered - including the guilt of the village people for not rebelling!
The heroine then discovers that she is a witch and at first very unsuccessful until she finds out that her magic just works a little differently - it's more about intuition, feeling, intent than about the rigid rules her teacher tries to get into her head. And once she discovered that and once he grudgingly acknowledged that there is a different way of doing magic that he never imagined, it turns out she is actually pretty talented and powerful.
There also is a love story and parts of me do wonder if it might be partially Stockholm syndrome that she eventually fell for her initial incarcerator - it was just out of luck of being a witch that she could escape what practically would have been a decade long imprisonment after all. But I still liked the love story and - growing up with Disney and Co - even hoped for it. I liked learning that he is not as indifferent as he seems at first, why he became that way, the subtle signs that he cares for her despite them being so utterly different and despite him acting annoyed by her (probably just annoyed by himself for developing feelings) and how she started seeing through his act. I loved how she didn't try to please him so that he'd like her better (or show sooner that he liked her) and that he didn't try to pursue her or make any move until she made clear that she wanted him. I also liked their sex scene (her first time! ) - one of the few I've read that didn't make me squirm because there was mutual consent, no "she says no, but means yes" bs, she took up the reins, so the sex wasn't something that "happened to her" and there was no reproduction of the damaging "hymen that has to be broken through and there will be a small sharp pain" myth. Ken Follett should take a leaf out of Naomi Novik's book...
But even after they made clear to each other that they like each other, it doesn't become the main theme - or awkward when they still have to save the country. Yes, they've had sex and haven't talked about their feelings, but they can still work with each other. But also carry on with their own lives afterwards without feeling bitter and resentful or giving each other's needs up just to not be apart.
When he does decide to come back to her in the end, after everything else was sorted out, my secretly romantic heart overflowed with joy, of course. But it felt like a free decision that could have been made differently and that, too, would have been okay.

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Quite enjoyable

Interesting concept of Magic. Simple but nice world building- i quite enjoyed the "villains", where there isnt simple good or bad guys.
I felt the romance wasnt particularily necessary

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