Book Review: Uprooted

Uprooted

Written by Naomi Novik in 2015

The Raccoon: Every ten years, the Dragon, an immortal (human) wizard, takes a girl from the valley to serve him. It is the price everyone pays for the Dragon’s protection against the Wood, an ever-expanding, malevolent forest whose power looms over the whole kingdom. When Agnieszka is unexpectedly chosen by the Dragon, she discovers her own aptitude for magic, and both the wizard and his new apprentice find themselves facing a war between two kingdoms, with the Wood pulling the strings on both sides and everyone’s lives at stake.

UNMASKED: It is near-impossible to write original fantasy today; every trope and trope subversion has been written to death. Uprooted nearly falls into the same trap with its predictable beginning, but Novik’s inspiration from Polish folk tales and the unique premise of the Wood lay the foundation for a rivetingly fresh world and plot.

Uprooted maintains a rapid pace from the first to the last page. While Novik never lets up on the action, she takes care to vary the type of tension in each chapter and have the characters’ decisions organically lead into new problems. Furthermore, every wizard in Uprooted uses magic differently, and this variety in spellcasting helps maintain the excitement, even in intimate conversations, and craft beautiful images in fiery battles. Ultimately, the novel is perfect for both long-time fans of fantasy and readers still trying to find the right shallow first step into the deep waters of the genre.

Strengths:

• “The guards were firing arrows at us. One tore through her cloak and hit her back. Another landed just beside me and stuck into the side of the boat, quivering. I snatched the feathers off the arrow-shaft and threw them up into the air above us. They remembered what they’d once been and turned into a cloud of half-birds that whirled and sang, covering us from view for a few moments.” Again, each feat of magic is resourceful and personal, making use of the environment and tone of its surrounding pages and the character’s values. The overall effect is that Novik’s descriptions of magic feel far more natural than any other spell-slinging scenes I have read.
• Agnieszka’s best friend is equally well-developed as a character and undergoes a parallel yet entirely different arc.

Weaknesses:

• Novik crosses the line from magic armor to plot armor a few times.
• It takes half the book for the reader to completely understand the political situation between the two kingdoms.

Rating: 18/20 corrupted cows

Ideal Setting: Do not read this while sitting under a tree.