Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik

I did love Uprooted, and there was something so solidly satisfying about it, so I was eager to give Spinning Silver a try when I could. I was a bit surprised, halfway through, why I was seeing a couple of reviews saying that it was a bit too like Uprooted, but having finished it I can totally see the point. There’s something in the shape of the story, and in the type of the reveal, that makes it very like Uprooted. That’s not to say it’s not satisfying, but unfortunately it’s one of the weaker aspects of Uprooted to me that is duplicated here in Spinning Silver…

In any case, the story: Miryem’s father is a moneylender, but a fairly useless one. She takes over from him, improving the prosperity of her family to no end, until the point where she boldly boasts that she can turn silver into gold. Naturally, the wrong people hear that and the Staryk king comes to demand she prove herself. The reward for success is ultimately to marry him and leave for his kingdom — a fate Miryem’s not so sure she wants for herself. Alongside Miryem, there are other protagonists: Wanda, a poor girl from the same village; Irina, a girl who might just (through her father’s machinations) become a princess… and a number of other POV characters, for some reason.

Mostly, it was just dragged out too much, with too many voices for the narration — who all sounded a little too alike. They’re not demarcated well on the page either, which doesn’t help. You can be reading for half a page before you realise there’s no way it can be Wanda talking.

There are definitely things to like about this, and the plot itself — and the cleverness of the fairytale retellings (because there’s more than one going on) — is definitely a draw. But it got a little bit too long, a little bit tedious, a little too bogged down in detail. And, like I said, there was something about the shape of the story which was very like Uprooted.

I enjoyed it well enough, but it certainly won’t get my Hugo vote.

Rating: 3/5