First-class folk tale fantasy

It's always easier to fill a blog post with whinging than gushing. However, when I come across a really good read, I (mostly) feel duty bound to write about it and spread the word a bit. And Uprooted by Naomi Novik is a first-class page turner. It engrossed me during two train journeys and nearly all moments I could steal during a two-day mini-conference.

The set-up easily explains why I bought the book in the first place. The heroine, the determinedly un-heroine-like Agnieszka, lives in a village in a fairy-tale version of Poland. The village lies close to the malignant Wood, a forest enchanted in all the wrong ways which each year encroaches a little further into the land. Keeping it at bay and protecting the nearby villages is a sorcerer called the Dragon, who is also the villages' overlord. Every ten years, he claims one of the girls in the villages who then goes to work for him in his isolated tower. After the ten years are over she is richly rewarded and can return to her family. Only, in the end, none of the girls choose to stay in their home village - they all go away and make a life for themselves elsewhere.

Agnieszka is one of the girls in the risk zone for being picked for Dragon duty, but she is not worried for herself: like everyone else, she is convinced that her best friend - beautiful, accomplished, sweet-natured and brave Kasia - will be the one selected. Agnieszka is no beauty, and her chief talent seems to be to tear her clothes and get herself muddy. She grieves for Kasia's sake, and yet when the day comes, the Dragon - somewhat churlishly - decides to take her instead.

So, sorcerer meets girl, sorcerer takes girl to his castle (well, kind of), sorcerer and girl get better acquainted - what's not to like? In fact, this is only one plot strand, forming a sort of classic fairy-tale base line, while there are all sorts of other things going on. We have to wait for quite a while before there is a thaw in the relationship between the Dragon and Agnieszka, and when it finally sets in they are both drawn in deeper than ever before in the fight against the Wood. There are twists and turns which keep you hooked to the end, wondering how such a formidable enemy as the Wood is ever going to be defeated.

The funny thing is, the few niggles I do have about the novel are closely connected to things that are good about it. A novel, like a person, isn't necessarily made out characteristics that are either good or bad: it can have traits that are both good and bad at the same time. Not that the aspects of the book I had problems with are bad, exactly - my criticisms are probably more to do with my personal tastes than anything else.

The reason the Dragon, aka Sarkan (which somehow sounds better though apparently it means the same thing), picked Agnieszka in the first place turns out to be that she has magic powers, and he is duty bound to train anyone with magic he comes across so they don't unwittingly make mischief. Now, Agnieszka's type of magic remains a mystery to him for a long time as it's quite different from his own, scholarly type of wizardry - it's very earthbound and close to nature. This is an important facet of the novel: because Agnieszka is so attuned to her surroundings, her descriptions of the Wood are intensely atmospheric, and it also helps her understand what kind of threat they're facing. At the same time, the whole concept of Agnieszka's magic being all earthy and mother-nature's-daughterish and Sarkan's being more dry and bookish and them complementing each other in some Yin-and-Yang way gets on my nerves a bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's clichéd, but somehow it's typical that the female magic user turns out to be the one who's unsophisticated but ultimately wiser because of her special bond with nature.

As I've mentioned, the relationship between Agnieszka and Sarkan is put on the back burner for a large part of the book. Which is also good in principle, because then parts of the story are highlighted that are more unpredictable. On the other hand, I liked Sarkan, and once the various adventures had reached their climax I would have preferred him and Agnieszka to move jointly into the foreground again. Instead, the narrative focuses more on Agnieszka finding her proper place and happiness on her own terms. Which is fine and dandy I'm sure, but... priorities, girl! It's not as if hot sorcerers are that easy to come by.

Agnieszka herself is another two-faced coin. She is certainly a more interesting heroine than the perfect Kasia would have been, but there are times when her anti-heroine status feels a touch overplayed, like when she's struggling at the royal court. Would it have killed her to make a little more of an effort to fit in, considering what's at stake?

These are just minor irritations, though, and as I said, probably down to my personal preferences. All in all, this novel is great, with an exciting story and well-drawn characters, including the supporting cast. Kasia somehow manages to be not unbearable; Prince Marek, who at first seems to be a typical "prince who turns out to be a bastard", has an overreaching motive for most of his actions which it's hard not to sympathise with; plus there's a delightfully shady wizard rival to Sarkan at court - the Falcon, aka Solya - who if I'm honest is even more up my street than Sarkan himself. For those who like their fantasy as close to a classic folk tale as possible, this is definitely worth checking out.

For my part, I'll be looking out for when Novik's newest novel Spinning Silver comes out in paperback, though the blurb has me somewhat worried. One can hardly fault the fairy-tale inspiration in this case, but, um, what happened to the original story's title character? Here's hoping the novel will not just be girl power all the way.