Uprooted | Review

Uprooted gets a standing ovation and 4.5 stars! Bra-vo!

Written in a style reminiscent of old-school Robin McKinley and Diana Wynne Jones, Uprooted is a standout fantasy and fairytale retelling.  Agnieszka (Ahn-YESH-ka) has always been prepared for the day when she and the other girls in her village will be inspected, and one taken away, by the ageless wizard and lord known as "the Dragon."  However, she and everyone else in the village always expected Kasia, the most exceptional girl amongst them, to be selected as a tribute.  When the Dragon selects Agnieszka instead, she must submit to ten years of servitude and confinement.

It sounds like a straightforward Beauty and the Beast interpretation, no?  However, after the initial hook, the story diverges drastically from your run-of-the-mill romance.  What drives the story forward is the threat of an insidious and elusive dark magic.  Manifesting itself as a thick, impenetrable forest, the sentient evil is slowly and inexorably spreading across the kingdom.  Agnieszka is swept up in the resistance against this evil, her unique talents forcing the Dragon and herself into an uneasy alliance.

The whole self-aware, malevolent forest thing is quite similar to Rosamund Hodge's evil woods in Crimson Bound, a high-profile novel released just months before Uprooted, but in my opinion, Novik wins the comparison hands down.  Although I read Crimson Bound first, I didn't understand what Hodge was trying to accomplish until I took up Novik's novel.  The forest was deliciously creepy and an inventive villain.

As for the characters, I found Agnieszka to be a fantastic heroine, resourceful and intuitive.  She was well written, being both a distinct person and consistent in her behaviors, while also growing throughout the story.  The cantankerous and wounded Dragon was equally compelling.  These two characters and their combative relationship steered the novel, but the assisting and peripheral characters were an accomplishment as well.  However, I must complain, as others have, that the Dragon was not given nearly enough page time to satisfy me.  There had better be a sequel.

Overall, Uprooted was a fantastic read and is a novel to get excited over.  If you enjoy fairytale retellings, or YA fantasy, this book is not to be missed.

Half a King Review

Truth is, I had to battle with myself to get through Half a King.  Some of my most respected reviewers gave this book high praise, but there were long stretches during my reading where I was not feeling it.  However, I'd been seeing absolute raves over the second book in the Shattered Sea series — Half a World.  I resolved to work through Half a King, because forgoing its sequel seemed foolhardy.  As it turns out, Half a World was, indeed, so worth it.  I gobbled the book up and already have an itch to re-read it.  I'll get to that review in a bit.  For now, I'm going to parse out the strengths and weaknesses of Half a King.

The book has a single narrator — Yarvi, the younger son of the king of Gettland. Yarvi has a nasty attitude, which stems largely from his insecurities over his badly deformed left hand.  He's training to be a minister, a sort of jack-of-all-trades advisor to royalty, but the murder of his father and older brother forces him onto the throne.

At this point, I would have expected Yarvi to stumble through his first months of kinghood, making terrible blunders and chafing under his newfound responsibilities, but gradually getting his legs under him, and slowly winning the respect and admiration of his guard, his ministers, and his people, ultimately becoming a triumphant, if unorthodox king.

The book... does not go in this direction.  That is not to say that Half a King defies all well-worn plot lines.  But it does have an unexpected twist at the onset of the narrative that sends the book spinning into a more unexpected direction.  I won't get into the details, because spoilers!  But we do get to meet a great cast of characters and experience a number of diverse settings.

My main complaint with Half a King has to do with my dislike of our main character, Yarvi.  I've read enough reviews of the book to know that many readers disagree with me.  I totally understand where they're coming from.  I typically love a good underdog hero as well.  Yarvi, however, got on my nerves.  Abercrombie is fond of dirty realism, and lingers over Yarvi's human weaknesses — Yarvi shirks, whimpers, whines, and cries aplenty.  Abercrombie toes the line between making Yarvi realistic and making him a hero readers can get behind.  It's a thin edge, and I fell on the side of disliking the little bastard for his failures.

Fortunately, there were enough good elements in Half a King to distract me from my distaste for the protagonist.  The supporting cast was great.  Abercrombie, although a man, can write some seriously compelling female characters. (Thank you, Joe Abercrombie!)  There were great heroes and villains, as well, and even more in-between characters.  Near the end of the book, there is a totally unexpected and thrilling twist.  It was so much fun to read; my mouth hung open in delighted shock for a good while.

All in all, I can't see myself re-visiting Half a King, but I'm so glad I read it because of its sequel.  Half a World rests on all the world-building and plot set-up of its predecessor and far surpasses Half a King.  I can honestly say that I can't wait for Abercrombie's next installment.  Count me hooked.