Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Event Calendar
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Fantasy > Novik spun gold with her creative re-working

Novik spun gold with her creative re-working

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

May 11, 2020 by Dome'Loki 3 Comments

Couldn’t help myself with the title for the review 🙂  Mysterious Galaxy recommened Naomi Novik’s  His Majesty’s Dragon, first in the Temeraire series, way back when it came out in 2006.  I instantly fell in love with concept, the dragons during the Napoleonic wars.  However, somewhere around book 5 I lost interest and never finished the series.  Then I sort of forgot about her as an author.  In the past few years Novik’s name kept popping up for Uprooted and Spinning Silver and I was intrigued.  Having just finished Spinning Silver, I’m now impressed at the depth of her re-imagining the Rumplestiltskin fairy tale.

The Rumplestiltskin story is barely recognizable but thematic elements are the bones for Spinning Silver.  Doing an impossible task three times, the power of names, and, of course, turning silver to gold.  Instead of one hapless female trapped by her father’s folly and a king’s greed, Novik created three women (Miryem, Wanda, and Irina) unhappy in their state of affairs, who pull themselves up to be greater than their starting circumstances.  The king and Rumplestiltskin have been replaced with a fairy king of winter and an unstable tsar.  Both of whom seem to be “bad guys” but they have deeper layers too.  The inspiration came from the original but this is wholly Novik’s tale.

While the story is shared through multiple viewpoints, it begins and ends with Miryem.  Miryem’s father is a soft-hearted moneylender who would rather starve than try to collect outstanding debts.  When her mother falls ill, Miryem takes matters into her own hands by running the business.  By refusing to take no for an answer, she begins recouping the back interest owed.  Sometimes taking trade to pay debt and then reselling the goods, Miryem is slowly growing her fortune by using hard work to build up silver coins to be exchanged for gold.  What she is doing isn’t magical but her boasts of turning silver to gold reach the fairy lord’s ears.  When given the task of changing silver coins for gold, the simple solution would be to exchange her gold coins for the fairy’s silver.  However, that would be a loss of income, so Miryem comes up with a plan to sell the fairy’s silver for gold, and use those gold coins to give the fairy.  The fairy lord has plans for Miryem and changing the silver to gold is but the beginning.

Nothing is as it first seems and there are levels of connection to events that seem unrelated.  Miryem, Wanda, and Irina are continually underestimated by the people around them but they use their intelligence to create space for themselves and take control of their stories.  I also particularly liked that Miryem was Jewish and her faith often directs her actions.  Like many a good fairy tale, this too has a “happily ever after” and I give it four stars.  Uprooted is going on my “wish list”.

 

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction Tagged With: #fantasy, cbr12, Dome'Loki, fairytale, Fiction, Naomi novik, Rumplestiltskin

Dome'Loki's CBR12 Review No:15 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction · Tags: #fantasy, cbr12, Dome'Loki, fairytale, Fiction, Naomi novik, Rumplestiltskin ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments

About Dome'Loki

CBR13 participantCBR13 CommentsCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participantCBR  9CBR 8

Reader, role-player, board-gamer, and baker who happens to be a mom that would like to travel and ride horses more. Found predominantly reading fantasy, sci-fi, children's, middle grade fiction, and YA in roughly that order, preferably with a cup of tea nearby. My daughter in 7th grade will occasionally be adding comments, as Ysakitty, to books she has read too. View Dome'Loki's reviews»

Comments

  1. andtheIToldYouSos says

    May 11, 2020 at 2:45 pm

    great review! this has been hovering around my TBR for a while now, and this was the kick I needed to actually sit down and read it!

    Reply
    • Dome'Loki says

      May 11, 2020 at 4:25 pm

      Thank you! Glad I could provide the impetus to read it 🙂

      Reply
  2. pixiestyx says

    May 11, 2020 at 5:16 pm

    I love this book so much! I rarely buy books anymore, but I bought it and Uprooted. I can’t wait to hear what you think of Uprooted.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Singsonggirl on Ye Olde ChildrearingCrap, I can't find it on the TV station's website anymore. But it was made by Austrian TV and was in German anyway. One of...
  • Singsonggirl on Perfume – Patrick Suskind (1985)Aaahhh, this is one of my all-time favourite books! I read the ending as a culmination of all the olfactory and sensory impressions? Like it...
  • narfna on Re-reading Mistborn, Era One – Part I: The Final EmpireA re-read would probably be your best bet if you want to continue because Sanderson is the king of bringing back details and making them...
  • wicherwill on Re-reading Mistborn, Era One – Part I: The Final EmpireMy brother suggested this book, and only recently told me / did I realize there were others as well. I don't remember enough of this...
  • llamareadsbooks on “Mouths always open, minds never so”OMG, that is the PERFECT casting. I was thinking this would make an absolutely amazing, brain-twisting movie. And you are so right about Doka, too,...
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in