Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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> Genre: Fantasy > Teased and Tantalized but not completely fulfilled.

Teased and Tantalized but not completely fulfilled.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

February 16, 2021 by MegsDarcy 6 Comments

When I found out I would have to spend 12 hours in a car by myself I knew I wanted to find an audiobook that would engage me as much as possible but not distract me. As I was travelling through the Rocky Mountains, I also wanted something that had an earthy tone. I’ve been a fan of Naomi Novik since I fell in love with the Temeraire series as a teenager. She has a beautiful lyrical writing style and weaves history and fantasy together masterfully.

Uprooted tells the story of a magical and menacing forest and the way the people who live around the forest react with it. The perspective is told by Agnieszka a 17 year old woman and protagonist of the story. Her journey has her leaving her home and living initially as a servant and then apprentice of the great magician who protects their country from the corruptible influence and spread of the forest.

I read that the inspiration for the story is from folk tales from Eastern Europe (maybe Little Red Riding hood type thing?) and I have been struggling with how to truly relate my feelings on finishing this book. There was a lot too it. So much in fact that after one battle had finished (about half way through the book I believe) I honestly thought the book was finishing and I was okay with that. Because I was listening to an audiobook I had no real concept of the length and I couldn’t remember how many hours it was recorded. But it was only the middle and there were two more good complete story arcs before the book came to a somewhat abrupt end. The book felt both incredibly long and like it left out a lot of details if that makes sense. Like the author had sketched out where she wanted the characters all to end up and concluded that she might as well make it one book instead of two or even three shorter volumes.

 

Despite my feeling of the book being incomplete, I liked the book very much. My biggest issue is with the main characters and how they developed. Agnieszka would have no growth, no change, no maturity except in powers and then a chapter later would have a complete new personality. She would go from being subservient and meek to all of a sudden being forceful and a brat. She would refuse to learn lessons or concentrate on what she was supposed to do, and then suddenly be able to complete complex magic when she needed it without hurting herself or others. And then there is the magician, the Dragon, the love interest.  I found the magician a very strange one dimensional character and was disappointed because I’ve read Novik before and know she can write a complicated character better. The magician is supposed to be one hundred years old and yet had no patience, dismissive and a brute without ever really telling us why. It was again like she had a sketch of the character and included only the high points rather than flesh him out properly, like all of the details that would have explained his choices were cut for time. My favourite character was her best friend Kasia who had the best arc of the story and the best relationship. She is badass and cool and I really had hoped she would have ended up with Nieszka.

The most disappointing was ultimately the ending. It ends in the gorgeous world with new characters and no real opportunity to explore it. The author has said the book is a standalone and she has no plans to write a follow up, so I am left unsatisfied looking at a half-finished world she created.

 

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult Tagged With: Naomi novik

MegsDarcy's CBR13 Review No:1 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult · Tags: Naomi novik ·
Rating:
· 6 Comments

About MegsDarcy

CBR13 participant

COVID will never end. I am going to spend the next year of isolation reading as much as I watch TV. GOALS View MegsDarcy's reviews»

Comments

  1. andtheIToldYouSos says

    February 16, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    Happy First Review! Welcome aboard!

    Reply
    • MegsDarcy says

      February 17, 2021 at 6:16 pm

      Thanks! I’ve been thinking about participating for 3 years.

      Reply
  2. dsbs42 says

    February 17, 2021 at 12:15 am

    I felt very similarly as well.

    I loved the world and descriptions of magic and her characters (after they’d grown on me, which admittedly took a while) and was sad to be finished reading, but, as I wrote in my Goodreads review, “I want more. And not entirely in the good way.” I don’t need to be spoonfed, but I also want to believe the author thought her world-building through.

    As for the Dragon, Agnieszka was away from him for so much of the story that their relationship at times read a bit like wishful thinking on her part. If I wasn’t meant to interpret it that way, I could have used more time actually SEEING his growth happen than just sort of being told that it did.

    But I liked it enough to buy Spinning Silver and the first Temeraire book!

    Reply
    • MegsDarcy says

      February 17, 2021 at 6:18 pm

      I’m glad you felt the same, I always feel when I write a review that isn’t as glowing as everyone else (on Goodreads etc) I’m going against the grain.

      I’ll look at Spinning Silver.

      Reply
  3. wicherwill says

    February 17, 2021 at 1:05 am

    I read this book after I read Spinning Silver, which was my first Novik book (I’d heard about the Temeraire series but never really thought they would be appealing to me). While I fricking LOVE Spinning Silver–it is, to date, on my list of top 5 favorite books, I went back through and rescaled hundreds of books on Goodreads to more accurately reflect what a 5* book should be–this book frustrated me to no end.

    It was so moody! Freaky forest of living trees (?? it’s been a while) that can get into you and turn you into plant zombies (okay a lot a while) but I never felt like the magic or Wood was grounded in rules. And without rules, everything is possible and nothing has tension, because there might be a magic spell in the library that can fix everything (and there was. this part I remember).

    So! If you haven’t read Spinning Silver I HIGHLY recommend, it is FANTASTIC. I eventually also read the Temeraire books, they start great and get middling as they go along although main dragon Temeraire remains charming throughout. And lastly her latest duology (of which the first book is out) is good but not as great as Spinning Silver.

    Reply
    • MegsDarcy says

      February 17, 2021 at 6:18 pm

      Thanks! I will look for that book and you made some excellent points.

      Reply

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