Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver

by Naomi Novik

'I couldn’t put it down'– Katherine Arden, author of the Winternight trilogy

Rumours have drawn unexpected attention – and now her life hangs in the balance. From the author of the award-winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver is a rich, original tale inspired by the folktale of Rumpelstiltskin.

Will dark magic claim their home?

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father is too kind-hearted to collect his debts. They face poverty, until Miryem hardens her own heart and takes up his work in their village.

Her success creates a rumour that she can turn silver into gold, attracting the fairy king of winter himself. He sets her an impossible challenge – and if she fails, she will die. Yet if she triumphs, it may mean a fate worse than death. And, in her desperate efforts to succeed, Miryem unwittingly spins a web which draws in the unhappy daughter of a lord . . .

Irina’s father schemes to wed her to the tsar – he will pay any price to achieve this goal. However, the dashing tsar is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of mortals and winter alike.

Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and Irina embark on a quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power and love.

'I loved this book so much' – Laini Taylor, author of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series

'A gorgeous read. The sort of book one reads again and again' – Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library series

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

3 of 5 stars

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Lost me a few times The story is good and well-executed, except for two things.  The romances and the points of view.  Yes points, there are about six throughout the story and sometimes it jumps from one to another without any warning and this drew me out of the story.  That and I didn't really feel that the romances had any build-up.  It felt like one minute the characters hated each other and next minute they loved each other and there was no real building of relationships, even though the story was told from several of the female character point of view.  Your mileage may vary and I've seen several people quite effusive about this story, so take my opinion with enough salt.
 
The story is that of Rumpelstiltskin, mostly, and a winter king and Chernobog and a few other tales I'm sure (my knowledge of Russian Folk tales is not as good as other genres) and it's from the point of view of some of the women involved and it has twists and turns that give the female heroines more agency.  The characters are well-drawn and interesting and I enjoyed it for the most part, except where I couldn't tell who was narrating because the paragraph break wasn't enough of a clue (I like books where the chapter headings tell me who is talking to me) it broke the stream of the story because I had to back-track to see who I was dealing with.  I'm sure it might work better for others (and I've seen some reviews where the audiobook narrator does quite a good job of dealing with this in their opinion).
 
So overall not a bad read I just would like to have had it formatted better and to have a better romance for the characters.  

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  • 18 February, 2019: Reviewed