Spinning Silver
Ratings366
Average rating4.2
Four stars. Most of all I wanted to know about Irina and Mirnatius fate's, but for some reason author decided that it didn't matter.
Intricate plot that weaves multiple plot threads together, lovely prose, great characters who are worth rooting for.
This is an absolutely perfect and magical book, and it's especially stunning as an audiobook. I highly recommend for anyone looking for a good tale about personal growth, struggle, relationships and familial love - with some good ole' folklore and magic thrown in. It did take me a few chapters to get into it, but it was well worth it.
Better book read than listened to. Great story of three families and how they all collide in the end for the good of humanity. Well written, plenty of surprises, and deep story lines.
One of the best books that I've read this year. The storytelling is brilliant, and it unfolds like a fairy tale. It was charming and delightful. Novik is such a talented writer. That said, I did not like the Stockholm-syndrome crap that she did at the end, but I'm willing to overlook it.
I really enjoyed Novik's first book ‘Uprooted'. The book is not nearly as good. I think it fails the most because of the number of different POVs. Uprooted only has one so it's stilted fairy tale-esque language is a feature of the book. This type of language really doesn't work when there are multiple first person POVs. When there's a change in narrator, it can take a bit to figure out who's talking because there's really no change in the tone. And a lot of it doesn't feel necessary.
Also the plot is super convoluted and there were quite a few times where I thought “what was the point of that?”
This was fine! I enjoyed it!
Fantasy is not really my jam, but I do love stories of brave and powerful and hardworking women uniting against the Patriarchy (or ice kingdom, or whatever - basically Men Behaving Poorly), so there's that.
I didn't love the repetition of the same story from a second person's perspective, which happened frequently and required a bit of backtracking, and I didn't find the multiple viewpoints that useful in telling me any new information (though when I heard there were lots of POV characters with no discernible way of telling the characters apart, it did scare me off listening to the audiobook).
I mean, it was fine! Whenever I picked it up I was engrossed in it. But I don't think it will be particularly memorable, for me anyway.
My favorite parts were Miryem's ice-people servants, Tsop and Flek and Shofer. They were pretty cool. (Har har, I didn't even intend that pun.) I liked her growing relationship to them and the growth of the world-building in her understanding this new kingdom. I also liked the house-in-two-kingdoms.
Well. I was yawningly bored until the very last chapter which made me stay up past my bedtime and reminded me this is a fairytale. Without the hype, I think it is an ok book, not fantastic. But, without the hype I wouldn't have picked it up in the first place, having not particularly enjoyed [b:Uprooted 22544764 Uprooted Naomi Novik https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1550135418s/22544764.jpg 41876730] either.OTOH, having studied medieval fairy lore and trope, medieval Judaism, and medieval history, this book ticks all the right boxes.
Reread for comfort, because sometimes you need a charming little magical love story. I deeply enjoy the love interests, purely as a concept of ‘butthole is under a lot of stress and has never tried being a people before but is fully capable once someone smacks some sense into him'. It's not necessarily a good trope in the real world, but in fantasy world, reformed butthole is bumbling and delightful once they get over themselves and start learning how to be a people.
Retelling of Rumpelstiltskin where a king of the ice fey hears rumors of a woman who can turn silver into gold, and that woman is a Jewish moneylender.
“There are men who are wolves inside, and want to eat up other people to fill their bellies. [...] You have fed each other, and you kept the wolf away. That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away.”
I don't like fairy tales. Not at all. Especially not Grimm's fairy tales. In fact, I dislike those so intensely for their cruelty and “rough justice” that I didn't read them to my kids and hated them as a kid. Sorry, Little Red Riding Hood, for more than 40 years (and counting!) I've been rooting for the Big Bad Wolf!
Thus, it was with some reservations when I started reading “Spinning Silver” which turned out to be a fantastic story, masterfully told.
A soft-hearted moneylender's daughter, Miryem, finds out she metaphorically has the ability to turn silver into gold which, in turn, becomes known to the king of winter. The king presses Miryem into his services and even kidnaps her.
The local duke's daughter, Irina, is married off to the country's tsar who is obsessed by a fire demon. Last but not least, there's Wanda and her brothers whose lives are intertwined by fate with those of Miryem and Irina.
Sounds complex and maybe complicated? Well, yes, it is. Pretty much every major character gets to tell a part of the story from a first-person perspective which lends credibility and depth to the narrative. Unfortunately, this is one of the two notable flaws of “Spinning Silver”: Perspectives are usually switched with the chapter, sometimes even within a chapter and we, the readers, don't get told but are “dumped” into the new point of view.
This makes things more dramatic at times but much more confusing as well. When I was even slightly tired (and who isn't sometimes?!) or sleepy (e. g. when reading in bed) I would sometimes wonder who was actually narrating at that moment. The positive effect is, from my point of view (sic!), by far outweighed by the potential confusion. I would have wished for the narrator's name in the chapter heading or whenever the perspective changed because the “confusion effect” would destroy the immersion.
Immersion, though, is a great factor of my enjoyment and despite my complaint “Spinning Silver” is one of those books between the lines and pages of which I could lose myself. While I read the words and absorbed the story, glorious pictures of green pastures during summer and snow-clad forests during harsh winters rose before my inner eye.
The story is so powerfully and yet gracefully and sensitively told, I felt like the narrated world got real and its inhabitants with their merits and flaws became fully fleshed-out human beings. As if that alone hadn't yet been enough, Novik employs a decent, mostly subtle and sometimes dry humour, often finely laced with irony:
“I was reasonably certain he wasn't going to try and devour my soul. My expectations for a husband had lowered.”
Each character, even the afore-mentioned husband, gets to develop “organically”: Rarely has careful character development felt as real as in “Spinning Silver”. You cannot help but believe the motivation of every single character and while some turns in the story are predictable, they are so delectably satisfying and wonderfully enjoyable.
Did I convince you to read this remarkable book yet? No, well maybe you want some “philosophical” depth to your books? Do not falter, “Spinning Silver” is for you!
While unobtrusive at it, this book deals with deep moral and philosophical matters – does the well-being of many outweigh the needs of few? May I even sacrifice one life to save many? Does the “greater good” allow for any means? The answers to those questions aren't simply provided, though:
“I say to you, here are the dangers. Some are more likely than others. Weigh them, put them all together, and you will know the cost. Then you must say, is this what you owe?”
Depending on your personal answers to those questions you might find yourself in a bit of a moral dilemma at times.
On the other hand, even those who prefer a more “hands-on” approach may find themselves at home in this story as it's perfectly summed up by one of our heroines:
“What did it matter that they didn't speak of kindness, here; they had done me a kindness with their hands. I knew which one of those I would choose.”
In spite of all this praise I must not fail to deliver one more issue that slightly marred my reading enjoyment: At times, “Spinning Silver” does feel a little “slow”. As mentioned before, the story is lavishly told, in great depth and detail and, for me at two points in the story, it ever so slightly drags on.
Then again, if a story is that good, the language so enjoyable and even the villains so relatable if not likeable, how can I find fault in something like this?
“Warm gold blushed through the whole length of it with the slightest push of my will, and the child gave a soft delighted tinkling sigh that made it feel more like magic than all the work I'd done in the treasury below.”
And, thus, my review ends...
“I had spun the silk and then I had knitted it with the finest needles in the vines and flowers of the duke's crest”
... and with equal care this story is spun. Reluctantly leaving the lines and pages I've rejoiced being lost between, I'm hastening towards Novik's “Uprooted” next – and you go read “Spinning Silver”, and, please, keep the wolf away.
4,5 sterretjesPrachtig, origineel sprookje, dat me volledig transporteerde naar een winters landschap waar de hopen sneeuw al het geluid absorbeerde.Ongelooflijk gedetailleerd in zijn setting met schitterende “diepe” personages.Toch ietwat complex door de enorme rijkheid van de wereld en het aantal personages.Uiteindelijk vond ik deze iets minder dan [b:Uprooted 25068467 Uprooted Naomi Novik https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1502746657s/25068467.jpg 41876730], misschien net door de veelheid aan personages en perspectieven die het soms wat verwarrend maakten, maar al bij al toch een fantastisch staaltje schrijf- en vertelkunst.
There's something nostalgic about Novik's writing. Both “Spinning Silver” and her previous book “Uprooted” feel like German fairy tales written a hundred years ago. They have a sense of danger you wouldn't see in a Disney fairy tale, while incorporating the fear and reality of an old-time tale. Spinning Silver jumps between first-person stories following a money changer and her growth into the role. The story takes a turn when a mystical character asks her, a regular person, to change silver into gold after hearing of her skills out of context. What follows is a tale through distant worlds that still feels familiar.
There's something nostalgic about Novik's writing. Both “Spinning Silver” and her previous book “Uprooted” feel like German fairy tales written a hundred years ago. They have a sense of danger you wouldn't see in a Disney fairy tale, while incorporating the fear and reality of an old-time tale. Spinning Silver jumps between first-person stories following a money changer and her growth into the role. The story takes a turn when a mystical character asks her, a regular person, to change silver into gold after hearing of her skills out of context. What follows is a tale through distant worlds that still feels familiar.
I kind of want to give it 1 star for Miryem, Wanda, and Irina not running away to live in the cottage together as witches, but whatever this ending is FINE I GUESS.
Spinning Silver is a book of intertwined stories centering loosely on fairy tales, with Miryem who takes over for her incompetent father as moneylender and becomes known as a person who can change silver into gold, with Wanda trying to help her small family survive amid poverty and a drunk father, with Irina scrambling to escape her father's desire to sell her off to the tsar. It's a rich story, with elements of Judaism, of old Russian life, of a frozen world, of cold fairies. The story has dramatic shifts in points-of-view from small chapter to small chapter, from the young brother of Wanda to the nursemaid of Irina. It's a fresh take on old stories and old themes.
Wow, loved this new spin on Rumpelstiltskin. I really didn't want the book to end. I wonder if a second book is possible. I enjoyed the writing and loved seeing the story from the different views of the characters.
Spinning Silver has been exploding in the book scene over the past months since its release, it seems everyone has been reading it and falling in love with the characters within this Russian inspired fairy tale retelling of Rumplestiltskin.
I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings and so I had high hopes for this book and spotting it on my libraries new releases bookshelf I immediately picked it up. I hoped that it would be perfect for this autumn time of year as we head into the Halloween season and having just DNF'd a thriller I was desperate to find something to sink my teeth into.
This book is set in historic Russia and much of it is based around old Russian folktales along with the theme of turning silver into gold as in Rumplestiltskin. For those who have read and enjoyed Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale, this will be absolutely up your street as it has a very similar vibe to the setting and many of the same folk tales are mentioned such as Baba Yaga and the theme of Winter King's. We follow 3 different young female protagonists in this book. The first is the daughter of a Jewish moneylender who finding her father is better at lending money than reclaiming debts he is due takes over his business in order to save her family from poverty. As a result of her success, she attracts the attention of the Staryk king who challenges her to turn his silver into gold. The second is a poor girl from the same village who lives with her two brothers under the tyranny of her violent father and who goes to work for the moneylender as a way of paying off his debt and the way in which these first two stories intertwine are one of the highlights of the book. Their building friendship and the lessons they share make really good reading. The third and final character we follow is the daughter of a duke who aims to make her a marriage with the Tsar but she has little to recommend her as Tsarina and little does she know the darkness that her future husband hides within and the danger she will be placed in through the marriage.
This was an up and down reading experience for me with this book. There were chapters where I would be sucked into the story and would really be enjoying the characterisations that Novik outlayed and I would be really enjoying the story but then I'd come across chapters where I was getting a little bit bored. Things would become a little bit too wandered and steeped in the myths and I'd lose the will to keep reading and hence would be tempted to skip just a little to get back to the good bits. I think for me I found the bits where our heroines came together were really powerful and their growth as women was brilliant to read as was the building relationships between all the different families. Where it was character centered I was all in. I could have read all day but then when we became more steeped in the mystical and magical side of things I didn't love it. I found it all a bit too mixed up and confusing.
For me I have to give this one a 3 out of 5 star rating because it didn't grip me enough. About 200 pages in I did stop and think maybe it wasn't for me, then I flew through 8 chapters and thought I was back on track only to find that it dipped again and the last few chapters left me feeling a little unfulfilled. Because of my bumpy ride I can only give the 3 stars.