Uprooted

Oh I loved this book enormously. So different. (Also a little bit in love with Sarkan, I have to admit). Happy to find a five star book after a year of mainly misses, too.

Update 7/12
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Okay, I've read a few reviews about this book from obviously very disappointed people and so I feel that I should say more about what I liked about this. Not saying that all of those people have missed these points, but I've seen a lot of ‘Sarkan is a dick / stockholm syndrome / cardboard cutout' comments and I do not agree.

I think that all of the wizards in this book are basically traumatized into coldness by their long lifespans. One of them explicitly touches on this at some point, explaining that it's hard when everyone you love dies, but that it gets easier over time. The Dragon himself is kidnapped at the age of three, taken from everything he knew and put in this cold environment. The man is scarred. He doesn't want any ties with anyone.

Apart from that, they are also, just like everyone else, part of a human race that has lost all contact with nature, both in their actual dealings with it and in their approach of magic. The kind of magic that Agnieszka brings into the mix is actually rooted in nature, just like she herself is. This tale is not about a ‘bad guy' (the Wood and the wood queen) that you 'suddenly have to feel sorry for at the end of the book', it's about how continuous lack of communication through time results in ossified layer upon layer of first lack of understanding and eventually hatred. The bad guy was never the wood. It wasn't even man either, per se. The bad guy is not listening and not wanting to change. Agnieszka represents communication and change.

I think the reason Sarkan falls for her is that they apparently can do some seriously sexy flower magic together, which I gather is a very sensual experience he's never had before. None of these wizards have, since they've all learnt their magic in coldness. She likes him because he at least has the intelligence and intellectual curiosity to look beyond his own limits, and to entertain the possibility of a different way.

Finally, while I do agree that there are certain Mary Sue-aspects to Agnieszka, her tremendous magical power clearly comes from her deep roots in nature, so it's not that weird that the others have to study and graft for seven years: they approach their craft from the science side. It's like she's whittling a very nice and very useful plate out of wood, whereas they have spent years building factories, doing research and making just-as-useful but rather sterile plates out of plastic.

So there you have it. Plates. I'm staying firm at five stars.

(Although I do think that Agnieszka shouldn't be dismissing /all/ learning like she clearly is doing. That did rub me up the wrong way a bit. Not everyone should be satisfied with being allowed to skip through the woods all day long.)