Uprooted

Executive Summary: Despite a slow start, and a few other lulls, when this book had its hooks into me, I found it VERY hard to put down. 4.5 stars.Full ReviewI've been meaning to read Naomi Novik for awhile. I purchased [b:His Majesty's Dragon 16415676 His Majesty's Dragon Naomi Novik https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1431943393s/16415676.jpg 726205] awhile ago fully intending on reading it, but still haven't gotten around to it.So instead I'm starting here. If her Temeraire books are anywhere near this good, I need to make time to read them soon.This book started a bit slow. Then the story felt like it really got going, and the next thing I knew, I'd read 100 pages. Things slowed down some in places, but I tore through several parts of it in 100 page chunks.I've heard this compared to a fairy tail. I guess that's true. I haven't really read any since I was a kid, so my thoughts never really went there. For me, it reminds me a bit of Tolkien. The description of the woods, and the largely unexplained magic and my sense of wonder at the world. In fact, normally I'm firmly in the [a:Brandon Sanderson 38550 Brandon Sanderson https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1394044556p2/38550.jpg] camp on magic. I like well defined magical systems where the characters stay within the rules that the author establishes early on in the book. However the fast and loose approach to magic here didn't bother me for some reason. I can see how it might bother some though. I liked the contrast and complementary nature of Agnieszka's magic compared to the Dragon's.In fact the reaction of the Dragon to her magic, is probably why it didn't bother me. He was having my typical reaction for me. Of course his magic methods weren't very well explained either, but seemed to be methodical in nature.The characters took time to grow on me, but I liked Agnieszka fairly early on, and mostly liked the Dragon by the end. I enjoy the trope of the cranky old wizard, and the Dragon largely fits that exactly, with a little derivation. For anyone tired of that trope, this may be a larger issue.I thought Kasia served as a nice contrast to Agnieszka, and that contrast is used nicely by the author to add depth to both of them. The pair of them make for a nice change of pace for the typical fantasy protagonists.The real lure for me was the forest. I've always enjoyed camping and hiking in the woods. It's something I don't do much these days, so living vicariously through characters in a book is the next best thing.These aren't woods I'd want to visit though. I was fascinated by the mystery and discovery of the woods as the story progressed. There is also some pretty interesting world building with an ancient culture that has been largely lost to time. Some of the details felt a bit rushed at the end, but I'll happily take that over this being book one in a series. This story is very well self-contained. There is plenty of room to tell future stories, but this can easily be picked up and consumed by itself, which seems rare for fantasy.Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I plan to move Ms. Novik's other work higher up on my To read list.