Uprooted
An extraordinary spellbinding fantasy inspired by Slavic folklore
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3 Months Free
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Uprooted
Narrated by:
Katy Sobey
Buy Now for £11.33
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Narrated by:
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Katy Sobey
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By:
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Naomi Novik
A dark enchantment blights the land in the award-winning Uprooted – a captivating fantasy inspired by fairy tales and steeped in Slavic folklore. From the author of A Deadly Education and His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik.
'A great heroine, new takes on old myths and legends, and surprising twists and turns. A delight' – Cassandra Clare, author of Sword Catcher
Agnieszka loves her village, set deep in a peaceful valley. But the nearby enchanted forest casts a shadow over her home. Many have been lost to the Wood and none return unchanged. The villagers depend on an ageless wizard, the Dragon, to protect them from the forest's dark magic. However, his help comes at a terrible price. One young village woman must serve him for ten years, leaving all they love and value behind.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka fears her dearest friend Kasia will be picked next, for she's everything Agnieszka is not – beautiful, graceful and brave. Yet when the Dragon comes, it's not Kasia he takes . . .
Uprooted is a stunning, romantic fantasy filled with unexpected twists, beautiful friendships and fierce battles against dark forces.
'So vividly believable that it almost seems you could work the spells' – Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the Earthsea series
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winner of the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Winner of the British Fantasy Society Award for Best Novel
Shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
Shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel
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Critic reviews
Uprooted has everything I love: a great heroine, new takes on old myths and legends, and surprising twists and turns. A delight. (Cassandra Clare, author of the Mortal Instruments and Chronicles of Castellane series)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik is enchanting, in every sense of that fine old word. A charming and inviting story that looks unflinchingly at the strangling roots of hurt and revenge. (Robin Hobb, author of the Farseer Trilogy)
The magic in Uprooted, with its realistic moral dimension, is so vividly believable that it almost seems you could work the spells. But the book will do that for you. (Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the Earthsea series)
Wild, thrilling, and deeply, darkly magical. An instant classic. (Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians)
Magical and practical, otherworldly and planted in the real, I could NOT stop reading this book and neither will you! (Tamora Pierce, author of Wild Magic)
Uprooted is one of those tales you come back to over and over again because it's just that enchanting. The adventure builds with such tension that you are peeking through your hands at the end, hoping it will all be okay, and Novik delivers a conclusion that's deeply satisfying, earning a permanent space on my bookshelf that I'll revisit often. (Kevin Hearn, author of Ink & Sigil)
Naomi Novik's Uprooted is a marvelous fantasy reminiscent of Howl's Moving Castle and vastly superior to The Hobbit. Her characters, setting, and the magic they use are all brilliant. I devoured the book in one reading. Well done! I want more! (Todd McCaffrey, co-author of the Dragonriders of Pern series)
The roots of Uprooted are planted deep in fairy tale lore, but the story that Naomi Novik has coaxed forth is fresh and compelling. It reads like a previously undiscovered origin myth in the best possible way! (Jacqueline Carey, author of Kushiel's Dart)
Every so often you come upon a story that seems like a lost tale of Grimm newly come to light. Uprooted is such a novel. Its narrative spell is confidently wrought and sympathetically cast. I might even call it bewitching. (Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Elphie)
Spectacular
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loved it
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I found myself rooting for her as she takes on each battle, mental as well as physical. And I enjoyed seeing her confidence grow, as well as how she eventually taps into the heart of the hard-armoured Dragon, which helps them understand how they feel about each other and that allows them to become a powerful duo.
Katy Soby's soft clear voice is well suited to the book, and the author describes each scene so well that I could really let my imagination take me further in.
All I would say is that after a major scene near the end, they seem to emerge unscathed and dust themselves down before they head to the wood, as if there was no consequence of their actions (with so much death around them, they had some answering to do). What became of the Falcon and the Barron? Maybe I missed it. Also, some outcomes in the last major scene in the wood, just seem too easy in the end. After we see how evil and dangerous the corruption is at the start, where just being in the wood can infect, yet it's affect seems to no longer an issue at the end, even though it's still there.
Gripping
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Over the past few months in a sick hunger to consume, I repeatedly googled 'novels similar to Hayao Miyazaki films'. The most popular and frequent responses were for this novel. None of the other suggestions felt right, nothing seemed to grab me. However, as soon as I started listening to this story, I was hooked. I absolutely see the reasons why this was reccomended in relation to Miyazaki; mostly for the similarities to Chihiro's experience of drifting into another world in Spirited Away. The most miyazaki moments for me came following the escape of the quartet from the city. I was so thrilled to hear how Agnieszka created a boat from reeds, oxen from mud, and weapons from sticks and stones. This is by far the closest I have witnessed an author come to capturing something akin to the magic of Miyazakiworld. Furthermore, a trait I like to witness in any aspect of life, in art, is forgiveness. Forgiveness and redemption are important aspects of Miyazaki's characters. In uprooted, Agnieszka has a forgiving and redemptive nature to her very core. While other characters generally display mercilessness and vindictiveness to differing extents, Agnieszka always has room to forgive and heal. Agnieszka is a healer, yes. A wonderful character.
Uprooted is full of metaphor, analogy, and allusion. The problem is, when you are listening to an author's work for the first time, you don't know whether it is worthy of your time at all, and certainly not of your extended time to take notes for literary criticism and structural analysis. Uprooted is a work that deserves this level of attention, and I am regretful that I did not take the time to pause my audiobook from time to time to note the special quotes, and describe what I saw in the metaphors. I won't make the same mistake with the next Novik book. Notable aspects were the metaphors related to corruption, which became so complex towards the end that I could no longer keep track of what the author was alluding to (no critism intended). However, at first, corruption struck me as a methaphor for all the complexes, neuroses and compulsions that one can accumulate over time. Another idea that stood out for me was that of the different aspects of reality that 'magic' represents in this world. We witness how the different magicians have a different feel when Agnieszka casts spells with them, how Agnieszka communicates to the reader/listener that there are different truths, different ways of approaching life.
I have two reservations about the novel, for which I apologise; my personal opinions don't match the quality and value of such a great novel. Firstly, the pacing and stress. I found this listen quite stessful at times, without time to catch my breath, to relax. This criticism is also the root of a reason for praise, the author managed to include an staggering number of action and combat sequences. Most authors struggle to craft even one plausible and gribbing action scene, Naomi Novik managed about 20 in this novel alone. My reservation lies in personal preference; I desire a longer version of uprooted, retaining all these brilliant action scenes, but nestled between chapters of warmth, safety, mundanity. I wanted to hear more about Agnieszka studying, exploring in relative safety, meeting new people without a raincloud hanging above them. My second reservation is the sex scene. I found the entire romance between Agnieszka and Sarkan utterly repulsive, hideous, and painful. I notice that some of the most popular quotes online relate to Sarkan's cool comments towards Agnieszka, and their resulting embraces. I personally found the unkind comments of Sarkan hard to take throughout the novel, despite their importance in the character development, in the thawing of his heart. I felt and imagined the relationship between these two incredible characters to be platonic, and these cheap romantic scenes clawed at my engagement with the story. However, I accept these scenes weren't written for me, and plenty of individuals seem to like them, each to their own.
A brief note of praise for the commendable message of the importance of home, and having roots. I think for many people, their home comes with struggle and problems; problems you can't solve, pain too much to bear. Many flee, seeking better things, who can blame them? Agnieszka and uprooted highlight the importance of staying to fight. They also highlight the struggles. I am reminded of the lyrics below from a song titled 'Be safe' by a band named 'The Cribs':
"You can change your clothes
Change your hairstyle, your friends, cities, continents
But sooner or later your own self will always catch up
Always it waits in the wings"
Another brief note of praise for Agnieszka's independence and autonomy. There were several moments where it seemed as though something was available to Agnieszka that she should take, a spell, or a plan of Sarkan's, or to live in his awesome tower. However, Agnieszka did things her way, and made brave decisions that other's were not comfortably with, that seemed risky to them. However, Agnieszka trusted her intuition always, and it always won through.
Nice representations of the working class, villagers, and village life.
Oh, and the narrator, Katy Sobey, was a pleasure to listen to.
Favourite quotes:
“truth didn’t mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn’t come and listen.”
“I remembered when my oldest brother married Malgosia, and suddenly the two of them stopped running around with us and started sitting with the parents: a very solemn kind of alchemy, one that I felt shouldn't have been able to just sneak up on me.”
“I hated her; I wanted her to burn, the way so many of the corrupted had burned, because she’d put her hold on them. But wanting cruelty felt like another wrong answer in an endless chain.”
“I missed home like the ache of hunger, something in me left empty. I’d missed it every day since we crossed out of the valley, going over the mountains. Roots—yes. There were roots in my heart, as deep as any corruption could go.”
“He'd chosen to go for a soldier. Maybe he had a story that began that way: a poor widowed mother at home and three young sisters to feed and a girl from down the lane who smiled at him...he'd go home then in his fine uniform and put silver in his mother's hands and ask the smiling girl to marry him.
Or maybe he'd lose a leg and go home sorrowful and bitter to find her married to a man who could farm; or maybe he'd take to drink to forget that he'd killed men...“They all had stories. They had mothers or fathers, sisters or lovers. They weren't alone in the world, mattering to no one but themselves. It seemed utterly wrong to treat them like pennies in a purse. I felt the soldiers understood perfectly well that we were making sums out of them...this many safe to spend, this number too high, as if each one wasn't a whole man.”
Bravo
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Quite a strange magic in this book and took me a while to get used to it but it was quite fast paced and enjoyable to listen to.
Magical
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