Uprooted: A Novel

Product Information

Kit, Borys (June 8, 2015). "Ellen DeGeneres to Produce Adaptation of Naomi Novik's Fantasy Novel 'Uprooted' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved May 23, 2021. Priced to Sell" in Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow ( St. Martin's Griffin, 2011) ISBN 978-0-3123-8524-8 You see, Uprooted tries to to lure you in with it's rather gorgeous and intriguing front cover, and admittedly, I was rather excited when I'd read the plot. But now, I feel like I've been totally conned. Conned out of five hours of my precious reading time, but most importantly, time out my life.

With regards to the writing itself, it is masterful. Novik’s writing is engaging and easy to understand. Descriptions strike that balance of painting a clear picture without becoming overly long. Moreover, the use of a first-person narrative creates an immersive reading experience, in which you can easily imagine yourself in Agnieszka’s shoes experiencing everything firsthand. And I understand that these words are often used in negative ways when describing a book but here I want to use them in the most positive way imaginable. A very enjoyable fantasy with the air of a modern classic . . . Naomi Novik skillfully takes the fairy-tale-turned-bildungsroman structure of her premise . . . and builds enough flesh on those bones to make a very different animal. . . . The vivid characters around her also echo their fairy-tale forebears, but are grounded in real-world ambivalence that makes this book feel quietly mature, its world lived-in.” — The New York Times Book Review Lastly, the magic system is uber ridiculous. There were no limitations or repercussions to it; Agony could’ve conjured Geralt of Rivia, Gundam, Doraemon, or a massive spaceship, and it would still work. She’s a Mary Sue; there’s no proper explanation given to how her magic worked. She only needed to speak the words she has read, and she would be able to cast anything. I didn’t feel any intensity from the action and the battle scenes anymore because of this. I pity the tree used to create this novel.A perfect tale . . . A big and meaty novel, rich in both ideas and people,with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin.” — The New York Times Book Review

Meanwhile, the queen casts the blame for her disappearance on the rival nation, Rosya. Along with Prince Marek, she arranges for the murder of the current king as well as the Crown Prince of Polnya. Agnieszka and Kasia rescue the prince’s children before they can be executed and flee to the Dragon’s castle for protection. There that they learn that the queen has been possessed by the spirit of the Wood Queen, an evil monarch who was killed by her subjects centuries before. a b "Compton Crook Award: Past Award Winners". Baltimore Science Fiction Society . Retrieved July 3, 2019. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia – all the things Agnieszka isn’t – and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.But it wasn't Midwinter dinner. There was no eager ache of hun­ger in my belly from the long day of cooking and cleaning without a pause; there was no joyful noise of too many people crammed in around the table, laughing and reaching for the platters. Looking down at my tiny feast only made me feel more desperately lonely. I thought of my mother, cooking all alone without even my clumsy pair of hands to help her, and my eyes were stinging when I put them into my pillow, with my untouched tray on my table. But of course, there's more to Ag-noying than meets the eye, why, she's got magical power that's just waiting to burst from her like a rose from a fermenting pile of steaming poop. My strength welled up through my body and fountained out of my mouth, and where it left me, a trembling in the air began and went curling down around my body in a spiraling path.Yeah, yeah. I've read this shit before, and I say no, thank you. I like my main characters average, thank you very much. I like my "Dragons" with humanity. The narrator's voice is so heavily accented that I was frequently unsure of what word it was that she was attempting to pronounce (was that "clothing,""clawing," or "clearing"? "feeling" or "filing"? "onion,""oven," or "open"?) and at some points literally couldn't understand her at all. If this had been a personal memoir narrated by the author or something, this sort of narration style could serve an interesting purpose, but this is fantasy; there's no "real" way of pronouncing the non-English words. Johns, Andreas (1998). "Baba Yaga and the Russian Mother". The Slavic and East European Journal. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. 42 (1): 21–36. doi: 10.2307/310050. JSTOR 310050. I will', Prince Marek said. 'And I'll take this witch-girl of yours, and your lovely peasant [Kasia] too.'