While I was not consciously aware of it when I started reading, it's been almost a year since I finished Uprooted, Naomi Novik's other fantasy novel inspired by Eastern European folk tales. For the most part, I really enjoyed Uprooted, it was an absolute corker of a fantasy novel, but sadly one with a few flaws marring its greatness. Because of my experience of the previous book, I was not sure what to expect when I started reading Spinning Silver; would it be just as good as Uprooted, but without the flaws? Or would it also leave me a touch disappointed at the end?
As it turns out, my fears were groundless, and Spinning Silver was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a very long time. Just like Uprooted, there's a wonderful sense of mystery in Spinning Silver. Being somewhat unfamiliar with the stories that inspired the book, the initial descriptions of the fae-like Staryk raiding monasteries for gold brought to mind Norse pirates, rather than a dangerous race of the 'other folk'. A few chapters in, however, the unnatural nature of the world's winter, and its link to the Staryk became more apparent, and I realised that this was indeed a (dark) fairytale world, rather than the cod medieval setting I had first taken it for.
Uprooted also started very strongly, and only began to lose my interest when the pacing kept accelerating, and the heroine suddenly went from being a simple peasant girl to the most powerful witch in the kingdom in the space of a few short months. While Spinning Silver's protagonist also suffers a little from a sudden and dramatic increase in magical powers, this time it felt much more in-line with traditional myths and legends; she gains her abilities almost as punishment for a hubristic boast and through the application of one world's rules upon another, rather than by spontaneously developing a new way of working with magic that is at once blindingly obvious, but also somehow had not occurred to any other of the kingdom's ancient and experienced spell casters.
Spinning Silver also benefits greatly from a strong set of supporting characters (while the book begins with a single protagonist, it ends with 3 or 4 who are all interesting in their own right), and a much more fluid pacing; a gentle sing song voice to Uprooted's quickly building roar.
I won't spoil too much of the plot here, or bang on further about Novik's prose, which remains excellent even if there are still a few Americanisms slipping in now and then. All I will say is that Spinning Silver is an excellent book; silly in places, and a little confusing during the final confrontation, but great fun nonetheless.
