Spinning Silver in Overdue Podcast

Sep 26, 2018 Kaylie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, set-fantasy

I was expecting Spinning Silver to be a solid reworking of a fairy tale, which would be enjoyable enough, but nothing to blow me away. I am delighted to have underestimated Naomi Novik in this instance, because Spinning Silver was absolutely fantastic. The early chapters drew me in by giving my excellent women to care about; women who help each other in the face of useless and abusive men. The different perspectives were so well handled that I thought I was going to be reading a novel told entir I was expecting Spinning Silver to be a solid reworking of a fairy tale, which would be enjoyable enough, but nothing to blow me away. I am delighted to have underestimated Naomi Novik in this instance, because Spinning Silver was absolutely fantastic. The early chapters drew me in by giving my excellent women to care about; women who help each other in the face of useless and abusive men. The different perspectives were so well handled that I thought I was going to be reading a novel told entirely from the viewpoints of the women in society, which I now think Naomi Novik could handle masterfully. Its almost a shame that isn't what Spinning Silver ended up being — but not really a shame, because I did enjoy the glimpses she provided of the male characters thought processes.

While I wasn't blown away by Naomi Novik's previous novel, Uprooted, I did enjoy the writing style, and Spinning Silver goes one better than that. The early chapters are so atmospheric that they reminded me of Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child, but what really impressed me was the use of metaphor throughout. The contrast between silver and gold is present in ways that are subtle at first, which build and build on each other as the story unfolds. Naomi Novik does some really clever things with world-building, too, using the tropes of 'fairy tale logic' to further both character development and the plot. That said, Spinning Silver isn't anything so simple as just a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, it's a story in its own right, which only takes elements from the original fairy tale, and most of those elements it twists in a clever way to make them more dramatic and more interesting. What I mean by fairy tale logic are the rules of magic in Naomi Novik's rule, the rules of bargaining and promising, which feel familiar, but have also been given new significance.

For an author I felt only lukewarm about before, Spinning Silver has absolutely made me into a fan, and I am excited to see what Naomi Novik's next project will be. I really hope she does more novels in this style — and I'd particularly love for her to tackle The Snow Queen. I should mention that she's funny, too, at least in little highlights here and there. I'd recommend Spinning Silver to anyone who enjoyed The Snow Child, or Stardust, or anything ever by Patricia C Wrede. ...more

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Sep 20, 2018 Stacey rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-books-read

It took a long time to get into the story, and then once it started going I knew exactly where it was going to end. Also, the shifting point of views with no reference was hard to follow

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