Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Jun 15, 2019 thefourthvine rated it liked it

Shelves: sff, historical, magic, airships, queer-disinterest, alternate-history

I’m interested in this enough to try the sequel, but not pleased enough with it to give it four stars. This book was meandering and unfocused; in the acknowledgements she notes that she planned it and did the worldbuilding with her three teenaged children and two of their friends, and that explained a lot about this to me. It had that, “But we HAVE to include THAT” feeling about it, and it honestly needed a good hard trim. But, whatever, it’s the first book in a trilogy, so I’m willing to see if I’m interested in this enough to try the sequel, but not pleased enough with it to give it four stars. This book was meandering and unfocused; in the acknowledgements she notes that she planned it and did the worldbuilding with her three teenaged children and two of their friends, and that explained a lot about this to me. It had that, “But we HAVE to include THAT” feeling about it, and it honestly needed a good hard trim. But, whatever, it’s the first book in a trilogy, so I’m willing to see if it gets more focused as time goes on.

The worldbuilding is honestly fascinating, even if the book is a little too invested in showing off how fascinating it is, but there’s one choice that I found revolting. People, I’m begging you: stop turning the indigenous peoples of North America into monsters. This is not the first book that’s done it. Or the second. Or the third. So it’s not even an original idea, just a gross one. In this case, North America didn’t have any humans in it until the colonists arrived; instead, it had trolls, who seem to be descended from dinosaurs? Which, awesome, I love the idea of intelligent dinosaur offspring, but not at the expense of just wiping from existence a whole continentful of people who have already faced attempts to do just that in reality. No. Do not do this, authors, your cool worldbuilding idea isn’t worth recapitulating genocide for fun and profit.

My other major problem with this book is the romance. I — am super not into the plot where a woman is badly treated by an asshole dude, but he’s So Hot, and also it turns out he has Secret Sorrows, and so love blossoms, and that’s pretty much what happens here. Yeah, Hot Dude with Sorrows does make some good, hard choices in the end, and I liked that, and if the main character’s interest in him had begun after he did that, I would get it. But in fact she’s thinking about the taste of his lips and the perfect beauty of his jawline even as he’s trying to kill her, even while she’s watching him do terrible things. Nope, not into it. Please find a dude who never tried to kill you, Catherine.

But. I am still interested in where this is going. I like a lot of aspects of the setting. I’m pleased that the main character is mixed race, and in fact most of the characters seem to be. (I am not pleased that this is apparently an entire world with not a single queer person in it. What, none of the SIX people involved in the worldbuilding went, oh wait, maybe we should have a token queer? Wow, people.) And the end does seem to be a springboard to more interesting things. So, basically, I do not recommend it, but I’m gonna keep reading it. ...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Lorena rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

I wanted to like this more than I did. It has a female protagonist in what should be a very interesting situation, in an original setting, but somehow it all felt flat. I didn't really feel anything for any of the characters, and the setting felt more like a miss-mash of a bunch of stuff the author thought sounded cool than something coherent and organic. There was a lot going on, but it never really gelled together, and I never felt immersed. ...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Esther rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: europe, author-female, zz-2016, england, jewish-israeli, fantasy, __given-away, alternate-history

I am more a fan of dystopian and dark fantasy than magical but I received several recommendations for Cold Magic many of them based on the Jewish references (vague and tangential Jewish references, I must say)
The beginning with the academy was reminiscent of several novels. Then the crisis occurred and we were on the journey followed by a further crisis and an escape returning back the way we had come.
All this dragged on a bit for and the variety of flawed but charmingly attractive men that pop ...more

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May 11, 2021 Lasairfiona rated it really liked it

Catherine is the eldest daughter in a world where the industrial revolution is starting, weird magic exists, and women are still second class citizens. OR IS SHE? A mage comes in with a contract that rips her from her so called family. And her love for her cousin sets her on a path to save her with a LOT of weird happenings in between. Also a small love story. Then it gets interesting.

I enjoyed the writing from the beginning though I started getting concerned about the story about 100 pages in. ...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Sophia rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, sff, 2010

I've been rounding up scores a lot lately for creativity -- here, I felt like the book devolved into some standard and disappointing/unsupported romance novel stuff at the end, but the worldbuilding and characters were so interesting that I couldn't just give it three stars. I don't object to romance subplots (would be hard to be a fantasy reader and do that, since it's so pervasive in the genre), but I do object to romance *novel* subplots, but which I mean relationship arcs that seem forced an ...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Michelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: witches_wizards, rereads, fantasy, dtb-own, book_club

4.5 stars, with my only quibble being that this book is very much the first in a longer whole, rather than a fully complete tale on its own.

Cathereine, a smart (and smart-mouthed) woman on the cusp of her legal adulthood at 20 is suddenly required to marry a powerful mage due to a mysterious contract between their families. overwhelmed, she goes with him as the law and familial honor demand, but learns that nothing about her life is what it seems. there's a far murkier and wider political spher ...more

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