Uprooted in The Sword and Laser

May 25, 2015 Crowinator rated it it was amazing

Shelves: magic-people, favorites-of-all-time, characters-i-love, folklore-myths-legends, genre-fantasy, adult, 2015-reads, favorites-2015, ya-adult-crossover

This lovely and impeccable novel was the perfect read for a sick day. (Spoiler: I was sick when I wrote this brief review.) It's going to rank up there with The Goblin Emperor as one of my favorite fantasies. There is a quiet village, bordered by a dark and dangerous Wood; a haughty, powerful wizard, the Dragon, ruling from his tower; and a plain village girl, Agnieszka, discovering that within herself lies extraordinary magic and the will to use it to protect her home. This is a must-read for f ...more

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Oct 14, 2018 kvon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club, re-read, sword-challenge

I loved this book the first time, and just as much the second time (a year later). It starts with the fantasy trope of a girl chosen from the village as a sacrifice to the dragon, but in this case the Dragon is the name of the local mage. Several other fairy tale tropes are flirted with, and I don't know my eastern European tales enough to tell where they fit in; but the main opponent is the encroaching mystical Wood which wants to destroy all the humans. The tension keeps building as various at ...more

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Jun 15, 2015 Joanna rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

A beautiful retelling of a fairy tale, but not any fairy tale we've heard of. Baba Yaga gets a mention, but otherwise it's like a brand new fairy tale. A teenage girl lives in a small village next to haunted Woods and a wizard called the Dragon protects the villagers and takes one girl to serve him every 10 years. I really REALLY loved about 75% of this book. Novik really excels at "training montages." I felt the same way with Novik's other book Her Majesty's Dragon. I adored the first part and ...more

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Jun 24, 2016 Emily rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 01, 2016 Chessa rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf_fantasy, ya, sf-f-challenge, fairy-tales

Maybe even 4.5 stars, but I'm unwilling to round up on this. I really, really, really liked it. It was surprising - I thought I knew what the story would be about a quarter of the way in, and then it took a huge turn - maybe not exactly for the better (ugh, politics are SO BORING even in the fantasy realm), but surprising. But that small quibble aside (and it really is a pretty small part of the overall story, seriously) the magic of this book was exquisite. The Wood may be the Best. Villain. Ev ...more

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Jul 13, 2015 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy-supernatural

This was probably a 5 star book, until the second half where it started to lose me a bit. Overall I adored this book and highly recommend it to all my fantasy loving reader friends. While the basic premise isn't something I haven't seen before (ordinary person because powerful wizard), there were so many likable elements added to this that some of the old tropes felt fresh instead of tired. Agnieszka's relationship with the Dragon (a powerful but vain Wizard) reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle. ...more

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Aug 30, 2015 Kelsy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

I sped through this one and really enjoyed it for the most part. There was a section towards the middle where I started skimming (view spoiler) which made it a less than 5 star book for me, but I'll probably read it again the future. ...more

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