Naomi Novik

Hoooooly shit, this is my kind of book. Wonderful deep magic (kept reminding me of Patricia McKillip in some ways, in the poetry of the magical logic), masterful writing, intriguing and intensely human characters, lush and important scenery, and an interest in how stories and fairy tales and tales of heroism work.

I am usually suspicious of first-person narration but never felt thrown off by it here; I'm also averse to High-Stakes Tales of Evil, but in this particular story's characterization show more and world-building any sort of good/bad us/them morality is ... gentled, I guess, as well as complicated. This book has heart, and now I want to reread it in the less-stressful I-know-what-happens mode, and I want it not to be a standalone because that totally bites.

I love the Temeraire novels, and this is really different, but I love this too. show less

In the second book of the Scholomance series, El and her small group of allies have become seniors and are now seriously planning their strategies for making it through graduation alive. As the new school year begins, El is convinced the school is seriously trying to kill her but all may not be as it seems.

This series is SO good. El is a prickly young woman for all the right reasons and it's a delight to watch her grow a bit and find her people. Surround them with a brutal but fascinating show more magical world and a looming final confrontation that exceeded all my expectations and it's just a perfect read. I cannot wait to see what Novik will do with the next book in the series. show less

Novik has done it again - a fascinating story, with complex, intriguing characters...in yet another type of world. Not a fairy tale, not alternate history...urban fantasy, maybe? Outside the school, apparently, there are wizards and ordinary people and the latter don't see magic at all. Inside the school - the only place we actually see in this book - everyone is a wizard, of varying ability. This is no Hogwarts, though - the place itself is magic, and learning happens without any teachers. show more And students die, when monsters, or other students, attack them. Galadriel (El) is an extremely powerful wizard with an affinity for mass destruction; she's working hard, all the time, not to go dark (if only because that's a quick death sentence). Orion is a powerful wizard with an affinity for killing monsters ("mals"); he's spent all his life saving people from them. When they start working together, they find an unexpected friendship growing up - complicated by the rules and customs of the Scholomance. It's a great story, on a lot of levels - the world, the people (more than El and Orion), the challenges, everything. I usually dislike stories of manipulators. Here, El is sometimes trying to manipulate things - but more often, she is manipulated by circumstance, or others don't think the way she's trying to manipulate them into thinking (more realistic, too). The only problem with this book is that it ends on a cliffhanger. The current problem is solved...probably...but a new one has arisen, and the book ends. The next one is out later this year...I'm eagerly awaiting it. show less

This lyrical fairy tale is equal parts cozy and dark. Novik is a strong writer and does such a good job evoking the feel of classic Slavic fairy tales, with a distinctive atmosphere and a complex structure of stories nested within stories. The novel's world also feels very lived in, with well-observed details of everyday life (harvesting cabbages touched by an early frost, making shoes from natural fiber).

Sad but true, writing a mythic fantasy about a Jewish moneylender still feels radical. show more Medieval-inspired fantasy worlds rarely explore where money and wealth came from in the medieval world (hint: not from wizard towers or goblin strongholds), and medieval Jewish banking is not a theme I have seen explored in fantasy fiction.

Novik does a brilliant job reclaiming this history and using it as a jumping-off point to explore a theme that is more common in fantasy fiction, but perhaps not utilized to its full potential: the contract. Some of the contracts in this book are fair, some are exploitative, and many are a bit of both. They govern not only debts but relationships, and this book teases out the meanings of obligation and reciprocity in a whole range of relationships.

I didn't feel the book ended as strongly as it began—it becomes more of a conventional fantasy adventure, and the resolutions of the main characters' arcs feel a little too pat—but I still enjoyed it tremendously. Recommended to all fans of mythic fiction. show less