Uprooted by Naomi Novik, August 2023 Book Club Reading

[Falselogic]

Uprooted is a 2015 high fantasy novel by Naomi Novik. The book is centered on, Agnieszka, a village girl selected by a local wizard for her unseen magical powers. Together they battle the nearby forest, the Wood, as it seeks to take over the land. It won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2016 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the 2016 Mythopoeic Award in the category Adult Literature.

Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the Temeraire series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her Scholomance fantasy series (2020–2022).

 

[John]

I got started on this early, because I'm a glacial reader nowadays. I'll wait until later for a breakdown, but I definitely see a framework of the Scholomance books in this one.

 

[Violentvixen]

Looks like both the book and ebook for this have a long hold list at my library but I'll participate if I can.

 

[John]

Looks like both the book and ebook for this have a long hold list at my library but I'll participate if I can.

I ran into the same issue with it being out of stock. While definitely not ideal, I've been reading an Internet Archive library loan, and it's been OK. I get a little eye strain from reading on my phone, which would be lessened if I threw this on a tablet. If you're interested, check out my post here for my travails, and the official lending FAQ here.

 

[Violentvixen]

I ran into the same issue with it being out of stock. While definitely not ideal, I've been reading an Internet Archive library loan, and it's been OK. I get a little eye strain from reading on my phone, which would be lessened if I threw this on a tablet. If you're interested, check out my post here for my travails, and the official lending FAQ here.

Oh yeah, I meant to respond to that post, really helpful! Before your post I thought it was only classic literature on there, although I saw your note that their lawsuit might affect what's available eventually.

I'm going to hold out for the physical book for a bit since I prefer that, but if I can't get it I'll do this, thanks!

 

[lincolnic]

Looks like both the book and ebook for this have a long hold list at my library but I'll participate if I can.

Similar problem here. My library has three copies, there are five holds ahead of me, and two of the copies are overdue by over a month and a half. (The third, overdue for a week.)

 

[Adrenaline]

If you're going to borrow a popular book from the library I really think you should read it in a timely manner and then return it

 

[lincolnic]

Part of the problem is that the Brooklyn Public Library eliminated all late fees recently -- which, to be clear, is an extremely good thing, but it's also had the unfortunate side effect of some people choosing to ignore due dates altogether. Just a weird coincidence that it's happened with every copy of this book in particular.

 

[John]

I just finished and returned my IA library ebook, so that's 1 of their 3 copies back and available.

 

[Violentvixen]

If you're going to borrow a popular book from the library I really think you should read it in a timely manner and then return it

Part of the problem is that the Brooklyn Public Library eliminated all late fees recently -- which, to be clear, is an extremely good thing, but it's also had the unfortunate side effect of some people choosing to ignore due dates altogether. Just a weird coincidence that it's happened with every copy of this book in particular.

I kind of wish my library would cap holds more than they do. I'll put a hold on something popular then six months pass and I don't have time to read it anymore and there's a still a hold list a mile long. So I'm definitely guilty of keeping the book since I also have no late fees and think "dangit, I finally got it, I'm not reading part of it then waiting another six months to read the rest".

 

[lincolnic]

I kind of wish my library would cap holds more than they do. I'll put a hold on something popular then six months pass and I don't have time to read it anymore and there's a still a hold list a mile long. So I'm definitely guilty of keeping the book since I also have no late fees and think "dangit, I finally got it, I'm not reading part of it then waiting another six months to read the rest".

VV, does your library system let you freeze holds? Ours will let you do that if for whatever reason you're not able to get your book before your hold comes in. Effectively it lets you keep your place in the hold line, but moves other people past you until you're ready to pick it up again. Could be worth trying next time you find yourself in that spot!

 

[Violentvixen]

VV, does your library system let you freeze holds? Ours will let you do that if for whatever reason you're not able to get your book before your hold comes in. Effectively it lets you keep your place in the hold line, but moves other people past you until you're ready to pick it up again. Could be worth trying next time you find yourself in that spot!

Only on ebooks, but yeah, I do that, it's nice!

 

[Paul le Fou]

I started listening to this on audiobook! I'd actually listened to the start of it before, maybe a year ago, with my ex, but never got very far. I'm 3 chapters in and think I am, or am almost, caught up to where I was. The narrator has a slight accent (looks like she was born in Russia), which I think adds to the atmosphere.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I was wrong, I had gone a little further, but now I've definitely passed up where I'd gotten to before, which was somewhere in the middle of the episode where she leaves the tower to help the village. I've gotten to the point where she's started learning from Yaga's spellbook. I kinda wish I hadn't known references to this being a kind of Baba Yaga story, because as soon she referenced the legend of Yaga having "fallen out of time" combined with the fact that she can use the spellbook I've started to suspect that she's going to turn out to be Yaga herself thanks to time shenanigans. Don't tell me if I'm right or wrong!

Also, the Dragon is kind of a wiener! He gets mad a lot! I hope he cuts that out!

 

[Paul le Fou]

Finished! I liked it, good read. The Dragon never stopped being a wiener, I guess that's just how he is. How's everyone else doing?

Big spoilers for near the end/ultimate resolution, I'm trying to figure out whether the Wood Queen's introduction near the end felt like a bit of an ass-pull or not. There were plenty of hints that had to do with her along the way, in retrospect, but they were all pretty vague and didn't necessarily point to a single-entity cause that made the forest, dramatically speaking, able to be dealt with as a whole. But I don't think it didn't work, necessarily, I'm just nitpicking.

 

[lincolnic]

How's everyone else doing?

Nobody's returned a copy to my library yet. :/

 

[Violentvixen]

I started it (the ebook, phooey) earlier this week, no real impressions yet although I agree The Dragon is an annoying character so far. I was one of the few people who didn't like what I read of the Scholomance series or her writing style much (here's the Deadly Education thread) so I'm hoping I like this better.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I don't know if her style is substantially different in this book, but I think I liked it better on the average than the Scholomance (and the main character is much less grating), so hopefully you will too!

 

[Violentvixen]

Nope, I'm out.

My distaste at the scene of attempted rape was followed by being incredibly creeped out at the line sarcastically pointing out the king is "never going to care more about her virtue than his son" or whatever, which was then followed by "fixing" the situation by changing the prince's memory to her being bad in bed!?

I'm sure there is something going on later that makes this book famous and interesting, but I wasn't enjoying anything about it and was bored and this scene is just too far for me. I have so many other books I want to read I'm going to DNF this one. I think Novik is just incredibly good at writing characters I actively hate but also find deeply uninteresting. Wish I could say what it was specifically that triggers that, oh well.

 

[Falselogic]

Finally got my copy over the weekend. Was coming to say I had started it but then I read VV's latest post and I don't know if I even want to start...?

 

[lincolnic]

Yeah, that sounds...icky.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Not to defend the scene itself, but it's pretty early on; it wouldn't take long to get there and judge for yourself. It's also the only scene in the book like it, I'd say.

 

[Violentvixen]

Finally got my copy over the weekend. Was coming to say I had started it but then I read VV's latest post and I don't know if I even want to start...?

Yeah, that sounds...icky.

Not to defend the scene itself, but it's pretty early on; it wouldn't take long to get there and judge for yourself. It's also the only scene in the book like it, I'd say.

Oh yeah, it's early on and I am definitely more easily annoyed at using assault as a plot device than most people. Also I don't remember either of you disliking her writing style and I did, so it very much pushed me over the edge.

 

[lincolnic]

I've never read her and I'm almost certainly not gonna get my copy from the library before the month is over, so it's kind of a moot point as far as this discussion goes anyway. Maybe I'll give it a shot whenever a copy finally makes its way to me, but it's already starting with some serious points against it.

 

[John]

I didn't think that scene was too bad, not great but at least she wasn't actually raped like GRRM would've put in the same scene. A few chapters after that, Novik starts a weird romance between Agnieszka, a 17 year old girl, and Sarkan, a hundred plus year old wizard who's also her mentor/professor/captor. It's limited to a few scenes, but it still skeeved me out. Novik put in enough agency into Agnieszka that it didn't feel like Sarkan was directly taking advantage, but he was still responsible by not shutting it down immediately. Instead, he let it happen to further their experiments with different takes on magic.

I liked the world building without a ton of exposition, letting a lot of it happen organically through dialog or with a brief inner monologue to the reader, but the story would've been better without any of the romance stuff, IMO.

 

[Falselogic]

I decided to move forward with the book. I finished it today. I think the author was trying to present Agnieszka as making her own decisions in the scene John describes above but, it just doesn't work. For all the reasons stated above.

I also think the story got away a bit from Novik as it's so slow in the beginning and then the last 3rd or 4th maybe even 5th it just jams everything in and wraps up the central conflict with the Forest. I also think that in the epilogue/last chapter if Novik wanted to put a the hint of a relationship between the protag and Sarkan it could have gone there. After, she'd been doing her own thing for 10 years and he had left the valley. That maybe begins to make a little sense. But, even then it would have been a bit off. The hints of the deeper world and the hints at how Agnieszka are repairing the relationship between the people and the Forest were more interesting than a lot of the other parts. I also wish we saw a little bit more of the other wizards in the capitol. Lots of good little vignettes that I wanted to follow more than the actual plot Novik was interested in presenting.

The teen noble is awful just to be awful is another trope I'm ready to see go away. I don't know if it adds anything to a story anymore. We all get it. The Nobility are all awful and have no redeeming qualities!

If you get the audiobook be prepared for an eastern European thickly accented reading.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I kinda liked the narrator's accent (I looked it up and she's Russian, but I dunno if she has a different accent or anything). I know one friend who said it took her out of the book but I enjoyed the little differences in pronunciation or rhythm that popped up.