Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

From the publisher: When the witch built the forty-flight tower, she made very sure to do the whole thing properly. Each flight contains a dreadful monster, ranging from a diamond-scaled dragon to a pack of slavering goblins. Should a prince battle his way to the top, he will be rewarded with a golden sword—and the lovely Princess Floralinda. But no prince has managed to conquer the first flight yet, let alone get to the fortieth. In fact, the supply of fresh princes seems to have quite dried up.

Those looking for a quick, easy fantasy read could do worse than Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower. Author Tamsyn Muir made a name for herself with her debut novel Gideon the Ninth, a space opera-fantasy mashup that struck an appealing balance of brutal and outré, with a slick feminist feel. Her storytelling takes quite a different shape in Floralinda, but her fierce female vibes and tilt toward surprising, occasional brutality remain. Instead of high fantasy or science fiction, Muir pivots the world of fairy tales with her latest, a riff on the familiar "princess locked in a tower" trope, but here with a heroine who is self-sufficient, even sometimes bordering on manipulative, who takes charge of her own destiny. There's also a witch, of course, and a fairy named Cobweb, which is obviously the best name for such a critter and how exactly has that not been done before?

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower is a short book, and so to say too much would spoil the small pleasures therein. It's brevity is also its greatest weakness, as the book definitely feels more like a short story than a short novel. 150 pages is plenty of room to construct a novel, if done right, and it's not as if Muir fails to do so here — it's just to say that this was clearly never her intent. Instead, the story is a slight two-hander between Floralinda and Cobweb, built on their banter and developing relationship to each other, and that bit works well enough. But for fantasy readers, or those who like a little more texture to their settings, very little is done to flesh out the world, as Muir keeps things relegated to the the eponymous forty flights of the tower. Likewise, the creature work is fairly superficial, as familiar iterations of fantasy mainstays pop up without much consequence (or very loose, new creations, mostly in the form of mashing up two different animals or beasts). 

For all that, Floralinda is diverting enough and at least doesn't overstay its welcome. Muir possesses both a wicked and weirdo sense of humor, each getting its due at various points here. It's not a book that much reinvents or deepens the fairy tale template, but it's a harmless read that will amuse and surprise with enough regularity to keep your attention for its short page count.

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower is available for checkout from the Galesburg Public Library in hardcover.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver is Naomi Novik's second retelling of a fairy tale. You do not need to read Uprooted before reading Spinning Silver (although I definitely recommend reading Uprooted).

It's hard to put in to words all the things I love about Spinning Silver. This is a slow moving tale with lots of characters. Novik expects you to pay attention; there are many first person narrators and you have to figure out who is speaking - she does not put their names at the start of each transition. The story begins and it builds. It builds and it builds and it builds, and characters are woven into the stories of the other characters and then into the main thread like an elaborate braid.

On  page 1 we are told what the story of Rumpelstiltskin is about: "getting out of paying your debts." I thought about this all through the 465 pages that followed. Although the story is predictable in many ways - it is a fairy tale, after all - I had no idea how things were going to happen or resolve.

Three young women of about the same age but different circumstances anchor the stories. Although each has strengths she does not know yet, the women are not strong at the expensive of male characters being weak. Although I like strong female characters, I get tired of the "girl power" narratives that are dismissive of boys and men that are also good and strong. Spinning Silver is not one of those girl power narratives, although there is a LOT of female power.

Fairy tale characters are often caricatures, but Novik goes to the trouble to give depth to her characters. They grow and change. For example, Wanda is a poor girl with an abusive father and two brothers. Their mother is dead, after giving birth to a number of babies who died. She and the babies are buried beneath the white tree. Wanda does not love her brothers: "Love was buried with my mother. Sergey and Stepon were only more of the babies who made my mother sick." (p. 28) "They had taken her from me, all of them: Sergey and Stepon and the rest of those dead boys in the dirt. They had taken my mother. I had never wanted to share her with them. What right did they have to her?" (p. 31)  But things begin to change when Wanda saves Sergey's life because Stepon loves Sergey, and eventually Wanda does love and respect her brothers.

Although there are marriages in this book, there are way more kinds of love than romantic love. Love of a parent for a child, of a brother for a sister, of a neighbor for a neighbor, of a mistress for a servant, of a parent for someone else's child. Spinning Silver is filled with toil and trials, but also friendship and honor.

There are bad characters in the book, but there are also complex characters. Even the cruel fae king of winter is just trying to save his people. Even the demon-possessed tsar has reasons for being angry and indifferent.

There is a lot about being Jewish in this book, without being anti anything else. Jews are loathed, but people need the moneylender and the banker and the jeweler all the same. And even this old story is told with a hope for change.

Often in fantasy I either don't understand how the magic works or don't find it believable. Novik builds and layers the magic of her world in a way that I totally bought in to. If there were inconsistencies, I didn't notice them.

Wow, I've really said a lot about this book. If you like thoughtful, slow building, engrossing world building and interesting characters, you may enjoy Spinning Silver, and Uprooted as well. The Galesburg Public Library owns Spinning Silver in print and as an ebook.

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

From the publisher: Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first. Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise. But when she disappears at midnight, will he ever be able to find her again? Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom.

Galaxy Quest meets Cinderella in this delightful homage to fandoms and fans.  The author has done a fine and believable job of creating a fandom that doesn’t exist that can serve as any fandom that the reader loves. Darien and Elle take turns narrating, and I felt that they had distinct voices.  I enjoyed the personalities of many of the side characters as well. A neglected Dachshund adds comic relief and heart to the story.

On the diversity plus side, the story includes a teen same sex romance, and Darien is a person of color.  (In fact, much is made of the important role the original Carmindor played in breaking acting stereotypes for people of color, and what a relief it is that the actor playing the role in the reboot is also a person of color.)

Although Geekerella is about a fictional fandom, there are plenty of obvious and subtle references to real fandoms, of the kind that real fans actually make (like "Have fun storming the castle!"  and my favorite, "This day, we fight." 💗). I'm sure I didn't even get all of them, but I got enough.

Geekerella would probably have benefitted from being a little less faithful to the tale of Cinderella. Because it adheres so closely to the story for much of the book, the plot is predictable. The evil stepmother is just a little too evil. But there are plot twists, and I especially enjoyed the scene in which a desperate Elle tries to get ready to enter the cosplay contest with the help of many other con attendees.

This is a sweet story that might bring a smile and a sigh to anyone who has ever felt alone or like they didn't fit in, and it ends the way we want it to – happily ever after. Although it’s aimed at the young adult market, I highly recommend it for all geeks, nerds, dorks, and other fans of fandoms who’d enjoy a young love romance that is also a love letter to us all.

I read an advance reader copy of Geekerella. It will be available for checkout in April 2017.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

From the publisher: At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, she forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. As danger circles nearer, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a lovely and lyrical telling or retelling of a fairy tale. (If this is based on a real fairy tale, I am not familiar with it.) The language is beautiful, although a knowledge of Russian might come in handy as I had some trouble keeping the characters and their many nicknames straight. There is a glossary of Russian words at the back. The book has a gorgeous cover.

This is a very slow moving story; readers looking for lots of action will not find it here.  This is not a book that gallops along. It is a quiet, intriguing tale. I will admit, although I enjoyed The Bear and the Nightingale, I really wanted to love it. I don’t need a lot of action, but I would have liked more character development. The characters did not move beyond being one dimensional fairy tale characters, even though the story is 300 pages long. I did enjoy the descriptions and the variety of the many household spirits Vasilisa sees and honors.

The story does not reflect well on the church and organized religion, but it does have a definite and obvious feminist point to make:

All my life,” [Vasilisa] said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. (p. 279)

Some readers may rejoice at this firm and clearly expressed message; I would have preferred something a little more subtle.

If you enjoy novels based on fairy tales and full of beautiful language and imagery, especially those with a strong and spunky female main character, I recommend The Bear and the Nightingale.

I read an advance reader copy of The Bear and the Nightingale. It will be published in January 2017, and the Galesburg Public Library will have the book in print and electronic format.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

I loved Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It’s an original fairy tale populated with well-developed characters. The world building is fabulous. The author uses unfamiliar words, but not too many, and the story feels like a fairy tale told in a European country. The plot took turns I did not expect, and some elements of fairy tales were turned upside down. The first time the heroine, Agnieszka, meets the Prince, he assumes it is okay to bed her and she knocks him out with a breakfast tray. Only the wizard’s magic saves his life. The wizard teaches Agnieszka a spell that dresses her in beautiful ballgowns; she learns to mumble the word so it will dress her in something practical and comfortable instead.

Agnieszka lives in Dvernik, one of a few small towns near a scary Wood. The witches and wizards in this realm take on new names that reflect their magical personalities. The wizard who lives near her hometown is called the Dragon. He uses his magic to help the towns, and, most importantly, he protects them from the evil Wood. Every 10 years he takes one girl from the villages to live alone with him in his tower. No one really knows what life is like for those girls for those 10 years; when the girls are released, they leave the village.

He chooses a girl who is 17, and there are 11 girls to choose from when Agnieszka

 is 17. He always takes the most special girl, and everyone has always assumed he will take the intelligent, talented, beautiful Kasia, Agnieszka’s best friend. But when the day comes, he takes Agnieszka instead of Kasia. Although she doesn’t know it, Agnieszka has magic in her. So does this story.

The main character is presented as clumsy and often wearing stains of food and dirt. This seems like a tired characteristic, but it comes in to play in an unexpected way as the story moves on. The author delves into how people feel. How Kasia felt, knowing she was expected to be the one the Dragon took. How Agnieszka felt, fearing the loss of her best friend but relieved thinking it wouldn’t be her that was taken. How Kasia’s mother felt, pulling away from her daughter in anticipation of the loss.

But the story also has plenty of action as well – battles between armies, struggles against the Wood. The author has no qualms about developing characters and then killing them off. We are not left to wonder why the Wood is evil; there is a good explanation, and we hear all about it before the end of the book. The book straddles the line between young adult and adult fiction. It feels like the author didn’t care – she wrote her story and the readers can decide who wants to read it. That felt refreshing.

Uprooted has a strong female lead, but the male characters are not portrayed as weak in comparison. There is a romance, but it’s not the primary focus of the story. The Dragon is not as fleshed out as Agnieszka and Kasia, but I got a real sense of his personality. Hopefully there will be sequels, and we’ll get to know him better. (At this time, however, the author says the book is a standalone title.)

I am a fan of Novik’s Temeraire series (which the Galesburg Public Library owns in several formats), but this book is entirely different. I would not have guessed it was written by the same author. I highly recommend Uprooted to anyone in the least intrigued by its premise.

I read an advance reader copy from netgalley.com. Uprooted is scheduled to be published in May 2015. The cover is not great, if it's the final cover. I don't think it conveys the depth of the story.