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The Bear and the Nightingale
Oct. 1st, 2017 05:26 pmThe Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden, 2017, recommended by someone at Readercon although I'm not digging out my paper notes to see who.
Pros: I read this in a day, couldn't put it down. Nifty feudal-Russian setting - I thought it was vague "fantasy Russia" but it turned out in the author's notes that a few of the people are actual historical figures and it's set in the 14th century. (I reread Josepha Sherman's The Shining Falcon a lot in the early 90s, definitely recommended to anyone else nostalgic for that book.) It isn't quite any one fairy tale but a combination/remix of fairy tale elements in a way that gives it a lot of resonance without making it predictable. Turns out it's the first of a trilogy but it stops in a satisfying place, no cliffhanger.
Content notes: rape and rape threats. These characters are in a context where consent for women to or in marriage isn't a thing, and Arden doesn't soften that. Animal harm. Deaths of parents/children.
Cons: behind spoiler cut. ( Read more... )
Genre note: I'm not sure whether this is being marketed as YA or not, I think maybe not. We're maybe in enough heads of enough characters who aren't young adults that this is more like an adult fantasy novel that happens to have a young adult protagonist than a YA? I wouldn't reject it if you don't read YA, but if you *like* YA fantasy this might seem like a particularly good one?
Pros: I read this in a day, couldn't put it down. Nifty feudal-Russian setting - I thought it was vague "fantasy Russia" but it turned out in the author's notes that a few of the people are actual historical figures and it's set in the 14th century. (I reread Josepha Sherman's The Shining Falcon a lot in the early 90s, definitely recommended to anyone else nostalgic for that book.) It isn't quite any one fairy tale but a combination/remix of fairy tale elements in a way that gives it a lot of resonance without making it predictable. Turns out it's the first of a trilogy but it stops in a satisfying place, no cliffhanger.
Content notes: rape and rape threats. These characters are in a context where consent for women to or in marriage isn't a thing, and Arden doesn't soften that. Animal harm. Deaths of parents/children.
Cons: behind spoiler cut. ( Read more... )
Genre note: I'm not sure whether this is being marketed as YA or not, I think maybe not. We're maybe in enough heads of enough characters who aren't young adults that this is more like an adult fantasy novel that happens to have a young adult protagonist than a YA? I wouldn't reject it if you don't read YA, but if you *like* YA fantasy this might seem like a particularly good one?
