Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Listen to our discussion on this and other “elf” containing books in Episode 6 of the Fantasy Book of the Month Podcast.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik was one of my favorite books of 2018. I’ve been a fan of Novik since Uprooted back in 2015. This is a kind of spiritual successor to that novel. The similarities are mostly big picture, but it’s a welcome return to a kind of novel that I keep falling in love with.
In Spinning Silver Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed—and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold. But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth—especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold fey creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.
Miryem provides excellent insight into the world. Her growing position in her home village, while remaining beneath royalty, gives us an avenue to examine the entire ladder of the social structure. The novel also provides perspectives both above and below Miryem’s position, and in doing so shows Novik’s deft hand in balancing social and moral commentary while presenting an engaging story. Miryem is an excellent example: A character that seems to be fine profiting on the struggles of her neighbors, and who might be unlikeable. Novik shows us a society that reflects the necessity for Miryem’s perspective. The villagers profit from Miryem’s deft control of their finances. The prospering village grows jealous of Miryem’s success, and Miryem’s competence in dealing with the villagers, and eventually the royalty of the nation and the fey king, gives her likeable qualities that shine even while we learn to love her sharper corners.
Spinning Silver is a great place to introduce yourself to the works of Naomi Novik, and a solid novel all on its own. I can’t recommend it enough. I give Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik five out of five.