glass_icarus | (Reply)

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I would also like to mention Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver -- I've never been an unqualified fan of her work, so when I say this one blew me away, I damn well mean it. It's hard to pin down a main character, but the plot pivots around Miryem Mandelstam, who is just... the most awesomely stubborn human being in all of Fantasy Medieval Poland, and possibly the actual world. Her stubborn is unbelievable. The entire novel runs on the force of her "okay YOU KNOW WHAT, fuck this, fuck everything, I'm going to do the impossible just to spite all you motherfuckers, and I'm going to do it 100% fair and lawful because I am fairly and lawfully in the right and you're all going to admit it." (Until it starts also running on the force of her "okay YOU KNOW WHAT, fuck this, I may not really have applied to be queen of the frost elves, but I accepted the position once it landed on me, and I live here now, and I have responsibilities. And then my stupid frost elf king husband can marry me again in a nice Jewish ceremony with my family if he wants this to actually be a thing." It's AMAZING.)