For the first time in my life, it turns out that I know someone who knows someone, which is how I managed to get my eager little hands on a pre-release copy of The Winter of the Witch, the final instalment in Katherine Arden’s fantastic Winternight Trilogy. And what a treat it was. Taking everything I loved from The Bear and the Nightingale (and missed most in The Girl in the Tower, namely the chyerti of the forest and the homestead) and ramping it all […]
Hearts and Thoughts They Fade, Fade Away
I loved The Bear and the Nightingale, and rather than doing my usual plunge straight into the sequel, I have been holding off on this on to try to extend and savor the story more. However, once I saw Aquillia’s review of The Girl in the Tower, I decided I was done waiting since I wanted to be able to have a discussion. Looking back, I have noticed that while everyone seems to like The Bear and the Nightingale, the responses to certain details have […]
Winter in Russia, and a monster in the dark.
This was not quite what I was expecting. I think I was expecting something more along the lines of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, because people have compared them endlessly, but aside from taking inspiration from Russian folklore, the two books don’t have very much in common. Uprooted is a fairytale, albeit one that is lengthened and deepened. The Bear and the Nightingale is a historical fantasy that is historical fiction first, fantasy second. This book takes place in medieval Russia, then called Rus’. The daughter of […]
It doesn’t even have to be snowy to love this book
I read The Bear and the Nightingale earlier this year when winter storms rocked Britain and loved nature’s contributions to the wintry atmosphere. I read the sequel, The Girl in the Tower, in Scotland’s sunniest month (May–somehow it’s always May) and loved this one even more–even if the weather didn’t contribute quite as much to the feel of it! The Bear and the Nightingale was loosely based on Russian folklore, following Vasilisa Petrovna and her family during a particularly harsh winter, as they fought the forces of […]