This is one of the best fantasies I’ve read in a long time! I even read the kindle version (rather than audio), which for me raises the bar considerably in terms of what it takes to hold my interest. This one did, even though I felt there were a few caveats that kept it from being an all time favorite, or one I’d likely reread.
The story follows Agnieszka, a tomboyish young girl in a village abutting a sinister forest. Hers is one of several villages in the valley, all overseen by a wizard in a tower who goes by the name of the Dragon. Every 10 years, he takes one of the girls of a certain age, and then ten years later releases her again before choosing another. No one exactly knows what he wants them for, or what he does with them, nor do the girls themselves ever precisely say once released — but they leave the valley once they are released, and seek their fortunes elsewhere. The girls chosen are always special, beautiful or talented or otherwise desirable in some way, so Agnieszka is certain he will take her best friend Kasia. But instead, he chooses her.
It turns out that the Dragon (whom we later learn is named Sarkan) is no ogre after all, but merely a prickly man who has been alone for well over a century (neither witches nor wizards age in this world). He’s sharp-tongued, sarcastic, and used to having things “just so,” while Agnieszka is clumsy and perpetually filthy. He chose her, it turns out, because her perceived the threads of magic in her. He felt it his duty to train her, though he considers her hopeless until she learns on her own that her magic is simply of a different sort than his. Once she comes into her own, an unlikely and very well done romance blossoms (and here is caveat #1. Why is it that the second tension gives way to a kiss, the very next step in all modern fiction is sex? It’s almost like the author feels the need for a very good excuse indeed to *not* go there. And in this one, while there are only two sex scenes in the book, they’re not fade-to-black; they give you all the details.)
Meanwhile, the Wood is itself basically the antagonist; it periodically steals villagers and they’re either never seen again, or if they ever do come out, they are no longer themselves, but agents for the Wood. This is why they need a wizard to guard them in the first place, and why the villagers put up with one of their young girls to be taken every 10 years. When Agnieszka’s village is threatened, and then Kasia is taken, she defies the Dragon, and later teams up with him, in order to use her unorthodox magic to help finally set her village free.
And this is caveat #2: Agnieszka’s unorthodox magic is so esoteric that toward the end of the book, it was described in so many layers of metaphor that I couldn’t even follow what was going on. I sped through the paragraphs until I could get to something concrete. I even was under the impression at one point that a major character died, when in fact, she hadn’t.
Despite the caveats, the plot was original, the characters compelling, the prose beautiful, and the ending satisfying.
My rating: ****1/2
Language: none
Violence: pretty intense
Sexual content: sparse, but very graphic when it occurs
Political content: none
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