I started listening to Naomi Novik when I got my audible account sometime last year and found my way into a 9-book alternate history/fantasy/military fiction series I probably, and stupidly, never would have picked up and started reading in paper form just because of shelf space. Her Temeraire series is brilliant and wonderful and even moreso thanks to the beautiful narration provided for the audiobooks by Simon Vance, and I can't name a series I've liked more in recent memory. So when Nokik's Uprooted, her new standalone fairy tale with all of the praise in the world being thrown at it, came out, I decided it was time for me to give Novik the hardcover paper book honor. I'm not exaggerating about that praise either: from the mind-boggling jacket blurbs from people like Ursula Le Guin, Patrick Rothfuss, Kelly Link, Lev Grossman, Gregory Maguire, and more, to the near universal critical acclaim, to the movie deal the book already has with Ellen DeGeneres's production company, Uprooted is probably already without much competition the SFF book of the year. I finished reading the book last night.

If you're not familiar with the premise of Uprooted, here's a foreshortened version of the jacket copy: "Agniezka loves her valley home, but the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years. This choosing, everyone knows that the Dragon will take beautiful, graceful, brace Kasia. But when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose..."

Spoiler: I really like Uprooted a lot, and I think you would do well by choosing to read it. Jump the cut for my full review. (Note: review contains spoilers)