Spinning Silver: A Novel

Written by Naomi Novik

Narrated by Lisa Flanagan

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “One of the year’s strongest fantasy novels” (NPR), an imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the bestselling author of Uprooted.

NEBULA AND HUGO AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Public Library

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Time, Tordotcom, Popsugar, Vox, Vulture, Paste, Bustle, Library Journal

“A perfect tale . . . A big and meaty novel, rich in both ideas and people, with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Gorgeous, complex, and magical . . . This is the kind of book that one might wish to inhabit forever.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Cool and clever and . . . dire and wonderful.”—Laini Taylor, author of Strange the Dreamer

“The Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale has never been as captivating. . . . Spinning Silver further cements [Novik’s] place as one of the genre greats.”—Paste

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9780525530992

Naomi Novik

Naomi Novik is the acclaimed author of the Temeraire series and standalone fairytale fantasy Uprooted. She has been nominated for the Hugo Award and has won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, as well as the Locus Award for Best New Writer and the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. She is also the author of the graphic novel Will Supervillains Be on the Final? Fascinated with both history and legends, Novik is a first-generation American raised on Polish fairy tales and stories of Baba Yaga. Her own adventures include pillaging degrees in English literature and computer science from various ivory towers, designing computer games, and helping to build the Archive of Our Own for fanfiction and other fanworks. Novik is a co-founder of the Organization for Transformative Works. She lives in New York City with husband and Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai and their daughter, Evidence, surrounded by an excessive number of purring computers.

Reviews for Spinning Silver

[plancultivatecreate · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A multi-perspective story weaving adventure with strong female characters. Highly recommend!

[thewallflower-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story is a mishmash of a few fairy tales, the most prevalent is "Rumpelstiltskin". Except we're dealing with the fae now. And not the good kind of fae. It's the ones that steal your babies if you don't leave milk out for them. The background is very Slavic, very rooted in eastern European folk tales, like in The Book of Goodnight Stories.

I do like the main protagonist. She's a moneylender and had to take over for her soft-hearted dad or they'd starve. The characters are the people she meets as a result of earning her wealth, instead of someone else giving it to her. She works hard and has to be a little heartless to get the job done.

The writing style does not have much dialogue. The pacing is good, but only up to the first act. Then it's like the author said "Oh crap, I don't have enough plot to fill out the rest of this book. I better start thinking of filler." The book really slows down at the two-thirds point. The narrative switches POVs a lot. After the fifty percent mark, it's still introducing new perspectives, like the villain, and the handmaid--people are barely tertiary characters. And you're like "why do I need to know this person's thoughts and feelings?"

Good ending though. But dang it's long.

[castlelass · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Very loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin, this book tells the intertwined story of three women living in two worlds. Miryem is the daughter of a moneylender, who takes over for her father when he proves incompetent. Wanda is the daughter of an abusive alcoholic, who becomes Miryem’s assistant to help pay off her father’s debts. Irina is the daughter of a Duke who marries the Tsar. Miryem catches the eye of the Staryk King, the leader of a faerie people who live in an icy otherworld. She turns his silver into gold coins. The storyline primarily follows these three women, and the conflict between the Tsar and the Staryk King.

I ended up with mixed feelings. On the plus side, the icy world of the Staryk is unusual and interesting. The three primary characters are well developed. On the minus side, I am unsure why Novik chose not to identify the rotating points of view. I was generally able to follow along, but I think it required more of an effort than necessary. It drags in the middle and is way too long. Additional (unnecessary) perspectives are added later in the story. I kept wanting to put it down and read something else, which is never a good sign. I would normally give this book 3-stars but there is a turn of events at the end (which I will not spoil) that ruined it for me.

[kaethe_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps I will return later to elaborate, but for now let's just leave it at so damn good. Definitely in top ten of the year.

Library copy

[mama56-15823 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unexpectedly fresh and nice. The author uses jewish and western slavs folklore ideas.

[lucky2loki · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderfully written book, and immediately one of my favourite standalone fantasy novels of all time. Novik weaves a terrific tale with fairy tale tropes tackled with realism and humanity, without giving up a single shred of the magical. The switch between -- and at time surprising introduction of -- viewpoints is excellently handled, and particularly the young boy's voice is delightfully idiosyncratic and engrossing. My sole complaint, really, is the rather unfortunate trend between this and Novik's previous (also excellent, if maybe slightly less memorable to me than this one is) fairy tale-inspired novel "Uprooted" -- spoilers ahead -- where a woman forced into subordination by a callous and powerful male figure eventually finds a way to redeem their captor. In a single instance, this is not too troublesome, but between the two novels this happens thrice, with siimlar outcomes, which on a metatextual level feels like a troublesome message be implying. But I won't let that diminish my enjoyment of or enthusiasm for this book, which I warmly recommend to just about anyone.

[emmyson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This took me FOREVER because it was SO SLOW in the beginning. I couldn’t get into it. Then at about 30%, it took off and I couldn’t put it down. 3 stars for a slow start and waaaaaaay too many narrators.

[jazzbird61 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! So good.

[raschneid_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This lyrical fairy tale is equal parts cozy and dark. Novik is a strong writer and does such a good job evoking the feel of classic Slavic fairy tales, with a distinctive atmosphere and a complex structure of stories nested within stories. The novel's world also feels very lived in, with well-observed details of everyday life (harvesting cabbages touched by an early frost, making shoes from natural fiber).

Sad but true, writing a mythic fantasy about a Jewish moneylender still feels radical. Medieval-inspired fantasy worlds rarely explore where money and wealth came from in the medieval world (hint: not from wizard towers or goblin strongholds), and medieval Jewish banking is not a theme I have seen explored in fantasy fiction.

Novik does a brilliant job reclaiming this history and using it as a jumping-off point to explore a theme that is more common in fantasy fiction, but perhaps not utilized to its full potential: the contract. Some of the contracts in this book are fair, some are exploitative, and many are a bit of both. They govern not only debts but relationships, and this book teases out the meanings of obligation and reciprocity in a whole range of relationships.

I didn't feel the book ended as strongly as it began—it becomes more of a conventional fantasy adventure, and the resolutions of the main characters' arcs feel a little too pat—but I still enjoyed it tremendously. Recommended to all fans of mythic fiction.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

2.75 stars

Miryam is a Jewish girl whose father is a moneylender, but he’s “soft” and doesn’t force the matter when people won’t pay him back. When Miryam’s mother gets sick, Miryam takes over for her father and manages to bring in some money. In addition, when one person is unable to pay what is owed, Miryam takes on his daughter, Wanda, to help out to pay back the loan.

In fact, Wanda prefers this than having her father hire her out to do all manner of things, and the abuse he piles upon her. Later on, one of Wanda’s younger brothers also comes to work for Miryam’s family. Miryam, unfortunately, catches the eye of a “winter king” of sorts, and is forced to marry him.

Meanwhile, Irina’s family has plenty of money and Irina is forced to marry the Tzar. She discovers that he seems to be “controlled” by some demon in a fire. The three storylines do converge.

I listened to the audio and was interested in the set up of the story, but it was hard to follow and I missed much of the middle section. We switched perspectives in the story a lot, and there was nothing obvious to indicate when the switch happened. Add to that, many (though not all) Russian names I don’t know and it remained difficult for me to figure out who we were following at various times. There were other perspectives we followed in addition to Miryam, Wanda, and Irina, as well. It always took me a while to figure out whose perspective we were following, so that probably a. took me out of the story, and b. half the time I never did figure it out. I missed too much of the story to rate it any higher, though I wanted to, especially at the start.

[wellsten · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful to read. For some reason I took a long break from it before finishing it. Don't know why.

[saroz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a type of book I almost never read - what I might call "women's fantasy," a sub-genre that combines high fantasy and fairy tale tropes to tell a more involved, usually fairly internal story from the perspective of one or more women. Most such stories involve romance elements, sometimes quite dark ones. In my mind, this kind of book is typified by Robin McKinley's Beauty (1978) and a few other titles I read in my 20s - and then largely forgot.

If that description makes me sound outdated or a little prudish, that's not inaccurate. Just observing from the sidelines, this sub-genre seems to have exploded in the past 20 years, with many books straddling that somewhat subjective "Is it YA?" divide. And I have to admit some of my own prejudices are housed in my assumptions: I don't really want to read books for teenagers anymore; I don't really want to read romances. In particular, I have no special interest in reading books about the willing subjugation of women, no matter how idealized.

Spinning Silver came to me as a gift, and the person who gave it said exactly the right thing to pull me in: "This is a twist on [well-known fairy tale]." I like adaptations and I particularly like ones that subvert your expectations, so that intrigued me, for sure. Unfortunately it's a bad sales pitch for the book: without knowing that ahead of time, I might never have made the connection between the two stories. Even if I had, it wouldn't have been until about 200 pages had passed!

A better description of Spinning Silver would be that it uses fairy tale framework, and a fairy tale's narrative voice, to tell the story of three women who are bound by their backgrounds to seemingly immutable fates - and how they work to make their own futures instead. That makes it sound showier than it is, but most of the book revolves around the choices Miryem, the daughter of a poor Jewish moneylender, makes - and how she inadvertently sets the stories of Wanda (daughter of a violent drunk) and Irina (daughter of a duke with eyes on her marriage to the tsar) in motion. It takes a little getting used to their voices swapping out (and eventually expanding to include other characters), especially as there's no signal in the book to let you know who's speaking each time. But it does make a very internal story quite rich in detail, particularly in the moments where you realize two very different characters - usually separated by class - are witnessing the same events.

The fantasy element, when it shows up, is fantastical enough, although it seems more like an allegory for historical cruelty than a truly defined otherworldly creation. The winter and snow imagery for the Staryk race often leads to really gorgeous mental pictures, but their culture felt quite thin - too thin, at least, for the depth of story being told. I suppose that added to the fairy tale feel of it (fairy tales often telling their stories in broad strokes), but it left me a bit wanting by the end. The fantasy takes over in a rather grand way in the last quarter of the book, and I often found myself rolling along with it without being able to totally engage. Again, it didn't really help that I'd been led to expect the details of a well-known fairy tale, which ended up being more of a gloss than anything else. And the resolution comes abruptly, too - which is too bad, because up until about the last 50 pages, I was waiting for all the disparate, and mostly quite interesting, aspects of the story to cohere. That never quite happened.

Is it a good book? Yes, I think so, if not a great one. It was a very welcome companion during a long week where I really needed some distraction, and it probably swept away a few of my negative assumptions about this particular sub-genre. I find myself looking at a few other neglected volumes on my shelf and wanting to give them a try. At the same time, however, I know I won't read Spinning Silver again. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, and see inside their heads, but there isn't enough depth to come back and experience it twice. I'd rather hand it on to a friend - with a slightly more accurate description, of course!

[starknits_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Strong women, a demon, ice fairies, a czar and more definitely worth the read.
At first I wasn't sure I would like it. It grabbed my attention and drew me along till the end. Definitely a fairytale

[tsunaminoai · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story telling, compelling narrative, and solid main characters. Themes are consistent and not in your face. My issue with it is the book is written in first person from multiple perspectives. Switching between perspectives takes several lines and sometimes a page or more to realize who you're with now. This is frustrating with 3 people, but the author added several more by the end of the book. I spent a lot of time with these other characters wishing I was back with one of the main three.

[macha_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

solid and important take on the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, structured through a lot of variations of interlocking stories. there are some great characters too, including villains that can change. it's set in a historical eastern european setting which socially highlights various classes, from czars to an emergent middle class to the very poor, but centers emotionally on the Jewish outsiders, while making its economic points along the way about money and finance in the middle ages.

[shazjhb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantasy with a Jewish twist. Bookclub. Enjoyable.

[fionaanne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very good read but ultimately Novik is just a little too wordy for my taste.

[anniik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lovely little fairy tale full of strong women. Very good!

[fiverivers_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spinning Silver was my introduction to Naomi Novik, and a glorious introduction it was. It has been a very long time since I have been so captivated by a story, by writing, by the beauty of language that it silenced my inner critic and editor.

This is a charming and captivating story drawing upon Eastern European mythology and sensibilities, a very female story, which reinvents Rumpelstiltskin, the Ice Queen, and others. Novik creates a mythology and world which are utterly believable, fully realized down to minute details. She understands material culture intimately, the effects of climate upon the land and its people, of social constructs.

Miryem is the protagonist, the descendant of moneylenders who are more kind and forgiving than with the fortitude required of the profession, and thus Miryem finds herself in a grim and indigent life until she decides enough is enough and takes over the family business. That action, and the boast she unwittingly utters, draws the attention of the Staryk king, a lord of a kingdom of ice and cold.

Miryem, and the two young women she draws into her circle, become entangled what seems an impossible quest. Novik knits together all these elements into a mesmerizing story, one which I will be purchasing in hardcover for my library. The only reason I haven't given the novel five stars is because I don't think it's quite literary enough to become a classic of the ages. But it is definitely an excellent read.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is loosely based on the fairy tale of Rumplestiltskin but this is really the story of two kingdoms, one ruled by a demon of fire and one ruled by a creature of ice, and of the women who learned how to control them. I was totally immersed in this book and found it a thoughtful, powerful and intricate read full of magic and atmosphere.

Miryem, Wanda and Irina are compelling characters. Miryem is the daughter of a Jewish moneylender who is too soft so Miryem steps into his role and becomes very successful. Wanda is the oldest child of an abusive drunk who is in debt to Miryem’ family so Wanda finds herself working off that debt in Miryem’s home, and also finds a secure, happy place to escape from her father. Irina is the daughter of a duke who is more involved in his political plans than in planning a happy future for his daughter. Miryem attracts the attention of the king of the Staryk with her boasts of being able to turn silver into gold and he takes her for his queen. Irina, through a subtle magic, finds herself married off to the Tsar, only to find herself in mortal danger as he is possessed by an evil fire demon. The story of how the girls band together and plan for the downfall of their kings is a spellbinding story of high fantasy with a twist of romance.

Spinning Silver has the feel of a Russian fairy tale and the author uses Miryem’s Jewish heritage to great advantage. All of the characters are well developed and multi-faceted and the story is layered, rich, and satisfying. I was surprised by this book and how original and thought provoking it was.

[phrim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spinning Silver tells the story of three young women. Miryem is the daughter of a Jewish moneylender who can do that job better than her father, but is forced to marry the fairy ice-king thanks to an unfair bargain. Irina is the neglected daughter of a minor duke who is forced to marry the tsar, who is possessed by a fire-demon that wants to consume her. Wanda is the daughter of a drunken farmer who is forced to marry the brewer's son so that her father can have an unlimited supply of booze, but her and her siblings' objections end with their father dead and them in legal problems. The stories of these women are intertwined as Miryem and Irina conspire to set their husbands against one another, hoping for mutual destruction. While the story did drag a little in the middle as the plots were set up, the author managed to masterfully spin a very satisfying ending that highlights the book's main theme--the power of a bargain.

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh I was so confused when I started reading this -- I've read this before, surely? How can this be a new book that I've read before? I like it, I like it so much, but? -- turns out that I read the short story she decided to expand into a novel, and oh how glad I am that she went that route.

First, I loved, loved, loved the initial miller's daughter/ Rumpelstiltskin-ish tale retelling -- so original to set it in the Russian countryside, with a moneylender's daughter changing silver to gold. Such deeply compelling storytelling, but this, this expansion of points of view and weaving of other tales together (the mother's tree, the escape through the mirrors, the clever, clever bargains, Czernobog and on, on) is a masterwork. Delicious, delicious. I don't even resent the romance that creeps in at the end, because these heroines have proven their worth through blood and intelligence, through bargains and kindness and there's just no question any more about them making their own choices.

Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.

[elspethw-137053 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I normally love retellings of fairytales. This one was just disappointing. I loved what was happening at first. Then it just got kinda boring?

No spoilers, but. This was a disappointing book. I was so excited at first but was disappointed.

And the ending made me craaaaazy. Just, girl... fuckkkkkkk

[tikimoof · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another winter-king story, right on the tail of finishing Katherine Arden's trilogy. Strange how that happened - I had no idea going into either book where they'd lead.

Anyway, Spinning Silver solved my big problem with Uprooted, where the female protagonist goes around feeling sorry for herself and very useless and then learns that she doesn't have to be smart at all to succeed!

All three ladies are very smart where it counts (Miryem seeming to have the most book smarts, Irina having an understanding of politics, and Wanda learning as she goes). Also unlike Agniezcka, the women are pretty determined to get their way.

Like Uprooted, there was a lot of plod after the halfway point. In this case I think it was because of the expansion in POVs and trying to keep them synced up. Which was a neat idea, but there was a lot of waiting for revelations and resolutions. Most of the POVs added in the middle section could have been taken out as well. I quite detested those characters, as well.

Wanda's description of knitting and knitting patterns rang way more true than the first book of the Vampire Knitting Club, for those who care.

But overall, it was pretty good. If you liked Uprooted, you'll probably like this. Novik is just a little off, for me.

[belana-990668 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the story. Such a great fairy tale. Parts of it reminded me of other fairy tales, of course, but then it is no secret that Naomi Novik uses elements from well-known fairy tales and spins fantastic tales with those. What an apt title, the author is spinning silver indeed.

Katy Sobey's narration is fine, but there is no vocal distinction between the various characters, making it hard to know when there is a change of perspective in the story.
Now, admittedly, three of the characters are young women of about the same age, and one is a small boy, so naturally, they'll sound similar, but then I think maybe the narrator could have used slightly different accents to help the listener know who is telling what.
Or the author could have titled the paragraphs to let us know...
I think this audio book would have profited from either a cast of narrators, or a narrator who can give each character a distinctive voice.
Having the same voice range for all characters throughout the book was a bit of a pity, imo.

Still, I enjoyed the story, and the narration on the whole.

[sunyidean · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have a lot of mixed feelings. It was a good book, well written. It incorporated so many different fairytales into one complex, fairly empowering story of women twisting tropes on their heads, using intelligence and savvy and raw guts to get out of difficult situations. I even saw a nodd towards one of my favorite fairytale factoids (that werewolves were a way of discussing domestic violence and arose out of that lack of language which we have in modern times.)

But the six...seven?? (I lost track) first person point of views felt dizzying at times, flipping from one to the next sometimes even within the same chapter. I'd say the start is quite slow as the pieces slowly assemble and characters move into place. And the magic in the Staryk realm didn't make sense to me. I think for this one, you buy into it or you don't (that brags fulfilled translate into reality, basically.)

I'm also a little uneasy with the relationships portrayed. I remember feeling this way with Uprooted, too. There's big red flags for me in most fantasy romance arcs, and Novik isn't exempt from that.

Still, I gave it 4 stars because I think it has a lot to offer, is compulsively readable, and excellently structured. I'll still read her books in future (having read all of Temeraire) and would still recommend her to fantasy fans looking for an iconic female fantasy author.

[kittycunningh-815148 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mostly Rumpelstiltskin, a little Hansel and Gretel, a smidge of Bluebeard and Scheherazade.

This was really good.

[zeborah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A thoroughly enjoyable mashup/twist of fairy tales in a pseudo-eastern Europe being steadily the more encroached upon by a creepy winter. Miryem the moneylender's daughter is probably my favourite of the various main characters, but Irina, and Wanda and her brothers, were also great. I enjoyed the exploration of the Staryk's culture, which is orthogonal to ours so seems capricious until you start to see where it's coming from - and how that fits with where Miryem's coming from.

Like a few other books I've read recently, when the author starts adding point of view characters just to show those other points of view, it detracts from the focus. Around the same time it starts getting harder for me to segue smoothly between points of view and work out whose pov each new section is from. I'm not sure if it's because there are increasingly many possibilities for me to have to choose from; or I'm reading more quickly as things also get more exciting, so slowing down to figure it out is more noticeable; or that Irina and Miryem are both in similar positions of having married up into a dangerous position where they need to manipulate their husbands to survive (probably a large part that as they were they two I most confused).

[ladycato · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a fantastic book! This is historical fantasy at its finest, with a strong cast of girls and women who are witty and powerful, even amid powerless circumstances. The medieval Russia-inspired setting comes across cold enough to make you shiver. This is a fresh take on Rumpelstiltskin, and so much more.

[shannonrose4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This magical & imaginative novel will remind you of Rumpelstiltskin with a twist. Jewish history is flawlessly woven into this tale of winter kings, queens and bad agreements. Told in six determined, practical and strong voices, the tale that Novik spins here will leave you torn between devouring every page and savoring them.