Uprooted by Naomi Novik (4.5 stars)

Waited too long to write this review but I think? I really liked it. I think it's technically YA, but in the same way the last Harry Potter books are YA. i.e. it's pretty dark.

The world building is great. The great magic battle was really cool. It feel very fairy-taily, which is a different take on fantasy. There were a few points where I felt the characters' very powerful magical abilities created some logic holes: I remember thinking, they could just solve that problem using magic.

The only really negative piece was the weird and gross 17-yr-old to old-man "relationship" and sex scene. The Dragon spends all the early book being mean and acting like an angry grandpa to Agnieszka. He's constantly condescending and mentally abusive.

When she's first having romantic thoughts during their shared rose spell, he doesn't miss an opportunity to be an asshole:

"Well?" he demanded, hoarse and irritated, and it was him. "We can't do this for long, whatever you are doing. I can't have my attention divided.

When she decides to actually just go to his bedchamber, his reaction is:

"Listen, you impossible creature," he said, "I'm a century and more older than-

After the climatic ending, he doesn't even bother sending her a note, or expressing any form of concern for her mental or physical wellbeing:

Sarkan hadn't come back. I didn't know if he'd ever come back. I heard fourth- or fifth-hand that he was still in the capital, setting things right, but he hadn't written.

This isn't a relationship that starts out antagonistic and gradually grows more loving and respectful. It's abusive and shallow the whole time, with a sex scene in the middle. It feels very Stockholm-syndrome. It would have made for far better reading for Sarkan to make some advances and Agnieszka turn him down like the powerful witch she is, further strengthening her character.

4.5 stars.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (3.5 stars)

An interesting post-apocalyptic read, sitting at the intersection of that genre and literary fiction. Survivalists who like to geek out on the details will probably be fairly disappointed: flying planes is a central part of the novel, despite the shelf life of avgas being about a year, which the author attempts to patch over in a few places.

The writing style is "stream of consciousness" with plenty of missing punctuation, which was somewhat annoying at first. There's some very sudden transitions from survivalist adventure type novel, to literary and reflective. These felt fairly jarring but were not implausible for the style of storytelling.

This was our ritual while we waited for our lives to truly begin and I think now that maybe true sweetness can only happen in limbo. I don’t know why. Is it because we are so unsure, so tentative and waiting? Like it needs that much room, that much space to expand. The not knowing anything really, the hoping, the aching transience: This is not real, not really, and so we let it alone, let it unfold lightly. Those times that can fly.

Eventually surviving isn't enough, and leads to a almost-suicidal mission to seek out new people. This leads to a love story, and finishes with an action novel, which are all in stark contrast to the lonely reflective passages.

Favourite quote:

Watch anyone enter their arena of real mastery and you see it, the growing bigger than themselves.

3.5 stars