The Summer War by Naomi Novik

 

I had never read anything by Naomi Novik until the Scholomance books were nominated for the best series Hugo a few years back. 

I had heard the name Naomi Novik for years, of course, and had picked up Spinning Silver and Uprooted when they were on sale on audible, but I had never read any of her books. I gave A Deadly Education a try and immediately got sucked in and read them all in a rush one after another after another. I loved her writing style and her characterization, and I was thrilled when I got to meet her at New York Comic-Con a while back and tell her how much I enjoyed the series. I also really enjoyed Uprooted and Spinning Silver, and her short story collection Buried Deep and Other Stories last year was one of the best things I read all year. 

I was excited to get a copy of the Summer War, her new novella, as an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. And that was before I saw her at GenCon this summer in which she was interviewed at a panel and explained that this book was originally supposed to be a short story in an rerelease of either Uprooted or Spinning Silver (I forget which) until it got away with her, and that her publisher was putting it out as a standalone because she was working on a new seven book series that she didn’t want to turn in to the publisher until all 7 were done. 

This is a wonderful story of wonderful characters. If this is based on an actual fairy tale, it is not one I am familiar with. It involves a younger sister and two older brothers, none of whom start the story treating each other very well, set against a backdrop of a recurring war with fey people from the Summerlands. The book is haunting and lyrical and clever and beautiful and I loved the way it got to the happy ending. I can’t wait for the next thing Ms. Novik publishes, and, until then, I still have her entire napoleonic dragon series to dive into.