''Spinning Silver'' is a 2018 fantasy novel written by
Naomi Novik
Naomi Novik (born April 30, 1973) is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the ''Temeraire'' series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her ''Scholomance'' fantasy series (2020 ...
.
Novik originally published a short story called "Spinning Silver" in ''The Starlit Wood'' anthology in 2016 and later expanded it into a novel.
''Spinning Silver'' won the American Library Association's
Alex Award
The Alex Awards annually recognize "ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18". Essentially, the award is a listing by the American Library Association parallel to its annual Best Books for Young A ...
in 2019, the 2019
Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel The Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel is a literary award given annually by '' Locus Magazine'' as part of their Locus Awards.
Winners
References
External links
The Locus Award Index: FantasyThe Locus Award: 2011 winnersExcerpts and summaries ...
, and the 2019
Audie Award for Fantasy
The Audie Award for Fantasy is one of the Audie Awards presented annually by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). It awards excellence in narration, production, and content for a fantasy audiobook released in a given year. It has been awarded s ...
. Spinning Silver was a 2019
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,00 ...
Nominee, a 2018 finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and a 2018
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fantasy. The novel is loosely based on the tale of
Rumpelstiltskin
"Rumpelstiltskin" ( ; german: Rumpelstilzchen) is a German fairy tale. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of ''Children's and Household Tales''. The story is about a little imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a g ...
.
Plot summary
The story of ''Spinning Silver'' unfolds in the voices of several characters, but primarily in the voices of three young women who struggle against strong evil forces, in an imaginary medieval eastern European kingdom called Lithvas.
Over the last seven years, Lithvas has been suffering from long, brutal winters that are slowly killing its people. Miryem Mandelstam, a young Jewish girl, takes over her father's moneylending business to save her family from debt. A village girl, Wanda, becomes the Mandelstams' servant, and she and her brothers become close with them. One night Miryem, flush with her financial success, brags to her mother that she can “turn silver into gold”. Her boast is overheard by the Staryk, a race of
fae creatures who emerge from their own world every winter to raid human settlements, and Miryem receives three deliveries of magical silver. Realizing that the Staryk will kill her if she does not give them gold in exchange, she has the metal made into three pieces of jewellery to sell. However, after the sale of the second piece, Miryem demands payment for her work; to Miryem’s horror, the Staryk king tells her that after the third, her "reward" will be marriage to him.
The jewellery is bought by the duke of the city of Vysnia for his daughter, Irina; he then persuades Mirnatius, the tsar of Lithvas, to marry her. On her wedding night, Irina discovers that while wearing her Staryk jewellery, she can cross into the Staryk kingdom and magically observe her husband. Mirnatius has a contract allowing his body to be inhabited by
Chernobog
Chernobog ( "Black God") and Belobog ( "White God") are an alleged pair of Polabian deities. Chernobog appears in the Helmold's '' Chronicle'' as a god of misfortune worshipped by the Wagri and Obodrites, while Belobog is not mentioned – he wa ...
, a demon who drinks souls and can only emerge at night due to his hatred of sunlight. Each evening, the new tsarina escapes to the fae world, where she is safe from the demon.
After the Staryk king abducts Miryem to his palace, she learns that she can literally change silver into gold with a touch. She also discovers that the Staryk king is responsible for lengthening the winters in Lithvas, and that it is his desire to make them permanent. Although she hates her husband, who refuses even to tell her his name due to the power over him it would give her, Miryem comes to know and care for some of the Staryk; she also sees that their kingdom is suffering mysterious damages. While out exploring, Miryem encounters Irina. The two women create a plan to bring their husbands together, in the hopes that they will destroy one another. Because Miryem cannot cross to the human world alone, she bargains with the king: he will take her to attend her cousin’s wedding in Vysnia if she can transform three of his enormous vaults of silver within three days. She succeeds, barely, with the help of her servants.
Chernobog promises that, in exchange for Irina giving him the Staryk king, he will never harm her or anyone she cares about. She takes him to the wedding, where he confronts the king. With the help of the mortals, the demon imprisons the Staryk and begins consuming his magic. Mirnatius tells Irina that he did not choose the contract with Chernobog, but was promised to the demon by his own mother in exchange for her marrying his father, the previous tsar. Once the king is bound, spring arrives. However, Miryem is troubled to realize that the fae kingdom and its inhabitants, including those who helped her, will all be destroyed as the king is drained. She goes to her husband and learns that, while the Staryk have always raided the human world, they began trying to exterminate Lithvas with brutal winters only after Mirnatius became tsar. Through the magical connection between the fae and human kingdoms, the demon caused the weakening of the Staryk world.
Miryem frees the king after extracting a promise that he will end the killing winters and the raids. Chernobog, enraged, threatens Irina until she offers to take him to the Staryk kingdom. There, Miryem lures the demon into the king’s treasury, and once he is surrounded by silver, she turns it into gold. Unable to bear the touch of solid sunlight on his skin, Chernobog flees back to the human world. In the mortal lands, the demon attempts to turn on Irina, but finds himself powerless when she reminds him of their bargain not to harm her or anyone of hers. As tsarina, she counts all the people of Lithvas as hers - including the tsar. Chernobog is thus forced from Mirnatius's body and killed.
As spring has returned to Lithvas, Miryem is obliged to remain in the Staryk kingdom until the day of the first snow. However, when she returns to the human world, she realizes that she has become attached to the kingdom, its people, and its king. She is nevertheless astonished when the king asks for permission to court her. She consents, and the pair are wed two weeks later. Miryem notes that, in accordance with Jewish custom, her husband signed his name on their marriage contract - but in accordance with Staryk custom, she will never reveal it to anyone.
Reception
''Spinning Silver'' was widely praised upon its release. It was a finalist for Best Novel in both the 2018
Nebula Awards
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...
and the 2019
Hugo Awards
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
.
[2019 Hugo Award & 1944 Retro Hugo Award Finalists]
by Cheryl Morgan
Cheryl Morgan is a British science fiction critic and publisher. She has won Hugo Awards for her work on the fanzine ''Emerald City'' from 1995 to 2006, and as non-fiction editor of ''Clarkesworld'' magazine from 2009 to 2011. Morgan was the f ...
, at TheHugoAwards.org retrieved June 7, 2019 The novel won the American Library Association's
Alex Award
The Alex Awards annually recognize "ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18". Essentially, the award is a listing by the American Library Association parallel to its annual Best Books for Young A ...
in 2019, the 2019
Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel The Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel is a literary award given annually by '' Locus Magazine'' as part of their Locus Awards.
Winners
References
External links
The Locus Award Index: FantasyThe Locus Award: 2011 winnersExcerpts and summaries ...
, and the 2019
Audie Award for Fantasy
The Audie Award for Fantasy is one of the Audie Awards presented annually by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). It awards excellence in narration, production, and content for a fantasy audiobook released in a given year. It has been awarded s ...
.
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called it "a perfect tale about the songs of ice and fire."
''
Vox'' called Novik "one of the definitive YA voices of her era."
References
{{novik
2018 American novels
2018 fantasy novels
Novels by Naomi Novik
Slavic mythology in popular culture
Works based on Rumpelstiltskin
Novels based on fairy tales
Del Rey books
Macmillan Publishers books