#spinning silver by naomi novik

[hiuythn]

Hi, how are you? If you don't mind me asking, what are your top 7 favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series/etc)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before...... Thanks....

hi! I'm doing great, thank you for asking! I haven't thought of a top 7 before so that's interesting to think about. hm...I guess it would probably be:

1. Haikyū!! (it's so simple but it's so good. I heard Furudate created it to get people into volleyball and I'm confident in saying that he succeeded. there's just something so refreshing about it, but underneath everything, it still manages to communicate a thoughtful message that where you are today is not where you'll be tomorrow, and that the journey brought on by your passion—while it may not get your end—still has meaning in its pursuit.)

2. The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meatbun doesn't Eat Meat (xianxia danmei. my god, I went into this novel thinking it was another low-hanging fruit enemies to lovers type bait where the ML is basically abusive and the MC is a weak backboned twink, but no. no the story had me screaming, sobbing, and begging the author to stop because it hurt too much. I was in tears and I was laughing and I was in love and I was praying for them to be happy so, so bad. it's actually insane. NOTHING will beat how Meatbun managed to make me reconcile Chu Wanning's cold exterior with his soft heart, and Mo Ran's past life with his current one. I was actually baffled by how many fucking revelations, foreshadowing, and plot twists (that made sense and didn't come out of left field entirely) this book managed to have. Meatbun expertly weaved humor, tragedy, horror, mystery and romance all into one misleadingly-packaged book and I feel delightfully bamboozled.)

3. Turning by 쿠유 (Korean historical bl novel. Still reading this one, but the deep unspoken trust the MC and ML have for each other is really awe-inspiring, and they're also very competent at what they do. The relationships with their subordinates and allies are also really heartwarming. The plot is sufficiently interesting as well, and not just something cobbled together to make the characters kiss lol—not that that's bad intrinsically, but it can get old after a while.)

4. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rock Riordan (everyone knows this one. I love it because I grew up reading it, and then reading it to my sister out loud with the voices and everything. I love an MC that just consistently doesn't know what he's doing and yet sees things through to the end, and whose motto is just "fuck it, fuck this, and fuck you". and again Percy and Annabeth have that "bantering duo who trust and balance each other out and are also very, very good at what they do" type relationship that I'm such a sucker for.)

5. Bleach by Tite Kubo (one of the Big 3 manga serialized back then. I'm down bad for the art, he's one of my favourite mangaka in terms of art style, and also it's nostalgic. I grew up watching ichigo fight through impossible odds with just his "fuck you don't touch my people" mentality. are you starting to see a pattern with me and protective, headstrong MCs? the cast of side characters are all pretty memorable, despite its growing size down the line and again, i love their designs. I know people gripe a lot about the plot and continuity errors, but I enjoyed it regardless—except for the accursed ending and Epilogue Dad Haircut..)

6. Montmorency by Eleanor Updale (victorian crime fiction novel. I was sent this as compensation in, like, 5th grade when the Scholastic Fair delivered the wrong order to me. I didn't expect to like it but it was surprisingly a good standalone read. i used to reread it loads but it's been about a decade now so some details are blurry, but i am very fond of it still.)

7. A Quiet Place (horror movie, though for me it's less horror and more of a family-centric movie. I'm awful with horror, I'm such a wuss, but this movie was so good with its character dynamics and the ending was so fitting that I couldn't help but rewatch it and have it engrained in my head. I haven't watch the other movies in this series and tbh I fully believe the first movie is sufficient on its own, not to say the other suck, I just have no urge to watch them. this movie was such a palate cleanser for me in cinema.)

thank you for your ask, had a lot of fun coming up with this list!

[artemisbarnowl]

We're SO back

[itsybitsybookworm]

.

[erionmakuo]

Fanart of Mirnatirus from Spinning Silver by @naominovik Was lucky enough to catch her on her UK tour! :)

[reputayswift]

SPINNING SILVER ❆ NAOMI NOVIK

❝ THERE ARE MEN WHO ARE WOLVES INSIDE, and want to eat up other people to fill their bellies. That is what was in your house with you, all your life. But here you are with your brothers, and you are not eaten up, and there is not a wolf inside you. You have fed each other, and you kept the wolf away. That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away. ❞

[ace-and-ranty]

The thematic through lines between Spinning Silver and The Scholomance drive me absolutely insane. It is so fascinating, seeing themes resurface across an author's body of work.

You've got paying for things with honest hard work (mana, Magreta's hand-sewing), VS paying them with exploitation and other people's lives (malia, Chernobog's magic clothing). You've got mothers who set up their children as bet as possible (Gwen, Silvija) VS mothers who sold them for their own gains (Ophelia, Minartius' mother). You've got monsters of endless hunger (Mawmouths, Chernoborg). You've got all our righteously angry girlies (El, Miryem, Irina). And you've got people coming together as a circle (all the circle castings in the Scholomance, the Staryk King's capture)

It's also interesting of course to see where themes don't repeat. The Scholomance has a huge focus on collective action that's not very present in Spinning Silver. And Spinning Silver has a lot to say about personal dignity, about the "thousand tiny deaths" of seeing yourself ground down by abuse, which the Scholomance doesn't say much about. But just. GOD. The parallels.

[ekbelsher]

I finally painted the Mireym + Staryk king icy glare contest. Did Naomi Novik know, when she designed a character with white hair, white skin and an all-white outfit, what that would mean in terms of aesthetics? I tried my best to make him mysterious and sexy, but he still ended up looking like a fae version of Mr Clean

[drawulan]

Irina

[emily-e-draws]

wip of the faves... at any given moment I am thinking about the scholomance trilogy

(preview from the latest batch of sketches going up on my patreon!)

[anolis3]

"Spinning Silver", by Naomi Novik.

"But it was all the same choice, every time. The choice between the one death and all the little ones.", from Spinning Silver.

"So the fairy silver brought you a monster of fire for a husband, and me a monster of ice. We should put them in a room together and let them make us both widows.", from Spinning Silver.

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

If you have not read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (book one of the Scholomance series) yet I am begging you to do it because I do not have enough people to talk about it with and I love this series so much

I'm going to be honest I will not hear any Scholomance series slander they are my children and they are perfect

[fictionalnation]

Just finished a wonderful book and the author turned out to be the co-founder of AO3 SHOOKETHHH

[stromuprisahat]

Irina @Chernobog: My husband may be a trash, but he's ~my~ trash. Find yourself a loser of your own.

[thewiddershinsme]

Finished Spinning Silver! What a satisfying ending, the last few pages had me grinning. I think this may be my favorite book of 2024

- I was wrong, Rebekah was not the kid to show the cost of bargains, it was Mirnatius! So clever, to show what happens to the child bargained away to a demon before birth (but one whose mother never found a way out of it)

-I honestly wouldn't call this a Rumpelstiltskin retelling so much as one inspired by it (and honestly loved it even more for not being a direct adaption)

- poor guard that had a crush on Irina (was starting to wonder if I should start shipping them cause I just wanted Irina to be personally happy in her marriage somehow and then he's no longer even an option). But that brings me to...

-omg the last scene where Irina claims everyone in Lithvas and then Mirnatius himself. So clever demon rules lawyering and so satisfying after the repeated "only me and mine" phrase.

-my real only nitpick of the book was I feel like we were missing a final pov section with either Irina or Mirnatius. Don't get me wrong, the final sentence of their section was perfect (especially since my fave part of the book was Mirnatius desperately drawing her and thrusting pages into people's faces shouting "Why do you think she's beautiful?!?!?). Buuuut I wish we could have had a little epilogue with the two of them, just to see how they were doing both politically and marriage-wise. We got to kinda see Miryem and the Staryk King get to know each other without the tension, and a glimpse into what their lives will be like, so their marriage and relationship felt like it made sense (which was needed cause Miryem was legitimately trying to kill him not that many pages ago). I'm a romantic, so I believe that Irina and Mirnatius had their own happily ever after (and I caught that Irina sent a mirror to Miryem as a wedding gift, visits in the future?) but I wish we could've seen it to KNOW they worked out

- of the two, I preferred Spinning Silver more than Uprooted. It just hit so many of the right notes for me personally. I would have to say Miryem was my favorite character, there was never a time I wasn't straight up rooting for her (even when she made decisions that could've turned out so bad I still understood why they were made and it made sense). However Irina had my favorite storyline, I love books of overlooked girl becomes queen and shows everyone she is good at this, especially if perfectly arranged marriage also factors in (plus her plot line with the three silver pieces of jewelry and jumping through mirrors and even how she talked to the demon felt so fairy tale esque) Even Miryem who literally became a fairy/elven queen brought a level of practicality to her situation (which was one of the reasons I loved her), but Irina's felt like it could literally have started like a winter fairy tail (Once Upon A Time a girl had a drop of fairy blood and three magic items, and she was married to a demon that she outwitted, and won her husband and kingdom's safety in the end)

-and all the other characters and their warm and safe and happy endings made me feel so cozy. And also nice to read a fantasy book with two alive loving parents (and even grandparents!)

[ace-and-ranty]

I’m still extremely skeptical about the movie adaptation of the Scholomance. Of course Hollywood would pick it to adapt; it is much more advertisible; but it is so much less adaptable. The books are just FUN EXPOSITION: THE TRILOGY, and rely entirely on El’s amazing narrator voice, and it’s gonna be a pain in the butt to translate to a visual medium.

Why not Spinning Silver!!! For fuck’s sake, it was RIGHT THERE!!!

The exposition in Spinning Silver is largely through dialogue; it has that awesome triple storyline structure that would work so well for interweaving plots in a movie; it is visually beautiful, with heavy CGI needed only for the Staryk Kingdom bits; and it has an extremely cinematic climax.

Watching Miryem flip an entire treasury from silver to gold, melting a fire demon to bits, would be so much easier to put on screen than having to explain the fifteen mental hoops El goes through before she can kill the fucking Library Mawmouth.

[ekbelsher]

The Staryk king is cross about something and whatever it is, Miryem’s not having it. She’s got the sullen glare down pat