Tag Archives: Katherine Arden

#BookReview ‘The Warm Hands of Ghosts’ by @arden_katherine #WW1 #mystery

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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is a historical fantasy about a Great War nurse who returns to the Flanders battlefield to find her brother, believed dead. Part-history, part-ghost story, part-magical realism, part-mystery, there are times when I didn’t know what to believe. Katherine ArdenHaving already served as a nurse in the trenches, Canadian Laura Iven is back at home in Halifax, recovering from the injuries she sustained while nursing. But she isn’t there for long. After the shocking death of her parents in an explosion in Halifax, Laura receives a package from Belgium; her brother Freddie’s uniform and dog tags. The assumption is that he is dead. But Laura receives no official confirmation that he is dead or missing. Disturbed by supernatural possibilities and questions raised at a séance, she decides to return to Belgium to find Freddie.
Laura and Freddie’s stories are told in alternating sections in a timeline that jumped around in a disorientating way; which made me identify with the dislocation and giddiness of Laura’s circumstances. Freddie Iven awakes in No Man’s Land after an explosion and finds himself trapped in mud beneath an overturned pillbox. His only companion is an injured German soldier. Should he kill his enemy. Or can they help each other. If they escape, where should they go. Escaping into the hellish landscape of mud and putrefaction they stay together and wander, lost both emotionally and geographically. Until they meet a fiddler, a man who entertains, who makes the horror of war disappear for a brief time. Is he real, and what is his unspoken motivation? Exhausted, their decision-making puts them in danger. Freddie risks being shot as a deserter, Winter as an enemy.
Laura, now volunteering at a private hospital behind the lines, learns to ride a motorcycle so she can search for Freddie or anyone who remembers him. Troubled by her own trauma, Laura’s nightmares become more vivid. She hears talk of ghosts that move about among living people, and a hotelier who offers soldiers the chance to forget their terrors. Seen once, this man and his hotel can never be found again. Is he real, or another ghost. Laura is a likeable heroine. At times dogged in her determination, unattractively so for the times, and sometimes tin-eared, I was willing her on in her search for Freddie. As the traumas of present-day and past war experiences combine, the ability to differentiate between real life, facts, dreams and superstitions becomes transient.
This is an unusual take on the familiar World War One themes. Powerful, harrowing, it examines the nature of what it takes to fight in a war and kill another human being, when the enemy soldier is really an ordinary man like yourself. Thought-provoking.

Read my reviews of the Winternight trilogy, also by Katherine Arden:-
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE #1WINTERNIGHT
THE GIRL IN THE TOWER #2WINTERNIGHT
THE WINTER OF THE WITCH #3WINTERNIGHT

If you like this, try:-
‘Another World’ by Pat Barker
‘A Long Long Way’ by Sebastian Barry
‘The Lie’ by Helen Dunmore

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS @arden_katherine https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7Xy via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- SJ Parris

#BookReview ‘The Winter of the Witch’ by @arden_katherine #fantasy #folklore

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What a barnstorming end to a trilogy this is. The Winter of the Witch is the final part of the Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden, a bewitching at times bewildering combination of Russian history, folklore, magic and fantasy. It’s the sort of book with depths that reward re-reading, weaving connections with the first two books into a finale that is both satisfying and heart-wrenching. Katherine ArdenThese are books about fitting in, and not fitting in, of being different, and finding your own way in a complicated sometimes mystifying world. Arden sets her tale in medieval Russia, adds layers of magic and Russian myth, woven together with the true story of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. She handles such a complex mixture with an assured, inspired hand. In my 2017 review of the first book, The Bear and the Nightingale, I described it as ‘not an easy read, but rewarding’ and I repeat that again for The Winter of the Witch. You have to pay attention, make connections, take fictional leaps of imagination, but you are rewarded.
As Vasya’s magical powers grow, so do the dangers to the traditional ways of life in old ‘Rus. No longer a girl but a hardened fighter, a young woman determined to do what is right, but still not immune to doubt, indecision and to love. As she performs more magic she knows she is danger of losing her grip on real life, of descending into madness, but must decide whether to save herself or to save those she loves. Vasya is an inspiring heroine, throwing herself into adventures against the will and advice of those around her, finding allies in unexpected places and facing enemies with a brave heart. My favourite characters included Solovey, Vasya’s magnificent bay stallion, and Ded Grib, the tiny mushroom chyert.
Moscow is burning and Vasya is to be burnt at the stake as a witch. If she can escape, she must leave behind everyone and everything she loves. Meanwhile a dark priest in Moscow is evangelising the people against the old ways and the chyerti, the folklore spirits,  while the Tatars are threatening war against ‘Rus. Grand Prince Dimitri must unite the Russian princes to defend their lives.
I’m sad to finish these books but now I will revisit them again, this time reading them back-to-back in the hope of understanding more of the complex layers of folklore. The world-building reminds me of Tolkien and Pullman in its depth and breadth.

Read my reviews of the other books in this trilogy:-
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE #1WINTERNIGHT
THE GIRL IN THE TOWER #2WINTERNIGHT

If you like this, try:-
‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi
‘La Belle Sauvage’ by Philip Pullman
‘In Another Life’ by Julie Christine Johnson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE WINTER OF THE WITCH by @arden_katherine https://wp.me/p5gEM4-54J via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Girl in the Tower’ by @arden_katherine #folklore #fantasy

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There is so much to The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, follow-up to The Bear and the Nightingale. A strong female heroine, magical mystical Russian folklore, fighting, horses and danger. Katherine ArdenVasya is an awkward teenage girl in the mythical Middle Ages of old ‘Rus who does not like her traditional choice of marriage or convent; in The Girl in the Tower she is older and more defiant. You just know she is heading for trouble. She leaves home to wander and look at the world, refusing to worry about survival in the winter forest, and in so doing stumbles into banditry and violence that has implications for the power of the throne. I read the second half of this at a pace, wanting to know the outcome, not wanting it to end.
A faster-paced book than the first of the series, the two are tightly linked and so I hesitate to give away too much plot. Disguised as a boy, Vasya cannot help but attract attention despite the warnings of her magnificent stallion Solovey. Her exploits bring her to the attention of Dimitri, the Grand Prince of Moscow, and red-haired lord Kasyan Lutovich. Feted for her fearless fighting, Vasya’s disguise becomes more difficult to protect. Reunited with her brother Sasha, the monk who is Dimitri’s best friend and adviser, Vasya must maintain her disguise or risk the lives of her family. The secret must be kept at any cost.
It is a pleasure to read these books, confident that author Katherine Arden has a supreme hold on her material, the legends and the world she has created. And in Vasya she has a heroine who confronts evil in its many forms – the human sort of swords, ambition, bigotry and malicious words – and the superhuman sort of gods and demons, a firebird and magic jewels that confer control. Arden describes this world, and Vasya’s adventures, beautifully. In this second novel she grows from a teenager to a young woman, bringing with it an awareness of attraction and a kiss with a frost-demon. In parallels with heroes of other fantasy fiction – Philip Pullman, JK Rowling – Vasya shows respect for people and creatures which others may ignore and demean, so earning their loyalty and support at critical moments.
These are adult fantasy tales, complicated, dense and a rollicking read. A quite unusual combination. Can’t wait for the third in the series.

Read my reviews of the other books in this trilogy:-
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE #1WINTERNIGHT
THE WINTER OF THE WITCH #3WINTERNIGHT

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Quick’ by Lauren Owen
‘The Seventh Miss Hatfield’ by Anna Caltabiano
‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE GIRL IN THE TOWER by @arden_katherine http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2YK via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ by @arden_katherine #folklore #fantasy

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An entrancing, bewildering debut. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is heavily-influenced by Russian fairytales and steeped in winter. Snow, ice and frost are the everyday reality for the Vladimirovich family in medieval northern Russia where winter lasts many months of the year. It is a land of legend, folklore and fairytales where the people pay homage to the gods of the forest. Katherine ArdenThis is the story of Vasya, a wild child who sees the gods of the forests and the spirits of the house. Then one day a priest arrives from the city to challenge the superstitions and traditions of the country folk. It is a story of winter/summer, girl/boy, countryside/city but most of all, old magic versus the church. Is Vasya a free spirit, or is she a witch? Is her behaviour refreshing and engaging, or wicked? She alone can talk to the horses which teach her to ride like a Steppe boy, exhilarating and dashing but inappropriate for a young girl.
The only other person who can see the demons is Anna, Vasya’s stepmother, but whereas Vasya understands the demons, Anna fears them. She begs the priest, Father Konstantin, for prayers to banish them. But Konstantin becomes distracted as God starts speaking to him directly. Various attempts are made to tame Vasya. Her father wonders if a man will ever want to marry a girl who spends her time in the woods rather than sewing and cooking, her stepmother plots to get rid of her, her brothers protect her. Then a winter arrives which threatens to be the worst of all, many will die, and Pyotr Vladimirovich’s family will never be the same again.
In this book you will scarcely know where the fairy tales end and real life begins, indeed the book begins with the telling of a fairy tale. Arden has packed her novel with sumptuous description, colourful characters and layers on layers of myth, so many names and stories that you will struggle to keep track of them. It is a moody read, atmospheric, with beautiful description. But it is not a quick read, so relax into it and immerse yourself in Vasya’s life. You will be drawn into this unfamiliar world so you feel the hardships of the family, their fears, their dreams and dilemmas.
The Bear and the Nightingale is not an easy read, but it is rewarding. The Russian diminutives added to my confusion in the first few chapters when so many characters are introduced. Also the line between fairy tale and the story of Pyotr Vladimirovich’s family is often blurred. But stick with it, this book rewards perseverance.

Read my reviews of the other books in this trilogy:-
THE GIRL IN THE TOWER [#2 WINTERNIGHT]
THE WINTER OF THE WITCH [#3 WINTERNIGHT]

If you like this, try:-
‘The Queen of the Tearling’ by Erika Johansen
‘The Seventh Miss Hatfield’ by Anna Caltabiano
‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by @arden_katherine via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2j9