★★★★☆ Hemlock & Silver, by T Kingfisher
Any nonzero number of talking cats is significant!
Hemlock & Silver
T Kingfisher
Any nonzero number of talking cats is significant!
T. Kingfisher's Hemlock & Silver was not what I expected, which is, actually, kinda what I expected. Hemlock & Silver is not a fairy tale retelling. It's a story some elements of which were inspired by Snow White or Snow White and Rose Red. And there is a nonzero number of talking cats.
The hero of Hemlock & Silver is Mistress Anja. She is sometimes called Healer Anja, a title that she carefully disclaims any right to, even though she has occasionally healed people and even saved lives. She is what we, in modern medicine, would call a specialist. A childhood incident (this is where the hemlock mentioned in the title comes in) left her fascinated with poisons. Her father being a wealthy merchant, she has the means to indulge this fascination. As a result she knows more about poisons than any other person in the land.
The story begins when the King visits her. His daughter, Princess Snow, is ill, and he fears poison. None of the regular healers has been able to help her. Thus he has come to Anja. He asks her to come to the mirror-infested country castle where Snow lives, and Anja consents. So far, so unmagical.
Then Anja falls into a mirror (the silver of the title is a reference to mirrors), and her rational world must accommodate magic. Unsurprisingly, the princess's affliction is tied to the mirror world. Of course we have battles and hair's breadth escapes and all that good stuff, not to mention a supercilious talking cat.
The theme of confronting magic with rationality runs throughout, however, and was for me the most interesting element. This is a common theme of Kingfisher's fantasy novels. Her magic users are typically not very powerful, but they are clever and creative.