The Summer War
Naomi Novik
Terror and guts at one remove
The Summer War felt to me like a diluted version of the characteristic Naomi Novik experience. I have something specific in mind when I say that. The signature Novik "terror and guts" moment is when a powerful character takes on a monster beyond human abilities. In terror and despair and through sheer guts she contacts her inner power and defeats the monster. Think of Neeshka entering the Heart Tree in Uprooted, or El destroying her first maw-mouth in A Deadly Education. Such a moment occurs in The Summer War, I believe. But it is not our point-of-view character that experiences it. Thus we see it at a remove, and it is less powerful.
That point-of-view character is Celia. She is a sort of princess. Her father is not the king de jure of Prosper, but he is more or less the de facto king -- with all the power and not much of the pageantry. He's a jumped up commoner who through military prowess won a place. When I say "prowess," what I mean mostly is cleverness. "Commoner who rises by using their brains" is a common phenotype in Novik -- think of Miryem in Spinning Silver who turns silver into gold by becoming a clever investor and money-lender.
Unlike her father, Celia does in fact have abilities beyond cleverness. She is a sorceress. She discovers this in the worst possible way: a twelve-year-old girl, she curses her beloved brother Argent, and the curse sticks.
But Celia is clever, too. She first shows this in the way she helps her unloved middle brother Roric.
I'm going to leave the plot summary there so as not to spoil. Let's just say that Celia gets into trouble and has to be rescued. Uncharacteristically for a Novik heroine, she is unable to rescue herself.
Although this was a good story, it was less powerful than I have come to expect of Novik. In the end I felt let down.
Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advance reader copy of The Summer War. Release date 16-September-2025.
I am keen to read this one but I have been tempering my expectations ever since I realized it was a novella. Sounds like I will have to continue waiting patiently for a full length novel in Uprooted or Spinning Silver style.