Through the White Wood

February 1, 2019
A peasant girl in 11th-century Russia must learn to harness her power over ice.Katya is ostracized in her village because of her ability to freeze, becoming ice--and when she loses her temper and her power kills someone she loves, she is arrested. Katya fears a death sentence at the hands of the notoriously cruel prince, but she soon learns that he wants to use her magic as a weapon in a coming war. Not only that, but the prince has a special elemental power too, an affinity with fire that provides a foil for Katya's ice exactly as narrative convenience requires. Katya hits all the chosen-one marks that this genre demands--mysterious and magical parentage, the death of a beloved mentor, learning to accept the power within oneself--and no avid fantasy reader will be surprised by the plot's turns. All characters are assumed white except for a brief reference to a brown-skinned spring goddess, and the narration conflates fairness with beauty. The writing style is confident and plot-focused, although it veers into a strangely stilted quality in much of the dialogue. Vivid descriptions, especially of luxurious tents and traditional dresses, offer a pleasantly rounded sense of detail.A paint-by-numbers fantasy rendered in pretty winter colors. (author's note, glossary) (Historical fantasy. 13-18)

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