Winterling by Sarah Prineas

Winterling by Sarah Prineas
Buy Winterling by Sarah Prineas at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: There's some good world-building in this story, but it's let down by bland characters.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 320	Date: November 2012
Publisher: Quercus
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0857384287
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Thirteen-year old Fer doesn't feel like she belongs with everyone else. She keeps getting into fights at school, she's teased for her unruly appearance, and her grandmother won't let her go anywhere except school. Then she rescues a mysterious boy called Rook from some wolves, and is taken to a wondrous, but cruel, world where it's always winter and a dangerous queen rules the land. Can Fer save the day?

While this children's fantasy does have some strong points, I feel slightly disappointed by the lack of any real originality here. That's not to say it's a particularly bad book, it just seems to include a fairly huge amount of common fantasy tropes without ever making them stand out from the pack. We have the orphan girl as heroine, the strange and near-feral boy who may or may not be able to be trusted, the grandmother who can only watch in dismay as she sets out on her quest, the beautiful Lady whose good looks hide a dark heart... it's just that none of them have much depth to them.

If you can ignore that, then it's a competently written adventure despite the slightly bland characters. Phineas is better at world-building than she is at creating those world's inhabitants, and she has a strong grasp of the world beyond the land beyond the Way. Also, the plot is fairly strong and the ending is genuinely exciting and Fer's characterisation, at least, becomes stronger in the last few chapters. I've found out since finishing it that it's the first in a series, but in fairness to Phineas it's not obvious from reading it - it does actually work as a stand-alone, thankfully.

Mildly recommended if you or your children can't get enough fantasy, although I'd say there was better out there.

I really enjoyed Mist by Kathryn James for a tale of a girl going into a strange new world.

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