Arden integrated many spirits from Russian folklores, and I had a blast searching and learning about each of them mentioned here, and I know I’ll gladly do the same thing again for the remaining books in the series. I love folktales, and although I’m well-versed in Japanese folktales due to the massive number of manga I’ve read, I admittedly knew pretty little about Russian folktales. However, Arden’s Russian-inspired historical fantasy debut was engaging and atmospheric. I’m not usually a fan of historical fantasy. It’s no wonder that I had that feeling, and I think Arden has done an incredible job with her world-building.

Every action and event in the book is some way tied to the land: heat, bitter cold, snowstorms, fires.”-Katherine Arden In The Bear and the Nightingale, the weather is pretty much a character in and of itself, personified, in a way, by the various spirits that populate the novel. “People living in the Middle Ages, in an environment as harsh as Northern Russia, were intimately acquainted with the weather. That’s what I thought, and then I read this section of the interview at the back of the book where the author said: Honestly, it almost felt like the weather/nature of the setting itself has become one of the main characters of the story. Arden’s capability to evoke the coldness of the weather with her prose is just undeniable, and I genuinely felt cold while I was reading this book. For years, people constantly recommended The Winternight Trilogy as one of the most appropriate books to read during the winter season, and I can definitely understand why now. The Bear and the Nightingale is Katherine Arden’s debut novel, and it’s also the first installment in The Winternight Trilogy. “You must allow things to be what best suits your purpose. “You are too attached to things as they are,” said Morozko, combing the mare’s withers. I wanted to read a fantasy book that will make me feel this experience, and with the combination of cold air conditioners, I got what I wanted from reading The Bear and the Nightingale. As someone who lived in a tropical country all his life, winter, snow, or cold seasons are pretty close to being fantasy weather for me. Actually, on that note, if you love Spinning Silver, I think you should give this novel a try as well there are a lot of similarities between the two books, though I liked Spinning Silver more. Similar to Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, one of the reasons I wanted to read The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is because I want to imagine how it feels to live in the wintery season. The Bear and the Nightingale is an atmospheric read with a likable main character. Published: 10th January 2017 by Del Rey (US) & 12th January 2017 by Del Rey (UK) Series: The Winternight Trilogy (Book #1 of 3) The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The nightingale a novel book review