February Book Reviews: A Flame in the North by Lilith Saintcrow

Picked this new release up because I've found Saintcrow's books engaging in the past. Solveig has a respected position in her father's hall as one of the most powerful magic users seen in generations. But when her brother impulsively kills a man in a brawl, she's sent north with the dead man's kin as a weregild tribute in recompense. As Solveig travels northward, she begins to realize that the Northerners are not who they seem-- and legends she's heard about the evil that lurks there are more than stories.

Saintcrow does an excellent job of establishing Solveig's Norse-inspired home. It's obvious that she's done research into the material reality of the period, which makes for a much more engaging setting than tacking some (inaccurate) horned helmets onto things and calling it a day. The prose is in a high-formal, faux archaic style which personally I enjoy, but some people might find grating.

Where this book fell a little short for me was the pacing. For a hefty four hundred fifty pages, this book does little more than introduce the basic premise before ending on a cliffhanger with little to no plot threads resolved. It takes a hundred pages to cover the initial setup I summarized in two sentences above-- Solveig being sent north as weregild. The slow pacing is exacerbated by Solveig's essentially passive position in the plot. It's an understandable decision based on her situation and reverence for the rules that govern a weregild's behavior-- but it also means that Solveig could be effectively replaced by a very important suitcase for most of the story without changing the plot.

One further side note and caveat about this book. While the first half of the book had worldbuilding I enjoyed, the second half of the book abruptly entered a narrative where every single backstory was cribbed directly from Tolkien's Silmarillion. I don't mean it vaguely resembled the Silmarillion, with a shadowy big bad and orcs and elves. I mean Saintcrow presented the reader with sentences of plot taken directly from it, with only some token name changes. A representative but not exhaustive list of examples: The theft of the Silmarils and the Oath of Feanor

Of Faevril's works he spoke, many works of seidhr wrought by an Elder alkuine's hands in the uttermost West. Of how the Enemy, granted grace and lee to repair damage he had previously wreaked, betrayed that ruth with the murder of Faevril's father and the theft of many great works, as well as a crime so dark the Elder do not speak of it, dimming the light of their home well before Moon or Sun arose. Of Faevril's sons and the vengeance they swore with their wrathful father did Eol speak...

The romance of Beren and Luthien and the recovery of one of the Silmarils from Morgoth

"Whatever he told you was only in service to finding what Bjornwulf and Lithielle won at great cost. He and his brother will slay any who seek to keep the Freed Jewel from them, even their kin-- that is their oath...

Nithraen is a hidden elven cave city that fell in an attack involving a dragon-- which is, of course, the story of Turin Turambar and the fall of Nargothrond.

Aeredh clasped the tall man's shoulder, and it looked like he was delivering even worse tidings than Nithraen's fall, for that was the only time I saw Tarit son of Hajithe pale and almost stagger. The songs say he lost a loved one in the cataclysm, an Elder maid...

An interesting beginning and a standout execution, but I don't think I'll be reading the sequel when it comes out in July. If I wanted to know what happens I would just reread the Silmarillion.