Book · 2018
Spinning Silver
by Naomi Novik
A moneylender's daughter boasts she can turn silver into gold, and the winter king of the Staryk takes her up on it, then takes her as his wife.
What does Reddit think of Spinning Silver?
Spinning Silver has racked up 878 mentions across three tracked subreddits over seven years, from 665 different commenters, which is a lot of traffic for a book almost nobody argues about directly. r/suggestmeabook leads with 432 mentions, r/Fantasy follows at 373, and r/printSF trails at 73, a genre-adjacent namedrop more than a debate. The top-voted comments aren't reviews; they're list-building. Someone hunting for fae fantasy gets it slotted next to Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, and Juliet Marillier (↑100). Someone building a Novik-adjacent reading list pairs it with Uprooted and calls both 'amazing surprises' found while thinning a shelf (↑116). The recurring argument isn't about quality, it's about genre: a heavily upvoted r/Fantasy comment insists Novik 'doesn't write romantasy' despite the crossover audience reading her that way (↑233). Mentions peaked at 176 in 2019, the year after release, and have settled but never disappeared since.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · a fairy-tale bargain-and-debt plot dressed as economics
- · arranged marriage to a fae winter king
- · moneylending and interest as a fantasy magic system
- · constant pairing with Uprooted in recommendation threads
Common praise
- + r/Fantasy recommenders reach for it as the default answer whenever someone wants a Novik book that isn't romantasy (↑233).
- + A suggestmeabook thread calls it, alongside Uprooted, an 'amazing surprise' found while clearing out a shelf, which is the kind of praise that shows up when nobody's paid to say it (↑116).
- + It gets slotted into fae-and-winter-court recommendation lists next to Patricia McKillip and Robin McKinley, treated as a known quantity rather than an edge case (↑100).
Common criticism
- − Almost nobody in the top-voted threads argues the book on its own merits; the mentions are list-building inside 'recommend me something like X' posts, not reviews of Spinning Silver itself.
- − r/printSF's 73 mentions trail far behind the two fantasy subs, which reads as a passing namedrop from a sci-fi crowd rather than a book that sub is actually debating.
- − Even the boosters hedge on specifics: one recommender listing it alongside five other titles adds, 'If I've misremembered the amount of physical conflict in any of these, please correct me, folks!' (↑178).
Who it's for
If Uprooted's fairy-tale logic hooked you but the romance felt like too much, this is the next stop; a suggestmeabook thread calls both books 'amazing surprises' found while thinning a shelf (↑116). Comparisons in r/Fantasy threads to Bujold's Five Gods books, Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb, and Patricia McKillip suggest it fits readers chasing fae or winter-court fantasy without a ten-book commitment. It also gets pulled into arguments about whether Novik writes romantasy at all, so go in expecting a bargain-and-debt fairy tale structure over romance beats (↑233). Three subreddits and 878 mentions across seven years is recommendation-thread traffic, not review-thread traffic, so treat the volume as evidence it's a reliable answer rather than proof anyone's obsessing over it.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Spinning Silver?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“I hear Naomi Novik is popular among romantasy readers, and she doesn’t write romantasy. Spinning Silver and Uprooted in particular.
“I have a bunch of suggestions, in no particular order! (If I've misremembered the amount of physical conflict in any of these, please correct me, folks!) * The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, as well as the Cemeteries of Amalo series set in the same world * Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys * Spin…
“You *must* read Susanna Clarke. Any Susanna Clarke. After that? Hope Mirlees' *Lud-in-the-Mist*, most Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik's *Spinning Silver* and *Uprooted*, Sofia Samatar's *The Winged Histories*, Nghi Vo's Singing Hills cycle, Lev Grossman's *Magicians* series. Then possibly get into fanta…
“There are a *ton* of fae fantasy books but they’re varied in tone and style. Fae can be scary or mysterious or beautiful or sexy, or all of the above. If you list some books you do like, we could probably point you to fae books that would interest you. A starter course with some variety: *Spinning…
“Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
“Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It and Spinning Silver have been amazing surprises I found while getting rid of books.
“The World of the Five Gods books by Lois McMaster Bujold The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden The Foreigner books by C J Cherryh The Riddle Master trilogy or the Book of Atrix Wolfe or Song for the Basilisk by Patricia McKillip Spinning Silver by…
“Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is similar in feeling to The Bear and the Nightingale (also Uprooted by the same author, but I hated the romance in that one and it ruined the book for me) My other go-tos for this type of book are Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley and Juliet Marillier. They all have a…
Convinced? Pick up Spinning Silver
Readers also mention
All books like Spinning Silver →Books that share discussion threads with Spinning Silver — counted from the comments, not curated.
Uprooted
Naomi Novik
A village girl handed over to a reclusive wizard as tribute turns out to be the only one who can fight the corrupted Wood eating her valley.
The Goblin Emperor
Katherine Addison
An exiled half-goblin prince inherits a throne he never wanted after an airship 'accident' kills his father and half-brothers.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
Two rival English magicians revive magic itself, and neither can predict what the fairy they bargained with actually wants.
Circe
Madeline Miller
An exiled witch on a deserted island turns men into pigs and spends three thousand years deciding what she actually wants.
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin
A woman searches a dying continent for the daughter her husband stole, while the world ends again on schedule.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
A man alone in an endless house of statues and tides slowly realizes he isn't who the House says he is.
Spinning Silver — frequently asked
Is Spinning Silver similar to Uprooted?+
Yes, and Reddit treats them as a package deal. A suggestmeabook commenter lists both together as 'amazing surprises' found while getting rid of books (↑116), and r/Fantasy recommendation threads pair them constantly. Both are Novik fairy-tale fantasy rather than the romantasy some readers expect from her, per one heavily upvoted clarification (↑233).
Where does Reddit actually recommend Spinning Silver?+
Mostly r/suggestmeabook, which accounts for 432 of its 878 tracked mentions, with r/Fantasy close behind at 373. r/printSF adds a smaller 73. That split shows it functioning as a stock answer in 'what should I read next' threads more than a book people actively debate.
Is Spinning Silver actually reviewed on Reddit, or just recommended?+
Mostly recommended. The top-upvoted quotes come from multi-title list threads, not standalone reviews, from a starter fae-fantasy list (↑166) to a Bujold-and-Muir comparison thread (↑101). With 665 unique commenters across 878 mentions, it reads as a reliable list entry rather than a book people write essays defending.
Does r/printSF care about Spinning Silver much?+
Not especially. It has 73 mentions there against 373 in r/Fantasy and 432 in r/suggestmeabook, so it shows up as an occasional crossover pick for readers who wander from science fiction into fantasy rather than a title that sub argues over on its own terms.