Title: Ice

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Young Adult

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (US) / Simon & Schuster Children’s (UK)
Publication Date: October 2009
Hardcover: 320 pages (US)

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the publisher (UK)

Why did I read this book: Sarah Beth Durst’s new novel has been popping up all around the blogosphere, and when I learned it was a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” my interest was instantly piqued. It seems to be one of the more popular of the lesser known fable for retellings, but I had yet to read one. So, when we receive a review copy, I was more than eager to dive in.

Summary: (from amazon.com)
When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.
Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie’s own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

Review:

Once upon a time, the North Wind said to the Polar Bear King, ‘Steal me a daughter, and when she grows, she will be your bride.’

With this grandmother’s bedside story begins Ice, a modern retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.” On the eve of Cassie’s eighteenth birthday, she has left the Arctic research station that is her home, on the tail of one of the largest polar bears she has ever seen. As a present to herself, she has broken her father’s strict survival and research protocol, in order to tag the bear for research purposes. But just when she has him cornered, the enormous bear seems to walk into an ice wall, disappearing from sight. Dejected and disbelieving, Cass returns home and explains her actions to her father – who, instead of berating her, becomes irrationally scared, telling Cassie that he will have a helicopter come immediately to the station so that she can be taken away to live with her grandmother in the Alaskan city of Fairbanks. Cassie is bewildered – for she learns that the same fairy tale her grandmother told her every night of her childhood is actually her family story.

Cassie’s mother was the stolen daughter of the fairy tale, brought by the Polar Bear King to the North Wind to raise as a daughter, and then who would become the Polar Bear King’s wife. Once she grew into a woman, however, she fell in love with another mortal – Cassie’s father. When the Polar Bear King came to claim his bride, he made another deal with Cassie’s mother as he would not take an unwilling wife. In exchange for protecting Cassie’s mother and her human husband from the angry North Wind, the Polar Bear King would get their daughter – Cassie – as his bride. The North Wind, however, discovered his wayward daughter’s whereabouts. To protect her husband and Cassie, she begged her father to take out his rage on her alone. The North Wind blew Cassie’s mother to the ends of the earth – east of the Sun and west of the Moon, to the court of the spiteful trolls, where she has remained ever since.

And, Cassie learns, as she has turned eighteen, the Polar Bear King has come for her as payment for the bargain made by her parents.

Instead of running away with her grandmother, however, a shellshocked and still-disbelieving Cassie sneaks out of the station and into the snow, calling out for the Polar Bear King to show himself…and he does. Cassie decides to strike a deal of her own with the bear – save her mother from her imprisonment with the trolls, and Cassie will go with the bear and become his bride. It’s a bargain that Cassie has no intention of truly keeping, but when her mother is freed and she gets to know Bear in his magical icy palace, her plans change as she, inexplicably, falls in love. Things are never so simple, however, as Bear has made another bargain of his own – and Cassie must determine to what lengths she will go to in order to save her husband from a terrible fate.

Ice is a romantic fantasy novel, a retelling in the young adult fashion of Shannon Hale and Robin McKinley. Ms. Durst’s version of the familiar fable updates it with a modern twist. In conception and in terms of plot, Ice is an irresistible, fast-paced read. Ms. Durst creates a world that is both familiar and enchantingly alien, weaving a Norwegian fairy tale with Inupiaq (that is, Inuit/Eskimo) myth. The Polar Bear King, which sounds a little cheesy, is in fact a munaqsri – a guardian of spirits. I loved the concept of the munaqsri as keepers of souls, with at least one for each living species. In terms of magical world building, Ice shines. Traversing the north pole, the arctic tundra, rich green forests and the very ends of the earth, this novel also takes on the ambitious task of writing a difficult, non-traditional love story – it’s traditional in the sense that there’s marriage and children involved, but it’s rare that the heroine of a young adult novel is a wife and teen mother. The love story that unfolds between Bear and Cassie is sweet and devoted, especially in the book’s first act.

While the story is fast-paced and engaging (in fact, I finished Ice in a single sitting) and the fantasy element of different munaqsri undeniably compelling, Ice unfortunately feels a little lacking in the execution department. Everything happens so quickly – in the space of a single sentence, weeks have passed and Cassie has dramatically transformed from suspicious to a deep friendship bordering on love. There’s a lack of finesse in the writing – something extra that is missing, setting Ice beneath the caliber novel of, say, Juliet Marillier’s WIldwood Dancing or Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl. There’s enough romance and engaging plot to make this a quick read, but Ms. Durst’s prose lacks the lyrical magic that would have brought Ice to the next level. The same applies to the characters, particularly Cassie and Bear. They are sympathetic and sweet, but lack a level of believability because of how abrupt and episodic the plot is. It boils down to the writerly cliché of showing versus telling. Ms. Durst tells readers that Cassie feels a certain way and that she and Bear fall in love, but she doesn’t show readers the actual process – which is a shame, because part of the magic of romantic books such as this one is feeling those emotions as two different characters connect over time. I also felt a disconnect between the first act of the book and the second. Ice starts off strong and Cassie begins as a capable, intelligent heroine – the first few chapters as Cassie decides to save her mother and her curiosity as she travels to Bear’s ice castle is compelling, spellbinding stuff. But, the focus soon changes as Cassie returns home, then must set out on a quest to save Bear from a terrible fate. The transition from curious, driven and somewhat skeptical young woman to lover, wife and expectant mother is a rocky one, and I couldn’t quite suspend disbelief. I felt as though the novel was working on a word count and was truncated throughout, especially by the dramatic finale.

And yet, despite these drawbacks, Ice is a compulsively readable novel and one that I certainly enjoyed. It felt a little rushed which worked to its detriment in terms of characters and believability, but the story is undeniably well-conceived and compelling. Recommended for those fairy tale enthusiasts looking for a new retelling.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

PART ONE: The Land of the Midnight Sun

One

Once upon a time, in a land far to the north, there lived a lovely maiden…

Latitude 72° 13′ 30″ N
Longitude 152° 06′ 52″ W
Altitude 3 ft.

Cassie killed the snowmobile engine.

Total silence, her favorite sound. Ice crystals spun in the Arctic air. Sparkling in the predawn light, they looked like diamond dust. Beneath her ice-encrusted face mask, she smiled. She loved this: just her, the ice, and the bear.

“Don’t move,” she whispered at the polar bear.

Cassie felt behind her and unhooked the rifle. Placid as a marble statue, the polar bear did not move. She loaded the tranquilizer dart by feel, her eyes never leaving the bear. White on white in an alcove of ice, he looked like a king on a throne. For an instant, Cassie imagined she could hear Gram’s voice, telling the story of the Polar Bear King… Gram hadn’t told that story since the day she’d left the research station, but Cassie still remembered every word of it. She used to believe it was true.

When she was little, Cassie used to stage practice rescue missions outside of Dad’s Arctic research station. She’d pile old snowmobile parts and broken generators to make the troll’s castle, and then she’d scale the castle walls and tie up the “trolls” (old clothes stuffed with pillows) with climbing ropes. Once, Dad had caught her on the station roof with skis strapped to her feet, ready to ski beyond the ends of the earth to save her mom. He’d taken away Cassie’s skis and had forbidden Gram from telling the story. Not that that had slowed Cassie at all. She’d simply begged Gram to tell the story when Dad was away, and she’d invented a new game involving a canvas sail and an unused sled. Even after she’d understood the truth—that Gram’s story was merely a pretty way to say her mother had died — she’d continued to play the games.

Now I don’t need games, she thought with a grin. She snapped the syringe into place and lifted the gun up to her shoulder. And this bear, she thought, didn’t need any kid’s bedtime story to make him magnificent. He was as perfect as a textbook illustration: cream-colored with healthy musculature and no battle scars. If her estimates were correct, he’d be the largest polar bear on record. And she was the one who had found him.

Cassie cocked the tranquilizer gun, and the polar bear turned his head to look directly at her. She held her breath and didn’t move. Wind whistled, and loose snow swirled between her and the bear. Her heart thudded in her ears so loudly that she was certain he could hear it. This was it—the end of the chase. When she’d begun this chase, the aurora borealis had been dancing in the sky. She’d tracked him in its light for three miles north of the station. Loose sea ice had jostled at the shore, but she’d driven over it and then onto the pack ice. She’d followed him all the way here, to a jumble of ice blocks that looked like a miniature mountain range. She had no idea how he’d stayed so far ahead of her during the chase. Top speed for an adult male bear clocked at thirty miles per hour, and she’d run her snowmobile at sixty. Maybe the tracks hadn’t been as fresh as they’d looked, or maybe she’d discovered some kind of superfast bear. She grinned at the ridiculousness of that idea. Regardless of the explanation, the tracks had led her here to this beautiful, majestic, perfect bear. She’d won.

A moment later, the bear looked away across the frozen sea.

“You’re mine,” she whispered as she sighted down the barrel.

And the polar bear stepped into the ice. In one fluid motion, he rose and moved backward. It looked as if he were stepping into a cloud. His hind legs vanished into whiteness, and then his torso.

Impossible.

She lowered the gun and stared. She couldn’t be seeing this. The ice wall appeared to be absorbing him. Now only his shoulders and head were visible.

Cassie shook herself. He was escaping! Never mind how. Lifting the gun, she squeezed the trigger. The recoil bashed the butt of the gun into her shoulder. Reflexively, she blinked.

And the bear was gone.

You can read the prologue and first two chapters online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: The “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” fairy tale is a popular one for retelling in young adult novels. Other retellings include Edith Pattou’s East and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. I have yet to read either version of the retelling, though I do have East on my TBR – I’ve heard that it’s the definitive retelling. Now that I’m more familiar with the fable, and have given Ice a read, perhaps it’s time to dust off East!

Rose has always felt out of place in her family. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him, she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she finds love, discovers her purpose, and realizes her travels have only just begun.

As fresh and original as only the best fantasy can be, East is a novel retelling of the classic tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” told in the tradition of Robin McKinley and Gail Carson Levine.

Verdict: A solid, romantic retelling of a lesser known fairy tale that is impressive in its scope and story. Though a bit rushed and episodic, it’s still definitely worth reading for fans of romantic fantasy and fairy tale retellings. I’m eager to see what else Ms. Durst has to offer in the future!

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Tainted by Julie Kenner

Hi-yo! Another weekend, another stash. First, a few announcements…

Giveaway Winner:

The lucky winner of a copy of M.L.N. Hanover’s Darker Angels, book 2 in The Black Sun’s Daughter series, is…

Congratulations! You know the drill – send an email to contact AT the book smugglers DOT com with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible! Thanks to all that entered, and if you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. There’s plenty more where that came from.

Smugglerific Announcements:

Well, folks, it is official! You are now looking at the two newest bloggers for the fabulous Tor.com – home of Science Fiction, Fantasy, The Universe, and Related Subjects!

We are honored and thrilled to be part of the Tor blogging family, and are diligently working on our very first post there (which will be about Brandon Sanderson’s completely awesome Mistborn Trilogy). We’ll keep you up-to-date on our progress, and let you know once our inaugural post hits the site.

And in another big announcement, it’s nearly December…which means it’s almost time for Smugglivus! We have a number of fabulous guests lined up for this year’s event, and a shiny new poster in the works (thanks to the lovely KMont of Lurv a la Mode). Here’s a little teaser:

For those new to the site, Smugglivus (based on the non-denominational holiday, Festivus) is a monthlong celebration in which we invite our favorite authors and bloggers to post about their favorite books of the year, what they’re looking forward to in 2010, and what projects they have on the horizon. And of course, we end the celebration with the official rites – Airing of Grievances, Feats of Strength, and our very own Best of lists for the year, all culminating in our second year blogoversary.

Around the Internets:

Aidan Moher, prolific fantasy blogger that runs A Dribble of Ink posted last week about the irritations of repetitive fantasy covers, citing the art for Brent Weeks’ new title. This week, the debate concerning fantasy covers – innovation versus familiarity – rages on, in this thought-provoking discussion provoked by the upcoming cover of Mark Charan Newton’s Nights of Villjamur. We highly recommend checking out the comments – there are great points made on both sides of the cover argument.

In other news, we’d like to direct your attention to a new website, called The 5th Shelf. At first glance it looks a little like Shelfari and GoodReads had a lovechild – which isn’t too far off base. The 5th Shelf is a new website that is devoted to creating a “modern” version of the Harvard Classics (a 51-volume anthology of classic literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot in 1909). You can set up a free account on The 5th Shelf, and, as with GoodReads or other book networking sites, add your very own authoritative shelf of classics. The definitive list will be composed form the consensus of all members – which is pretty damn cool. We’ve signed up – you can check out the beginnings of our shelf HERE. And we hope others will sign up too!

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Thea reviews the highly anticipated new release from Pandemonium author Daryl Gregory, The Devil’s Alphabet. Will it live up to expectations, or fizzle flat?

Tuesday, Thea reviews Sarah Beth Durst’s newest novel Ice, a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Then, Ana reviews The Stepsister Scheme, the first in Jim C. Hines’ Princess Series.

Wednesday, Thea reviews Tainted by Julie Kenner, a new urban fantasy title, with a giveaway. Ana takes on The Mermaid’s Madness the second book from Jim C. Hines’ Princess Series.

Thursday, Thea takes a break and eats far too much Turkey while Ana reviews Madam Xanadu Volume 1: Disenchanted from Matt Wagner.

Friday, we close out the week with a joint review of the much lauded new release from Lev Grossman, The Magicians.

It’s another busy week here at The Book Smugglers, and we invite you to pull up a chair, enjoy some delicious Thanksgiving food, and relax.

Until tomorrow!

~ Your friendly neighborhood Book Smugglers

For the past few months, we have been including an “On our Radar” section in our weekly stash for books that have caught our eye; books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature on its own – this way YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

I saw this reviewed at Bookshelves of Doom and I really want it now.

Micheal, Tommy, Mixer, and Bones aren’t just from the wrong side of the tracks–they’re from the wrong side of everything. Except for Mr. Haberman, their remedial English teacher, no one at their high school takes them seriously. Haberman calls them “gentlemen,” but everyone else ignores them–or, in Bones’s case, is dead afraid of them. When one of their close-knit group goes missing, the clues all seem to point in one direction: to Mr. Haberman.

YA – Coming out May 15, 2010: by Jeri-Smith Ready

When her boyfriend dies a most untimely death, Aura–who can see ghosts–is forced to reconsider her relationship with the living and dead in SHADE.

Coming out February 2 2010 – another fairytale retelling which is based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Saw this at Janicu’s and now I want. Want. WANT (our March 2010)

At the edge of the known world, an ancient nomadic tribe faces a new enemy-an Empire fueled by technology and war.

A young spiritwalker of the Aniw and a captain in the Ciracusan army find themselves unexpectedly thrown together. The Aniw girl, taken prisoner from her people, must teach the reluctant soldier a forbidden talent – one that may turn the tide of the war and will surely forever brand him an outcast.

From the rippling curtains of light in an Arctic sky, to the gaslit cobbled streets of the city, war is coming to the frozen north. Two people have a choice that will decide the fates of nations – and may cast them into a darkness that threatens to bring destruction to both their peoples.

On Thea’s Radar:

Ana and I are on this freaky wave where we can read each others’ minds (unlike earlier this week when we were doing the sine/cosine wave thing…

Yes I just used math as a metaphor OH MY GOD WE ARE SUCH DORKS). AHEM. We BOTH want the following books:

In less than a day I had been harassed, enchanted, shouted at, cried on, and clawed. I’d been cold, scared, dirty, exhausted, hungry, and miserable. And up until now, I’d been mildly impressed with my ability to cope.

At her boarding school in New Zealand, Ellie Spencer is like any ordinary teen: she hangs out with her best friend, Kevin; obsesses over her crush on a mysterious boy; and her biggest worry is her paper deadline. Then everything changes: In the foggy woods near the school, something ancient and deadly is waiting.

Debut author Karen Healey introduces a savvy and spirited heroine with a strong, fresh voice. Full of deliciously creepy details, this unique, incredible adventure is a deftly crafted story of Maori mythology, romance, betrayal, and war.

There was a time when Maeve O’Tullagh led a simple life; a time when she and her mother, Nuala, collected kelp on the foreshore near their cottage in Ard Macha; a time when she played among the Celtic ruins with her older brothers and daydreamed about the legendary Holy Isles, an enchanted land ruled in a past age by a beautiful goddess.

But after Maeve’s sister, Ishleen, is born, her mother sinks into a deep, impenetrable trance. For years, Maeve tries to help her mother “awaken,” and then the unthinkable happens: Ishleen succumbs to the same mysterious ailment as Nuala.

Heartbroken to think that her sister and her mother might be lost to her forever, Maeve sets off on an unimaginable quest to a world filled with fantastical creatures, a web of secrets, a handsome, devious villain who will stop at nothing to have her hand in marriage—braving them all to retrieve a powerful glowing stone that will help her recover the souls of her loved ones and bring them home to Ard Macha.

An adventure-filled and spellbinding novel, The Fire Opal will enchant fantasy readers young and old.

This cover is stunning, and the premise sounds fantastic.

When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie’s own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

And finally, It Is Time! Elegy Beach, the long awaited sequel to Steven Boyett’s cult classic novel Ariel is almost here! I’ll be reviewing it very, very soon…

Thirty years ago the lights went out, the airplanes fell, the cars went still, the cities all went dark. The laws humanity had always known were replaced by new laws that could only be called magic. The world has changed forever. Or has it?

In a small community on the California coast are Fred Garey and his friend Yan, both born after the Change. Yan dreams of doing something so big his name will live on forever. He thinks he’s found it-a way to reverse the Change. But Fred fears the repercussions of such drastic, irreversible steps.

Also, in an attempt to read more science fiction, I’m looking forward to this book (a full length adaptation of his prior novella):

When physicist Michael Shelborne mysteriously vanishes, his son Shel discovers that he had constructed a time travel device. Fearing his father may be stranded in time-or worse-Shel enlists the aid of Dave MacElroy, a linguist, to accompany him on the rescue mission.

Their journey through history takes them from the enlightenment of Renaissance Italy through the American Wild West to the civil-rights upheavals of the 20th century. Along the way, they encounter a diverse cast of historical greats, sometimes in unexpected situations. Yet the elder Shelborne remains elusive.

And then Shel violates his agreement with Dave not to visit the future. There he makes a devastating discovery that sends him fleeing back through the ages, and changes his life forever.

What about you? Any books you are really looking forward to reading? Do share!