A Winter's Promise – Christelle Dabos

This young-adult novel (the first in a tetralogy (quadrilogy?)) is placed in literally-shattered world. The Earth has shattered into fragments that float in a shared atmosphere, and each fragment is its own society. They are connected by some airship traffic. For story purposes what matters is that every fragment is its own island, each fragment has an immortal ‘spirit’, and that each fragment has inhabitants with different powers.

The book start in Anima, whose spirit is a reclusive astronomer, and whose inhabitants can animate the non-living. The nature of the animation is a matter of talent and practice. Ophelia’s practiced talents are reading (being able to read the history of an object) and traveling (entering one mirror and exiting a different one) but, for example, she has had her glasses long enough that they change color to match her mood and repair themselves if they’re damaged. Anima’s society is cozy and family-oriented, but there is a limit to the coziness - as Ophelia learns when she is sold into a marriage to a man from Pole, another fragment. Thorn, the prospective husband, is no more pleased than she is, but he hustles her to Pole, where the rest of this novel plays out.

Pole is not cozy. Its spirit is active, and Pole politics are all about seeking and keeping favor in the spirit’s court. The politics are vicious, and there is a high body count. Since Thorn’s marriage would have political repercussions, there is widespread interest in making Ophelia part of the body count. Thorn basically leaves her to flounder.

The book is well-written - I read it at one sitting - Ophelia is an admirable character, and there are hints at a larger story (tied to the origin of the fragmented world and the spirits) in the background. The main problem with the book is that almost all of the characters are awful - self-centered at best and more often casually murderous - to an extent that detracts from the pleasure of reading.