-bestselling Tad Williams’ ground-breaking epic fantasy saga of Osten Ard begins an exciting new cycle! • Volume One of
The Last King of Osten Ard
The Dragonbone Chair, the first volume of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, was published in hardcover in October, 1988, launching the series that was to become one of the seminal works of modern epic fantasy. Many of today’s top-selling fantasy authors, from Patrick Rothfuss to George R. R. Martin to Christopher Paolini credit Tad with being the inspiration for their own series.Now, twenty-four years after the conclusion of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Tad returns to his beloved universe and characters with The Witchwood Crown, the first novel in the long-awaited sequel trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard. More than thirty years have passed since the events of the earlier novels, and the world has reached a critical turning point once again. The realm is threatened by divisive forces, even as old allies are lost, and others are lured down darker paths. Perhaps most terrifying of all, the Norns—the long-vanquished elvish foe—are stirring once again, preparing to reclaim the mortal-ruled lands that once were theirs....
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★★★★★
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Most Helpful Reviews
★★★★★
5.0
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Great, but missing just a bit of the old magic; 4.5 stars
Decades ago, I bought a paperback copy of The Dragonbone Chair and fell in love with the story and the characters. So when I heard that Tad Williams was finally going to write a follow up to his original Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, I was both excited and worried—excited that I would get to revisit his world and its characters, worried that it wouldn’t live up to the earlier series. Well, both the worldbuilding and the storytelling are still wonderful, even if this first book didn’t quite grab me the same way The Dragonbone Chair did.
It’s been over 30 years since Ineluki the Storm King and the Norns were defeated. King Simon and Queen Miriamele have ruled wisely and well, but problems have started to crop up in the outlying provinces. The king of Hernystir subtly slights Simon and Miri on a state visit. The Duke of Nabban is being challenged by other lords of the Nabbani noble houses. The Thrithings men are attacking Nabbani settlers encroaching on their territory. Simon has not heard from his friend Prince Jiriki of the Sithi for years, in spite of hopes for closer ties between humans and the Fair Ones. Now, perhaps most troubling of all, there are signs that the Norns are beginning to be active again in the North.
Simon and Miri also have more personal concerns. Duke Isgrimnur and other heroes of the conflict with the Norns are passing away. Prince Josua and his family disappeared years ago, and no one has been able to find out what happened to them. Membership in the League of the Scroll has been seriously depleted, with only a few members remaining to share their wisdom. Simon and Miri’s only son died young, and their heir is their grandson Morgan, a seventeen-year-old princeling who is more interested in gambling and drinking than in learning the intricacies of statecraft.
Readers learn all of this in the opening chapters of the novel. This is a Tad William’s book, so of course there’s a lot more story left to tell. What seems clear from the way he sets the stage (and from the subtitle of the book, The Last King of Osten Ard) is that there will be widespread conflict and the potential for great loss as Simon and Miri try to hold everything together. At one point, Simon muses that he and Miri are supposed to be living the “happily after” of their tale, but clearly that’s not the case. The biggest question in my mind is whether the theme of this trilogy is the passing of an era and the establishment of a new order. What will remain of Osten Ard, and what (and who) will be lost?
Although I liked the meaty plot shaping up in this book, it didn’t quite have the same magic for me as The Dragonbone Chair did all those years ago. I think it’s because there isn’t really a strong linchpin character to anchor the action as Simon did in the first trilogy. While lots of other characters (particularly Miri) played important roles, the heart of those books was Simon and his adventures, particularly as they shaped his growth from a boy innocently dreaming of being a hero to a man who knows that heroism is a myth, that it simply involves doing what needs to be done, with pain and death along the way. Simon really can’t carry the action this time around, because as Miri regularly points out, he’s the king, and not a young one, either. He can’t just ride off to the Aldheorte forest to search for Jiriki himself; others must act in his stead. (I wonder—if this trilogy is about the passing of an era, and Simon is still at the heart of the story, if not the action—is it also about the passing of a king?)
The new characters who play the biggest roles in the plot of this book don’t have the same appeal for me as Simon. There’s Morgan, who displays all of Simon’s boyhood stubbornness and sulkiness without his redeeming qualities (at least so far); Nezeru, whose half-Norn, half-human perspective is a little too foreign for me to fully sympathize with her; and Jarnulf, a mysterious Black Rimmersman who is apparently working against the Norns. I hope they will grow on me as the story continues, or other new characters—like Josua’s missing son and daughter—come to the forefront later in the series.
Obviously, this is a must-read for anyone who loved Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Even if they haven’t read the earlier books, readers who enjoy big epic fantasies with a huge cast and lots of plot will probably like this novel, especially since they won’t have any of my reservations about the book and can just dive into the story.
An eARC of this novel was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. And then I bought it, because how could I not?
46 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Great start to a potential new classic
The Witchwood Crown continues Tad Williams’ seminal fantasy trilogy Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn while standing equally tall on its own in a more crowded book market, starting a new trilogy called The Last King of Osten Ard. 1988 was a different time for those massive tomes, and this first volume of the new trilogy knows that.
Instead of *blindly* repeating the threat of the original trilogy or copy-pasting in a new one, The Witchwood Crown takes the much more interesting route of being a sequel *about* how history can repeat if we aren’t careful to learn from our past. Think World War I only leading to World War II, with a small peace in-between.
The original trilogy dealt with the elf-like Norns and their Big Bad type Storm King, victims in the past of genocide at the hands of human invaders, threatening to do the same by exterminating the human race. The new trilogy manages to reintroduce the Norns as antagonists with a well-developed characterization and society of their own while upping the scale of the threat considerably. No spoilers on that front here, but readers of the original trilogy may have a good idea of what that threat could be.
Instead of shoving the old characters out of the limelight to hand over the reigns to a young and sexy cast (like so many TV and film reboots), or shock killing them off early on to score some Game of Thrones imitator gravitas, The Witchwood Crown makes them central players alongside a new cast. The book itself is a blending of the old and new styles of popular fantasy: there are adventures in astonishingly described locales, comedy that had me chuckling, and youthful innocence; there is also a harder tone to the violence, there are backstabbing political machinations, and scenes of melancholy.
There are about sixteen point of views throughout the book located in a handful of diverse locations across the land of Osten Ard, so Williams can switch effortlessly between story types, tones, and styles. Riots, potential civil war, old allies turning their coats, the Norns preparing for war again, trade battles, cults…the book has a little of everything.
More importantly, this new book not only manages to carry on the tradition of older fantasy while blending it with the new, it manages to have something human to say. A grand emotion or a theme. Most of Williams’ work does. That might not seem like much, but when too many writers are intent on throwing out RPG spreadsheets or, on the other hand, grimdark violence, it’s rare to read something with big ideas to match its big locations and creatures that can still be entertaining.
Just because a bunch of armies came together and fought a big battle together doesn’t mean the animosity between the factions vanishes for good. Just because one battle ends and peace is declared doesn’t mean that peace is forever. Again: think World War I to World War II. And just as in that real world history, by the end of The Witchwood Crown the entire land of Osten Ard seems primed to explode at each other based on fear, lies, and greed rooted in past hurts.
At the opening of the first part (a nice touch—each of the three sections of the book is named after the debris of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn’s war: Widows, Orphans, and Exiles), the backbone of the book (and presumably the trilogy) is summed up with a poem by Hsu Chao:
"Locusts laid their eggs in the corpse
Of a soldier. When the worms were
Mature, they took wing. Their drone
Was ominous, their shells hard.
Anyone could tell they had hatched
From an unsatisfied anger."
With all of this to praise, The Witchwood Crown is an easy recommend to both new readers and fans of Williams: a great start to what could be a new classic trilogy.
[This review made possible via digital ARC provided by the publisher Penguin’s First to Read program.]
44 people found this helpful
★★★★★
4.0
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Another milestone in epic fantasy
Many others have already offered very good reviews of this book, so rather than recapitulate their observations, or waste your time with a detailed plot summary, I'll try to keep this relatively brief with just a few of my own observations that I hope will help you decide whether to buy this book.
First, and foremost, it is an excellent book and worth your money and time. You will be engrossed throughout, at times moved by the surprisingly elegiac tone, and blown away by the intricate plotting and phenomenally detailed worldbuilding. In fact, this book, by all rights deserves a full five stars, six if that was possible; however, there is a serious problem that damages the overall work. It's not a fatal flaw, but an unexpected misstep from one of our most proficient fantasy authors. I'll discuss it a little at the end of the review beneath a spoiler warning.
1. You need not have ready the earlier trilogy, "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn," but if you have, you will enjoy this book much more with that context since a good deal of it references famous events from those books. And, of course, many old friends and memorable characters are at the center of the action here.
2. Again, it isn't necessary to read "The Heart of What Was Lost," the prequel volume published earlier, but that book does provide context as well as important characterizations and plotlines. As always, the writing itself is a pure pleasure to read.
3. This book has a great many viewpoint characters, but don't be daunted. The characterizations are so deft that you will have no difficulty keeping them straight, even with the many scene shifts early in the book, even if you are unfamiliar with the people and places of Osten Ard. In fact, the characters are so well drawn that it is almost never a problem to identify which character we are following without being told immediately after the scene shifts. That alone is a feat of technical craftsmanship that few authors of multiple viewpoint fiction can equal. Williams has always been good at this, but The Witchwood Crown is absurdly good at this.
4. With each book, Williams has found new ways to plumb the depths of characters over a wide moral spectrum. Some characters, e.g., Prince Morgan, are exasperating, but they are also entirely believable as people. Everyone is well motivated. There are many minor characters who have their own stories and sorrows, which are not given short shrift. Two characters are identified at the end of the book in a really clever bit of sleight of hand to be a lot more important then assumed. They also neatly interweave several other plot strands. I was so impressed by that feat, which took me completely by surprise. Such a fine bit of writing is emblematic of Williams's work and one of the reasons why I have read all of his books, a few more than once.
I could go on, praising the theological, anthropological and linguistic elements, but I promised to try to keep it short (but that is an impossible feat when dealing with such a complex and deep story). I will say that of all the marvelous worldbuilding, I continue to consider Williams's meditations on both personal and political history to be his greatest forte. This world has astonishing depth and texture and even when there seem to be contradictory narrative elements, the reader can be safe in knowing that the author has thought it all through with a formidable confidence.
Spoiler warning! Below, I will take a moment to discuss the one big problem I had with the book, what I consider a rare mistake by such a polished author.
Two of the viewpoint characters, Jarnulf and Nezeru act in such an implausible way that their advancement of the plot becomes problematic. This is especially distressing since they are a critical component of the overall plot and they will be crucial to the action in the next book, and probably even the denouement of the third. I won't go into detail on Jarnulf, but Nezeru, especially, is not credible. She is supposed to be an experienced Talon and has been carefully forged to be entirely loyal to the Queen of the Norns. It is barely possible that she would hesitate to kill a child in cold blood, but even she can't explain why she hesitates (and, of course, later she does indeed kill many women and children, albeit in defense of her own life). But she tells Mahko a lie which I sympathize with, but it is not at all a credible falsehood and I don't think Mahko would believe it, nor would Nezeru think such a sadistic hardcase would accept it. Here, I believe, the author became a bit squeamish about being forced to depict constant sexual abuse of a character we are meant to like. Also, it is clearly part of the plan to create a schism with her fellow Talons. But much worse, later, after only knowing Jarnulf a short time, she decides to keep quiet about his shooting an arrow with a message on it that she can't read that endangers not just her, but the entire mission of her Hand. Sacrifices obviously are not going to sing their death song until they are in utter extremis and they would never write it down and shoot it out into an enemy camp. Nor would a cunning and clever man like Jarnulf ever believe she would. It's just a bad decision all the way around, done purely to advance the plot. Even after she learns that Jarnulf's message arrow damaged a protective spell keeping them all safe from certain death. In reality, she would have killed him outright, even if he is intriguing and she is currently being tormented by Mahko. Then, to compound this betrayal, she also doesn't mention that none of his arrows killed anyone during their escape. He is clearly a spy. But instead of watching him carefully and making a decision about whether to kill him, or tell Mahko, she has a conversation with him in which she reveals that she suspects him of spying, such an unlikely and massive error in judgment for a Queen's Talon that it made me much more skeptical of her entire presence in the book.
I apologize. This has gone on far too long and an Amazon review is not really an appropriate venue for detailed literary criticism, but there were many more problems that arose from her actions and inactions that frustrated me because Tad Williams is one of the most proficient authors in creating plot that arises directly from character and is normally flawless in execution. This isn't fixable in the next book, unfortunately, so it will just continue to be a nagging issue that is unresolvable. It is a rare serious error by a writer I admire very much. It doesn't ruin the book, but it mars what could have been a masterpiece of epic fantasy. Also, it could have been dealt with much more subtly and believably. But that, again, veers into detailed critique and I have already spent too much time here. Anyway, they are fun characters who have great chemistry and I am sure future books will explore that relationship. Williams is an expert at evolving relationships between men and women and I know I will enjoy how this plays out over time.
18 people found this helpful
★★★★★
3.0
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How to get past the grind to the reward (without spoilers)
First, take heart, Witchwood Crown finishes well, and Empire of Grass is much better.
Second, beware. The first two thirds of this book are ponderous and largely full of poorly developed, trite characters–especially Simon and Miri. The characters are abused to recap key parts of the trilogy (mostly not necessary) and set up geopolitics (also mostly not necessary, because the set up is recapped as events happen). I have a vain hope that Mr. Williams will issue a second edition of this book with about 30% cut and dialog of beloved characters made interesting. Maybe Mr. Williams' editor can redeem her/himself.
Third, doubly beware. Characters that at first seem to be introduced to illustrate geopolitical currents later become consequential in themselves. (It is too bad that such masterful subtlety was undermined by poor editing.) Keep your eye on Unver.
I would advise reading the Heart of What Was Lost before this book. Heart was paced much better and provides a good background of Norn politics and key characters that makes some of this book and the next more enjoyable. Equally important, Heart is the first step in creating/revealing a new universe with new rules of physics/magic. Again, it is not a necessary read but adds depth and I found it enjoyable.
Advice for getting through the first two thirds, which does not apply to the last quarter of this book:
Skim any passage with Simon and Miri. Just read what the other characters are saying. Simon and Miri have become 2-dimensional characters that a) love each other deeply, b) are concerned about their grandson Morgan's character development, c) don't fully feel comfortable in their role as rules. (Happily, Miri returns to life halfway through the second book, though Simon does not.) Most of the tedious world-building groundwork in these passages is not necessary, as Mr. Williams does a good job of recapping and re-recapping when events start to come together in book 2.
Any passage with Morgan can be skimmed except those later with the trolls, who breathe some life into him. I found those delightful. Otherwise, it's the same thing over and over: gen Z young man, resentful and unsure of his future, seeking numbness in wine, women, and questionable companions.
Other arcs are enjoyable. The most interesting are Jarnulf and Nezeru. Others arcs are less enjoyable but become appreciated in the next book.
In sum, though not yet a masterwork, I think that these books are worthwhile. Book 2 introduces some fresh and attractive themes. I look forward to the final book and offshoots.
10 people found this helpful
★★★★★
2.0
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Ugh,
I remember the Tad Williams Green Angel Tower series fondly. While it is in that generally less well-edited 4-5 inch thick fantasy book style that the publishers started churning out in the mid 90's, I've always cited Tad Williams as an alternative to stuff like Robert Jordan. If you're bound and determined to read that type of book, at least read Tad Williams.
My real recommendation would be something like Zelazny's first Amber series. The first 100 or so pages of Nine Princes in Amber is kind of my benchmark for decently written and edited fantasy. How vividly did you imagine various scenes in your mind's eye, how distinct are each of the main characters and bit-part characters, how much has happened so far? The first 100 pages of Nine Princes in Amber compare favorably in those categories against say, the first 300 pages of the Wheel of Time series. These kinds of large, non-edited books say less, but say it in a lot more pages. In the past, I'd say Tad Williams does a better job in this category than most.
The book starts with people on a boring trip. Even the CHARACTERS say it was boring and oh if only we were done with this already. Hundreds of pages are spent on this. Then. the characters receive boring letters while on their boring trip - they even observe to us that their letter is mostly fluff, pointless boring stuff - the CHARACTER that got the letter says they don't want to get bored and that they'd better skip to the important part... then they take another 4 pages dithering before they get there!
Most of the content of this book is the characters or the author just dithering. Everybody takes paragraph upon paragraph to communicate perhaps one useful simple thing. The author goes on and on for pages getting around towards a simple pertinent point OR dithers on and on in a way the reader discovers is not only boring but not at all important to the story. This all reads like a rough draft that needed serious involvement with an editor working together with the author. Even the greatest authors did this - once upon a time it was STANDARD PRACTICE in the industry.
When characters aren't taking aeons to say little to nothing, they are behaving stupidly. The leader of the Norn party in the wilderness is constantly making bad decisions and responding with rage and threats to anyone who makes reasonable suggestions. Nevertheless, characters in the book state to each other he's an excellent leader. The King and Queen receive a very specific warning that war is coming and conclude that their takeaway is they need to just be aware, Just be mindful and raise awareness in others. oookay. There's a high ranking older Norn that spends all his time groveling in obedience professing his confusion and non-understanding of all things, being constantly summoned and sent all over the place without ever knowing where or why, and constantly being treated rudely by younger Norns well below him in rank. If you cut off his arms and legs and just had people carry him around in a sack, his character would still be able to carry out everything the author gives him to do.
In-depth Spoilers ahead...
There's a Norn party sent to capture a live dragon. They're given a giant to help them do it but constantly say - and the author constantly narrates as fact over and over - that the task is still pretty hopeless even WITH a giant helping. We're supposed to understand how dangerous dragons are and how impossible the task is.
When they finally get to doing it, their plan is to run forward with ropes with the ends tied as lassos/nooses, try to slip them over the dragon's appendages, tighten them, and THEN run the other end over to something stationary and tie the other end of the rope to that. Imagine trying to do that with, say, a tiger. Imagine trying this as a method of attack against even, say, an enraged professional wrestler.
So here's how it goes down - first, they shoot an arrow at the dragon coated in a sedative. Then, quickly, in order to get to the dragon before the sedative can take effect, they sprint over to the dragon to try their rope plan - and it works!! The giant doesn't even play a critical part! AFTER they've caught the dragon successfully with their rope method, only AFTER the dragon has been imobilized - only then does the sedative take effect and the dragon passes out, showing how quickly they needed to rush the dragon in order to interact with it before the sedative made it safe to deal with.
I've seen nature shows where they shoot large dangerous animals like tigers and elephants with tranquilizer darts and not once have I seen anyone yell "Quick! Let's get in there and wrestle with the animal before the sedative can take effect!" Common practice appears to be that they wait behind cover, watching for signs that the sedative is working.
So there's a buildup over hundreds and hundreds of pages on how difficult the task will be, only for them to NOT use their sedative, NOT use their giant, but instead run up to the creature with ropes. That was the best thing they could think of... and it worked.
Everybody in this universe is scornful of everyone else. Everybody thinks everyone else is a fool, an idiot, infantile, or subhuman. Often they express these sentiments out loud but also in their private thoughts. ...and they're pretty much correct, most people in this universe ARE stupid. They make and enact stupid plans, respond stupidly to information, fail stupidly to communicate information to each other.
For instance, there's a rift between the Sithi and the humans because someone attacked them who was carrying recently minted currency with pictures of the king and queen on them. The Sithi conclude that because the attackers carried these coins, they did it on ORDERS from the king and queen. That's stupid enough, but the humans don't speak up to say "uh, that's not how currency works." Do the Sithi really believe that the human economic system consists of monarchs minting currency, paying subjects to do things, and that's the only thing that's ever done with currency? Like, they don't think anyone pays anyone else to do anything else with money? And THIS is the reason why this big political problem happens that is going to cause even bigger problems when the war really gets going??? Do the Sithi believe that if a human paints a realistic portrait of them it steals their soul? The humans can't pipe up and say "so they had MONEY on them so what???"
And was it totally necessary that the Thrithings treat their women so awfully? All the accounts I've read of horse-riding wagon-drawing barbarians entering the Roman empire seem to indicate this was not the way they treated their women. The maltreatment just goes on and on incredibly drearily. What is the POINT? Its portrayal seems to be an end in and of itself to the author. Why is the author taking an entirely foreign, alien attitude towards women and jury-rigging it onto a western archetype? (They seem to resemble accounts of tribes such as the Teutons, Cimbri, Helvetii, etc - the ever-present nomadic barbarian on the borders of civilization)
Why 2 stars instead of 1? Well, when the author isn't lingering on characters being monotonous, or bitchy, or monotonously bitchy, the magic is still there. There ARE interesting, gripping scenes that happen in this book. They happen few and far between but they do happen. I get the impression they were created not by accident, but with diligent purpose by the author. They tend to occur at the end of chapters and tend to be sharply cut off. Imagine a plane that is taxiing down an endless runway. Imagine from time to time the pilot ramps the engines up to full power, the entire plane thrums with power, the nose lifts.... and the pilot cuts the engines and the plan begins taxiing again.
So Tad Williams still has what it takes - it happens VERY seldom but it DOES clearly shine through periodically in this book. Seldom enough that it makes me regret buying the book. Nevertheless I have no doubt in my mind that, had the author spent the same time and attention on the rest of the book that he spent on the good parts, we'd have a great book on our hands.
4 people found this helpful
★★★★★
3.0
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Good to return to Ostan Ard, but some pacing and character issues
I was really looking forward to The Witchwood Crown after I got back into the world of Osten Ard earlier this year with Tad Williams’ excellent short novel The Heart of What Was Lost. It’s properly doorstop-sized and it follows a bunch of characters from the original Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy!
It’s been about thirty years since the events of the previous books and Osten Ard, ruled by High King and Queen Simon and Miriamele, has been enjoying peace and stability. Things have been growing steadily worse as the terrible war of the Storm King begins to fade from memory – several kingdoms are facing internal political strife, contact with the Sithi has been lost, and Utuk’ku, the dark queen of the Norns, has woken and once again plots the destruction of humanity.
We follow several protagonists across Osten Ard as events come to a head: Osten Ard’s monarchs (and our old friends) Simon and Miriamele, their grandchildren Prince Morgan and Princess Lillia, other people from the Hayholt including the chancellor Lord Pasevalles, court members (and also old friends) Tiamak and Count Eolair, Norn engineer Viyeki (who we last met in The Heart of What Was Lost), his human concubine Tzoja and half-human daughter Nezeru, a couple of characters from the grasslands of Thrithings, a servant of the Duchess of Nabban, a mysterious Norn-hunter named Jarnulf… I might be forgetting some. This is an epic story affecting the whole world and it’s told through people living through events in a bunch of different places, and only the readers know the whole story of how they may all be connected.
I expected to plow through this book and stay up all night reading it but it was actually slow going. For the first few hundred pages of the book, it didn’t seem like anything was happening, I felt like I was reading a slice of life story, except not as interesting because it was actually about twenty different slice of life stories and we didn’t stick with any viewpoint for enough time for me to develop a real investment in the characters. The last third of the book is much better paced; things start to change rapidly, we get answers to burning questions, and we start to see all those disparate threads come together.
Another thing that disappointed me was how the characters from the first trilogy had aged and how that impacted the plot. Simon and Miri are old and grief-stricken from the loss of their son a few years prior to the events of the book, they seem almost unforgivably gullible to have not noticed all the trouble brewing around them – not a good quality for monarchs. Their grandson and heir Prince Morgan is utterly insufferable, he’s spoiled and petulant, and Simon and Miri don’t seem to know how to deal with him at all – everything they do is obviously going to fail, and I don’t know how they don’t realize that. I’m not saying this is bad writing, in fact it’s probably realistic that Simon and Miri aren’t going to be good at politicking or dealing with people that don’t have the inherent drive to be good (like Morgan), but it’s not very much fun to read about our old heroes being incompetent.
Other than those two (admittedly major) gripes, I thought The Witchwood Crown was a pretty good book. It’s certainly more nuanced the the original trilogy. I’m especially glad that the Norns are being given some definition and not just treated as faceless villains; between Tzoja, Nezeru, and Viyeki, we get a variety of perspectives into their culture and motivations. The prose is good, of course. And by the end of the book, I was intrigued by most of the plotlines enough to eagerly await the next book. I hope it has better pacing and more competent characters, though.
3 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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A magnificent return to Osten Ard
The Witchwood Crown is Tad Williams' magnificent return to Osten Ard. This is a novel I've been waiting for, for 24 years. I'm happy to report that The Witchwood Crown lives up to expectations.
Set 35 years after the end of To Green Angel Tower, The Witchwood Crown answers the questions avid readers have been wondering for the last two and a half decades: What happened after the end? Were Simon and Miriamele good rulers? What happened to the remaining characters? And what about Aditu's prophecy about Josua's twin children?
Many of my questions were answered (not all, though), but even more questions were introduced. I'm now anxiously awaiting the next volume, Empire of Grass... Thank you, Tad, for writing the novel I've been waiting for the last 24 years. I missed these characters and this world.
3 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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The Witchwood Crown
The high King and Queen of Osten Ard are on a tour of their country, visiting their friends and allies in Hernystir and Rimmersgard. But not all who welcome them are friends... Suspect activities, dark rumours, and eventually an encounter with the deadly and secretive Norns call the royal entourage home early. Meanwhilst, their allies the Sithi are mysteriously silent. And that's just the beginning of the story. A story that draws on all the wonders, and all the terror, of this magical world.
The Witchwood Crown is the continuation of the trilogy Memory, Sorrow & Thorn + the short novel published earlier this year: The Heart of What Was Lost. But it isn't necessary to have read those to read this book. Whereas the old trilogy is a buildungsroman, and much of the early story is told through the eyes of the hero, this time there are multiple, equally important, storylines from the beginning. This makes sense, since many of the mysteries of the world were revealed in the original trilogy, and the author can't pretend that old readers haven't already lived through those discoveries. New readers are introduced to Osten Ard gently, and in a way that isn't tiresome to old fans.
Naturally, old characters are reintroduced in this book, though they have aged more than three decades. But there is at least an equal part of new important characters. We get to see the Norns up close and personal, and we also get more insight into the Thrithing clans.
The theme of the story has changed from the original trilogy of the kitchen boy thrown into adventure to discover his own self, into a more familial and pensive approach to the goings on. The King and Queen keep a close eye on their offspring and subjects, though admittedly the King has to be reigned in a bit by his spouse.
The secrets and mysteries that drive the plot are uncovered slowly and carefully. Not many realisations are acquired without much resistance. After all, why should we believe the world is different than what we have always known?
I love this book (and the previous ones) for the care and nourishment poured into them by the author. A well-developed world allows for a convincing story, however magical it might be. The characters are also supremely real and easy to like.
The publication of the next book, Empire of Grass, cannot come soon enough!
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★★★★★
5.0
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A glorious return to Osten Ard
I don’t start this review with the book but with me. I was one of the first humans in the whole wide world who knew that Tad would return to Osten Ard. The thought that there would be more stories in my favourite parallel universe overwhelmed and excited me in a fashion I never thought news about fiction could. Later I was one of the first readers giving comprehensive feedback on each new version. Now I write a review on the ARC I got from the publishers. I still feel like in a dream - this is surreal.
All this should make transparent where I come from. Expect an eulogy.
So. The long awaited and highly anticipated sequel to Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. News from the vast world I keep going back to because I love it so much. It features a mind-swirling amount of characters old and new, awesome & annoying, funny & frightening. Places familiar yet still changed like the Hayholt. Others described in much more detail than before like Nabban. Those that never before had featured as a setting like Elvritshalla. And Nakkiga where the old enemy stirs again.
Tad masterfully manages to revive the old heros albeit it took me a few chapters to feel close to them again. Simon and Miriamele, Eolair and Tiamak after all are not the same people I knew - 33 years of story time have passed since I last met them. A reunion scene brought tears of joy to my eyes and from that moment on I was emotionally engaged with The Witchwood Crown as I am with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn for 25 real years now.
The multiple plots burble along like mountain spring creeks: there are trade wars, unrest in Hernystir, fights for power and territory in the South, the occasional bloody fight - all the stuff expected from a civilisation on the brink of enlightenment and it is a joy to see it unfold in Osten Ard. Plus fearsome monsters and fairies, demons and a hilarious troll. All this is wonderful to behold all the while the real mysteries are slowly growing in a few passing paragraphs and the occasional subclause. A beautifully composed set-up for a great story. I would have been perfectly happy with that book and would have praised Tad über den grünen Klee for it. Although it not truly accelerated my heart rate for page after fast turned page.
Then come the last 200+. Tad shifts gears and … major stuff starts happening. The thing is hitting the other thing. Like big time.
This showdown had me respectively gasping in surprise, shouting: Finally!, laughing with joy, holding my breath for two pages straight, slapping my head, shedding more tears and smiling woefully at the very end. An incredible rollercoaster ride that made me crave for more the moment I turned the very last page. I’ve said it elsewhere and I say it again: I have not read a final act that exciting and surprising since George R.R. Martin’s A Stom of Swords.
And I mean that literally.
A lot has been said about the similarities between MS&T and GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire (insert link to 50 similarities by Ron) . Martin himself names the former a major inspiration for him. While he was writing TWC in 2014 I talked to Tad about stories and tropes influencing each other in general and these two in particular and he said he „would like to keep the conversation going.“ And darn he fricking did. Iconic scenes from A Song of Ice and Fire are mirrored in The Witchwood Crown and I yayed every single one of them. This seesaw between two masters of story telling is an additional treat in this awesome book.
I am so much looking forward to reading the final version of The Witchwood Crown come June 29th. At last a beautiful hardcover with a shiny envelope. We’re all in for such a treat.
There are a lot of storylines bringing us up to date about what is going on in Osten Ard. The really exciting stuff, the developing mysteries and dangers are more in the background as it befits the first installment of a multi-volume story. The main topic behind it all is truth in its many disguises.
