History and Fantasy

[mtvessel]

Oct 2021
Winter of the Witch - Katherine Arden – Del Rey, 2019
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So after the quasi-historical The Girl in the Tower, we are back in fantasyland with a bump as the events at the end of that book have bad consequences for Vasya, our heroine. However, the historical thread is not lost, particularly as it becomes apparent that Arden is building up to a showdown at a significant real-world event.

There are a few missteps, such as an unnecessary death towards the end that was clearly a clumsy attempt to introduce pathos. And the central romantic relationship between Vasya and Morozhko still did not work for me, mainly because I couldn't help feeling that the Lord of Winter and Death would be rather - well, chilly - as a lover. But the biggest problem is the hero's journey. In this book, Vasya becomes such a powerful witch that any dramatic tension in the final scenes is lost, similar to Vin in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. To be an effective story, a hero needs to struggle right through to the end. But all in all, this is a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy in which Arden manages to expand both the folkloric and historical settings of the previous books. Her skills as a writer are clearly developing and it will be interesting to see what she comes up with next.