A review by tasharobinson
A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez

4.0

This was a fun and surprising read. Maybe the most Ursula Vernon-like book I've ever read that wasn't actually by Ursula Vernon. There's this evil bloodthirsty demonic duck, you see, and a modular troll made out of detachable and interchangeable parts, and a paladin who's only powerful as long as he subsists on dry bread and chastity. And then there's this witch who pretty much knows everything, except how to control the curse on her. There's a lot of eccentric whimsy in this book — there's a sequence with some bandit elves that reads almost like a Monty Python routine — and some of Terry Pratchett's idea of witches, who are basically just very practical women who sometimes see things more clearly than other people, and sometimes put on ridiculous clothes and makeup and accents and lifestyles to fit other people's idea of what a witch is. But there's also a strong sense of justice, drama, and self-reflection in here too. This is a familiar fantasy-quest narrative in many ways, but it's also distinctive and unusual and sometimes just enjoyably silly on the way to a pretty serious ending.