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A review by nelsonminar
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
4.0
Huh, I ended up really liking this novel. It's an odd structure for a fantasy novel. There's no heroic action, no evil defeated. It's just the story of the life of Thara Celehar, a Witness for the Dead, a sort of priest who gives last rights and can occasionally talk briefly with the spirits of the recently deceased. And the whole book is various stories he gets involved in; a murder mystery at the opera, a ghoul infestation, a dispute over a will, a serial killer. I guess structually it's a detective novel? Or an Agathie Christie? Only in a high fantasy world with goblins, elves, and light magic.
Despite the marketing it's not really a sequel to The Goblin Emperor. Celehar is a character in that novel, in fact appears throughout it, and this book is a continuation of his story. But there's no real through-line of plot. What is consistent is the fantasy world. And the great strength of this new novel is how well it fleshes out the world building. Mostly obliquely, the writing is much too subtle and ordinary to be tedious "tell not show". But there's plenty to show. The only thing that tripped me up a bit is the author is a bit too fond of stringing together words in an imaginary language along with person's titles and names. Sometimes I got a bit lost in all the unfamiliar words but overall the linguistic games are in service to the mood.
Speaking of mood.. the book has a wonderful melancholy to it. Celehar is a melancholic character, awkward around people, no friends of his own, works with death and speaks to dead people as a profession. The whole novel is suffused with that sadness and slowness. It's not a depressing novel, the world is far too rich and interesting for that. But it is a melancholy one in a nice comfortable way.
Greatly enjoyed this book.
Despite the marketing it's not really a sequel to The Goblin Emperor. Celehar is a character in that novel, in fact appears throughout it, and this book is a continuation of his story. But there's no real through-line of plot. What is consistent is the fantasy world. And the great strength of this new novel is how well it fleshes out the world building. Mostly obliquely, the writing is much too subtle and ordinary to be tedious "tell not show". But there's plenty to show. The only thing that tripped me up a bit is the author is a bit too fond of stringing together words in an imaginary language along with person's titles and names. Sometimes I got a bit lost in all the unfamiliar words but overall the linguistic games are in service to the mood.
Speaking of mood.. the book has a wonderful melancholy to it. Celehar is a melancholic character, awkward around people, no friends of his own, works with death and speaks to dead people as a profession. The whole novel is suffused with that sadness and slowness. It's not a depressing novel, the world is far too rich and interesting for that. But it is a melancholy one in a nice comfortable way.
Greatly enjoyed this book.