The Witchwood Crown – Thoughts on the return to Osten Ard – Part 1
My personal wait for Tad Williams’ new Osten Ard novel, The Witchwood Crown, is finally over, thanks to my friend John D. who provided me the copy sent to him. I’m interrupting my goal (as I suspected I would) of reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series straight through to read this. It’s a good stopping point, as I just finished the fifth of Steve Erikson’s books in the series (and it is a very good series, highly recommended).
The Last King of Osten Ard series (of which this is the first book) takes place thirty years after the original Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. As readers we all carry our preconceived notions of what the characters were and what they would become. So there’s always the question of what happened to the characters in that series…who died, who lived, who changed.
I’m only about 50 pages in, but already have a couple of observations:
- Thus far, the character transitions are handled not only with respect but with reality. One example is of a character from the original series (no names to prevent spoilage) who reflects upon what those of us readers who read the original series when we were young feel about aging:
I have become Time’s poppet, he thought sadly. She plays with me as a child with a doll, pulling off a piece here, another there, dragging me through the mud, then carrying me back to sit at some mock-banquet.
- The other unexpected piece is a tie-in with The Heart of What Was Lost. I enjoyed this novel, set just after the events of To Green Angel Tower but was happily surprised by how early Williams tied those pieces and characters together with this new narrative.
So far I’m able to throttle the desire to speed through it, and enjoy it like a fine tequila…Only 900 or so more pages to go!
I betcha you’ll be speeding through the last 200 pages without being able to stop no matter what time it is …
It ain’t the time of day, it’s the work that gets in the way at all hours of the day and night!