The Witchwood Crown

The Last King of Osten Ard, Book 1

By: Tad Williams

Narrated by: Andrew Wincott

Length: 38 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

'Fawless epic fantasy . . . An instant fantasy classic' - Kirkus

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Thirty years ago Ineluki, the Storm King, was destroyed and his armies scattered. Osten Ard has been at peace ever since, ruled by Simon Snowlock, kitchen boy made king, and Miriamele, King Elias' only child. But now age weighs upon their reign. Simon's dreams have deserted him, old allies die and betrayal and assassination threaten. His son and heir John Josua is years dead and his grandson, Morgan, is a wastrel. A journey of redemption and discovery beckons in the darkening world.

And in the frozen North, in Nakkiga, the mountain fortress, Ineluki's ally, the Norn Queen, wakes from her deep, decades-long sleep and tells her followers that she will sleep no more. Humanity must be destroyed. Her sorcerers will bring a demon back from death, her warriors will seek the world for living dragon's blood...

And finally the greatest artefact of all, the Witchwood Crown, will be hers.

With a cast of hundreds - humans, giants, dragons, trolls, Sithi and Norn - The Witchwood Crown is epic fantasy as it used to be: classic, grand and sweeping and evidence that Tad Williams is the greatest living writer of the form.

©2017 Beale Williams Enterprise (P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Amazing fantasy and relatable humans

Did my partner get this book thinking it was the first in a series? yes
Did I question my sanity and wanting to hear all of Simon's adventures that were mentioned? yes
Did we both learn as I was practically finished with the book that it is in fact not the first series in this universe? also yes.
But did this make the book less enjoyable? No, well maybe a little. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the characters, though the start was a little rough and that might have been eased by having read the previous books about Simon and his rise to high-king.

On to what happens in this book, it is a lot and its enough to keep me intrigued while also enough for me not to be able to guess all of the plotlines a mile away(which is something I struggle with when the plot is too linear). The realisations on why we get to follow certain characters and their role in the bigger picture is just *chefs kiss*
Now I have to admit I name no characters except for Simon because I cant remember names to save my life. However I knew who each POV was easily not only by their names but also distinct personalities, only 2 or 3 characters got confused in my mind at times. But I see that as a personal flaw and not an issue with same-face-syndrome. The world is large but not incomprehensible, religion and politics are nuanced and people have their own moral guidelines.

At the end we get some resolutions and also a fantastic setup for the next book where I am excited to continue the series! Where will the prince end up, will they find out what happened in the staircase and how will the queen fare on her mission to deal with political unrest?

All in all I would have given this a 5/5 if I would have had an easier time getting into the book, for now my rating is 4.5/5

Yes!

Love it. The main story, all the little side-stories and the characters. And the audio narration is great, too.

It feels so wonderful to be back. I didn't realize how much I have missed these characters, before I started listening.

Now, I can hardly stop listening. Can't wait to hear the rest of their stories.

Simply good.

Very good continuation of the series, known for its slow pacing and lots of events going on.

The main characters of the first four books are now either old, parents, unhappy or just dead... "and they were not so ever happy as they tought they would".
And I like it that way, just as life.

The new younger cast is well portrayed, interesting and they dont create a feeling of instant dislike as it seems to happen in other franchises when it comes to teenagers or just young people new to the reader.

Same goes for the new and old villains: Williams put a lot of effort in showing lots of interesting insights of the norn and sitha societies which turns out to be just as bad and flawed as humans, each in their own way.

In many ways the story here is much more interesting than in the first four books, but then again here we dont need to go through as many character presentations as in the original saga.

Word of advice: if youre totally new to this series do not start with this one.
Start from The Dragonbone Chair.
Just dont come expecting to reach page two and have an "And then he swinged his brutal battleax and killed three enemies which fell bleeding to the floor in agony. He spat on their corpses and continued the massacre."
This saga is the exact opposite of what Conan or Gotrek and Felix offer in terms of instant action (both approaches are good, just trying to differentiate)

Andrew Wincott does a great job as narrator, nothing more to say there.

If you enjoy long stories which develop slowly, with lots of scenes of the type "they sat next to the fire for the next 50 pages and spoke about legends of old, their enemies plans and origins and their own and decided what to do bla etc... while having tea, and beer, and cookies" combined with good adventures happenning at the same time give this a try.

Edit: they never sat next to the fire for the next 50 pages but the idea is wonderful in itself.

meh

this and empire of grass I wouldn't recommend. some chapters are fun, but overall disappointing

Accents

First time I ever heard the welsh accent sprinkled throughout the story regardless of race (human/nonhuman characters)。 Really wish he’d kept the accents specific to each group, it would have been more immersive. His regular narrative voice was great… just the character reading was off. (By the way I’m Welsh)