The House of War and Witness

by Mike Carey, Linda Carey, Louise Carey

In the year 1740, with the whole of Europe balanced on the brink of war, a company of Austrian soldiers is sent to the village of Narutsin to defend the border with Prussia. But what should be a routine posting is quickly revealed to be anything but. The previous garrison is gone, the great house of Pokoj, where they're to be billeted, a dilapidated ruin, and the people of Narutsin sullen and belligerent. Convinced the villagers are keeping secrets - and possibly consorting with the enemy - the commanding officer orders his junior lieutenant, Klaes, to investigate.

While Klaes sifts through the villagers' truths, half-truths and lies, Drozde, the quartermaster's woman, is making uncomfortable discoveries of her own - about herself, her man, and the house where they've all been thrown together. Because far from being the empty shell it appears to be, Pokoj is actually teeming with people. It's just that they're all dead. And the dead know things - about Drozde, about the history of Pokoj, and about the terrible event that is rushing towards them all, seemingly unstoppable.


The ghosts of Pokoj, the soldiers of the empress and the villagers of Narutsin are about to find themselves actors in a story that has been unfolding for centuries. It will end in blood - that much is written - but how much blood will depend on Klaes' honour, Drozde's skill and courage, and the keeping of an impossible promise

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Historical, Paranormal, Historical Fantasy

515 pages, Paperback

First published June 19, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mike Carey was born in Liverpool in 1959. He worked as a teacher for fifteen years, before starting to write comics. When he started to receive regular commissions from DC Comics, he gave up the day job.

Since then, he has worked for both DC and Marvel Comics, writing storylines for some of the world's most iconic characters, including X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, LUCIFER and HELLBLAZER. His original screenplay FROST FLOWERS is currently being filmed. Mike has also adapted Neil Gaiman's acclaimed NEVERWHERE into comics.

Somehow, Mike finds time amongst all of this to live with his wife and children in North London. You can read his blog at www.mikecarey.net.

Reviews

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It's not in the facts we live, but in the memories."

House of War and Witness was suspenseful in a unique way: from the outset, I could predict how the story would end, who would live and who would die, yet even so, I found myself thoroughly engrossed, the plot made no less suspenseful by an outcome foreseen. The ghosts, Magda in particular, make Drozde's eventual fate clear from the outcome, when they talk about what she always says and say it's so good to see her "like this...this is a special time, and it's so short." While the setting is very different, thematically, it reminded me strongly of Steel Seraglio: like Seraglio, it is a story about storytelling, the greater plot fueled by smaller tales.

The story starts gently enough. A regiment of Austrian soldiers is sent to a rural village on the border of Austria, ostensibly to shore up support for Archduchess Maria Theresa, but also to ensure that the village does not change its allegiances. Another regiment had been posted to the village, but had disappeared, and the frail and rather ineffective Lieutenant Klaes is tasked with discovering unearthing the secrets that the village is concealing. Drozde, a camp follower and mistress of the regiment's quartermaster, Sergeant Molebacher, sets out to make the old mansion that the regiment will use as a home base livable. Although Drozde is used to ghosts--she has seen them all her life-- she is shocked by the number and vividness of the spirits inhabiting the old house. As the ghosts begin to share their stories with her, tensions between the regiment and the village begin to mount, and the true natures of the characters are revealed.

The larger plot naturally wraps itself around the stories of the town, for Drozde's very business is stories. While she receives protection and legitimacy by selling her body, most of her earnings come from the daring and raunchy puppet shows she puts on for the regiment. As she thinks:

"Of all the stories she told, the most important was the story that her stories were indispensable. Without that, she was just a grown woman who'd never put away her dolls."

Chapters told by ghosts and townsfolk intersperse sections told from the perspectives of Drozde and Klaes, and these tales both break up and propel the main plot. Not all of the storytellers are good people; as one puts it:

"This is a story about choices, and I'll never know whether the choices that were made were right or wrong."

All of the stories are vivid and varied, ranging widely over time and tone, yet many are unified by a common theme: that of violence stemming from possessiveness and control. The repetition of choking fear, of victimization, of violence against women, can make for a difficult narrative, and I was often frustrated by the obtuseness of the characters and their inability to realize the dire and damaging nature of their situations. In the opening pages, Drozde's coquette puppet is damaged, her face scratched and nose broken. Molebacher tells her she should be more careful with her things, and yet she doesn't pick up on the obvious threat. For me, the true stifling agony of the book was the invasive sense of powerlessness shared by the protagonists. As one character thinks,

"That was life, in small [...] you spent it grubbing desperately for the physical things that would prolong it. For food mainly, and then if you were lucky enough to be fed, for shelter. And all the time in between you spent dreaming of places you couldn't go and things you could never have. You used it up trying to fit yourself into the spaces that would work, instead of unfolding yourself into the space that was yours and then seeing where that took you."

Even though many of story's scenes are comic, the other overarching themes are often dark and intense. Apart from the choking aspects of possessiveness and powerlessness, it deals with the corruption of authority, the construction of an enemy, and the definition of duty. Yet even here, the characters' lack of agency reverberates. Within the hierarchical structure of the military, there are stringent limits to what one man--or woman-- can achieve. As one character tries to explain to another who seeks to choose "the path that leads to the least bloodshed":

"That's not in your power to choose."

Yet despite poignancy and tragedy, the story is ultimately uplifting: their agency may be limited, but indirectly, they have the power to change the world. Even when all choices appear to be blocked, the characters find a way to move the world around them instead. The House of War and Witness is a story that glories in the power of stories, and I was utterly captivated.

~4.5

~~I received an advanced reader copy of this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Diamond Book Distributors, in exchange for my honest review. Thanks!~~

Cross-posted on BookLikes.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very, very good. So good, in fact, that I am working on a sleep deficit because I was up to 1:45am this morning reading it and had to be up at 6am for work.

It didn't grab me at first, it was a slow burn, building the characters and the scene for the reader, but it was completely worth the 200 plus pages for things to get really moving.

The characters. Well, there are a lot of PG13 things in this book. The males are mostly military and the women are mostly camp followers, at least the MCs. There were villagers too, but most of the characters were violent and of questionable morals.

Though there was NO slut shaming in this book. The MCs who were camp followers did so because there weren't many options for women back in the wilds of the borderlands of Austria and Prussia in the 1740s. Drozde, the female MC, was the "lady" of the quartermaster Molebacher, who was SUCH a great character to hate btw. He was so completely manipulative and evil. Drozde was a "lady of the evening" and she was very matter of fact about it. She was cunning and intelligent. A strong female character, who had a very interesting ability, the ability to see ghosts.

The ghosts were my favorite characters I think. I LOVED the storytelling the ghosts did. Though I figured out the twist MUCH earlier than Drozde did, I have to give her a bit of credit, it's hard to wrap one's mind around the circumstances that she was in.

That, plus a few coincidences that stretched my credulity some, made this a 4 and not a 5 star book. It's a solid 4 stars, don't get me wrong, but the missteps sometimes felt forced and not natural. Also, the insta-love somewhat irked me. Though I have to say, I didn't see it coming until it happened. I was expecting two other characters to link up instead and was completely wrong on that.

I'm trying to be vague enough to not give spoilers, but not so vague that this review doesn't explain anything at all. Not sure it's working. I apologize and blame the book for keeping me up so late.

Recap: characters, even the ghosts, lived and breathed for me. They all had stories to tell and were quick, resourceful and a pleasure to read. Even the nasty ones were interesting to read.

Setting: the setting was cold and bleak, this is a story of war, death and a haunted house and that atmosphere comes through. The setting was harsh. Preparing for war in the wild borderlands in 1740, with a village full of suspiciously acting country folk and bored and brutal military men, is a powder keg just waiting for a spark. I felt the tension and the possibility of violence in the air, with almost every character.

Believability: Obviously, one has to stretch to believe in seeing and talking to ghosts, but I felt it was a perfectly natural part of the story. It made sense to the plot and it was the better part of it. The military parts, the crass stupidity and violence, disturbed me. I really hope things have changed since 1740, let's just put it that way. There were a few parts, the insta-love and the quartermaster going to JUST the wrong house and seeing JUST the wrong thing and making the completely correct assumption was a bit too much for me to swallow, as was his immediate reaction to it.

The ending: Blew my mind and really does lead one to think about what happens to the spirit after life is over and death is the only game in town. The story is a LONG one, but the ending was done justice by the entire rest of the book. Without the rest of the book, the ending would have made much less sense and felt pretentious. But it fit so nicely with what had been written before.

This was a very good, if violent and gritty book. Definitely not something I would recommend for anyone under older teen years to adult. 4 solid stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

[Rhoddi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely solid read, other than the slow start, that builds and builds to an amazing finish. Glad I finally got round to reading it!

[Mihai Adascalitei · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was “The Talisman”, the collaborative novel of Stephen King and Peter Straub, which made me consider such joint projects with great interest and fascination. Years later, I had the pleasant surprise of discovering a book written in three, “The Steel Seraglio” by Mike, Linda and Louise Carey. Of course, it was not only my curiosity for such endeavors, but as it was the case with Stephen King and Peter Straub’s “The Talisman”, my previous experience with Mike Carey’s writing was part of my attraction to this novel. Since “The Steel Seraglio”, or “The City of Silk and Steel”, as the novel was published in the UK, nothing much changed in my consideration for Mike Carey’s writings, I look at them with the same excitement, perhaps even with a little more. But it did change the list of authors I follow with interest adding among all those favorite writers of mine the team Mike forms with his wife and daughter, Linda and Louise. It wasn’t long before I welcomed another title from the said team, Mike, Linda and Louise Carey joined forces again and published a second collaborative novel, “The House of War and Witness”, two years after their first one.

It is the year 1740 and following Maria Theresa’s succession to the throne of the House Monarchy war is looming over Europe. A small company of Habsburg soldiers is sent to the border with Prussia, next to the small town of Narutsin, as a precaution in the eventuality of war. Upon arriving to the great house, Pokoj, where they are billeted Colonel August and his company found no trace of the militia previously garrisoned here and are led to believe that the villagers of Narutsin are holding secrets. Colonel August assigns a junior officer, Lieutenant Klaes, to investigate the matter and to uncover the truths the villagers keep hidden. At the same time, Drozde, a puppeteer part of the company’s followers, protected by the quartermaster Molebacher, discovers that Pokoj, the house where they’re stationed holds some secrets of its own. An entire host of ghosts along with them too and Drozde will begin soon to learn most of their stories, some of them with consequences on the company’s presence near Narutsin and the Prussian border.

The Careys place their new story on the brink of the first Silesian Wars in a village at the border of Austria with Prussia, but it is not the historical event that takes precedence within “The House of War and Witness”. They do capture some of the atmosphere, to the village are given nice specific details, the villagers are caught in a situation where survival is more important than the official delimitations between countries, the distinct company’s life, with some characteristics of the Austrian army at the time, such as the presence of soldiers gathered from all the empire’s corners within the company or the shadow of the recent defeats against the Ottoman Empire still weighting on the minds of the officers and troops. But it is the story of humanity and human beings at the core of the novel. A tale of the shining moments and the ugly face of human behavior, of best and worse in human nature, of selfish and selfless acts. Every emotion from joy to tears is captured within the pages of “The House of War and Witness”.

My full review can be found at http://darkwolfsfantasyreviews.blogsp...

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I really enjoyed this book.

I'm a sucker for a tale where Story is important. And this book if full of stories. And ghosts.

Stories are what keep us alive here, what keeps the ghosts alive. Time is fluid and changeable. We learn from stories, and live within stories.

This particular story takes place in a (relatively) unfamiliar time and place. As best I can tell, Charles VI of Austria has died (1740.) His daughter Maria Teresa reigns as archduchess. Not everyone in the surrounding countries is happy about this. Uppity women on thrones, bah! seems to be the attitude. Prussia, in particular, is threatening war. Under these circumstances, a troop of soldiers and artillery are sent to reinforce a spot of border. They take up residence in a crumbling mansion called Pokoj. The soldiers are attended by the usual camp followers and whores. The officers have their wives with them, because apparently that was a thing back then.

And there's Drozde, described by some characters as a "gypsy". She's a puppeteer who entertains the troops with puppet shows. She's accepted the bed and protection of the company's cook, Molebacher. Molebacher is a cunning and brutal man. He's managed to ingratiate himself with the company's commander. Lieutenant Klaes is a young soldier, with more scruples than are strictly helpful for a man in his position.

Drozde has seen ghosts all her life. The ghosts she sees at Pokoj, however, are more vivid than any other ghosts she's seen. And they have secrets.

This is, in part, a story about women's dependence, and about women's strength and INdependence. Drozde and other women in the camp have made a pragmatic decision to take male protectors (soldiers in camp), even though it makes them whores in the eyes of the rest of the world. They look after each other. Their lives are hard, but they do their best. There are other women among the living and the dead whose stories we learn. I think it's a really strong feminist work without being strident or preachy.

It's a good story that wraps other, small stories up within itself. Some of those small stories will stick in your mind.

I picked this book up because it had Mike Carey's name on it, and I've enjoyed his work in the past. I'm not sure who Linda and Louise Carey are in relation to Mike, but I'm glad they all wrote this book.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, I think, the 10th novel I've read written or co-written by Mike Carey. Oddly, even though I've long enjoyed his novels more than his comics, I still think of him primarily as a comics writer. Weird. Anyway. The House of War and Witness. Like The Steel Seraglio, the previous Carey family collaboration, this is a novel about and full of stories, but beyond that each is very much its own beast. Narrowing its scale from the epic, mythic sweep of the earlier novel, House bears witness to a narrow slice of infinity, evoking a sense of eternity and inevitability that may be found in many of the best ghost stories. Of course, at a whopping 500+ pages, it cannot sustain that tone throughout, as a short story might, but fortunately the novel is populated with a colorful cast of characters who do very well at keeping things interesting and plots moving. As enjoyable as it was to keep their company for a time, there were several occasions when the characters were distressingly slow on the uptake, particularly regarding the matter addressed in the stories of the torc, a matter which had already been clear to the reader for some time. Those occasional dramatic quibbles aside, this was a very enjoyable page-turner, and also, I think, a more polished work than its predecessor. While reading The Steel Seraglio I found myself playing the who-wrote-what game, and picking out the occasional little continuity error between segments; the compound authorship is much less noticeable here.

It sounds like Carey's next novel will be another M. R. Carey piece, and I hope after that finally to see the 6th Felix Castor novel, but I do also definitely look forward to another Carey, Carey and Carey novel somewhere down the line.

[Shana DuBois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was wonderful but definitely a slow burn. Think of a roller coaster where you are going up that first big climb, slowly clicking your way up the incline, and then it's a roaring ride of turns and stomach drops. That's this book only the first half (up to chapter 27) is that slow climb to the first drop. But it is worth sticking through to the end because once you make that first drop the pace and intensity triples and all that build up pays off. The book is a story about the strength found in telling stories, what could be more perfect.

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

To me, this was an unexpectedly nice surprise of a book. The story gripped me from the first pages and wouldn't let me go until I reached the end of Pokoj's fate.

In the days leading to yet another 18th century war, a new regiment is sent to the house of Pokoj, near the Narutsin village at the Prussian border. While there is immediate distrust between the soldiers and the villagers, tension continues to rise as Drozde, the quartermaster's woman and puppeteer of the soldiers, learns stories and truths from the inhabitants of Pokoj.

I liked it, a lot. Drozde's story was very interesting and the writing was great. While this is a ghost story, and the ending was slightly predictable, I think it still gave a new twist to it, which I liked. The ghosts' stories that are interwoven with the main story were nice, although of course, one was more interesting than another. I do think, however, that there might have been a little bit too much drama, for my liking at least, surrounding Drozde.

Nevertheless, I would certainly pick up another book by these authors!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Ashish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interestingly low-key, slow-burn, high drama. It's not a huge, epic tale spreading across vast swathes, but a much more small-scale and intimate window into war - one little incident, one small village, little people dancing to the tune of larger forces but altering their course in their own little ways; the puppet metaphor is a well thought-out one.
The star of this story is the people - very well-fleshed-out characters you can understand and visualize, and a layered story gradually unfolded.
Make no mistake, it's a dark tale, full of tears shed, blood spilled, and dreams shattered - but despite all that, you do walk away feeling... if not good, at least ok.

[Djordje · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating: 3.5 stars

[Steven Poore · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a similar vein to the other triple-Carey novel, City of Silk and Steel, which I read and loved the other year, The House of War and Witness roots itself in an ensemble cast and a love of interweaving stories within stories. This time the setting is Prussian Europe, a village and a valley perched on the brink of a war. There is a slow and deliberate unpicking of threads and, other than the ghosts that inhabit the manor house on the outskirts of the village, very little actual fantasy as such.

But what Team Carey has created here is a thoughtful and compelling ghost story that pulls off the greatest magical trick of stealing away the moon. It's an excellent counterpoint to City of Silk and Steel, and well worth your time.

[Shanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vibrant, realistic characters tossed together in an almost surreal situation. Perfectly written, not a word unnecessary or out of place.

[Scott Sweet-Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and good story to escape into. I thought it it did a decent job capturing the setting and historical period as well as character development. Also had a few curve balls that I did not expect which made it all the more enjoyable.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar in style to the Carey's other joint venture The Steel Seraglio, in that there is a undercurrent of stories told by various characters, held together by an overarching narrative. There the similarity ends. This one is set in 1740 Silesia, in the immediate aftermath of Marie Therese taking over the Austrian throne. Knowing this area of Poland fairly well I felt frustrated by the geographical setting: admittedly the land has changed hands so many times it is hard to keep track of place names other than Wroclaw and Zielona Gora. However, I wanted to be able to visualise the villages and river on a map, even though the setting is little more than a backdrop to the tale. I also found the main storyline more engaging than the short stories - I felt they were placed very early on, before I had really engaged with the characters and subsequently found them distracting. They do fall into place however, at which point the main narrative accelerates and events acquire an inevitability. It reminded me of a quote by Jean Anouilh on Antigone: ‘The spring is wound up tight. It will uncoil of itself. That is what is so convenient in tragedy. The least little turn of the wrist will do the job . . . The rest is automatic. You don’t need to lift a finger. The machine is in perfect order; it has been oiled ever since time began, and it runs without friction . . . Tragedy is clean, it is restful, it is flawless . . . In a tragedy, nothing is in doubt and everyone’s destiny is known. That makes for tranquillity . . . Tragedy is restful; and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it. There isn’t any hope. You’re trapped.’ Though perhaps the Carey's manage to find a way out of the trap.

Incidentally the name of the house has a double meaning: Peace is what immediately comes to mind, but 'pokoj' is also a common noun 'room'(of a house). I thought that was quite neat as much of the timeless action is focussed around the ballroom or kitchen.

[Doc Alchemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an impulse purchase, bought purely because I liked the cover, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Whoever wrote the back cover blurb isn’t doing the book any favours, I nearly put it back on the shelf. so don’t be put off. (The blurb does makes sense after you’ve read the book but since its aimed to draw in people to buy the book it epically fails in that respect in my opinion).
The book is a collaboration between three related authors, which also made me a little wary. Usually when a story is cobbled together between several authors, it shows. This time however, I couldn’t find the seams. Set in the Austrian empire near the Prussian border in 1740, when Frederick the Great has just taken power, it covers the garrisoning of a troop of Austrian soldiers at an old manor house. The lead character is Drodze, a young lady who has cast her lot in with the army’s cook, who is a nasty piece of work, and one of the villains of the piece. She has the ability to meet the former inhabitants of the house, and they persist in telling her stories of their life. These stories take up a significant portion of the book, and most are engaging short stories in their own right. External to this, the other main story arc involves the stupidity of the commanding officers in the way they interact with a local village as they try to uncover the mystery of what the villagers are hiding from them. While I found the reason behind the stories, and the supposed impact of these stories on the climax of the book to be a little tenuous, I was happy to go with it, as I found it was a book that once I picked up, I wanted to keep reading, and I managed to get through it in a couple of days. I subsequently realized that one of the authors is Mike Carey, who is also the writer of Lucifer, so you know you’re in good hands.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and layered sort of story, much like its sister novel, The City of Silk and Steel. As with that novel, this doesn't flinch from the hard truths of its setting - the unpleasant realities of life for those less-privileged, and the lack of safety and justice that comes with it. And as with that novel, House was concerned with the personal stories within a broader sweep of historical forces and events.

In some ways, I found this the most challenging aspect of reading the story; it was so focused-in on the "small" - but vitally important to the participants - events of this particular microcosm of the First Silesian War. In some ways, it seemed like only tiny things were happening, but the entire novel pivoted on those tiny things - stray words, careless actions, minor overreactions snowballing into something that swallowed everything... but still, "everything" was only a house, a company of soldiers, a village. It's both vital and trivial.

So while I think this was a very good book, with strong and interesting characters engaged in meaningful developments, it was also at times quite dragging to read. There's a lot of food for thought, though, in ruminations of the importance of our stories - of everyone's stories.

[Bel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well this was just as fantastic as I could have hoped, having loved The Steel Seraglio. Initially I was concerned I might love it less, since it focuses on an army and therefore has far less in the way of female characters. I shouldn't have worried. The Careys proved again to be a fantastic story-writing team and the setting - the Prussian/Austrian border at the outbreak of the first Silesian War - was intriguing and unusual for an English novel.

I can't agree with the reviewers who found the first part of the book to be slow. There is a lovely creepy atmosphere, as Drozde discovers the ghosts of Pokoj and Klaes investigates some shady goings-on from the past. The stories-within-stories are each excellently done, moving, and never overstay their welcome. And if you find yourself thinking that the paranormal aspects of the story are too benign, the humans promptly supply some horror and cruelty to make up for it.

The action and tension ratchet up as the story progresses and the secrets of Pokoj are revealed, and the payoff is an explanation of several cunning mysteries placed throughout the novel. It's clever, and it really tugs on the heartstrings. What a great combination.

Possibly 4.5* but I'm rounding up.

[Carro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it was occasionally possible to review without rating.... I have given this 4 stars because I think it a superbly written book, but I didn't really enjoy the story and gave up a bit after half way through. I am reviewing it because I have also reviewed City of Silk and Steel. Four stars says "I really liked it" - and I didn't like it, but I was impressed by it. It seemed unreasonable to give it less than 4 stars due to its quality.

I loved the first book by these three authors, City of Silk and Steel which is why picked up this one. This one was not so much to my taste. I thought it was a superb piece of unusual storytelling in the same way their first book was - a sort of Arabian Nights approach of tales from different viewpoints and time periods, all adding up to an ongoing story. City of Silk and Steel had some unhappy lives in it, but overall I felt it to be lighter in tone. I think it was that the having a really miserable life part didn't last as far into the book as it did in House of War and Witness I found House of War and Witness to be an account of ongoing misery and I kept seeing all the ways in which things could go really wrong. As opposed to CSS where there was more of a feel of how they were going right.

[Pedro Marroquín · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historia sobre la historia de una región centroeuropea por donde siempre pasaban los ejércitos, y que por lo tanto está llena de fantasmas. Fantasmas que una titiritera puede ver y hablar con ellos. Que ha llegado hasta la casa donde transcurre la acción siguendo a un ejército que toma posiciones por si el vecino enemigo intenta recuperar esa zona. Muy buen relato que mezcla la disociación de los militares nobles con los habitantes del pueblo vecino, y los malentendidos que hay, sobre todo entre los propios militares. Gran historia de fantasmas cuyo final me sorprendió bastante, a pesar de esperarme una resolución parecida. Esta familia de autores se están convirtiendo en imprescindibles. A

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely lovely. The main characters were very likeable and the supporting cast was very well-developed. Molebacher was really well-written and scary, but Colonel August seemed to do a 180 out of nowhere. That's the only criticism though.
Also, in my head Drozde is Anna Caterina Antonacci's portrayal of Carmen.

[John Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic gothic haunted
house tale
by one of the best horror writers today

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was way different than I expected and a really cool, rewarding read.

I don't really care about military stuff/war that much but I liked what this book did with it, going into the intricacies of the group that's guarding this village. Hierarchies are established and I was able to keep everyone separate. (That sounds like a stupid thing to be thrilled by but sometimes when you get bigger casts like this, especially with armies, I get everybody muddled.)

The ghosts and Drozde's portion of the narrative were, however, my favourite bits. I LOVED all the stories each individual ghost told. They were absorbing and gripping -- I'd get caught up with the stories in the stories. I also loved the mechanics of the ghost house: ALL THE GHOSTS ARE FROM DIFFERENT TIMES INCLUDING THE FUTURE HOLY CRAP YES. I thought that was really cool and inventive -- certainly not something I've seen before. I also loved seeing ghost!Drozde before she died; I like a good story where someone dies and we already know who/why, and I think this was a good example of it that somehow managed to do that and also have it as a surprise. Magda was the best, by the way.

A note on the writing: for a book written by three people I was super impressed with how easily the writing flowed. I couldn't tell who was doing what bits. This is the second collaborative book I've read this year after The Personal Librarian and I think I'd like to read more of these in future, both in general and also by the Careys.

I've been thinking about this one a bit more than some other books I've read this year, so we'll see how this settles in my brain.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally published in SFX magazine, 2014.

--

At first blush, the prospect of a novel written by a team of people isn’t an enticing one; it seems a recipe for uneven prose and storytelling, and the fact that all three authors in this case are from the same family carries a faint whiff of gimmickry to it.

But the result is in fact a very pleasant surprise: a twisty, gripping, atmospheric tale of supernatural goings-on and some very human clashes of personality. Set in 1740, with Frederick II of Prussia about to use Maria Theresa’s accession as Hapsburg empress as an excuse to invade western Poland, it follows a company of Hapsburg troops sent to protect – or subdue – a potentially fractious village on the Prussian border.

Things are not quite what they seem, naturally, neither in the secretive village nor the ruined (and haunted) great house nearby, and the Careys build the mystery through the use of multiple point-of-view characters, ominous moments, and effective little snippets of background colour about the soldiers, the villagers, and the customs and histories of the two groups. They also turn the multivocality of the novel’s authorship into both stylistic virtue and plot vehicle; as character after character shares his or her life story with the rest, their tales echo the themes and beats of the main plot very skilfully. Well-paced, absorbing, and intricately put together.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars DNF

Essentially, this is a bundle of short stories (each ghost has its own story to tell) linked by the common thread, Drozde, who is befuddled by the fact that all these ghosts seem to know and revere her for some inexplicable reason.

I am not a fan of short stories, and although the historical setting had some appeal, the whole premise of the individual narratives became an exercise in tedium. Klaes' efforts at solving a rather bland mystery didn't add any allure to the story, and I eventually abandoned this book at 47%

[Hazel Fairy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel; my hunches were proven correct but I wouldn't say it was predictable. saying a book or a film is predictable is rather considered derogatory now; it was more the case that I used clues in the text to make predictions- then enjoyed the journey to see how/why/when events happened.

Felt a little like a Cornwell novel (for me a good thing) and most of the main characters enjoyed good textual development.

I would definitely recommend this as an absorbing read!

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I mean, it wasn't The Steel Seraglio.

Dark, atmospheric, violent, and filled with twists that are plain to be seen miles off but that still resonate (I'm not sure how I feel about how accurately I was able to predict who would live and die, and by whose hands; it's a little alarming?). I'm not into ghost stories or historical fables, but if you are, this one's for you.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about whether I liked this book until after about 4-50 pages into it, then I got hooked on Drodze, the protagonist. Great characters, takes place in about 1740 (?), an interesting time for a novel.

[Eion Hewson · Rating 5 out of 5]

very original, enjoyed it

[Sue Chant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long, but an easy read if you want something undemanding. It was obvious from the start where it was going, and there were sections where it was easy to skim, but overall OK.

[Rhuddem Gwelin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Careys do it again. What en epic! Love the ghosts!