Wyntertide

Rotherweird #2

by Andrew Caldecott

The town of Rotherweird, made independent from the rest of England by Queen Elizabeth I, has resumed its abnormal normality after a happy ending to the travails of summer.

But is it really all over?

Disturbing omens multiply: a funeral delivers a cryptic warning; an ancient portrait speaks; the Herald disappears - and democracy threatens the covenant between town and countryside. An intricate plot, centuries in the making, is on the move.

Everything is pointing to one objective: the resurrection of Rotherweird's dark Elizabethan past, and to one date: the Winter Equinox.

In Rotherweird, nothing and nobody are quite what they seem.

Wyntertide is a twisted, arcane mystery with shades of Deborah Harkness, Kate Mosse, Hope Mirrlees, Ben Aaronovitch, Mervyn Peake and Edward Gorey at their disturbing best.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Historical, Historical Fiction

426 pages, ebook

First published May 31, 2018

About the author

Andrew Caldecott is a QC specialising in media, defamation and libel law, as well as a novelist and occasional playwright. He represented the BBC in the Hutton Inquiry (into the death of biological warfare expert and UN weapons inspector David Kelly), the Guardian in the Leveson Inquiry (into the British press following the phone hacking scandal), and supermodel Naomi Campbell in her landmark privacy case, amongst many others.

His first produced play, Higher than Babel, was described as 'Assured and ambitious . . . deeply impressive debut' by Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard and 'Vivid and absorbing and grapples with big ideas without being dry, difficult or patronising' by Sarah Hemming, in the Financial Times, but informed by his love of history, which he studied at New College, Oxford, he was seized by the notion of a city-state hiding a cataclysmic secret: the result, Rotherweird. 'A history-tragic-comedy all rolled into one', says Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, and 'baroque, Byzantine and beautiful,' according to M.R, Carey, author of The Girl with all the Gifts.

A sequel, Wyntertide, is currently taking shape.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a joy to return to Rotherweird, a place where the study of history is forbidden, in the second of the planned trilogy from the gifted Andrew Caldecott. Sir Veronal Slickstone is dead, but an uneasy and disturbing atmosphere hovers, growing ever stronger in this intricate, complex and multi-layered puzzle of a story, where the children chant their rhymes of the dangerous and villainous Geryon Wynter, ominously predicting that Wynter is coming. Wynter is the kind of man who plans beyond his death, centuries ahead in fact, using magic, sorcery and the mixing point to ensure his resurrection and the return of Rotherweird's dark Elizabethan history, aided by the elusive shapeshifter Bole and 3 women of feather and leather. Death, murder, manipulation, and betrayal is the order of the day in this tense, scary and menacing second book, as our brave band of quirky, eccentric original characters return, along with some new ones, in a Rotherweird where nothing is as it seems.

Professor Bolitho sets out to die, choreographing his entire funeral, costumes worn, with 'gifts' to warn and light the way for the likes of the logical and courageous Valourhead, Gregorius Jones, Fanguin and the others. The slimy, venal and corrupt mayor, Sidney Snorkel, is doing all in his power to avoid an election, but to his dismay, his machinations are thwarted. The vile Hengist Strimmer believes himself to be a special part of the future to come, supported by the powerful Apothecaries, he declares himself as a mayoral candidate to challenge Snorkel, the good but naive Orelia Roc cannot bear the thought of either man, reluctantly putting herself forward to stand in the election on the fateful Winter Solstice. The town Herald, Marmion Finch, has disappeared, which presages a series of sinister events and omens coming from numerous directions, such as the killing of the changelings, that tax, puzzle, threaten and endanger the wonderful coalition of people attempting to fight the good fight unaware of what or who they are facing, a battle destined to claim many lives.

Caldecott displays the skills of complex, detailed planning and plotting with rich imaginative descriptions that brings alive the spellbinding, fascinating and compelling world of Rotherweird. His greatest talent is the creation of a wide and diverse range of characters that I love and invest in emotionally as they set out to battle the evil in Rotherweird's past and present. I am particularly fond of Valourhead, Orelia and Morvel Seer. The novel ends on a huge cliffhanger which has me anticipating the final book with the utmost eagerness, just cannot wait to read it! This is a superb fantasy read, that had me gripped, entertained and engaged but I would strongly advise reading the first book before attempting this one, it will make more sense that way. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from Net galley, in exchange for an honest review

Honestly having loved Rotherweird so much I was excited to plunge back into that weird world with Wyntertide.

And plunge back in we did. In the first book we are gently introduced to the Rotherweird through an outsider but this time the quixotic town is there in front of us populated with the characters we have come to love, admire and dislike. I would not recommended reading this sequel before Rotherweird.

The town is going through an election accompanied by all the usual political machinations. The corrupt mayor, Sidney Snorkel, is not happy that he is being forced into an election that he tried so hard to avoid. The odious Hengist Strimmer presents himself himself as a rival candidate and the delightful Orelia Roc is hesitant but convinced the townspeople must be provided with a more palatable option for mayor so she puts herself forward as candidate.
Then there the death and bizarre funeral of Professor Bolitho. He seems to have anticipated his own death and made grandiose plans for the grand spectacle that is his funeral, including costumes for the participants, symbolic gifts for his friends and light displays. It was all and little confusing and scary.

We also delve further into that forbidden subject the history of Rotherweird.
We learn more about the town in the Elizabethan era, the evil Geryon Wynter and the reason why history is taboo. We had assumed Wynter was long dead but he seems to have found a way to return and the shadow of his presence is threatening.
And then we go back further in time to Ferox’s first appearance in Lost Acre and the mystery of Gregarious Jones.

At times the story feels like one of the those interlocking Chinese puzzles, you have to figure out the piece’s position in 3 dimensions before it can be released and in Rotherweird we have the added dimensions of time and the parallel universe of Lost Acre.
The complex creative elements of the world are a delight but at times my head ached and I was so confused by the frequency of names beginning with F. Even the character list at the beginning wasn’t always enlightening and I discovered how useful the Kindle’s search facility can be.

Wyntertide is evocative, dramatic, intense and vibrant. There is something joyous reading in the reading of it but it is a more complicated, darker narrative that Rotherweird.

My review of Rotherweird
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite sure about a rating just yet but for me it didn't work as well as the first book. 3 or 3.5 I guess.

In full
This is the second book in the Rotherweird series and I would strongly advise reading the first one before this - there is much to understand. Rotherweird is an English town that is isolated from the country as a whole due to events in the 17th century in the main. The main characters from the previous books are augmented by a few new ones. The core of the story is that those who had opposed the people on the side of Wynter last time are worried that he is trying to return. Wynter's fairly evil behaviour is the primary reason Rotherweird became the place it is. It is also the reason that any study of history is forbidden!

The sheer bizarre weirdness of Rotherweird takes a little while to get back into. Remembering old friends and strange ideas. There are new facets not in the first book to be discovered.
As Finch puts it "the talons of the past were clawing at the present". Rather more is revealed about Rotherweird's past in this story although I'm guessing there is more to come.

While I enjoyed the first book I did have reservations about it. The same applies to this one. There is light and dark. There is humour and gravity. The balance between the two aspects is an issue to me. I really enjoyed the humour that Caldecott brings to the characters in both books. However, in this book, I found myself not getting the dread and tension all that well because of the humour - maybe it's me.

The sheer complexity of both these books is a factor too. Many years ago I started playing 3D noughts and crosses. Thinking in three dimensions can be quite challenging. However these books do seem to need at least that. Time and space are one thing however some characters are different over time for instance.

This story is wonderfully inventive once again with that Heath Robinson feel that I noted last time. The characters are rich and vivid too. Rotherweird itself is a well worked fantasy creation. However I did find I had to work hard to keep my perspective of the story as a result of the complexities I referred to in the main. The pace is generally good but for me the tension that should be there was lacking. The third book will make interesting reading. 3.5/5

Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
http://viewson.org.uk/fantasy/wyntert...

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would categorise these books as 'just ok'. I don't dislike them but at the same time I can very happily put them down and not get back to them for several days.

They're written in a way that's quite hard to binge read and I often wonder which characters I'm supposed to like because the answer is usually = none of them.

Just a bit of an average read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent second book in this lovely quaint fantasy series.

Full of quirky good and bad characters, keeping us guessing with the way the plot develops.

[MTK · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars is probably being unfair to this competently written and original book, but getting through it was a chore. I can see that the aim was a clever, subtle and elegant tale, but it missed sadly and the result is pretentious, irritatingly vague and tiresome. The core of the story is good, possibly even great, but it gets bogged down with too many characters, too many details, too many threads that the author doesn't always successfully weave back into the main narrative, not to mention an unnecessarily obscure writing style. Also, it suffers from the common problem with every middle-book-of-the-trilogy, it cannot stand on its own: if you haven't read "Rotherweird" it will be incomprehensible, and the plot doesn't get resolved, it just stops (and I assume continues in "Lostacre"). I suspect I will eventually give in to my curiosity to find out the resolution and buy the final book, but not soon.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and enjoyed Caldecott's first book, Rotherweird last year (my review). The story of a special town in England, one left isolated and made independent for a very special reason, it's a kind of steampunk Passage to Pimlico crossed with The Wind in the Willows, complete with eccentrics, villains, a vividly realised location (I want to live in one of those Rotherweird towers!) - and magic. All manner of wonders are there.

'By the pricking of my thumbs...
The graves are open,
Wynter comes...'

Wyntertime is in several respects a more complicated, even a more 'difficult' book than Rotherweird (not meant in a bad sense!) In Rotherweird, we learn about the town gradually, through the arrived of an Outsider, new history teacher Jonah Oblong, who is pretty central to the story. An an Outsider he knows nothing of the place's history and ways, so we have the benefit of the explanations he is given, and see him gradually become part of the town until he is central to the cataclysmic events of Midsummer.

In Wyntertide, the story jumps straight in - and the viewpoint is much more evenly spread out among a wide cast of characters with Oblong playing a smaller role. This all puts a high premium on knowing who everyone is (there's a helpful list) and - given the interconnectedness of the stories - what happened before. For that reason I think they would best be read one after the other.

What Caldecott has done here is think rather clever and rather risky. Given the appeal of Rotherweird-the-imaginary-place, it must have been tempting to play safe, to continue exploring the distinctive, inward looking culture with its rather 1950s-seeming population, coexisting with the modern world while not really being part of it. You might even sell that as a bit of a satire, and it's something I'd certainly read. Indeed, given the first book is actually about a threat from Outside while this one digs deep into Rotherweird's past, that almost seems the obvious way to go.

But Caldecott doesn't do that. Instead, he throws new and rather spicier elements into his dish. We may have thought we understood Rotherweird's past, and what the Eleusians did, but no. We learn more in this book - both about the Elizabethans who founded the town and about its even older history.

There is also romance here. There is politics, as the town is swept by election fever - including a rather scary attempt to scapegoat the Countrysiders and grab their possessions - and exiles return to vote. And a palpable sense that beneath the Hobbitish bustle and self-satisfaction of Rotherweird are dangerous currents.

And yes, at times, all the material does rather come across as one thing after another, with not one, not two, but three mysterious books in play, puzzles hidden in paintings and carvings, and at least two factions among the - rather mysterious - forces threatening the town. You can't accuse this book of ever having a dull moment. But that rather heightens the sense that nobody here is in control, nobody has the full picture, nobody can meet the threat that's coming.

And threatened the town is, by a more insidious, deep-laid and formidable plot than in Rotherweird, giving a much sharper sense of peril and, yes, of actual evil than in the previous book. It's definitely darker, and I'd strongly recommend you to read it, and to keep reading, even if slightly overwhelmed by the beginning.

Finally, I have to say a word about the gorgeous illustrations by Sasha Laika. Gorgeous in themselves, they really bring something to the text, whether chilly horror, immersive world building or simply tenderness. And of course, the cover map, by Leo Nickolls, is glorious.

The third and final book, Lost Acre, comes next year. It promises to be a real treat.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could give a 3.5 star rating, because although I enjoyed reading it, the book is unnecessarily complicated at times and with so many characters parading around, they all remain a bit flat or are reduced to caricatures. Still, I want to know what's going to happen next, because it was certainly entertaining and delightfully weird enough. ;)

[Faith Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rotherweird. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it will change your life. Okay, it probably won’t perform any of those plastic airport clichés but I wouldn't be reading it if it did. This series it is a photogenic little ramble through the mind of a writer who intended the most audacious thing an author can do – give us a new legend. Is it eccentric enough to earn that though?

Firstly, the author: Andrew Caldecott is a retired QC (senior legal mind in the UK system) with a good vocabulary who seems to have picked up the pen as a hobby to keep his brain buzzing. He’s clearly a classicist and a puzzle solver, so if the blurb had said this was the first literary outing of the crossword compiler ‘Cyclops’, I would have believed that too, without question. He’s also, very obviously, deeply influenced by Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. He’s not on the wrong path. Anecdote warning. There was once a woman who watched a terrible play and said to a television producer “I could write a play as good as that”, which she went on to do, then no one wanted to make it and she had no idea why. The thing is, we shouldn’t aspire to be slightly better than the worst; we should try to be up there with the most descriptive, imaginative and emotive writers of all time. Then, when we inevitably fall slightly short, on account of being mortal, what’s on paper is still something to be proud of.

I read all three books in this series (Rotherweird, Wyntertide, Lost Acre) and could misremember which scene was in which, so I’ll generalise. The author’s professional background is reflected in structure, as the autonomous town of Rotherweird (within England) is a manifestation of the concept of a legal loophole. The place has its own laws and independence, which the nation around it could be expected to threaten under normal conditions but does not do so because an Elizabethan queen has granted them exclusive status under a Royal Charter. This is a toy train set concept, where if a writer makes and claims their own place (e.g. Pratchett owned Discworld), where they can set the rules without anyone else putting their hand up and saying “actually that’s not how it’s done because I spent last weekend there, glamping”. Fantasy needs a concept setting and this is one.

The other legally-minded thing that happens a lot in this book is the very English pattern of resolution being achieved by gathering the town together, listening to speakers putting cases for and against a proposal, then voting on it. In the long run, money and threats are not as effective as public consensus. Although loser’s consent is a principle which has collapsed badly in recent times, the passive systems of progression through an impasse under ‘the right way of doing things’ assumes everyone has the same respect for procedure that the legal profession adheres to. Maybe people with the intelligence to read will be reliable and fair too – but the rest of society has learned from politics the somewhat murky matter of the midnight moving of goal posts. Take me back to simpler times.

Okay, so we’ve got a town in a valley that is within but not administratively part of a host country. There are too many characters, I have to say (more than the Iliad), making it hard to follow each of their motivations. There’s not just an Amber and an Ember but a couple of the shape-shifting characters go through 3 and in one case 5 personas. If you want to understand the story accurately, a notebook and pencil would help. If you subscribe to the Rotherweird = Gormenghast motif, I counted no less than 5 Steerpikes (separate murderous antagonists). There’s one everyman character (reactor), who matures only slightly over the course of the series and, duck, three dangerously capable women. Valourhand is the most inspiring for me, a gifted opponent/ally who propels herself around town with a vaulting pole. Now that’s a memorable image.

All three books are very well copy edited, credit due, with nothing annoying left undetected to interrupt the daydream. Being picky, there was a ‘Hayman Salts’ (unnecessary plural) toward the end but it’s amazing to find so few typos in about 1,200 pages. There’s a scene, in I think book 2, where an ice dragon swoops to strafe two characters then no more is said about it. It is very dissatisfying because it feels to the reader like there was further material on the escape from peril which got snipped out of the approved draft. The creature turns up much later and more information becomes available but if you encounter this section in a linear progression, as for the first time, it’s as if an event started and then – blink – the problem has vanished and let’s pour tea. As an editor, I would have told him to write another page to satisfy it. Also, what happened to the comet? Did it just evaporate? Why did I prefer Rotherweird and Lost Acre to the bridging book Wyntertide? Probably because of this cauterised scene.

I would recommend that people buy, borrow and read this series because it is an attempt to be unique (which should always be encouraged), written with some intelligence and originality (even better for the mind candy). You have to be the kind of person who doesn’t mind a cat’s cradle of a tale though, where the plot makes sense to the author but doesn’t fit neatly into an ordinary, predictable narrative arc. Like the town it portrays, Rotherweird’s story and that of its people has grown organically and you get the sense this has happened over the span of hundreds of years, so of course the journey has to be complex to convey this feeling; you just have to keep up. I kept thinking things were red herrings or Chekov’s guns, but they weren’t because the characters would then go on to use them. You can’t read this without the feeling that the story is running ahead of you, digging strange new tunnels, only debatably under control, and then the mole trap goes off and we find the plot lined up again.

All in all, I liked the imaginative quality and the tying-up between the world of Celtic/Norse myth and the new reality. The idea you can pass through an interface into ‘the other side of the glass’ is two thousand years old now (at least) but it still holds its appeal when presented slightly differently. I had to suspend disbelief that a secret of this magnitude could be kept for so long and the last battle appeared as if to fulfil an expectation of the publishing industry (fear of the trees and locations inverting would have been enough) but I can see that palpable catastrophic danger is the regular way to conclude thrillers.

Probably the most glorious thing I can say in its favour is that Rotherweird is unlike any other place in fiction. It is layered real but unreal. I could make an oblique comparison to Atlantis or Gormenghast as other fantasy independent states, but Rotherweird had a civilised ‘home counties’ sense to it, with the pub and a pint of Sturdy as the centre of community, which the aforementioned flights of conception lacked. Rotherweird is certainly a place you could move to and never want to leave, but outsiders would soon spoil the magic, wouldn’t they? I can see why Queen Bess would want to keep it safe. She was a smart bitch, that one.

[Julia Sarene · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven't read Rotherweird yet, definitely go to that page first. Wyntertide makes little to no sense if you haven't read the first book in the series yet!

If you have read Rotherweird, than you will love Wyntertide as well. It's even a bit darker, and there's quite some murders sprinkled through the story, but it is just as weird, unique and special as the first was! I do so love this little fantastic town with its quirky and unusual people.

This ends on a bit off a cliffhanger, so I definitely have to get around to book 3 sooner rather than later!

[Cathy McIntosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good but def warrants a reread with the others in the series. He has started another trilogy but def going to wait until I have all 3 before starting as his characters get too mixed up especially as most play dual roles.

[TS Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite a mixed bag for me. Pacing felt uneven, the plotline was bewildering at times, but also incredibly fascinating. Regardless, I'm invested in the story and even some of the characters, and will see this to the end.

[Angela Groves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so i need Lost Acre. Like now.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The town of Rotherweird is an anomaly. It is independent from England and has been so for the past four hundred years all to protect a secret. The last man who tried to exploit that secret, Sir Veronal Slickstone is now dead. As Rotherweird tries to return to normal, or as normal as they can get in this strange town.

But things start to happen and people become aware of omens that are disturbing. A warning is delivered at a funeral the Herald disappears and the covenant between town and countryside is under threat by democracy, of all things. The mayoral election has galvanised the population, but it is setting different factions against each other. As this is unfolding sinister things are happening in the background, Geryon Wynter, a man that everyone thought was buried in their dark Elizabethan past has been planning something over the past centuries. No one can really see exactly what is happening, but the approach of the Solstice may be the key.

Overall I thought this was fairly good. The plot is moderately paced, full of subtle clues and scenes that build towards the end as all the threads come together. Like with the first book, I thought that the mini world, Rotherweird, that he has constructed is unnerving and familiar at the same time. I like the use of magic and 16th-century tech that he mixes in with it too. One flaw for me was the number of characters that swirl through the plot, it felt like there were too many and it always took a moment to try to work out quite what was going on each time. I will be reading the last book in the series though, as I want to see how it ends.

[Also Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stumbled across Andrew Caldecott’s first Rotherweird book by accident and was completely enthralled by his fantastical tale of the mysterious isolated town and its curious inhabitants. So when I saw the follow up, Wyntertide available as an ARC on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as possible.

A word of warning: if you have not read Rotherweird I, do not attempt the second book as knowledge of the first is assumed and it will be incomprehensible. As it is, I felt the novel verges on incomprehensible at times even having read the first one. Wyntertide takes a certain amount of patience to get into- it is darker, more richly layered and less accessible than its predecessor. It is a narrative that will not be rushed and some might find the intricacies off-putting. For me it didn’t quite live up to the charm of the first book, which I loved so much and I put that down entirely to the plot which has many slippery twists and turns, while at the same time nothing much seems to happen for large sections. For that reason, whilst I enjoyed parts of it I am giving it three rather than four stars. Caldecott can however turn a phrase and his writing is beautiful so though those who stick with it will enjoy an immersion into the utterly unique world of Rotherweird. I do have high hopes for a third volume in the series to hopefully clear up some of the wandering lines of the story and perhaps shed some light in the darker corners of Lost Acre and beyond.

[Catherine Ormian]

I’m gonna level with you lads, I did not have a bloody clue what was happening at any point in this

[Peter Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have such complicated opinions of this book. Ultimately, I feel like I would describe it as a "good mess".

On the positive side, the Rotherweird series remains one of the most unique sets of books I've ever read, where the setting is the star and the cast of characters is such an ensemble that it is difficult to pick out the "main character". We get a lot of Rotherweird, a lot of suspense trying to sort out how Wynter will return (an event that seems inevitable from the opening pages). The book ends with a few unresolved plot lines and my anticipation for finishing the series remains high!

On the flip side ... the book is a bit of a mess. Already inheriting a large cast of characters from Rotherweird, Caldecott doubles down on the ensemble adding a host of new ones - Pomeny Tighe, Everthorne, Scry, the Apothecary guild, Tyke, and more! - and the quick reference at the beginning of the book is woefully insufficient, giving only the briefest of descriptions and not including many characters. Not only did I find myself struggling to keep all the characters straight, the novel seemed to lack room for all of them. As a result we had characters (Tyke and Aggs come to mind) that seem to appear or be referenced frequently, but without enough cause or action for me to recall exactly where they fit in. Also, Caldecott doubled down on the town of Rotherweird as a main character, and created a series of convoluted plot points that seemed to spring from nowhere. A set of arcane rules for a mayoral election that involve finding one of a specific set of gloves? A town firework competition? A decades old flying object used to count rocks and publicly display vote totals in the sky?

I feel like in doubling down on some of the best features of Rotherweird, Caldecott ended up with too much of a good thing, and packed it into a book that was already suffering a bit from "middle volume syndrome" as the purpose of this book was largely to wait for the villain of book 3 to arrive.

That said ... what happened to Oblong? Who won the election? What does Wynter's return mean for Rotherweird and the countrysiders? I do still look forward to finding out in The Lost Acre!

[Zuzana Hartmanová · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 *
Ztřeštěná rozmarnost první knihy zůstala beze zbytku zachována a navíc Zymovrat obsahuje celou řadu dalších podivností a ujetostí. Andrew Caldecott odhalí nové střípky opskurenské historie, díky nimž zapadne zase pár dílků mozaiky na své místo. Pořád však velká část celkového obrazu zůstává před čtenáři skryta a vyvstává otázka, zda vůbec celkový obraz existuje. S přibývajícími stránky vás ale autor bude – stejně jako v předchozí knize – postupně ujišťovat, že se vším má skutečně větší záměr. To, co zpočátku vypadalo jako náhodný slepenec nevěrohodných a absurdních událostí, začne postupně dávat smysl. V tom tkví kouzlo Caldecottova způsobu vyprávění. I když čtete jen o podivínských lidech a v jejich činech často nespatřujete smysl, všechno se nakonec začne propojovat a na konci se budete divit, jak je možné, že jste zpočátku pochybovali o tom, zda to bude držet pohromadě.

Zymovrat patří do velice specifické škatulky – často už se pohybuje v kategorii nonsensové literatury –, z níž toho u nás nebývá moc k vidění. Dílo Andrewa Caldecotta to tak činí výjimečným v mnoha dalších ohledech. Tato jedinečnost jeho romány výrazně odlišuje od zbytku fantastické produkce u nás. Možná ale právě proto je opskurenská trilogie počinem, který si cestu ke čtenářům bude hledat poměrně obtížně.

[M F]

I mostly really enjoyed this chance to return to the world of Rotherweird and some familiar characters (as well as meeting some new ones). However, like the first book, I found parts of it distinctly confusing and difficult to follow. It has the same approach to shifting viewpoints; while some of the characters are now familiar, which makes it easier, I still found these difficult, and I'm not sure why. I've read and written plenty of switching POV stories that didn't confuse me as much -- maybe it's because it's 3rd person, and they all have a very similar narrative voice, but it made it a little hard to follow. Admittedly, I did read it in a fairly disjointed way while travelling, which might be why I couldn't always keep track of what was happening. It also doesn't help that many of the characters have very strange names, and it's not always easy to remember who was who! Then again, I've been very tired recently...

One critique on a plot level was that the characters do enjoy meeting up to talk a lot about what's happening, which can slow the story down quite a bit. It's not that these scenes are superfluous, but they can get a little bogged down in detail, and when it's all happening via dialogue, it isn't necessarily the most fast-paced way of experiencing events.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightful sojourn in the Rotherweird valley

I love how, to those not in the know, it must appear to be a quaint community within England. In this instalment, it appears as those they are absorbed by the funeral of a beloved eccentric, a fireworks festival and unearthing the long-lost election procedure. To those who are in the know, both events have been co-opted by their ancient enemy to achieve their dearest ambition.

I am somewhat disappointed the main cast's lack of suspicion in some quarters and lack of care in others. And Valourhand just gets on my nerves at this point; this is the second time she's failed at a crucial moment. I'd like to hope she'd learn from her mistakes in the next one but I'm not holding my breath.

[Kacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here, dramatic tension is an art form perfected. The steady, inexorable escalation of peril is transfixing. Caldecott's mastery of character weaves a web of motive so bafflingly complex, with individuals of such tangible humanity, that you read on in the desperate hope that they will somehow find a way out of this convoluted labyrinth of horrors.

I've had to buy book three as the library doesn't stock it. I should have paid for express delivery. My mind is reeling.

[Anwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A significant improvement from the first book (‘Rotherweird’) in the trilogy, and the characters felt a little more alive with actual stakes at hand. Narratively the flow was a lot better as well, but you can still tell this book was a build-up for the finale (‘Lost Acre’), so only 3/3.5 stars because things still need to come together in the last of the trilogy.

[April Andruszko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really gripping. It is much darker than Either weird and definitely feels like the middle of a trilogy. I needed to re-read Rotherweird first and it ends in a cliff hanger. I missed that there did not seem to be as many comic elements.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

[Manon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book wasn't for me. I really wished I loved it, but I just didn't. I hope to give this series another shot some time.

[Releanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

not only Rother is weird, but this book is really weird

[Tyler Hawtin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Tina Huntz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and entertaining read! I will finish this series.

[Eliza May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think you have to read it all in one go or else it is very confusing…

[Hugh Worsnop · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too complicated and convoluted for me, though I will finish the trilogy sometime.