Scan barcode
A review by mafiabadgers
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
mysterious
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
First read 01/2025
When I first read The Goblin Emperor, I borrowed it from my local libary, so for my reread I picked up a physical copy of my own. I made sure to get it in a nice edition, and ensured that I could get nice, matching editions of the sequels, if they were good. I do not think I will not be doing so.
The Goblin Emperor was rather sparse when it came to descriptions of characters or the environment, but it was almost exclusively set in the halls of the Untheileneise Court, and it had a hearty glossary to help me keep track of the many, many unfamiliar names. The Witness for the Dead is the first book to be set in the wider world of Osreth, and this lack of description really, really hurt. There are mentions of airships, and factories, and putting coins into the meter to turn on the gas hob, but without more details about what these things look like it's difficult to envision it all. And it doesn't even have a glossary! It really could have done with a glossary.
In some ways, it feels very much like a videogame. Thara Celehar's job has him returning to his office in the mornings to pick up newquests petitions for help, then he spends the afternoons tackling them. Some are small. Some seem small and spill out into plotlines of their own. He deals with various murders, trials, investigations, petty power squabbles... Something about the rhythm of it all feels very gamey. It doesn't help that he returns home each night and feeds the cats, and this is couched in almost the same language each time.
That's not a criticism, because it drives the point home effectively. Celehar is a miserable man, and his life is empty outside his work. Unfortunately, this means it's a little difficult to get to like him, and he's not interesting enough to really hold my attention without being likeable. He's depressed, and it doesn't make for an engaging book.
This gives us two reasons, then, why this book would have benefited mightily from third-person narration. It would have allowed for vastly more description (it's certainly possible to be light on detail and still do good high fantasy first-person—just look at Steven Brust—but Addison doesn't seem to have it down), and a bit more distance from Celehar's lifelessness would have allowed his character to come through without dragging down the tone of the book. The book is not wholly unenjoyable, but I really struggled to connect with it. On top of that, the white-elves-black-goblins thing is a clunky way to address race. Addison barely got away with it as a crude metaphor in The Goblin Emperor, but scaled up to the rest of the world, it feels hackneyed and borderline offensive. No doubt I'll reread The Goblin Emperor in the future, but I can't see myself returning to this.
When I first read The Goblin Emperor, I borrowed it from my local libary, so for my reread I picked up a physical copy of my own. I made sure to get it in a nice edition, and ensured that I could get nice, matching editions of the sequels, if they were good. I do not think I will not be doing so.
The Goblin Emperor was rather sparse when it came to descriptions of characters or the environment, but it was almost exclusively set in the halls of the Untheileneise Court, and it had a hearty glossary to help me keep track of the many, many unfamiliar names. The Witness for the Dead is the first book to be set in the wider world of Osreth, and this lack of description really, really hurt. There are mentions of airships, and factories, and putting coins into the meter to turn on the gas hob, but without more details about what these things look like it's difficult to envision it all. And it doesn't even have a glossary! It really could have done with a glossary.
In some ways, it feels very much like a videogame. Thara Celehar's job has him returning to his office in the mornings to pick up new
That's not a criticism, because it drives the point home effectively. Celehar is a miserable man, and his life is empty outside his work. Unfortunately, this means it's a little difficult to get to like him, and he's not interesting enough to really hold my attention without being likeable. He's depressed, and it doesn't make for an engaging book.
This gives us two reasons, then, why this book would have benefited mightily from third-person narration. It would have allowed for vastly more description (it's certainly possible to be light on detail and still do good high fantasy first-person—just look at Steven Brust—but Addison doesn't seem to have it down), and a bit more distance from Celehar's lifelessness would have allowed his character to come through without dragging down the tone of the book. The book is not wholly unenjoyable, but I really struggled to connect with it. On top of that, the white-elves-black-goblins thing is a clunky way to address race. Addison barely got away with it as a crude metaphor in The Goblin Emperor, but scaled up to the rest of the world, it feels hackneyed and borderline offensive. No doubt I'll reread The Goblin Emperor in the future, but I can't see myself returning to this.
My Chronicles of Osreth reviews:
The Goblin Emperor
The Goblin Emperor