Susan Dennard’s Windwitch is the second book in the Witchlandseries. After the explosive events at Lenja, everyone parted ways. Safiya travels to Marstok with its empress Vaness, Prince Merik grieves over his dead Threadbrother, and Iseult searches for Safi. But as the years of peace comes to a close, violent actions force these protagonists off their paths. After an explosion destroys his ship, Merik sets off to prove his sister a traitor. A similar shipwreck leaves Safi and Vaness surrounded by enemies. Bloodwitch Aeduan hunts for Iseult after discovering a bounty for her only to be offered a deal to help her track Safi.
While the previous book had switching perspectives, it wasn’t necessary as all the characters were together. However, in this installment, all the characters are spilt up, thus multiple perspectives are needed to keep up with everyone. In addition to the usual characters, a new protagonist is added.
After Safiya agreed to help the empress of Marstok clear out corruption, she finds herself on a ship sailing away from her threadsister. After escaping an explosion on their ship, Safi and the empress Vaness are stranded in foreign territory. While the Safi does not go through much character development, she does learn about a new threat creating trouble in the Witchlands.
Iseult spends her time chasing after Safi and running from the cleaved. As Iseult travels through treacherous lands, she is continuously hounded by the Weaverwitch’s invasive dreams and pirates. Soon into her journey, she makes an uneasy alliance with Aeduan whom she slowly develops a stronger relationship with. As the two slowly become something more than acquaintances, Iseult learns more about herself and her magic.
After an explosion on his ship, Merik is left scarred and presumed dead. With the world unaware of his continued existence, he sets out to prove his sister’s treachery. Unfortunately, as a dead man, he no longer has access to extensive resources. As he roams his city, his eyes are forcibly opened to the poverty and squalid conditions of his people. This self-righteous prince slowly becomes a stronger, worldly man. Windwitch introduces us to a new character, Vivia. As Merik’s sister, she is the next in line to the Nubrevnan throne. Through her perspective, we watch this strong princess fight for her people, title, and acceptance.
Windwitch is leaves mixed feelings. In short, this book is a filler book. It provides meaningful character development and plot progression without much actual happening. In terms of character development and world building, this book was immensely important, but in terms of significant plot, it fell flat. This can turn off a lot of people as filler books tend to be slower in nature. Windwitch emulates this by being slower than its predecessor, but, thankfully, still having action and suspense. The books plot seems to speed up and slow down at random. That makes pushing through this book immensely important as a slow section usually precedes an action scene. The book generally maintained an upward growth of suspense and intensity as each individual story lead to its own climax. The world building in this book was adequate as it expanded on the known world. New places were explored and new enemies were discovered. Unfortunately, the world building was light for a filler book. The focus of the story was the characters. Each character went through their own arc that allowed them to grow. Some characters received more attention than others. Safi and Vivia barely grew as Iseult and Merik developed by leaps and bounds. In all, the story was a good filler story, but a disappointing actual story. Windwitch fell victim to second book syndrome, a condition characterized by being a filler, but leaves high expectations for its successor. I give this 377 page book 4 stars.
Witchlands
The witchlands are a bunch of countries still ruled by monarchs. In each of these countries there are people born with magical power. Some have control the elements while others can see the bond of emotion between people. After years of fighting, the kingdoms reached a peace at the signing of the Twenty Years Truce. After many long years, the truce is up for renewal, but several forces work destroy the peace.