I’m back from Queen Titania’s Court! It’s always such a fun ride, and for those who took part, I can’t thank you enough. Now I’m back to my usual blog routine, which includes reviewing books I enjoyed. In this case, It’s Kate Elliott’s The Witch Roads.
Elliott is known for star-spanning epics, but in recent years she’s turned to fantasy. Socially subversive fantasy, at that. One of her novellas featured labor organizing (The Keeper’s Six), while another took on the concept of monarchy solving anyone’s problems (The Servant Mage). There’s always deep world building and lore, but with a quirky bit of humor. In The Servant Mage, demons are infiltrating the human world, but cows have supernatural power against them. So whenever a portal is identified, the people immediately put a cow pasture around it, even in the midst of a city.
The Witch Roads introduces us to a complicated world, clearly based in Chinese history. The Tranquil Empire is very stratified, with elaborate court rituals governing all aspects of every person’s life. There is no tolerance for difference or dissent. You either submit or die. Yet, this society itself is riven and divided by a mysterious and terrible substance that manifests as Pall and Spore. Even the slightest contact means instant corruption into horribly mutated forms. Whole areas are blanketed in the poisonous white mist, and everyone has to be on guard against Spore trying to spread the corruption. The Tranquil Empire is only able to flourish on higher ground between rivers of Pall.
The witch roads of the title are magical pathways, allegedly made with the bones of priests, where it is safe to travel — if you’re careful. This is all revealed through the eyes of Elen, a courier who is authorized to carry messages across the dangerous ground between outposts. She has a cheerful disposition, which the stricter folk interpret as being overly bold and insolent. Elen also has some special attributes, in the form of a mysterious “viper” that lives inside her. The viper can detect and destroy Spore, yet if anyone finds out about it, she would be executed.
In Elen we see an ordinary person trying to get through life in the stifling hierarchy. All she wants is to live peacefully and protect her sole remaining family, her nephew Kem. Kem is approaching a ceremony where he must “declare” his intended future profession and he doesn’t know what he wants. Or, he knows but he’s afraid to tell Elen. With Kem is where we get into the social subversion of The Witch Roads; Kem is a trans character who legally declared to change his gender from female to male. Then someone shows up claiming to be his father, and refusing to recognize Kem’s transition and accusing Elen of murder.
But a few other people show up before then. There’s a mysterious Haunt, dwelling in the Spires, who tries to convince Elen to let it possess Kem, “just for a while.” And there’s a powerful prince, Gevulin, who turns up with a huge retinue and a mission that overrides everything else. Elen is spared the executioner’s sword because she knows the area and can guide Gevulin’s party around a landslide that blocks the witch road. And Kem is spared being dragged off by his father to be a princess, when he leaps out and declares to join Gevulin’s faction of Wardens who safeguard against Spawn. And the Haunt is still at the Spires, waiting for the curious and unwary to venture near.
Elliott does a fine job of drawing out Elen’s darker past, allowing the characters to expand while showing how carefully they all must navigate all the rituals that make up life in the Tranquil Empire. It’s a rich tapestry of character and culture, highly recommended for readers who can enjoy a complicated and nuanced tale.
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Welcome to the Magical Worlds 