Book Review: Tad Williams' "The Witchwood Crown"

(review also available on

Goodreads)

In today's modern media landscape where it seems like everything that's old is new again (and / or recycled to give a nostalgia hit to those who crave feeling young again) it was so refreshing to finally dive back into the realm of Osten Ard, reconnect with our heroes / characters / locations from Tad Williams' groundbreaking "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" trilogy of Epic Fantasy and find just so much more to discover.

As someone who originally took out "The Dragonbone Chair" from his local library at 11 years old and continued reading through the whole trilogy until finally finishing it in my early 20s it was fascinating at that time to grown up with Seoman, Miriamele, Binabik, Tiamak and others. To sit under the wisdom of Duke Isgrimnur and to understand as the characters did just how tricky it is to actually live in a "grown up world" where right and wrong are both easy and hard to decipher. Where good people can become corrupted not just by evil wizards and ancient evils, but by their own hubris, aspirations and trauma.

Now here we are, 25 years later returning to this world. We see how the world has changed (and somehow NOT changed) after the events of Green Angel Tower. We learn that just because you've slayed a dragon or stayed off the coming of a great and powerful evil that there's always more evil in the hearts and minds of men. We get to spend so much more time in the grey areas of the mysterious Norns, learning about their hierarchy, their culture and how their world view has changed after losing the battle that was supposed to deliver them Osten Ard. It is very much a more grown up tale with experience, passion, fear, a real earned sense of history and yes ... lust that is a natural evolution of the books I read in my youth.

Tad Williams remains one of my all time favourite authors. This book has been sitting on my TBR Pile quite literally for 4 years as I was both intimidated by it and fearful that it couldn't possibly live up to my expectations. Those fears were assuaged easily as the authors work has matured along with my tastes and need for complicated characters and stories.

AK