James Nicoll Reviews

2025’s The Witch Roads is the (just barely) upcoming first volume in Kate Elliott’s Witch Roads duology.

Deputy courier is a humble post. Its duties include spending two weeks of every month walking a circuit of towns and villages near Orledder Halt. Nevertheless, Elen is content with her life. She is quite aware that the Tranquil Empire and the world beyond offer far worse alternatives. After all, Elen and her late sister Aoving escaped two of those alternatives.

Elen’s comfortable life is swept away by two visitors.

Gevulin is a high-ranking prince. He is not the current heir, but should something happen to the current (quite disappointing) heir, Gevulin is one of two likely candidates to replace that heir (Astaylin). Gevulin is therefore extremely important.

Disappointing royalty in the Tranquil Empire is always risky. Disappointing someone at most three deaths from the throne is suicidal. It is lamentable that none of the messages that Gevulin sent ahead warning of his impending arrival reached Orledder Halt. It is even more regrettable that the road on which Gevulin’s urgent errand depends has been blocked for years.

Someone sabotaged Gevulin’s messages, the likely suspect being Astaylin. Gevulin’s urgent errand will be much delayed. Gevulin’s prestige will be greatly reduced.

Cue the sudden arrival of Lord Duenn, who recognizes Elan as the perp who murdered one of Duenn’s retainers, stole Duenn’s infant daughter Kema, and ran off with Duenn’s discarded concubine Owlet. Or, as Elen would put it, killed the retainer who was raping Aoving, of whom Duenn had tired, and escaped with Aoving and her child, Elen’s nephew Kem.

Duenn demands the return of his daughter and Elen’s death. He gets neither. Kem, being of adult age, immediately pledges his service to the wardens, thus placing himself outside Duenn’s authority. Elen offers to show the prince an alternate route to his destination. Gevulin accepts, which places Elen beyond Duenn’s reach.

Travelling with a prince is a risky endeavor, princes being prickly and apt to display displeasure in creative ways. Gevulin’s arrogance soon greatly complicates an already dangerous quest. Confident of his mental prowess, he foolishly dares a local haunt — a ghost, more or less — to try to possess him.

Now clad in an overconfident prince’s body, the haunt has its own pressing mission. A mission in which Elen is now an involuntary but key asset.

~oOo~

So, duologies. Some duologies are two stand-alone books that together make a greater whole. Others are two halves of one story. The Witch Roads is the second sort. Not that readers will not enjoy it — they will — but the ending of volume one is a cliffhanger.

Worldbuilding I could not cram in: this world is subject to a possibly supernatural invasive species called the Pall, which has a knack for infecting and transforming all life it touches (to better spread itself¹). The Pall likes low-lying areas but not water. As well, the Tranquil Empire is crossed by the Witch Roads, ancient magical artifacts that repel the Pall. Much of the empire’s focus is how to spot and destroy Pall infestations before they get out of hand.

At least one other polity worked out unpleasant ways to survive the Pall. Presumably, many other nations were less lucky². It’s not clear what the Pall is, where it came from, or why it appeared when it did. Perhaps those questions will be answered in volume two.

This is a world rife with rigidly hierarchical societies keen on encouraging obedience with the threat of dire punishment. In the Tranquil Empire, heirs are supposed to be selected by merit, which is tested by setting the princes against each other. The only person who does not have to worry about being executed for sneezing at the wrong moment is the emperor, who has to worry about being dethroned by ambitious princes with well-honed competitive skills. An anxious place; a Xanax salesman could make a killing.

Having reviewed such works as Spirit Gate for the SFBC, I was under the impression that Elliott wrote tomes. A check reveals that Spirit Gate was three pages shorter than The Witch Roads and The Witch Roads is only 448 pages. What Elliott writes are densely-packed fantasies. How densely? Well, by the time the prince gets himself possessed, only a bit over a quarter of the book has passed.

Cliffhanger ending aside, I enjoyed this novel. Even better, I already have an e‑arc of the second volume, so it’s not like I will have to wait for gratification regarding all the unresolved plot threads. In fact, impatient readers should take heart from the fact I have the arc. The second volume, The Nameless Land, is already written and scheduled for release in November 2025.

The Witch Roads is available here (Tor), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: The Pall is one part Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (you’re happier not googling) to one part hyperactive Lovecraftian horror.

Humans are lucky not to be enslaved by inhuman entities forcing us to act in bizarre ways to propagate themselves, he said looking out a window at passing cars.

2: USA delenda est.