review; truthwitch

Truthwitch
by Susan Dennard

In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she’s a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden – lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult’s true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls’ heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

Review:
How intense was this? The book was so fast-paced, I just wanted to keep reading. Only real life meant I couldn’t ignore everything else and just – read.

I know some people prefer fantasy stories where the history is established from the beginning. I like books like that too – if it’s done well. Sometimes, that just turns into too much exposition, and the story gets lost along the way. And sometimes, stories like this, where we learn bits and pieces of the history of the land and the people as the story moves on, gets messy or lost.

Not this one, though.

Yes, we don’t get all the answers by the end of the first book – we do however get a foundation as to build the bits of history we learn along the way. Like the fact that there’s been a Twenty Year Truce after a war (why there was a war, we don’t know. I hope we find out.); like the existence of the Origin Wells, three out of five of which have lost their power; like the myth of the two witches who will bring magic back to the Wells. We still don’t know WHY people Cleave, but we find out that a Threadwitch (or Weaverwitch, I suppose) could cause a Cleaving. We don’t know WHY there haven’t been Truthwitches in 500 years.

We still don’t know a lot of things, but I find that is the mark of a good beginning. Questions that I had at the beginning of the novel (what are Threadsiblings, how do the Origin Wells work, why is the Bloodwitch the way he is) have mostly been answered, and I have new questions to be answered over the rest of the series. If I got all my answers now, I wouldn’t want to continue reading, now would I?

The characters were richly fleshed out. I expected Safiya and Iseult to be one way – to be honest, I had expected their friendship and bond to be one-sided, with Safiya reaping the benefits – but I was wrong. Their bond was full of mutual trust and respect and love. Both characters balanced one another out. We may not know much about the Nomatsi tribe (and I want to know more), but neither girl seemed a flat character. Neither was there to simply prop the other up.

Merik and Aedeun are vastly different from one another. Same with Leopald (and wow, I did not see his character arc coming). All three are well-written, and intriguing in their own right. All three have their own motivations outside of the female characters.

I want to learn more about the side characters in the next novel. More about Leopald and Ryber and Evrane and Eron – and the Empress and even Vivia. I enjoyed the first novel, and I am hoping the second continues the fast-pace.