A very quirk read just like Rotherweird. I am still not 100% on how I feel about the book and felt like the ending was more of a cliff hanger ready for the next book.

An interesting and much darker continuation of Rotherweird. This a story that builds tension and uncertainty, raises questions and speculation. I enjoyed it as a continuation - this series seems to have a engaging direction!

Honestly having loved Rotherweird so much I was excited to plunge back into that weird world with Wyntertide.

And plunge back in we did. In the first book we are gently introduced to the Rotherweird through an outsider but this time the quixotic town is there in front of us populated with the characters we have come to love, admire and dislike. I would not recommended reading this sequel before Rotherweird.

The town is going through an election accompanied by all the usual political machinations. The corrupt mayor, Sidney Snorkel, is not happy that he is being forced into an election that he tried so hard to avoid. The odious Hengist Strimmer presents himself himself as a rival candidate and the delightful Orelia Roc is hesitant but convinced the townspeople must be provided with a more palatable option for mayor so she puts herself forward as candidate.
Then there the death and bizarre funeral of Professor Bolitho. He seems to have anticipated his own death and made grandiose plans for the grand spectacle that is his funeral, including costumes for the participants, symbolic gifts for his friends and light displays. It was all and little confusing and scary.

We also delve further into that forbidden subject the history of Rotherweird.
We learn more about the town in the Elizabethan era, the evil Geryon Wynter and the reason why history is taboo. We had assumed Wynter was long dead but he seems to have found a way to return and the shadow of his presence is threatening.
And then we go back further in time to Ferox’s first appearance in Lost Acre and the mystery of Gregarious Jones.

At times the story feels like one of the those interlocking Chinese puzzles, you have to figure out the piece’s position in 3 dimensions before it can be released and in Rotherweird we have the added dimensions of time and the parallel universe of Lost Acre.
The complex creative elements of the world are a delight but at times my head ached and I was so confused by the frequency of names beginning with F. Even the character list at the beginning wasn’t always enlightening and I discovered how useful the Kindle’s search facility can be.

Wyntertide is evocative, dramatic, intense and vibrant. There is something joyous reading in the reading of it but it is a more complicated, darker narrative that Rotherweird.

Sorry to say this book wasn’t for me. I hadn’t read the previous book and maybe that was my mistake. The characters were annoying especially the names, the narrative didn’t flow and most of the time I hadn’t a clue what was going on. This is the first book for a very long time I couldn’t finish.

I so want to finish this book, but it is defeating me! I am stuck at 70% and have been for some time.
The weird world of Wyntertide is simply fascinating. It truly is. I have ploughed through pages and pages completely flummoxed as to what it happening, and still desperate to know more and try and work out what is happening. Admittedly, I've not read Book 1 - I don't recommend starting with Book 2 to anyone - but the world building and characters can't be faulted.
I will finish it, one day, probably when I've read Book 1! Apologies but thank you so much for the wild ride.

I liked Rotherweird, and was excited about reading the sequel... however, felt much less engaged this time around. The novel goes around and around in circles, with not much happening until the very end, leaving us on a cliffhanging note seen miles ahead. Will still look forward to the concluding volume next year, but Wyntertide is ultimately a filler with not much happening to help the story... the next book will let us know if it was worth it.

Fiendishly plotted and carefully crafted Wyntertide is the sequel to the quirky Rotherweird which introduces us to the city state hidden from history. Having been granted independence by Queen Elizabeth the first Rotherweird bans the teaching of history and nurses a terrible secret at its heart.
Into this came the unassuming Jonah Oblong teacher of ( not much) history who meets an assemblage of characters who solve the first mystery. Now they must continue to be vigilant because ‘Wynter is coming’. That sounds familiar but this refers to Geryon Wynter who held the area under his sway and despite being dead is coming back. A team of scholars and townsfolk are the only ones who can stop him using the mysterious mixing point. And on top of all this there is to be an election much to the annoyance of the incumbent Mayor, Sidney Snorkel. Orelia Roc, owner of Baubles & Relics, is drawn in and Gorhambury the town clerk must navigate a path to democracy if he can.
Meanwhile Vixen Valourhand, scientist of the North Tower comes to terms with her time in Lost Acre and joins the fight. The enemies are obscure and threaten the peaceful existence of the long-lived, changeling children as well as all life in Rotherweird.
As curiously English as Morris Dancing this new instalment seems even more complex than the first with some amazing and eminently filmable moments. I did have trouble keeping up but I will get my friend’s thirteen year old to précis it for me. I'm trying to think of how to sum up this novel. I'm thinking Tom Sharpe ( Porterhouse Blue, Wilt) crossed with Dickens with a side of Pratchett. I know that probably isn't it but I would recommend you give it a go starting with Rotherweird. The quirky nature of the characters make them particularly memorable and despite the deaths and danger it's light enough to entertain rather than give you nightmares.

Wyntertide is the sequel to Rotherweird and even though it was a great follow up, i don't think it was as good as the original was. The characters and the story were all there and Caldecott's writing really helped sell the story but it just wasn't a good as the first one was. I know its really unfair of me to compare the two but unfortunately, Wyntertide, even though the story is great on its own, falls short in comparison to Rotherweird. Im still going to carry on with the series and can't wait to see the next adventure from that stranhge little town.

DNF.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into the story. I have decided not to leave a negative review, and will not post anything on my blog.

Thank you for the opportunity to review.

Unfortunately I have put Wyntertide down for the time being as it wasn't working out for me. I don't want to review it at the present time as I think it's unfair to review an uncompleted book. I'm going to try it again in a few weeks to see if I can get along better as it may just be a 'mood' thing or perhaps I'm just not properly focusing. I will write a full review once completed and apologise for the delay.

If you haven't read the first book in the series - Rotherweird - then don't even contemplate reading this. You will be lost from page one!
Rotherweird is the town that time forgot. Due to a rather odd quirk the rest of England moved on & Rotherweird went its own way. Much of the industrial revolution passed it by and it has distict elements of steam punk.
In book one we are slowly drawn into the story and the town. We follow the new schoolteacher and as he learns about Rotherweird so do we. In this book, however, we are thrown into the deep end. So if it is a while since you read book 1 then you may want to go back and refresh your memory.
I found this book quite slow in places with a lot of chatting amongst characters. This rather bogged down the narrative and on a couple of occasions I considered stopping.
This is a zany book with eccentric characters. I don't consider it as good as the first book in the series but then the second one rarely is.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

I mostly really enjoyed this chance to return to the world of Rotherweird and some familiar characters (as well as meeting some new ones). However, like the first book, I found parts of it distinctly confusing and difficult to follow. It has the same approach to shifting viewpoints; while some of the characters are now familiar, which makes it easier, I still found these difficult, and I'm not sure why. I've read and written plenty of switching POV stories that didn't confuse me as much -- maybe it's because it's 3rd person, and they all have a very similar narrative voice, but it made it a little hard to follow. Admittedly, I did read it in a fairly disjointed way while travelling, which might be why I couldn't always keep track of what was happening. It also doesn't help that many of the characters have very strange names, and it's not always easy to remember who was who! Then again, I've been very tired recently...

One critique on a plot level was that the characters do enjoy meeting up to talk a lot about what's happening, which can slow the story down quite a bit. It's not that these scenes are superfluous, but they can get a little bogged down in detail, and when it's all happening via dialogue, it isn't necessarily the most fast-paced way of experiencing events.

Please note Wyntertide is a direct sequel to Rotherweird and as this is the case it is entirely likely that this review may contain minor spoilers if you haven’t read what has come before. Don’t tell me later you weren’t warned in advance.

The town of Rotherweird, made independent from the rest of England by Queen Elizabeth I, has resumed its abnormal normality after a happy ending to the travails of summer.

But is it really all over?

Disturbing omens multiply: a funeral delivers a cryptic warning; an ancient portrait speaks; the Herald disappears – and democracy threatens the covenant between town and countryside. An intricate plot, centuries in the making, is on the move.

Everything is pointing to one objective: the resurrection of Rotherweird’s dark Elizabethan past, and to one date: the Winter Equinox.

In Rotherweird, nothing and nobody are quite what they seem.

I loved Andrew Caldecott’s debut from last year, Rotherweird. It is quite an experience and hugely entertaining. The sequel, Wynteride, has recently been released and good news, it is also an absolute bloomin’ corker.

All my favourite characters return. Everyone, without exception, is just a little bit odd. Eccentricity is rife in Rotherweird, and rediscovering this collection of bizarre individuals is one of the novel’s many highlights. My personal favourite is Godfrey Fanguin, the erudite, now ex, academic. Since the outcome of book one, Fanguin find himself a bit adrift in his life. The ivory towers of academia were his everything. The only thing keeping him from veering off on a path of self-destruction is a new mystery to unpick. An untimely passing leaves Fanguin and his compatriots with a whole host of new questions to try and answer.

Dotted throughout the main narrative, there are more glimpses of Rotherweird’s tumultuous past. Calx Bole is up to no good and who is the mysterious Geryon Wynter? There are grand plans afoot. Astronomy, experimentation, and a dash of mysticism are being used to create ‘wonderful’ things. Wynter is not going to let anyone stop him from achieving his goals.

Back in the present. the action focuses on the mayoral election. Sidney Snorkel is up against contenders from all sides. The Master of Apothecaries, Gurney Thomes, and local businesswoman, Orelia Roc, both view the august title for their own reasons. The ever-put-upon town clerk, Gorhambury, heroically attempts to wrangle all this chaos but there are still political shenanigans aplenty. Fake news, smear campaigns and vote rigging are the order of the day, it all sounds spookily familiar. It reminds me of something, but I can’t for the life of me think what. There is little denying that Rotherweird is a wonderfully odd place, so you’ll not be surprised that this extends to local government. Where else would you find such a politically charged firework display? Or a voting booth that defies gravity?

Much like its predecessor, there are a whole host of puzzles in this novel. Crosswords, anagrams, clues hidden in pictures, maps sewn into the bindings of books. The list goes on and on. It makes my old heart happy. In a place as eccentric as Rotherweird, the conundrum is king. Nothing should ever be simple, where is the fun in that?

Based on my internet observations, Rotherweird is literary marmite; you either love it or you hate it. I’d imagine Wyntertide will be the same. I am aware there are some readers out there that could not get on with book one at all. I was the polar opposite. I loved every single thing about it and feel the same way about the sequel. The location is odd, the characters range from the bizarre to the downright psychopathic, and the story was a satirical hoot. I would love to see these novels transferred to the screen. It is the sort of thing Aunty Beeb does so very well. I mentioned in my review of the first book that an adaptation could be like The Mouse That Roared. Rotherweird and the Duchy of Grand Fenwick have much in common. Both fictional locations manage to be hopelessly British but also entirely unique. I’m also still firmly of the opinion that at least half a dozen characters should be played by one actor, much like Peter Sellers in The Mouse That Roared. It could be something truly great.

I really hope Andrew Caldecott had as much fun writing these novels as I had reading them. There is an unrestrained glee that seems to leap off the page. Once the location of Rotherweird (I’m sure it really exists) is finally revealed, I am quite prepared to sell my worldly possessions to move there immediately. Assuming of course, that as an outsider I would be welcomed with open arms? Hmm, perhaps not.

Wyntertide perfectly continues the journey that began in Rotherweird. My advice is get yourself a comfy seat, pour yourself a steaming hot cup of Black Bodrum’s Nightraiser Special coffee, and dive in. My only caveat, you must read Rotherweird first. If you don’t you’ll be missing out on a rare treat. Wyntertide is best viewed as the second part of a the whole and should be appreciated as such.

The best way I can describe Wyntertide is a captivatingly quirky so I’m firmly of the opinion that it requires a captivatingly quirky musical accompaniment. I went with the blissful soundtrack to The Grand Budapest Hotel by Alexandre Desplat. Both complement one another perfectly. Gothic, characterful tunes chock full of whimsy feels to me that this is exactly what Rotherweird should sound like.

Wyntertide is published by Jo Fletcher Books and is available now. Lost Acre is set to follow. Highly recommended.

I read and enjoyed Caldecott's first book, Rotherweird last year (my review). The story of a special town in England, one left isolated and made independent for a very special reason, it's a kind of steampunk Passage to Pimlico crossed with The Wind in the Willows, complete with eccentrics, villains, a vividly realised location (I want to live in one of those Rotherweird towers!) - and magic. All manner of wonders are there.

'By the pricking of my thumbs...
The graves are open,
Wynter comes...'

Wyntertime is in several respects a more complicated, even a more 'difficult' book than Rotherweird (not meant in a bad sense!) In Rotherweird, we learn about the town gradually, through the arrived of an Outsider, new history teacher Jonah Oblong, who is pretty central to the story. An an Outsider he knows nothing of the place's history and ways, so we have the benefit of the explanations he is given, and see him gradually become part of the town until he is central to the cataclysmic events of Midsummer.

In Wyntertide, the story jumps straight in - and the viewpoint is much more evenly spread out among a wide cast of characters with Oblong playing a smaller role. This all puts a high premium on knowing who everyone is (there's a helpful list) and - given the interconnectedness of the stories - what happened before. For that reason I think they would best be read one after the other.

What Caldecott has done here is think rather clever and rather risky. Given the appeal of Rotherweird-the-imaginary-place, it must have been tempting to play safe, to continue exploring the distinctive, inward looking culture with its rather 1950s-seeming population, coexisting with the modern world while not really being part of it. You might even sell that as a bit of a satire, and it's something I'd certainly read. Indeed, given the first book is actually about a threat from Outside while this one digs deep into Rotherweird's past, that almost seems the obvious way to go.

But Caldecott doesn't do that. Instead, he throws new and rather spicier elements into his dish. We may have thought we understood Rotherweird's past, and what the Eleusians did, but no. We learn more in this book - both about the Elizabethans who founded the town and about its even older history.

There is also romance here. There is politics, as the town is swept by election fever - including a rather scary attempt to scapegoat the Countrysiders and grab their possessions - and exiles return to vote. And a palpable sense that beneath the Hobbitish bustle and self-satisfaction of Rotherweird are dangerous currents.

And yes, at times, all the material does rather come across as one thing after another, with not one, not two, but three mysterious books in play, puzzles hidden in paintings and carvings, and at least two factions among the - rather mysterious - forces threatening the town. You can't accuse this book of ever having a dull moment. But that rather heightens the sense that nobody here is in control, nobody has the full picture, nobody can meet the threat that's coming.

And threatened the town is, by a more insidious, deep-laid and formidable plot than in Rotherweird, giving a much sharper sense of peril and, yes, of actual evil than in the previous book. It's definitely darker, and I'd strongly recommend you to read it, and to keep reading, even if slightly overwhelmed by the beginning.

Finally, I have to say a word about the gorgeous illustrations by Sasha Laika. Gorgeous in themselves, they really bring something to the text, whether chilly horror, immersive world building or simply tenderness. And of course, the cover map, by Leo Nickolls, is glorious.

The third and final book, Lost Acre, comes next year. It promises to be a real treat.

A worthy follow up to the amazing Rotherweird, providing more insight into the history of the mysterious town, its origins and people. Quite enjoyable !

If you haven’t read Rotherweird before picking up Wyntertide, then go back and read it now! Not only because it’s a brilliant book in its own right and well worth a read, but you’ll be completely flummoxed as to what on earth is going on otherwise. Of course there is still an element of that, this is Rotherweird and Lost Acre after all, but at least you’ll have a fighting chance of knowing who the main characters are and some background behind the unusual history and geography of the island.
I loved Rotherweird and I loved this. It was not the expected dodgy second book of the trilogy, but a vast cornucopia of sights, sounds and happenings all intelligently written. It enhances the first book in a myriad of ways and interweaves the past and present nicely. Very much looking forward to the final part.

I didn't read the first book in this series so I had some problems in understanding what was happening and who is who but I kept on reading because I was enthralled by the plot, the characters and the continuous twists in the story.
This book is magic, fascinating and written in a brilliant way. I liked the humour and the character development.
I willget the first instalment and look forward to reading the next one.
One of those book that make you feel sad when you read the last page because you want more.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC

This is the second book in the Rotherweird series and I would strongly advise reading the first one before this - there is much to understand. Rotherweird is an English town that is isolated from the country as a whole due to events in the 17th century in the main. The main characters from the previous books are augmented by a few new ones. The core of the story is that those who had opposed the people on the side of Wynter last time are worried that he is trying to return. Wynter's fairly evil behaviour is the primary reason Rotherweird became the place it is. It is also the reason that any study of history is forbidden!

The sheer bizarre weirdness of Rotherweird takes a little while to get back into. Remembering old friends and strange ideas. There are new facets not in the first book to be discovered. As Finch puts it "the talons of the past were clawing at the present". Rather more is revealed about Rotherweird's past in this story although I'm guessing there is more to come.

While I enjoyed the first book I did have reservations about it. The same applies to this one. There is light and dark. There is humour and gravity. The balance between the two aspects is an issue to me. I really enjoyed the humour that Caldecott brings to the characters in both books. However, in this book, I found myself not getting the dread and tension all that well because of the humour - maybe it's me.

The sheer complexity of both these books is a factor too. Many years ago I started playing 3D noughts and crosses. Thinking in three dimensions can be quite challenging. However these books do seem to need at least that. Time and space are one thing however some characters are different over time for instance.

This story is wonderfully inventive once again with that Heath Robinson feel that I noted last time. The characters are rich and vivid too. Rotherweird itself is a well worked fantasy creation. However I did find I had to work hard to keep my perspective of the story as a result of the complexities I referred to in the main. The pace is generally good but for me the tension that should be there was lacking. The third book will make interesting reading. 3.5/5

The promise of a sequel to Andrew Caldecott's previous novel Rotherweird certainly took away some of the disappointment of arriving at a conclusion; such were characters, imagination and the rich eccentricity of the fantasy world that had been created by the author that it would have been a shame to end it with just one book. There was still an element of doubt remaining however where Wyntertide could go, since a great many ancient mysteries had been resolved and a number of secret identities uncovered, and a number of the main players - like Sir Veronal Slickstone - had been 'eliminated'. Considering the enclosed nature of the world of Rotherweird, it was hard to see how the material could be further expanded without going over old ground again.

There is another difficulty that presents itself when you begin Wyntertide. Such is the peculiar nature of the work, the wealth of characters and the nature of the writing itself, that it is initially very difficult to enter that world again. Certainly for a new reader there is no concession made in Wyntertide for anyone who hasn't read the first book, with no easy introduction to who these eccentric characters are, no recap of the events that occurred in the first book Rotherweird, other than in obscure references to mixing points, to stones providing access to the Lost Acre, and to mysterious, shape-shifting forces that appear to still be at large and presenting concerns for the inhabitants - mainly academia - of the town. Even for anyone who has read Rotherweird, it's hard to grasp the nature of the characters and their relationships to one another, such were the extraordinary events and changes that occurred over the course of first book. The charm seems to be wearing off.

As for whether there is any new direction that the book can take, well if you put aside those initial concerns about the old-fashioned eccentricity of the treatment and no small amount of confusion about what is going on - with all its esoteric references, arcane knowledge, cryptic messages and anagrammatical names - Caldecott does eventually get around to exploring other worthwhile secrets and history that remain in Rotherweird and fashion it into another wonderful adventure. Sir Veronal Slickstone might be gone, but the extraordinary prearranged spectacle of Bolitho's funeral with its cryptic messages, and some further delving into the forbidden history of the forbidden experiments of Wynter at the end of the 16th century, suggest that there is still great danger to the rather special status and character of life in Rotherweird.

The principal crime of Wynter was his experiments with a 'mixing point', where poor humans were mutated into monstrosities by combining them with other creatures. That much we knew from one or two of the creatures who appeared in the last book, but in Wyntertide we discover that there are more creatures still at large in the world than the dangerous shape-shifting Calx Bole, and since some of them retain visible human characteristics, they are not so easy to identify, and may indeed have been living among the citizens and academics of Rotherweird for some time. What also provides new ground in Wyntertide is the coming up of the term for re-election to position of mayor of Rotherweird. Sidney Snorkel, the incumbent, is a rather slippery individual, and armed with volumes of obscure regulations and protocol that he has taken measures to deny to others, he doesn't intend to relinquish his position easily. There are however a number of challengers, and a few 'new' characters among the 'Summoned' (those of Rotherweird origin living in the outside world, called back to vote), who have taken an interest in working alongside the candidates - no doubt for nefarious purposes of their own. New powers have arisen!

So, yes, there are certainly more than enough secrets and insights into the strange fantastical world of Rotherweird to provide plenty of additional opportunity for adventure, and indeed, extend the scope of it beyond just being a curious little community in a forgotten valley. It's a closed-off and isolated community, but it still has to co-exist with the world outside and do commerce with it, and therein lies some of its problems - problems that perhaps have resonance with a certain insular English mentality that is becoming more pronounced these days. Caldecott however is far more ambitious than merely presenting a parable and pits many other contrary forces together in the differences in attitudes and behaviours of the progressive scientists and the traditional crafts and guilds. More than that, there is a bigger picture evolving in Wyntertide, a grand conspiracy in the wider world that plays the long game with historical events that set plans in motion to be fulfilled much further down the line.

If you can get past all the eccentricities and deal with the initial confusion (I found the first quarter of the book hard going despite having read Rotherweird) then little by little Wyntertide draws you back into this wonderful little alternative universe that is more than slightly out of step with the world outside, and delightfully so. What finally brings it to life again are the characters who are not just wonderfully eccentric, but fully rounded with different aspects to their personalities, which can even be quite spiky. There's a darker side in operation here and even a little more of an erotic edge to some of the characters this time that causes a not insignificant amount of heightened tension and friction, not to mentions some manipulation as well. Not unlike the magical stones in the book, when you bring everyone together, "the effect of so many contrary forces" causes sparks fly, revelations to emerge and considerable upheaval for Rotherweird this time around. The revelations and changes indeed come so fast (and from obscure clues and hidden messages), that it can still be hard to follow, but Caldecott's writing is literally spellbinding in how it brings magical elements together to charm the reader. As with the first book, Aleksandra Laika provides some wonderful illustrations that just add just another level of wonder to the magical universe/multi-verse of Rotherweird.

A welcome return to the weird and wonderful world of Rotherweird. And Lost Acre of course. I really enjoyed this latest instalment, which is somewhat darker than the first book. I look forward to the next book.