Wyntertide

Wynter is coming. Welcome back to Rotherweird. It is a place you might like to visit if it wasn't so dangerous. Wyntertide is a much darker, and more labyrinthine story, than its' predecessor. I feel like reading it again with a pad and pencil. Certainly the last in the trilogy should come with a Rotherweird Companion.
It is hard to describe the story without spoiling it. For the uninitiated, Rotherweird is an anomaly of a place, protected since the time of Elizabeth I. The inhabitants have wonderful talents, unmatched in the wider world. There are rules to observe if you live there, most notably, the non-existence of any history. History has too many secrets to protect.
In Wyntertide something is returning, from out of the distant past. There is a great deal of misdirection. The cleverness of the residents is used against them. In the age of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the story is a great lesson in how evil can take root without anyone noticing until it is too late. So much happens behind closed doors.
The most important thing is how entertaining it is. The characters are brilliantly drawn, and unlike anything else in fiction at the moment. There are so many factions and rivalries to keep track off, so many ingenious inventions, and enjoyably nasty deaths. I cannot wait for book three.

It is a joy to return to Rotherweird, a place where the study of history is forbidden, in the second of the planned trilogy from the gifted Andrew Caldecott. Sir Veronal Slickstone is dead, but an uneasy and disturbing atmosphere hovers, growing ever stronger in this intricate, complex and multi-layered puzzle of a story, where the children chant their rhymes of the dangerous and villainous Geryon Wynter, ominously predicting that Wynter is coming. Wynter is the kind of man who plans beyond his death, centuries ahead in fact, using magic, sorcery and the mixing point to ensure his resurrection and the return of Rotherweird's dark Elizabethan history, aided by the elusive shapeshifter Bole and 3 women of feather and leather. Death, murder, manipulation, and betrayal is the order of the day in this tense, scary and menacing second book, as our brave band of quirky, eccentric original characters return, along with some new ones, in a Rotherweird where nothing is as it seems.

Professor Bolitho sets out to die, choreographing his entire funeral, costumes worn, with 'gifts' to warn and light the way for the likes of the logical and courageous Valourhead, Gregorius Jones, Fanguin and the others. The slimy, venal and corrupt mayor, Sidney Snorkel, is doing all in his power to avoid an election, but to his dismay, his machinations are thwarted. The vile Hengist Strimmer believes himself to be a special part of the future to come, supported by the powerful Apothecaries, he declares himself as a mayoral candidate to challenge Snorkel, the good but naive Orelia Roc cannot bear the thought of either man, reluctantly putting herself forward to stand in the election on the fateful Winter Solstice. The town Herald, Marmion Finch, has disappeared, which presages a series of sinister events and omens coming from numerous directions, such as the killing of the changelings, that tax, puzzle, threaten and endanger the wonderful coalition of people attempting to fight the good fight unaware of what or who they are facing, a battle destined to claim many lives.

Caldecott displays the skills of complex, detailed planning and plotting with rich imaginative descriptions that brings alive the spellbinding, fascinating and compelling world of Rotherweird. His greatest talent is the creation of a wide and diverse range of characters that I love and invest in emotionally as they set out to battle the evil in Rotherweird's past and present. I am particularly fond of Valourhead, Orelia and Morvel Seer. The novel ends on a huge cliffhanger which has me anticipating the final book with the utmost eagerness, just cannot wait to read it! This is a superb fantasy read, that had me gripped, entertained and engaged but I would strongly advise reading the first book before attempting this one, it will make more sense that way. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

Andrew Caldecott’s Rotherweird was one of the most English and original fantasy novels on 2017. It focussed on the eponymous town hidden away from the rest of England and guardian of a secret door to another dimension called The Lost Acre. Rotherweird was full of Dickensian characters engaged in an ancient struggle but also had Monty Pythonesque flourishes. The epilogue to the action in Rotherweird indicated that more was going on than the protagonists suspected and this second volume is clear that all of the frenetic activity in that book was just “the end of the beginning” and so to Wyntertide.

Wyntertide has a similar structure to Rotherweird. Historical vignette's establish the backstory of a number of long lived characters still either making mischief or trying to prevent it. In the meantime the townsfolk are gearing up for a major event, in this case the mayoral election, which is being manipulated for nefarious purposes. Caldecott ranges across a kaleidoscope of characters as various factions manoeuvre and a centuries old plan fall into place.

Rotherweird anchored its sprawling narrative around an outsider - Josiah Oblong, the new history teacher - who was also the reader’s proxy into this strange world. It allowed Caldecott the room to explore, explain and exposit. Wyntertide has no such crutch. It throws readers straight into some new historical detail and then into the world of the multitude of characters that inhabit Rotherweird. As a result, even for those familiar with the first book it will take some time to re-engage with the sprawling cast.

Wyntertide has all of the hallmarks of its predecessor both good and bad – quirky characters, puzzles, gothic flourishes and increasingly strange public events. While there is plenty of build-up, as the middle book of a trilogy, the book's climax becomes little more than setup for the final volume. But it is a setup that will have readers hanging out for the last volume what is still enjoyable and highly original fantasy.