The Silver Sorceress

If you are looking for classic epic fantasy in the vein of David Eddings, Robert Jordan, or James Islington, then you absolutely need to give Alec Hutson’s The Silver Sorceress a shot. This is the second in his The Raveling series, picking up right where The Crimson Queen left off. I’m a huge fan of epic fantasy and after thoroughly enjoying The Crimson Queen I was looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel. While, for me, it didn’t quite live up to the first novel, I still thoroughly enjoyed and can happily recommend it.

In typical fashion, this story is one part coming-of-age and one part save the world. One of the things that I really enjoy about Hutson’s writing, and this is certainly true here in The Silver Sorceress, is how he weaves both big and small stakes. In other words, the overarching plotline of saving the world intersects at various points with much more personal issues for all the viewpoint characters. This is one of the things that keeps the pages turning. While being epic in scope, there is also a personal dimension, and I think this is really essential. I also have to praise the world building in this novel. Hutson has done an incredible job of crafting a world that feels old and living. There are thousands of years of history, and I’d really love a peek at the wiki where he keeps all this stuff straight. I could probably spend hours there. I’m a fan of deep world building and you get that in spades with Hutson’s work. There are also plenty of plot twists and shifting allegiances in this book. It isn’t particularly political, in the sense of nations threatening one another or changing loyalties, but there are enough twists and turns at a more personal level to keep things interesting. I don’t want to spoil anything, so suffice it to say that a friend one moment may be an enemy the next, and yet again a friend before things are over. Hutson manages to write these shifts without feeling jarring and without making the characters seem insincere.

There were a couple things that didn’t work for me. The first of those is that this book suffered a bit from second book syndrome, in that it didn’t have as much of a climax and ending as the first one. It often feels to me like second books feel too much like the middle of a story without much in the way of beginning or ending. In fairness, it’s incredibly difficult to write a second book that still follows a self-contained story arc while being part of a larger story. I’m not faulting Hutson too much for this, but I would have liked to have seen more of a climax in this book. Another thing I would have liked to have seen was a little more explanation to how magic works. This is often a complaint I have in books where magic plays a pivotal role in scenes. This reveals a preference of mine for harder, more fleshed out magic systems.

All told, The Silver Sorceress is classic epic fantasy that will please fans of the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed this entry in the series and I’m looking forward to the next one as well.

4.25/5 stars.

5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing