The Witness for the Dead (The Cemeteries of Amalo #1)
Katherine Addison
Katherine Addison returns to the glittering world she created for her beloved novel, 'The Goblin Emperor', in this stand-alone sequel. When the young half-goblin emperor Maia sought to learn who had killed his father and half-brothers, he turned to an obscure resident of his Court, a Prelate of Ulis and a Witness for the Dead. Thara Celehar found the truth, though it did him no good to discover it. He lost his place as a retainer of his cousin the former Empress, and made far too many enemies among the many factions vying for power in the new Court. The favor of the Emperor is a dangerous coin. Now Celehar lives in the city of Amalo, far from the Court though not exactly in exile. He has not escaped from politics, but his position gives him the ability to serve the common people of the city, which is his preference. He lives modestly, but his decency and fundamental honesty will not permit him to live quietly. As a Witness for the Dead, he can, sometimes, speak to the recently dead: see the last thing they saw, know the last thought they had, experience the last thing they felt. it is his duty to use that ability to resolve disputes, to ascertain the intent of the dead, to find the killers of the murdered. Celehar's skills now lead him out of the quiet and into a morass of treachery, murder, and injustice. No matter his own background with the imperial house, Celehar will stand with the commoners, and possibly find a light in the darkness.
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
The Witness for the Dead follows Thara Celehar who acts as a, wait for it, Witness for the Dead, who is sort of a priestly investigator who has the ability to see the last thoughts/emotions/experiences of the recently dead and can use that skill to investigate deaths, resolve disputes or deal with supernatural threats. This book is a companion story that follows after the events of The Goblin Emperor and is structured as a sort of day in the life of a Witness, with several different plotlines intermixed throughout.
The Witness for the Dead is just as dense in world-building as GE and even reading this a few months after I'd read Goblin Emperor, it was a little difficult to recall some of the in-world terminology and titles so I'd definitely recommend reading them close together unless you're comfy with just being tossed in and figuring it out from context.
I found myself struggling to get into Witness more than I had with GE because Celehar is a much more distant, reserved protagonist who is already very familiar with the world so you're not learning from the ground up with sweet cinnamon roll Maia. I did eventually grow to like Celehar but probably not until about 30% in. And due to the multiple plotlines in a pretty short space, the pacing feels a bit meandering and occasionally hard to track.
Overall though, I still found Witness for the Dead to be enjoyable and it was an interesting look at the more religious and legal elements of the society that were introduced in Goblin Emperor but which took a back seat to court politics in that book. I do plan on continuing to The Grief of Stones eventually but I'll probably need to re-read both Goblin Emperor and Witness first.
0
© 2024 Pagebound