The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott
Jun. 10th, 2025 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ladybusinessI devoured The Witch Roads in three days.
Storygraph tells me it was four, but that's because I started it at 10PM. I don't recommend starting books you're looking forward to that late. It's a rookie mistake.
Kate Elliott's been writing long enough that if you've read her books before you'll know if you like her style and world building habits. Otherwise, The Witch Roads is a very accessible place to hop into her adult epic fantasy for those brand new to her work. I read a little about the novel via Elliott's Patreon, so I didn't know what to expect from this story. What I found was an experience that reminded me of the first time I read Cold Magic, my first and best beloved Elliott novel.
I'm behind on Elliott's recent books. She's released two volumes of a space opera and two novellas, Servant Mage and The Keeper's Six. I've only read the latter. I liked it a lot, but wish it were more widely read so there could be more portal adventures. Other than The Keeper's Six, my most recent books by her were her YA trilogy Court of Fives and Black Wolves (never forgiving publishing for having a great epic fantasy author in their wheelhouse and then refusing to market her book!!! STRAIGHT TO JAIL!!!). It feels like the writing in recent, shorter work is tensed, like a muscle that can't relax. I noticed it in Court of Fives, which was obviously constrained due to the different publishing category and nature of the work. I felt it again in The Keeper's Six, which was acquired and published as a novella. It makes sense there, too. Elliott is an epic fantasy/science fiction author, so the places where form and style clash will show where she's not allowed to sprawl and build out the worlds she's imagining. I can't speak to the space opera, because I haven't read it yet, so I could be totally off! But! The Witch Roads feels like Elliott set free.
Elen is a courier, walking an assigned route to carry messages and check for deadly Spore and cut it out before it can infect people and cause a horrific, deadly outbreak. Elen's effectiveness at ridding her community of Spore is a secret from everyone. This includes her young nephew, who is about to enter the world as an adult, but is uncertain of his path. But both their lives are upturned with the arrival of a conceited royal that Elen is assigned to lead further into the kingdom for a quest only he understands. Elen, desperate to get away from her home after her past suddenly catches up with her and her nephew, is happy to have the excuse to get on the road. However, at the very first signs of danger, the prince ignores her warnings (typical) and gets himself—and Elen, who is the only one to know the truth the "Prince" is now hiding—into a bundle of "possessed by a mysterious ancient being" trouble.
A world that feels like it has deep roots and we're only seeing a part of it? Yes! Royal hijnks that normal folk get caught up in through no fault of their own? Yep. Exploration of power imbalances? This is Kate Elliott. A subtle romance plot? Yep. A flip where instead of following the young adventurer, we instead get the adventure from the mentor's perspective? Oh yeah. There's body possession and secret plots and spoiled royals and extremely subtle flirtation that's both entertaining and heartbreaking.
The Witch Roads explores class divides, who wields power and how, and all the ways people in lower classes take back a little power whenever they can. And as always, the narrative centers women. Elen is a hardened person due to her past circumstances, and that hardness complicates her ability to make connections. Part of this story is her coming to terms with her lack of openness and willingness to trust people she cares about with her weaknesses. Elliott's work is often about how women move through the world and shift circumstances with their agency. Said world (read: cis men, and also: cis women in proximity to power who want to retain that power) tells them repeatedly they don't have, can't have agency, because of their birth and class and ability, and their response? "Challenge accepted."
The Witch Roads is another book with evil mushrooms. Mushrooms sure are having a moment.
The book is out now! The Nameless Lands, the sequel and final book, will be out in November.
Storygraph tells me it was four, but that's because I started it at 10PM. I don't recommend starting books you're looking forward to that late. It's a rookie mistake.
Kate Elliott's been writing long enough that if you've read her books before you'll know if you like her style and world building habits. Otherwise, The Witch Roads is a very accessible place to hop into her adult epic fantasy for those brand new to her work. I read a little about the novel via Elliott's Patreon, so I didn't know what to expect from this story. What I found was an experience that reminded me of the first time I read Cold Magic, my first and best beloved Elliott novel.
I'm behind on Elliott's recent books. She's released two volumes of a space opera and two novellas, Servant Mage and The Keeper's Six. I've only read the latter. I liked it a lot, but wish it were more widely read so there could be more portal adventures. Other than The Keeper's Six, my most recent books by her were her YA trilogy Court of Fives and Black Wolves (never forgiving publishing for having a great epic fantasy author in their wheelhouse and then refusing to market her book!!! STRAIGHT TO JAIL!!!). It feels like the writing in recent, shorter work is tensed, like a muscle that can't relax. I noticed it in Court of Fives, which was obviously constrained due to the different publishing category and nature of the work. I felt it again in The Keeper's Six, which was acquired and published as a novella. It makes sense there, too. Elliott is an epic fantasy/science fiction author, so the places where form and style clash will show where she's not allowed to sprawl and build out the worlds she's imagining. I can't speak to the space opera, because I haven't read it yet, so I could be totally off! But! The Witch Roads feels like Elliott set free.
Elen is a courier, walking an assigned route to carry messages and check for deadly Spore and cut it out before it can infect people and cause a horrific, deadly outbreak. Elen's effectiveness at ridding her community of Spore is a secret from everyone. This includes her young nephew, who is about to enter the world as an adult, but is uncertain of his path. But both their lives are upturned with the arrival of a conceited royal that Elen is assigned to lead further into the kingdom for a quest only he understands. Elen, desperate to get away from her home after her past suddenly catches up with her and her nephew, is happy to have the excuse to get on the road. However, at the very first signs of danger, the prince ignores her warnings (typical) and gets himself—and Elen, who is the only one to know the truth the "Prince" is now hiding—into a bundle of "possessed by a mysterious ancient being" trouble.
A world that feels like it has deep roots and we're only seeing a part of it? Yes! Royal hijnks that normal folk get caught up in through no fault of their own? Yep. Exploration of power imbalances? This is Kate Elliott. A subtle romance plot? Yep. A flip where instead of following the young adventurer, we instead get the adventure from the mentor's perspective? Oh yeah. There's body possession and secret plots and spoiled royals and extremely subtle flirtation that's both entertaining and heartbreaking.
The Witch Roads explores class divides, who wields power and how, and all the ways people in lower classes take back a little power whenever they can. And as always, the narrative centers women. Elen is a hardened person due to her past circumstances, and that hardness complicates her ability to make connections. Part of this story is her coming to terms with her lack of openness and willingness to trust people she cares about with her weaknesses. Elliott's work is often about how women move through the world and shift circumstances with their agency. Said world (read: cis men, and also: cis women in proximity to power who want to retain that power) tells them repeatedly they don't have, can't have agency, because of their birth and class and ability, and their response? "Challenge accepted."
The Witch Roads is another book with evil mushrooms. Mushrooms sure are having a moment.
The book is out now! The Nameless Lands, the sequel and final book, will be out in November.
non-spoilery comment
Date: 2025-06-11 01:24 pm (UTC)One thing I *really* appreciate about the world-building is that the look & feel of the Empire is clearly based on Imperial China, not medievelesque Europe. We've moved into a different set of tropes. The Nameless Land is more "European", and thus more barbaric.
The gender & trans stuff is handled so well, the way it's not a problem except when it can still be a problem, running up against people's expectations or powerful people's needs. Of course "Chinese-type Empire without massive patriarchy" is a HUGE fantasy, but hey, I figure we're allowed to have some fantasy in our fantasy, y'know?
Servant Mage is one of my faves, may be extra relevant right now, I should re-read. It's almost unique in the genre in being about Sam, not Aragorn, if you know what I mean.
Re: non-spoilery comment
Date: 2025-06-11 10:28 pm (UTC)I am going to move Servant Mage up my TBR! I preordered it and everything and forget why I didn't get to it. Probably work. 😭
spoilery-ish comment
Date: 2025-06-11 05:20 pm (UTC)But the fact remains, if actually given a free choice not enough people would choose to be subsistence farmers. It's inherently precarious and the work is *very* hard. It's even more precarious if the government depends on taxes it carves off from those farmers.
Re: spoilery-ish comment
Date: 2025-06-11 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-11 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-11 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-12 09:16 pm (UTC)