Book Review: Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

Title: Witchlanders

Author: Lena Coakley

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Publisher: Atheneum (Simon & Schuster)
Publication Date: September 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages

High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future.

It’s all a fake.

At least, that’s what Ryder thinks. He doubts the witches really deserve their tithes—one quarter of all the crops his village can produce. And even if they can predict the future, what danger is there to foretell, now that his people’s old enemy, the Baen, has been defeated?

But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets. Everything he’s ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic and about himself will change, when he discovers that the prophecies he’s always scorned—

Are about him.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in a planned series

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: Funny story: I thought I had a review copy of this book. No, I swore I had a review copy of this book. When I started to see reviews for Witchlanders roll in, I was thrilled to dig out my ARC and get reading…except I couldn’t find the book. Either I hallucinated the ARC (entirely possible), or lost it in the morass of books that comprise my TBR (also entirely possible). In any case, I immediately went out to purchase a copy because there was no way I was gonna let this one get away.

Review:

Since his father’s death, life for Ryder, his mother, and two younger sisters has been unbearable. Not only has harvesting the hicca farm before the start of the winter’s deadly chill become near impossible, but Ryder’s mother, Mabis, has lost her grip on reality. Formerly an iron-willed woman who would laugh about the silly superstitions of the valley folk and the witches that portend to throw bones and foretell the Goddess’s will, Mabis has turned in on herself, throwing her old casting bones and seeking comfort in maiden’s woe – a weed with hallucinogenic properties when ingested. Try as Ryder might to keep Mabis away from the plant and to stop her from her inexplicable fascination with the witchery she once scorned so deeply, he cannot control his mother’s erratic behavior. When she makes a firecall, summoning the witches from their isolation in the mountains to warn them of a dire vision she has had, the witches come but ignore her words as a false prophecy brought on by too much maiden’s woe. When one of her dreadful visions of monsters rising from the mud to murder the Witchlanders proves true, however, Ryder knows he must heed all of her warnings, and heads to the border between the Witchlands and the Baen to seek the assassin responsible for conjuring the black magic.

What Ryder discovers in the snow, though, is hardly the bloodthirsty assassin he seeks. Instead, Ryder finds a young man named Falpian and as dark as Ryder is fair. Together, the unlikely pair of Witchlander and Baen, will find that everything they know about their worlds is a lie – and only through each other can they discover the truth and save their lands from devastating war.

The debut novel from Lena Coakley, Witchlanders is a kickback to the old school speculative fiction/fantasy novels I read in my youth – I’m talking Jane Yolen, Garth Nix, Isobel Carmody, and the like. The world in Witchlanders is deeply torn after a long war between the Baen, whose magic lies in their voices, and the Witchlanders, whose magic rests with the prophecy of witches. Though the universe is relatively simplistic (two different cultures separated by obvious Mendelian physical traits and magical/ideological divides), in this contained, smaller scale novel, it works beautifully and effectively. There are lies and secrets on both sides of the divide, and though ultimately the truth is a little easy to figure out, the mystery of who is conjuring the black magic (and for what purpose) is a big twist that is handled deftly by Ms. Coakley.

From a character point of view, Witchlanders has two main protagonists and both are male – which is kind of a nice change of pace, especially in the YA fantasy front – and their combined voices are really what drive the novel. Ryder, our primary protagonist, struggles with his exasperation with his mother and his fervent desire to keep his family together and fill in his father’s shoes. Falpian also struggles with the legacy of his father and his lost twin, desperate to live up to his brother’s memory and become a true magic singer that his family can be proud of. Though they are from different walks of life – a farmer and a scholar – Ryder and Falpian are excellent foils, and I love the way their relationship blossoms over the course of this book, and how they also grow as individuals and learn to embrace some of the harsher facts of life. Also, can I just mention how incredibly refreshing it is to read a YA fantasy novel that does not focus on any romantic subplot? Not that I have anything against romance (and the seeds for a romantic future are certainly present in this book), but sometimes its nice to see themes of family and friendship take precedence.

Though it’s a quieter book and not quite as epic as is the current trend in YA fantasy, I loved the clean, focused scope of Witchlanders, and I cannot wait to join Ryder and Falpian once again. Absolutely recommended, especially for readers hankering for a shot of old school YA fantasy, and for new readers trying to find a good story with a slight fantastical flair.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

Ryder woke to the sound of clattering bones. A red curtain separated the sleeping area from the main room of the cottage, and he could see the faint flickering of candles through the fabric.

“Skyla,” he whispered.

Even in his sleep he’d known there was something wrong. A feeling of dread lay heavy in his stomach. Next to him in the long bed, Ryder’s two younger sisters were quiet. Pima, the little one, lay diagonally with the covers bunched up around her. Her mouth was open, and she was snoring gently. Skyla was pressed into the corner.

“Sky . . . ,” he began again.

“I know,” she said. There was nothing sleepy about her voice. He wondered how long she’d been awake.

“Why didn’t you do something?” Ryder flung off the bit of tattered blanket that covered his legs. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

The dirt floor was cold under his bare feet. He’d grown tall in the past year, too tall for the low door frame that led to the main part of the cottage, and he hunched a little as he peered around the red curtain.

Mabis, his mother, was squatting on the floor, picking up bones. A goat’s femur, a horse’s rib. They were dark with age and etched with thin lines. She placed each one into a wooden bowl as large as the wheel of a donkey cart.

“Tell me who it is,” she murmured. “Tell me.” Smoke from the fire hung around the room, making rings around the candles.

Skyla slipped in beside Ryder, and together they watched as their mother rose from the floor. Mabis looked furtively around, squinting toward the sleeping area, but they were well hidden in the shadows. She seemed to satisfy herself that she was alone, and staggered to the lit fireplace, grabbing an iron poker.

“Did you check the fireplace?” Ryder whispered. “I told you to check the fireplace.”

“I did,” Skyla insisted.

Mabis climbed onto a wooden chair and up onto the large table their father had made. She was wearing her reds. It was the traditional costume of the mountain witches—loose-fitting pants and a quilted tunic with embroidery along the edge. Ryder had seen his mother wear reds only a few times before. They had a dramatic effect on people that Mabis liked to keep in reserve. Usually they were packed carefully at the bottom of a wooden blanket chest; now the tunic was buttoned up wrong, and there was a greasy stain down the side of her leg.

Her sleeves slid down her brown arms as she reached up with the poker. From the rafters fell a cloth bag tied with string. Ryder cursed inwardly. He’d thought he knew all her hiding places.

Mabis knelt on the tabletop and set down the poker. Greedily she opened the bag. A shower of black flowers, each the size of a baby’s fist, fell to the table.

“Maiden’s woe,” Skyla breathed.

Ryder nodded, noticing the black stain on his mother’s lips; it wasn’t the first she’d had that night. Maiden’s woe was a river plant whose flowers bloomed in the shallows. Ryder had pulled up all he could find, but the plants grew like weeds this time of year; if he missed even the smallest bit of root, they came back twice as thick. As he watched, his mother pushed two of the black flowers into her mouth and grimaced.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

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