The Winter of the Witch

As a whole, I really enjoyed the Winternight trilogy. Generally, I'm not an easily made fan of series or fantasy, so the fact that this one made such an impression on me shows how great I thought it was. As a complete series, this trilogy currently holds the honors of being the most enjoyable thing I've discovered in the Fantasy section.

This third volume disappointed me, however. Whatever made those first two books in the series so spectacular for me was missing here. There's still the exquisite writing and the fabulous world building. The characters are the same, intriguing and flawed in the best of ways. And yet, the pacing felt off: we spent for-ev-er in Midnight, the final battle was over in a few breaths. Most of the dialogue took place with creatures from the Spirit World, and they just aren't as dynamic as humans. There's a lack of introspection that distanced me. And I really, really disliked the conclusion (in regards to the "resurrection"). I don't know, it just seemed to me that the scaffolding of a really great story was here, but there was a need to quickly sum up the conclusion of this trilogy and move on.

Thinking back on my fondest memories of this trilogy, nothing comes to mind from The Winter of the Witch. I still think wonderfully of the series as a whole, and that does affect my opinion of this one, but had I started with The Winter of the Witch, I doubt I would've read another.