Winter Witch

By: Elaine Cunningham

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

In a village of the frozen north, a child is born possessed by a strange and alien spirit, only to be cast out by her tribe and taken in by the mysterious winter witches of Irrisen, a land locked in permanent magical winter. Farther south, a young mapmaker with a penchant for forgery discovers that his sham treasure maps have begun striking gold. This is the story of Ellasif, a barbarian shield maiden who will stop at nothing to recover her missing sister, and Decclan, the ne'er-do-well young spellcaster-turned-forger who wants only to prove himself to the woman he loves. Together they'll face monsters, magic, and the fury of Ellasif's own cold-hearted warriors in their quest to rescue the lost child. Yet when they finally reach the ice-walled city of Whitethrone, where trolls hold court and wolves roam the streets as men, will it be too late to save the girl from the forces of darkness?

©2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Great story.

This is a great read, with a few twists. I've played a campaign in Irrisen and the description in this book really made it a more vivid picture. I would say more but don't want to give away any spoilers.

Good action, humorous dialogue, fun story

The plot is a *little* derivative, your standard high fsntasy road trip with a few twists. But it knows when not to take itself too seriously and that makesnit easy to forgive some of the tropiness. Dialogue had me laughing out loud at times, and the descriptions of Whitethrone and Korvosa made me nostalgic for Golarion

barbarians and witches a classic combo

its a good story. a reluctant wizard and the barbarian girl that becomes his adventuring companion. fun characters and a lot of character growth.

Superstitious Barbarians, Family drama and an evil witch.

Pathfinder has a wealth of well thought out mythology and culture to draw from. the writer did a good job bringing this world to life and creating believable characters and motivations like Ellisif and Declan while not letting stuff like game mechanics bleeding into the theme of the story. in any case I'm familiar with Golarion and this writer really did a good job capturing the cultures, religions and regional details of that world. Pathfinder definitely was developed by people who lwere inspired by mythology and history and creating their own world with rich history and not just creating a game that focuses on slaying dragons and getting XP etc

Good stuff.

Stirring story and realistic characters. The performance treated too many voices as caricatures. Sudden climax.

Immersion and interesting

Elaine Cunningham is a great writer! Her characters are relatable yet fantastic enough to keep the fantasy realm immersion. Good obstacles and tension between the party. Good listen in the pathfinder series!

Needs a Dramatic Organ playing.

one of the last chapters has so many twists I wanted an organ foe every new one that happened. good story.

underwhelming but not terrible

maybe dave gross set the bar a little too high, but this felt pretty lackluster. At times, I felt I had to suspend disbelief to accept the choices the characters were making. both the villains and the heroes. it really took me out of the story to keep having to think "really? why on earth would you do that? say that? trust this person? etc. "

if you are starving for pathfinder books, it's not such a bad story, but if you're at all snobbish and want something at least close to on par with the dave gross stuff, this one is probably worth skipping

My first Pathfinder novel

This was a very enjoyable tale and it features one of my favorite nations in Pathfinder the Land of the Lenorm Kings. Many parts of the story shape itself in the same way a saga would. if you like Vikings, monsters, and witches I recommend this audiobook.

Everything I look for in a fantasy novel

The story developed around characters that had depth without cliché. It started with a mystery that unfolded gradually and meaningfully, bringing the reader along for the ride. The author set up a story and a system that never had to deviate from the setup for convenience and was loyal to the setting which preceded the novel.