Winter Witch

By: Elaine Cunningham

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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.

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

Good stuff.

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

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

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.

ok Pathfinder book

It spent a long time describing details of things like geography that did more to distract than build the world. I was expecting some kind of Assassin's Creed sort of scene with how thoroughly it was described in places.

The mystery around the main character's magic was neat.

Strong first act, disappoints from there.

Narration was fine, no complaints. It was fun to experience the locations of Corvosa and Whitethrone. The setup to the main conflict kept me engaged and interested.

However, the narrative suffers from a crippling oversight. One of the characters develops a magical ability that seemingly has no limits to what it can do and how often it can be used. It is a god-tier ability that they conveniently overlook when the plot demands it.

This had me frustrated throughout the second half of the book. It was never fully explained, and it could easily have been replaced by a more reasonable ability.

The characters were otherwise enjoyable and the writing was fun.

Excellent

Great story that truly allows the reader to explore some of the most dangerous locations in Galorian