2023 has been the year I rediscovered fantasy. I’ve read a number of books that reminded me just what I love about the genre. None more so than Talonsister by Jen Williams, a novel in firm contention for being my favorite book of the year.
What Is Talonsister by Jen Williams?
The shapes on the maps at the front of Talonsister are instantly recognizable. We have an Eurasian continent, as well as an island mass that looks an awful lot like the British Isles. I cut my fantasy teeth on not only The Lord of the Rings but also Warhammer’s”The Old World,” which was a medieval fantasy not-quite-Europe. The Talonsister map, therefore, immediately appealed.
Of course, fantasy novels have grown up a lot since those Old World days of the mid-1980s. Jen Williams has been part of this drive towards modernity with her excellent Copper Cat novels and the innovative Winnowing Flame trilogy. As we might expect from her earlier outings, Talonsister is modern fantasy of the highest order.
In the Talonsister world, there is an all-conquering Roman-like empire. They have created a small army of magical warriors, called Heralds. When the Heralds engage they can call upon immense power, manifesting a magic sword of light, as well as eldritch wings. Against this power, little can stand. The process is not without its problems. When a Herald is created its memories are wiped clean, but after a number of years, they start to return. Few in the Imperium know this, nor that fact then when the memories start to resurface the ultimate end is madness.
Oblivious to this is Leven, a retired Herald. She starts to have visions of a life in Brittletain. A free agent after 8 years of service to the Imperium, Leven travels to Brittletain in the hope of discovering the secrets of her past. She finds an unfamiliar landscape filled with druidic magic, a land that holds the power of the forest sacred. Before long she is trapped within the machinations of the fearsome Queen Broudicca. Traveling across Brittletain, Leven uncovers knowledge about the country and the people that live within it whilst coming closer to the secret of who she really is.
In the far north of Brittletain live the Griffins. They are the last surviving race of Titans, the mythical beings that once ruled over the world. The Griffins have isolated themselves from humanity, save a teenage girl whom two Griffin fathers adopted as a baby when they found her alone with her dead (human) father. Never considered truly part of the clan, Ynis finds herself exiled with her adopted sister. This sets her on a path that she never knew existed, one that will see Ynis walk along the boundary between life and death.
Far across the globe, an Imperium expedition is looking for powerful secrets. The witch who created the Herald process believes that in the Far East, she’ll find evidence of another forgotten Titan race. Accompanied by an “Envoy” (essentially, a highly trained assassin) and his apprentice, she enters an abandoned city in search of forbidden knowledge.
How do these three disparate threads interweave? That discovery is just one of the many joys awaiting readers of Talonsister.
Why Read Talonsister by Jen Williams?
For me, Talonsister delivers everything that a good fantasy novel should: heroic characters, thrilling action scenes, and layered world-building. I’d be very hard-pressed to find anything that I didn’t like about the novel.
The three narrative strands allow Williams to showcase her characters and her world in different ways whilst delivering exciting set piece after exciting set piece. This all builds to an almighty crescendo at the finale, which sets things up tantalizingly for an explosive start to book two.
Throughout Talonsister the tension that “something is about to go very wrong” ratchets up notch by notch, until we can only read on, waiting for the release. It’s hard for me to pick a thread that I liked the most. Unlike many multi-strand fantasy novels, I never found myself wishing we didn’t have to divert away from the characters and story we had been focussing on. I wanted to follow EVERYTHING!
On the world-building side, I loved the Griffins, their way of life, and the arc stretching back to the history of the Titans. The alternate druid-steeped Britain draws on a great tradition of nature fantasy, but it stands alone as its own thing and not “just another Merlin-riff.” Similarly, the deranged expedition into a foreboding jungle city is comfortably familiar, but, at the same time, Williams makes it feel fresh and innovative. This section has some great moments of tension, and had me yelling at the book, “No, no, don’t do that!”
The only complaint I have about Talonsister is that I now have to wait until book 2 comes out before I can read more. On the plus side, the series is a duology, so I can rest safely in the knowledge that by the end of the next book I will know how the plight of Leven, Ynis, and all the other characters will pan out. I can’t wait!
If you would like to pick up a copy of Talonsister, you can do so here in the US and here in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
