Wintercraft: Blackwatch

Fans of Jenna Burtenshaw’s debut novel Wintercraft will now be able to renew their acquaintance with its fantasy landscapes and characters in her follow-up, Blackwatch. Once again, in terrains that are increasingly dark and macabre, we have the opportunity to pursue, in particular, two destinies, those of Kate Winters and Silas Dane, and to penetrate the many mazes (moral and otherwise) of the world known as Albion. The narrative is, for most of the time, quite gripping, though very close reading is necessary if all the subtleties of the twists and turns of friendship and loyalty are to be grasped: watch out for what develops in the relationship between Kate and her always trustworthy friend Edgar. With both of the main characters on the run from forces determined to capture them, the plot proceeds at a lively pace and the introduction of new characters, especially the enigmatic Dalliah Grey, ensures the reader’s continuing involvement. It must be said, though, that at times the novel’s depiction of the intricacies of its many power struggles becomes repetitive, as does its emphasis on the quasi-mystical ‘veil’ which separates the worlds of the living and the worlds of the dead. There is a denouement of sorts but by the novel’s end many outcomes have still to be clarified. As we leave Kate ‘completely and powerlessly alone’ on a ship ‘carrying her towards a fate laid down for her by her ancestors long ago’ we know that a third, concluding volume of Burtenshaw’s trilogy is on its way.