The Ice Witch (The Sorceress Book 1)

The Witch Who Came In From The Cold: Season One

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Sorceress of the Witch World. Estcarp Series by Andre Norton. View the embedded image gallery online at: Click on image for slideshow. Write-up from an old Amazon. Kaththea the Sorceress called forth a power such as no longer existed on the distant planet known as the Witch World. It was a power so great that it could destroy all that she loved best — and might even prove to be a greater evil than the shadow itself. Yet there could be no other choice for Kaththea than to call on Hilarion in the death-naming.

For she was a witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only this ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough.

For she was a Witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only the ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough…. Snatched by her warlock brother from a citadel of the Shadow, Kaththea was bereft of her ancient wisdom and still tainted by the evil of the Dark Ones, an emptiness into which something alien tried to pour itself. In her search for healing and the regaining of her witch-power she passed through a gate into a stronghold of the very Power which threatened the existence of her world.

And there in the centre of the web of evil, was the one who could prove the salvation of Escore, the creator and opener of gates who alone could summon strength enough to destroy or save all that she loved best. Until she regained her magic, the Shadow that threatened Escore could enter the land through her. Her quest began with a galling apprenticeship to a tribal Wise Woman and then carried her through a gate in time and space. In the world beyond the gate Kaththea found and rescued Hilarion, an adept of the Old Race who could prove a powerfull ally to Escore—or a dreadful enemy.

At the very heart of evil lay hope… if only the broken sorceress had the power to seek it out! Striped of her ancient knowledge for her betrayal in the Black Citadel, the sorceress shivered naked before the blast of an alien force. Her weakness, she, knew, was a danger to those she loved most dearly — from her mind the Dark One could forge a weapon to strike them once more. So Kaththea renounced the warmth of the Green Valley and, alone and unaided, sought a restoration of the once-noble witch-power. Help would come, but from a quarter she had hardly dared to expect it… from the dust of years would step a figure she had lost hope of ever seeing again.

Now that she has lost her witch power, Kaththea worries that she will become a gate for the evil forces of Shadow to enter the safe places of Escore and sets out to seek the aid of the Witches of Escarp in regaining her power. Swept up by an avalanche in the mountains, she is captured by the primitive and savage Vupsall tribe. Their leader, Ifeng, forces her to become the tribal seeress, but after she fails to foresee an enemy attack, she seizes the chance to flee.

Drawn through an interdimensional gate, Kaththea finds herself in a sterile world inhabited by the Kolder-like Zandur. Her fear turns to amazement and delight when she discovers her parents, Simon and Jaelithe, still captive after many years. Through the combined use of their powers and with the help of Hilarion, an old God of Escore, they all escape to the Green Valley and there, reunited with Kemoc and Orsya, Kyllan and Dahaun, they deal the final blow to the Shadow, regaining the golden peace of Escore's past.

This is a powerful no pun intended tale of fall and redemption of Kaththea Tregarth. At the end of Worlock of the Witch World, she was duped into aiding an evil sorcerer and lost her powers as a witch. She decides to travel back to Estcarp for healing. She never makes it and is rescued from an avalanche by a tribe of nomads with a dying Wise Woman who offers to train Kaththea in the ways of magic. Kaththea learns how to do magic enough to help the tribe survive, but then traps her to take over when the old one dies.

Slowly she figures out how to escape, when the tribe is attacked. She and a girl from the village hide in a ruined fortress and pass through a Gate into another world. Fantasy and historical fiction especially with a focus on Eastern Europe are my two favorite genres and this blends them perfectly into a mix I really can't get enough of. Very excited to get my hands on a physical copy in June.

I read the Swanwick story, which is very much in media res and just so-so, perhaps because I had no idea of what is going on in the serial. So, 8 deadly words, new book with waitlist, way over-booked Probably not for me. May 05, Cristal Punnett rated it liked it Shelves: A great story with realistic characters and great mix of a spy novel and magical realism. I enjoyed the setting of Prague in winter. I enjoyed the different episodes written by different authors giving variations in writing styles.

The only downside was some repetition in each episode of the storyline. I would like to thank NetGalley for this copy. Sep 02, Julie Capell rated it really liked it Shelves: The typical spy thriller is usually confusing enough, with agents and double agents constantly changing sides until the reader just gives up on understanding what's going on and just ends up reading for the occasional bon mot or romantic encounter. At least that's what happens to me.

Caverns of the Snow Witch (book)

One might wonder at what point mashups will have jumped the shark or perhaps that milestone is kilometers behind us but I am very glad Serial Box took a leap of faith to produce this series. The fact that several incredibly talented writers came on board surely did not hurt the product. Several characters have decent arcs, confronting not only their prejudices but also their own self-image and entire world view. The plot really hums along, propelled by secrets both mundane and magic.

The witchcraft system feels integral to the story and the world; I could completely buy into the idea that the East-West battle was fought not only on the ground but also in the magical energy fields underlying Prague, Cairo, and apparently the entire planet. I anxiously await the next season of this unique and engaging series.

Mar 26, Tim Hicks rated it really liked it Shelves: Three, really, but I award an extra star for the concept, which should be encouraged. But not too often. I read it as a single unit, and I suspect if I'd been fed it in episodes I might have given up. If this seems long and tedious, wait till you read a real John Le Carre or equivalent. I am taking this one's length and pace as a tribute to those. Crossing a spy novel with magic is a great idea, although it can make for a tricky plot.

And I'm not sure about some of the characters - Sasha and Dom a Three, really, but I award an extra star for the concept, which should be encouraged. And I'm not sure about some of the characters - Sasha and Dom are just icky, and Zerena's a bit cartoonish until the end when things get real. Winthrop and Toms were annoying, but authors get to do that if they want. The conflicted Gabe was a good choice, well developed. The magic aspects were mostly good, although I never like to see golems -- they're too powerful and the author often ends up handcuffed.

The one here was dealt with better than in many books I've read. Maybe not if you've never read a spy novel. You need a base to appreciate this one. Jun 06, Rebecca rated it really liked it Shelves: Interesting structure, having been serialized with each chapter written by a different author. It's not flawless, but it works better than you might expect. Cold War witches in which there's both the Russians and the Westerners but also the Ice and the Flame, both of which are horribly mixed so your ally on one level is your enemy on another.

A lot of fun. Aug 08, OLeg89 rated it it was ok Shelves: The prospect of a Cold War era spy thriller in the fantasy genre excited me, when I first learned about this book, and indeed the premise remains one of the strongest aspects of the book. In Prague, secret agencies of all types wrest for knowledge and power; CIA, MI-6, The KGB--but there are two others operating even beyond the knowledge of the usual organizations, Ice and Flame, cabals of witches who have infiltrated other agencies and are working towards higher stakes--it's not just about the The prospect of a Cold War era spy thriller in the fantasy genre excited me, when I first learned about this book, and indeed the premise remains one of the strongest aspects of the book.

In Prague, secret agencies of all types wrest for knowledge and power; CIA, MI-6, The KGB--but there are two others operating even beyond the knowledge of the usual organizations, Ice and Flame, cabals of witches who have infiltrated other agencies and are working towards higher stakes--it's not just about the political landscape, it's about the fate of the world itself. There are a number of characters in this book, but the circle is kept relatively tight--though we follow a fairly large cast of perspective characters, they are generally the only characters in the book, aside from a few extras.

It helps keep the story from spilling over itself. Primarily, we follow Gabe Pritchard, an all-American CIA operative who, at some point in his past, had a little run in with something he can't explain, and now there's a hitchhiker in his head trying to get out, and it's affecting his work. On the KGB side, we have Tanya, who is also a witch for the Ice, attempting to extract a young woman of interest to the Ice before the Flame can get her.

Invariably, Gabe and Tanya's paths cross, and much of the tension of the book comes from them having to work together for the interests of Ice, while being enemies in their other agencies. This second layer of intrigue adds a nice twist on the usual spy story, in fact--it's not just about who might be an operative for another organization, but who might be a witch working against you. The characters themselves are fairly strong, due to all of them getting some time to carry the story.

There are diverse personalities playing off of each other, but there isn't generally anyone who comes across as incredibly unlikable or annoying, at least for me although Josh, Gabe's partner in the CIA, gets pretty frustrating. The book is also episodic, which was one of the most talked about features when I was looking into this book; some people hated it, while other people loved it.

I have never read a serial novel before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. If anything, I was surprised by how normal the book read. I don't read closely enough, I suppose, to really notice and be thrown by different authors writing certain episodes. To me, it just felt like one continuous tale, just like any other novel--perhaps with a few filler episodes thrown in. That said, the plot is largely the biggest knock against the book for me. By around the end of the book, when the characters are preparing for the ending, I got bored and started glancing over paragraphs until I got to something interesting.

The problem is pacing. The story never really builds to anything. Yes, there's an event in the last episode that feels like a "finale" but it's just so underwhelming that it didn't really work for me as a drawing together of the characters and conflicts of the books. It felt more like the authors knew they needed a set piece to finish off on, and delivered, but there was little heart or anticipation to it.

The best climaxes are the ones that force characters to overcome their differences, their prejudices, their obstacles, while tying up loose story threads and culminating in an emotional and physical pay-off. I could analyze why I don't think this book's climax accomplishes any of that, but to do so would require spending a lot more time talking about specific scenes and revelations. So I will just say that the climax doesn't really do much for tying up loose threads--it DOES feel like a logical continuation of the story at that point, but there are obviously a lot of relationships and subplots at play here--in a book where we get scenes from just about everyone's perspective, and everyone has at least three secrets stuck tightly to their chest--and nothing really gets wrapped up here.

It feels like the characters end the novel in much the same place as they started, albeit with certain new information that they didn't have before and which didn't come about from the climax. It's an annoying return to the status quo, and the climactic event feels relatively detached from the story itself.

And then the book just I assume there are more stories beyond this, that they've always intended for a "Season 2" but it's a bad television show that doesn't resolve many of the threads and conflicts by the end of Season 1 while hoping new, interesting conflicts will hook a viewer into Season 2.

I also blame the stakes of the novel, which more or less stay the same all the way throughout. We get a very early distinction between the Ice and Flame, that the former wants to preserve the world while the other wants to tear it apart.

While this binary is probably too simple we learn things about Ice, and we get some perspectives from Flame witches it also more or less informs the stakes of the novel: There are some moments of really good, personal stakes, but they almost always tie back into the Flame being victorious, and this looming threat of the Flame destroying the world.

It was hard for me to be invested in such a vague threat, especially when the subversions of the book taught me that it wasn't probably so simple. So when the final threat of the novel more or less is "if we don't stop this thing from happening, it brings the Flame one step closer to destroying the world," I was just bored.

Much of the novel's conflict also revolves around the question of "will they work together?

It's a good question to throw out once or twice, to make us really doubt things are going to go well, but this book asks that question far too many times, and never really changes its answer, so it loses its weight--especially when it's still asking that question in the last two episodes of the book. Finally, and this is perhaps the most dependent on my personal preference, but I cannot stand when a multiple-perspective story, just before a big event or revelation, switches to the perspective of someone who is either not present at that event, or does not have the information to understand the revelation.

There are quite a few scenes where a character will be about to unearth some secret, or will be pulling off an operation they've been building to for a few episodes, only for the narration to cut to another character who, at best, only gets to see the residual effects of that revelation or event. In some cases, we don't return to the original character for some time, and by then the character is living another day and isn't even thinking about what they've uncovered, so that the writers can reveal it later, from another character's perspective.

It felt cheap to me, and annoying. I had high hopes for this book, and I really did want to like it, going into it. A strong opening drew me in, and the cast of characters was intriguing and varied enough to keep me interested. But the book was average to me, without any sense of rising stakes or tension, capped off by an ending that felt obligatory and didn't really do anything for me. It's hard to make justifications for a book when I'm skipping pages in the last twenty, ready to finish and move on to something else. May 17, Tracey the Lizard Queen rated it really liked it Shelves: Well, I'm not really sure where to start with this particular title.

Spies and magic, what can I say? It was rather good. At least, it started out exceptionally good and then deteriorated slightly through the middle and didn't quite make up for it at the end. But still a good read. For me, the best thing about this book was the whole 'spy thing'. I love a great spy drama and this was up there with the best. It's not w 3. It's not without its flaws, some parts were more dragged out than I expected for something originally published as individual episodes.

So there were occasions where I thought there was a little too much focus on the environment and not enough on the characters. That being said, the descriptions of Prague are nothing short of magical. There were some issues with pacing as well, now I'm not sure if that's because it was written by several different authors, or if it's because this is a 'box set', or perhaps something else, but sometimes it felt somewhat disjointed.

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I was able to look past it though. This is a brilliantly crafted spy drama with some magic for good measure. Really enjoyed this novel, a strange mashup of a spy story and a supernatural story, written by a group of authors writing chapters turnabout, remarkably seamlessly. The authors included two of my favorites - Max Gladstone and Ian Tregillis, so it had a lot going for it from the beginning. There is an overall arc of a story involving the CIA trying to extract a Russian scientist from the grasp of the KGB during a scientific conference held in Prague. Then there is Prague itself as a background, Really enjoyed this novel, a strange mashup of a spy story and a supernatural story, written by a group of authors writing chapters turnabout, remarkably seamlessly.

Then there is Prague itself as a background, mostly in winter, where the cold seems almost to be another character, and the environmental details stack up to create an excellent feeling of realism, from the troublesome Moskvitch cars to the specialized language markings for Czech words. The edition I read I don't know if it's the only one available came from a company called SerialBox, and included post-it notes at certain junctures, post-it notes with interesting details and insight by the authors, which actually made me look at some of the writing in a new light.

The problem that agents of Ice and Flame face well, one of them is that their loyalties are often tested - do they cleave to the espionage service that employs them, or to the shadow organization with the long world view? Gabe works for the CIA, and, due to a previous magical incident, carries a "hitchhiker" inside his brain, effectively a second personality that wakes up at unforeseen moments to ruin his life. He is getting help for this from an Ice agent that happens to work for MI6. So will she help Gabe or will she hinder him?

Prague inserts itself into the story again, with ley lines crossing under a bar frequented by all spy agencies and also by the supernatural rivals.

Lots of great twists in the book lead it to a good conclusion, though it is easy to see a sequel being set up. Well worth a read. Honestly, for the first pages or so of this book, I was pretty close to abandoning it. The initial expectation was high - mixing Le Carre-esque cold war espionage with elemental magic seemed like simultaneously a novel yet obvious mix. Getting into it, however, was tough. The first stretch of the book is more heavily focused on the magic elements of the story rather than the spy aspect. Getting further in, it becomes clear its merely a case of introducing the reader to unfamiliar elements, Honestly, for the first pages or so of this book, I was pretty close to abandoning it.

Getting further in, it becomes clear its merely a case of introducing the reader to unfamiliar elements, before bringing in the familiar.

After that, it becomes a well-balanced interplay between the two. The fact that the magic shown in this story isn't all-powerful, nor are the characters always willing to abandon their patriotic ties in favour of magical allegiances, gives this story a wonderful symmetry with compelling conflict around every turn. The other part that made this a hard one to start was some of the writing - a lot of it has the clunky awkwardness you normally associate with middle-of-the-road YA novels.

“You will service myself and my men until sunrise”

If you can get your brain to shift gears, as mine did, you'll find a beautifully intricate plot populated with vivid characters. Besides, I'd rather read a good story written in an amateurish style than a boring story written with slick, proper, clinical precision. Mar 15, Jacqie rated it it was ok Shelves: This is a serial novel. I've tried about 3 different serial novels before this, and I think they just aren't for me. Too bad- this is an interesting idea!

The basic conceit is that in addition to the Cold War, there's a covert magical conflict going on between the Ice and the Flame. Agents from the Ice or Flame could be on either side of the Cold War, so a given person might find their allegiances conflicting if they are both an Ice agent and a Russian operative, for example. Seems like a recipe This is a serial novel.

Seems like a recipe for an interestingly twisty thriller. However, I didn't attach to the characters. The problem with serial novels is that there's not a lot of consistency between authors on characterization, so I never got a real feel for what the characters were supposed to be like. The other thing is that such a novel would be complicated enough with one author, much less with multiple ones playing with dual allegiances, double-crossing, and shifting goals. I'd read a whole book like this by Max Gladstone. But I don't want to work my way through all the different authors and interpretations here.

Gladstone seems to like doing these sorts of projects, but I'm going to remember not to get suckered in to reading one again. I wouldn't have ever picked this up if it wasn't sent to me, and I adored it. And more than a few, like Tanya and Nadia, who qualified as both. The writing was fantastic. I loved the multi-layered intrigue of politics, both in the non-magical world and the magical one. I loved the double agents. I love the way it is sectioned into 13 episodes. The idea is so cool. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a twist on their spy thrillers!

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I adore this book. I do anyone get my Keenan and Kel humor? I love the feel of this book. I love the heft of this book. I love the layout. I love the idea. It was a bit difficult for me to keep up with all of the different players and what agency they worked for and what secret society they belonged to and etc etc.

But I really loved the storyline, so much so t I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. But I really loved the storyline, so much so that I've already been looking into more serial box stories as well as this particular series' second season. This book didn't feel like it was set in the 70s at all.

There was no difference to me than today's life other than there's no mention of cellphones or internet.

But I certainly don't miss those things. I also thought the magic was a bit mundane, but that could be because I've recently read the Grisha Trilogy and other various fantasies. All in all, I was deeply impressed with this fast paced page turner. I highly recommend it. Witches, spys, cold war, could be a bit of silly fun, hey? After flying through the first few parts however, I was well and truly on board with this rocking little urban fantasy x cold war spy romp. Plus gay characters, POC, badass women to boot At the heart of the sorcerous fight is control of elementals found in human hosts around the world.

Gabriel Pritchard followed a spy into the wrong meeting, interrupted a major sorcery and ended up with a elemental stuffed into his head. At the same time the Golem of Prague has been set free and is trying to murder Gabe. Fun, but the spy parts are routine and the magical parts are too dark. Review printed by Philadelphia Weekly Press I've been looking forward to reading this for ages after seeing that Max Gladstone and Cassandra Rose Clarke were both involved, even though I'm honestly not big on spy thrillers.

And I enjoyed this enough that I'm definitely in for part two when it comes out.

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