Witchbringer - Steve Fischer

[Knockagh]

Going out on a bit of a limb here as I’m only about a third of the way through, but with my 40K reading being at an all time low I could take me a while to finish it. So far though I couldn’t recommend this highly enough. Great read. Cheap purchase as it’s a paperback release and it’s still available! Great topic and well put together.

[theSpirea]

Was thinking creating this thread but since I'm also only at the beginning wasn't sure if I should.

 

Agree with Knockagh, and some of my friends finished it and all of them loved it, I do recommend it as well. It's author's first novel so the number of sold copies is important, please do buy it to support him.

 

Here's the first interview Track of Words did with Steven: https://www.trackofwords.com/2022/09/07/author-spotlight-steven-b-fischer/

And here's more detailed one where they discuss the books in more details: https://www.trackofwords.com/2022/12/02/rapid-fire-steven-b-fischer-talks-witchbringer/

 

The first interview sold me the book and zero regrets so far. I can't thank enough Track of Words for all the BL related stuff. This is exactly what GW/BL should be doing. This is how you promote your books

Edited December 3, 2022 by theSpirea

[Never_born]

55 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

Was thinking creating this thread but since I'm also only at the beginning wasn't sure if I should.

 

Agree with Knockagh, and some of my friends finished it and all of them loved it, I do recommend it as well. It's author's first novel so the number of sold copies is important, please do buy it to support him.

 

Here's the first interview Track of Words did with Steven: https://www.trackofwords.com/2022/09/07/author-spotlight-steven-b-fischer/

And here's more detailed one where they discuss the books in more details: https://www.trackofwords.com/2022/12/02/rapid-fire-steven-b-fischer-talks-witchbringer/

 

The first interview sold me the book and zero regrets so far. I can't thank enough Track of Words for all the BL related stuff. This is exactly what GW/BL should be doing. This is how you promote your books

Glad you enjoyed the interviews! I’m not covering that much BL stuff on Track of Words these days, but it was a pleasure to chat to Steve, he’s a great guy. And I agree re. Witchbringer, it’s an excellent Guard novel! I hope it gets a really good reception, it certainly deserves to. 

[Ubiquitous1984]

5 hours ago, Never_born said:

Glad you enjoyed the interviews! I’m not covering that much BL stuff on Track of Words these days, but it was a pleasure to chat to Steve, he’s a great guy. And I agree re. Witchbringer, it’s an excellent Guard novel! I hope it gets a really good reception, it certainly deserves to. 

Your reduced BL content is a massive shame Michael.  I understand the reasons why, but your website was literally the best BL related website on the entire internet when you were churning out all your brilliant content.  Only recently I found myself using your reading order lists for my foray into the 40K Blood Angel books!

[Never_born]

16 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

Your reduced BL content is a massive shame Michael.  I understand the reasons why, but your website was literally the best BL related website on the entire internet when you were churning out all your brilliant content.  Only recently I found myself using your reading order lists for my foray into the 40K Blood Angel books!

 

Thanks mate, appreciate you saying that. It's such a shame that BL/GW isn't interested in actively promoting their books or trying to grow their readership - I'll never understand why they leave it up to enthusiastic readers to try and build hype and get people talking. Shouldn't have to be up to us, but I'm glad I've been able to help spread the word a bit.

 

Good to know the reading order articles are still useful :) Every now and then I consider writing a few more of those...but then I think about how much work they take, and about how many other publishers are out there who actively want to work with reviewers/bloggers etc. and I figure I'm better off putting my time and energy into other things. Maybe one day, we'll see. 

[Taliesin]

Just wanna chip in and say I enjoyed these interviews as well, plus also the one you did with Matt Farrar on Urdesh recently, it was good questions.

[Never_born]

9 hours ago, Taliesin said:

Just wanna chip in and say I enjoyed these interviews as well, plus also the one you did with Matt Farrar on Urdesh recently, it was good questions.

Really glad you enjoyed the Urdesh interviews, thanks for letting me know! Matthew and I worked really hard putting those together, so it’s great to know they went down well! I do enjoy that sort of really long interview, it’s great to talk about things in depth. Might do more of those in future, if I can find authors up for doing them!

[cheywood]

There’s been a number of Guard novels released this year, including 4 from newer authors. Personally I haven’t been amazed by any of the titles, but they’ve all been good fun. This might be the best of the bunch. It’s a bleak, thematically resonant portrait of war, the warp, and how much the Imperium demands from its servants. If you enjoyed Peter McLean’s short stories this has a similar approach, though it is a little less bitterly cynical in its philosophy. 
 

This is a story of how it feels to return home and of how it feels to be a Psyker in an empire that both hates and needs you. It’s highly focused on its protagonist, Glavia Aerand, and the world she finds herself on. You get a heavy dosage of atmosphere, a lot of personal insight into what being a Primaris Psyker feels like, a somewhat interesting mystery at the core of the plot (I only really engaged with it at the end) and some engaging but relatively familiar commentary on the Imperium.

 

The prose - terse, but atmospheric. Fischer spends little to no time on the culture of Visage and the logistics/tactics of the Cadian 900th, focusing instead on how it feels for the characters to experience life on a mist-wrapped swamp world inundated with psykers. I personally wasn’t blown away by it from a sentence/imagery perspective, but there are some snappy lines of dialogue and a consistent sense of dread/uncertainty that fits the story. One odd thing is that Fischer sometimes repeats character details unnecessarily. Not a big thing, but I noticed a few redundant sentences throughout the book as a result.

 

The Plot - I’m torn on this - I found the premise somewhat contrived but enjoyable, the middle a little slow to develop, and the ending rushed but still quite engaging. In the future I wouldn’t mind Fischer giving more time to a side plot or two. Characters outside of Glavia felt very ancillary at times.

 

The Characters - like the plot I’m torn on this. Glavia is easy to empathize with but also a little unrealistically naive in a manner I found kinda YA. I generally loathe the genre and anything I associate with it, but it works okay here. The supporting characters ended up being interesting by the time I finished the book, but Fischer doesn’t do a very good job developing them over the course of the novel. Something to improve in future works hopefully. One consistent standout was the dialogue. It’s believable, sometimes a little funny and sometimes a little sharp. 

 

Themes - Fischer does a good job executing on his themes. I especially like the way it portrays psykers as standing on a line between the demands of service and the temptation of the warp, and that in the end, whatever side you choose, the result is exploitation. Obviously nothing new for 40k, but Fischer personifies it in Glavia and thus makes it very relatable. No mustache twirling nonsense or pretensions of great nobility here.  
 

Action - not something I normally make a note of, but I think Fischer’s action scenes need improvement compared to BL’s average. They do a decent job communicating the chaos of war, but they lack tension and seem to display very little in the way of tactical knowledge. Stuff just kinda happens. As it stands they work fine for a novel centered on the personal experiences of Glavia and a few other characters, but I can’t seem them working well in books with large scale fighting or more martially inclined characters. 
 

edit to add: I hate Harry Potter, but Fischer could easily do a cool grimdark Harry Potter knock-off set in the Scholastica Psykana. 
 

Overall: 8 - to taste. It’s far from the most fun I’ve had with a BL novel this year, but I really respect the story Fischer’s told. Interested to see what he comes up with next. 
 

Edited December 9, 2022 by cheywood

[aa.logan]

Took me a while to read, but I don’t think it was the book’s fault.

 

It’s setting has echoes of Ferhervari’s Fire Caste, and it’s written like a John French novel. The first of which I adored, the second I sometimes stylistically struggle with.

 

In looking at how psykers fit into Imperial society and the guard in particular, it’s really interesting- that she’s returned to her regiment emphasises her outsider status really effectively. 
 

One odd moment in the book though- I’m either misinterpreting it or it features someone crossing themself rather than making the Aquila upon hearing bad news- an editing mistake?

[Sothalor]

Could be an editing mistake, or it could be a shorthand descriptor for the motions in forming an aquila one-handed. You would have to cross over your center of gravity to mark the outstretched wing tips at any rate.

 

Occam's Razor would put it down to just a habitual phrase by the author and editing process.