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10th out of 11 books
—
5 voters
Winter Witch
by
Elaine Cunningham (Goodreads Author)
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 Ellas...more
Paperback, First, 361 pages
Published
December 7th 2010
by Paizo Publishing
(first published September 29th 2010)
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I loved this book. A collaboration between Elaine Cunningham and Dave Gross,I found it had a depth of world-building and a sense of fun to rival any non-tie in fantasy novel. I was surprised that one of the inaugural titles for Pathfinder's tie-in line would open with such a graphic and gruesome description of childbirth. From the start, that opening established that this wasn't by-the-numbers fantasy. The northern cultures described were fascinating, the characters were great, the plot well-div...more
Pathfinder Tales: Winter Witch
by Elaine Cunningham
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Paizo Publishing, LLC. (December 7, 2010)
Language: English
Also available from publisher as a pdf/ePub
No age group mentioned kissing, mention of making love, violence.
Picked up book from publisher at BEA
No expectation and no remuneration received.
by Elaine Cunningham
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Paizo Publishing, LLC. (December 7, 2010)
Language: English
Also available from publisher as a pdf/ePub
No age group mentioned kissing, mention of making love, violence.
Picked up book from publisher at BEA
No expectation and no remuneration received.
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...more
Winter Witch was enjoyable, but it had a few issues that kept me from rating it higher. The setting felt fleshed out but that's mostly a given because this novel takes place in an established RPG campaign setting. The main characters were well written and had mostly clear motivations that made sense but almost everyone else (including the main antagonist) just sort of felt like they were to there only to provide precisely enough motivation necessary to keep the main characters on track for the e...more
I loved this book. A collaboration between Elaine Cunningham and Dave Gross,I found it had a depth of world-building and a sense of fun to rival any non-tie in fantasy novel. I was surprised that one of the inaugural titles for Pathfinder's tie-in line would open with such a graphic and gruesome description of childbirth. From the start, that opening established that this wasn't by-the-numbers fantasy. The northern cultures described were fascinating, the characters were great, the plot well-div...more
A marvelous tale for the most part. I found the characters to be colorful with robust personalities. The two main characters go through a great deal of growth by the time they reach the end. The slow reveal of their pasts and how they shapped who they are provided a wonderful insight to their motivations and reservations. I particularly liked the portrail of the witches/farie folk. Seemed to catch some of the classical views quite well to me. The story provided plenty of excitement and adventure...more
This is a novel set in the world of Pathfinder, the role-playing game. I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would, as we got it for free at a convention. The ending of the story was unexpected. The characters were sufficiently fleshed out and their goals were clear. There were a lot of story threads that were woven in toward the end, culminating in an adventure in the north with the winter witch. Now when I play Pathfinder games set in this area of the world, I am familiar with the typ...more
Okay, if you love twisty, turny plots in your fantasy, Winter Witch is a must read. Elaine Cunningham and Dave Gross have really pitched together to create something new for me; a novel in which I could not say, for certain, whom the primary protagonist is. To that, I say... Bravo!
Without spoilers, I have to say that the characters and plot in this novel carry something that is more than the story. The unbelievable fallibility of unconditional devotion, the inane incongruity of finding love whe...more
Without spoilers, I have to say that the characters and plot in this novel carry something that is more than the story. The unbelievable fallibility of unconditional devotion, the inane incongruity of finding love whe...more
Nothing spectacular but not bad either - it's about what you would expect from a "D&D novel." I've been reading the Pathfinder novels primarily to see how they're using the Golarion setting (I'm a fan of Paizo's RPG setting) - as such the first two have been decent enough, "beach" books. They're certainly nothing I would actively recommend nor even dream of reading more than once, but they're a good time-waster. Having recently reread the original Dragonlance novels (after 25 years), the Win...more
This book did not impress me much. The whole plot seemed terribly contrived to me. And a main character who was so above defeat always disappoints me as well. I felt like there were a lot of very convenient plot holes fixed with the main character's power. "How do they get out of THIS one? Oh, I'll just have him [spoiler omitted]." you're better off skipping this one.
This was a god story that started out very well. I particularly enjoyed the first chapter and all the time the characters spent in Korvosa. I did not like as much the chapters that were giving us a glimpse of the background story that started the adventure. Not that they were not well written, but they were placed between action intensive chapters and they were breaking the momentum. Besides that, the ending was ok although I feel that the escape from Whitethrone was a bit easy, the fight that c...more
Another solid & entertaining Pathfinder novel. This time our heroes are Ellasif, a young woman from the Land of the Linnorm Kings (vaguely Scandinavian/Russian northern region) and Declan Avari, whom she recruits to join her on a journey to her homeland for various reasons. Plenty of adventure and ice magic and some genuinely affecting moments.
I really enjoyed this book. It was the first of the Pathfinder Tales I've read and I found it to be an excellent introduction to the World of Golarion. Elaine Cunningham always focuses on the characters in her writing and I found myself really invested in both Ellasif and Declan.
1 like · like · see review
A great second novel in the Pathfinder series. Fun adventuring showing the ice realm of the witches. Reminded me of the fun of the early Waterdeep/Danilo novels. While the characters are different it fills the urge for more of their stories.
Winter Witch is a great book marred by a denouement that feels like the setup for a sequel. Cunningham's writing is so good that it seems the last chapter was written by someone else, and that may well be, since the title page lists a co-author. Despite the rushed ending, Winter Witch does an excellent job establishing Golarion's version of Slavic folklore.
Read more at facebook.com/dredspace
Read more at facebook.com/dredspace
Mostly read to understand more of the Pathfinder world, which it accomplished. Early setup was far more interesting than the climax.
May 01, 2011
Eddy
added it
Pretty good book. Excellent if you love RPG tie-in books or are interested in Pathfinder by Paizo Publishing.
Not bad for an RPG book, but not really good.
An enjoyable gaming novel. The best part was the middle part of the book where the group was traveling from Korvosa to Whitethrone. The ending felt a little rushed and was the weakest part of the book.
very good. really liked the character development.
May 24, 2013
Christopher
marked it as to-read
May 18, 2013
Wolfjack
added it
May 11, 2013
Kat
marked it as to-read
May 10, 2013
Victoria Zigler
marked it as to-read
May 07, 2013
Brennan
marked it as to-read
Apr 29, 2013
Ian
is currently reading it
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Elaine Cunningham is an American fantasy and science fiction author, especially known for her almost poetic literary style and her contributions to the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, including the realms of Evermeet, Halruaa,...more
More about Elaine Cunningham...
Elaine Cunningham is an American fantasy and science fiction author, especially known for her almost poetic literary style and her contributions to the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, including the realms of Evermeet, Halruaa,...more
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Jun 20, 2012 11:51am