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The Witch Watch
Gilbert has two problems. The first is that he died. The second is that he didn't stay dead. Now he's hunted by the Church, the cult that revived him, and Her Majesty's Department of Ethereal Affairs. Gilbert must keep his head long enough to save London, the Queen, and his brassy and opinionated mother from the forces of evil and good alike.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2012
About the author
Shamus Young
7 books19 followersShamus Young is a programmer specializing in old-school graphics techniques. He's the author of the blog Twenty Sided. He's the creator of the webcomics DM of the Rings and Stolen Pixels. He's one of the hosts of the videogame commentary series Spoiler Warning. He's tired of writing about himself in the third person.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 2, 2020
3.5 stars. Intriguing idea and plot, and I liked the characters.
March 25, 2012
*sigh* I really wanted to really like this book. And not just wanted, I expected I would — quite apart from being a fan of Shamus works in general, I positively devoured "Free Radical" and "How I Learned", and enjoyed them immensely (only gave them 4 stars because Goodreads won't allow 4.5).
His writing has always been short without being abrupt, flowing without being hard to follow and thorough without being needlessly verbose.
So it is with some trepidation that I have to come out and say that The Witch Watch left me with an impression of being more like a manuscript than an actual book. Or a children's book, maybe.
But let's get some of the good stuff down first, so that it doesn't seem like I didn't like the book (I did, just not as much as I had hoped). The story is interesting and gets going from page one — no enduring a long introduction before you "get to the good parts". The alternate history London/world is very well thought out, and shows itself unobtrusively, without long-winded exposition (a skillful application of the "show, don't tell" principle that's so important in Shamus' professional background — videogames). A strong, independant central female character is a bonus as well, and even more so because she's a reasonable strong, independent female character. Too many books have the tendency to equate independence and strength of will with stubborn recklessness.
So it's definitely worth a read, and if you're getting the $5 digital version, the money won't be wasted. That said, it's not all wine & roses...
Most of the dialogues seem awkward and stilted, and maybe as a consequence, almost none of the characters (with the exception of Gilbert's mother, interestingly) seemed not entirely fleshed out, like they were stuck partway between cardboard cutout story characters and real people. It gets better with time, but the feeling of them not quite being there never disappears entirely. Also, many instances of the spoken dialogue felt lacking an emotional "wrapping", i.e., an accompanying mention of the speaker's facial expression or body language.
The same "only sort of there" problem seems to afflict the world of the Witch Watch. For about the first two thirds of the book I was left with the feeling of watching a low-budget theater play, instead of experiencing part of a living, breathing world. I'm no literary critic so I can't readily point out the reasons for this, but until near the end, the world around the characters never seems to be very real, despite the obvious work that has gone into the world-building, from overall sociopolitical situation down to the scientific details of how the magic works. Only at the end, when more and more people get involved, does it all start to really come together and bring tho world to life.
There is one thing that might have affected my perception of the book, though. I was reading (listening to the audio book version of) Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross at the same time as reading The Witch Watch, so maybe some unconscious comparisons did take place. The Fiery Cross is much larger work, written with much more detail, not to mention a fifth book in a series with four books worth of world-and-character-building behind it. If compared side-by-side, The Witch Watch could unfairly appear somewhat rushed and simplified.
In summary, I think it would make a great children's book, especially for kids who are into action-packed adventure stories, and at $5 it's well worth the price. Just don't get into it with high expectations.
His writing has always been short without being abrupt, flowing without being hard to follow and thorough without being needlessly verbose.
So it is with some trepidation that I have to come out and say that The Witch Watch left me with an impression of being more like a manuscript than an actual book. Or a children's book, maybe.
But let's get some of the good stuff down first, so that it doesn't seem like I didn't like the book (I did, just not as much as I had hoped). The story is interesting and gets going from page one — no enduring a long introduction before you "get to the good parts". The alternate history London/world is very well thought out, and shows itself unobtrusively, without long-winded exposition (a skillful application of the "show, don't tell" principle that's so important in Shamus' professional background — videogames). A strong, independant central female character is a bonus as well, and even more so because she's a reasonable strong, independent female character. Too many books have the tendency to equate independence and strength of will with stubborn recklessness.
So it's definitely worth a read, and if you're getting the $5 digital version, the money won't be wasted. That said, it's not all wine & roses...
Most of the dialogues seem awkward and stilted, and maybe as a consequence, almost none of the characters (with the exception of Gilbert's mother, interestingly) seemed not entirely fleshed out, like they were stuck partway between cardboard cutout story characters and real people. It gets better with time, but the feeling of them not quite being there never disappears entirely. Also, many instances of the spoken dialogue felt lacking an emotional "wrapping", i.e., an accompanying mention of the speaker's facial expression or body language.
The same "only sort of there" problem seems to afflict the world of the Witch Watch. For about the first two thirds of the book I was left with the feeling of watching a low-budget theater play, instead of experiencing part of a living, breathing world. I'm no literary critic so I can't readily point out the reasons for this, but until near the end, the world around the characters never seems to be very real, despite the obvious work that has gone into the world-building, from overall sociopolitical situation down to the scientific details of how the magic works. Only at the end, when more and more people get involved, does it all start to really come together and bring tho world to life.
There is one thing that might have affected my perception of the book, though. I was reading (listening to the audio book version of) Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross at the same time as reading The Witch Watch, so maybe some unconscious comparisons did take place. The Fiery Cross is much larger work, written with much more detail, not to mention a fifth book in a series with four books worth of world-and-character-building behind it. If compared side-by-side, The Witch Watch could unfairly appear somewhat rushed and simplified.
In summary, I think it would make a great children's book, especially for kids who are into action-packed adventure stories, and at $5 it's well worth the price. Just don't get into it with high expectations.
March 14, 2012
Let's get this out of the way first: The Witch Watch is a self-published book. I found it because I'm a fan of Shamus Young's blog. So, I wasn't necessarily expecting the same quality as a book released by a major publisher. Well, I'll say this—as far as formatting and proofreading (hallmarks of bad self-pub books) The Witch Watch is on par with any professional offering. And as for the story...you'll just have to read on.
Warning: there are some minor unmarked spoilers in the text that follows, although I do keep my comments very general and/or confined to the early parts of the book.
The Witch Watch is a comedic romp through a Victorian England where magic exists and the dead can be raised as zombie-like abominations. That's what happened to Gilbert. Except that it was all a mistake; it was supposed to be a powerful wizard, Lord Mordaunt, who got raised. Now Gilbert has to contend with Lord Mordaunt's cult-like followers, the zealously anti-magic church—and, of course, the "Witch Watch", the royal ministry tasked with investigating and defending against malicious magic. But Gilbert is not an evil abomination, he's just a guy trying to do right by the world. When he learns that the "vigor" (a sort of life force or essence) that revived him came from the Princess Sophie, he is determined to get it back to her.
Along the way we get to know Simon, the young sorcerer who raised Gilbert, who is both more and less than he seems. And Alice, daughter of the Witch Watch's founder, who is herself a magic user and has a very clinical approach to magic. As Gilbert regains his memories (they were lost due to his time as a corpse) we are treated to flashbacks to the time before his death, and slowly discover how it was that he was reanimated in place of Lord Mordaunt.
There's nary a dull moment in the book, as Gilbert's adventures take him across England (and beyond). The alternate history with its unique magic system and the organizations that surround them are carefully drawn. Clearly they were deeply thought out, but by and large the explanations are interesting and used to drive the story forward. And for all the high drama, the book is at its heart a comedy. Reading the banter between the characters is a pleasure whether they're debating how to escape their latest predicament or ruminating on what to have for breakfast.
Still, the book falls short for me in a few ways. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at how ready Gilbert is to give up his (un)life for a princess he's never met. At best it was a missed opportunity for more character depth, and at worst it chips away at the reader's belief in the character. And there were other ways the characters lacked complexity. For instance, without spoiling too much,
But all books have their flaws, and in this one the good more than outweighed the bad. In other words, I'm glad I read it. (That's more than I can say about plenty of traditionally published books.) If you're inclined toward light historical fantasy, I think you'd like it too.
Warning: there are some minor unmarked spoilers in the text that follows, although I do keep my comments very general and/or confined to the early parts of the book.
The Witch Watch is a comedic romp through a Victorian England where magic exists and the dead can be raised as zombie-like abominations. That's what happened to Gilbert. Except that it was all a mistake; it was supposed to be a powerful wizard, Lord Mordaunt, who got raised. Now Gilbert has to contend with Lord Mordaunt's cult-like followers, the zealously anti-magic church—and, of course, the "Witch Watch", the royal ministry tasked with investigating and defending against malicious magic. But Gilbert is not an evil abomination, he's just a guy trying to do right by the world. When he learns that the "vigor" (a sort of life force or essence) that revived him came from the Princess Sophie, he is determined to get it back to her.
Along the way we get to know Simon, the young sorcerer who raised Gilbert, who is both more and less than he seems. And Alice, daughter of the Witch Watch's founder, who is herself a magic user and has a very clinical approach to magic. As Gilbert regains his memories (they were lost due to his time as a corpse) we are treated to flashbacks to the time before his death, and slowly discover how it was that he was reanimated in place of Lord Mordaunt.
There's nary a dull moment in the book, as Gilbert's adventures take him across England (and beyond). The alternate history with its unique magic system and the organizations that surround them are carefully drawn. Clearly they were deeply thought out, but by and large the explanations are interesting and used to drive the story forward. And for all the high drama, the book is at its heart a comedy. Reading the banter between the characters is a pleasure whether they're debating how to escape their latest predicament or ruminating on what to have for breakfast.
Still, the book falls short for me in a few ways. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at how ready Gilbert is to give up his (un)life for a princess he's never met. At best it was a missed opportunity for more character depth, and at worst it chips away at the reader's belief in the character. And there were other ways the characters lacked complexity. For instance, without spoiling too much,
But all books have their flaws, and in this one the good more than outweighed the bad. In other words, I'm glad I read it. (That's more than I can say about plenty of traditionally published books.) If you're inclined toward light historical fantasy, I think you'd like it too.
May 31, 2022
Decent overall, but I found myself longing for a bit more humor than was offered. I think using a historical setting rather than a fantasy one was my biggest issue, I'm not sure what was gained by using the real world over something original. When the story started in "Ravenstead" I assumed this was set in a generic fantasy MMO world, and as the book progressed I never completely shook the feeling that it should have been. The characters were interesting, but I'm not sure any of them learned anything, so the story felt a little like an episode to me, if that makes sense: the kind of thing you'd see in book ten of a series, where all of the characters are set in stone and no one will stomach major changes to the formula. Solid, but a little flawed.
October 14, 2020
An interesting twist on necromancy, alternating between the revenant's present and his past history. The ending was rather unexpected, in that convention was defied in the matter of life and death, whilst being upheld so far as evil being defeated and the status quo maintained. I rather enjoyed this variation on a theme.
April 21, 2012
Shamus Young is one of my favorite bloggers and a terrifically talented writer, so I was very excited for his Victorian magical steampunk-ish novel, The Witch Watch. Alas, I was disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high, particularly for a first (original) novel, but I didn’t feel that The Witch Watch was as strong as Free Radical, Shamus’s “fan” novel of System Shock. After some thought, I realized why. It’s because The Witch Watch doesn’t play to Shamus’s strengths.
By far, Shamus’s biggest strength as a writer is description, particularly in terms of setting and mood. He’s very talented when it comes to conveying emotion, particularly his own. Unfortunately, it turns out that Shamus’s biggest weakness as a fiction writer is dialogue, and The Witch Watch has a lot of dialogue. A lot. The dialogue itself is frequently stilted, mostly because of the second major flaw of the work (discussed below), but it’s also handled poorly from a technical perspective; he uses too many unconventional dialogue tags. About 95% of dialogue tags should be either “said” or “asked”, and the rest should be standard ones like “shouted” or “whispered”. Unconventional tags like “admitted” should be used sparingly. New writers tend to think it’s uncreative or repetitive to use “said” all the time, but to paraphrase How Not to Write a Novel, the reason authors use “said” is that the reader glosses right over it. If your character asseverates something, expect your reader to lose immersion. Shamus also makes the equally common mistake of not enough dialogue tags in a few places; no reader wants to have to go back to the last dialogue tag and start counting off paragraphs to figure out who’s talking on the next page.
The second major weakness of the book is language. The Witch Watch is set in Victorian England (well, a version of Victorian England where magic exists), but it isn’t written in Victorian English (nor, thankfully, is it written in 21st century American English). It’s written in a painful hybrid that, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or 99% of Harry Potter fanfiction, is clearly written by someone working in a dialect of English that isn’t his own. It’s hard to point to specific places where this showed through, but for me at least, the contrast between setting and language was so stark that I had a lot of difficulty becoming fully immersed in the story. (Contrast Patricia C. Wrede’s A Matter of Magic, which is set in Regency-England-plus-magic but doesn’t have this problem.)
And that was a shame, because The Witch Watch is an original story with engaging characters. Shamus’s system of magic is well-thought-out and internally consistent, and the plot is exciting and interesting. I’m trying to avoid spoilers, so I won’t discuss it further here, but I was very definitely not bored at any point! I liked all three of the protagonists, and secondary characters like the patron of the Witch Watch added a lot of flavor to the story. The villains, both minor and major, were also inspired; I really enjoyed cheering for their downfall. The story leaves the possibility of a sequel open, which would be great.
In short, while I was disappointed by The Witch Watch, I do still recommend it for fans of low fantasy, steampunk-y stories. It’s good value for your $5.
Update: The above is more-or-less the review I posted on my blog. I do have some additional thoughts. One is an unoriginal observation; someone in Shamus's comments pointed out that the major characters don't have arcs. They are generally the same people at the end of the book that they were at the beginning. I agree, and I think that contributes to the book's episodic feeling. It doesn't feel like a self-contained novel. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there it is.
My other thought is that the comments to Shamus's various posts about The Witch Watch revealed that while Shamus's readership (or commentership, actually) is extraordinarily well-read in science fiction, they do not read a lot of Victorian fiction, either fiction written during that period or historical fiction set during that period, and Shamus himself is not a wide-ranging reader. The latter explains why the language is so "off" - Shamus hasn't read enough in the time period he's describing to know how people really talked. (Heyer, for example, obsessively read every primary source [letters, diaries, etc.] she could get her hands on in order to get her Regency-era dialogue just right.) And the former explains why I was lukewarm on so many aspects of the book that other people got really excited about. Moxley, for example - I do think Shamus did a great job with him, and he's clearly original. What he is not is unique. I would be hard-pressed to name an historical fiction novel set in England that doesn't have a "fop" character like Moxley. So it was a little bizarre for me to read so many commenters gushing over how unique Moxley was. To me, he's a stock character.
Anyway, all that said, I do still recommend the book to people who like low fantasy.
By far, Shamus’s biggest strength as a writer is description, particularly in terms of setting and mood. He’s very talented when it comes to conveying emotion, particularly his own. Unfortunately, it turns out that Shamus’s biggest weakness as a fiction writer is dialogue, and The Witch Watch has a lot of dialogue. A lot. The dialogue itself is frequently stilted, mostly because of the second major flaw of the work (discussed below), but it’s also handled poorly from a technical perspective; he uses too many unconventional dialogue tags. About 95% of dialogue tags should be either “said” or “asked”, and the rest should be standard ones like “shouted” or “whispered”. Unconventional tags like “admitted” should be used sparingly. New writers tend to think it’s uncreative or repetitive to use “said” all the time, but to paraphrase How Not to Write a Novel, the reason authors use “said” is that the reader glosses right over it. If your character asseverates something, expect your reader to lose immersion. Shamus also makes the equally common mistake of not enough dialogue tags in a few places; no reader wants to have to go back to the last dialogue tag and start counting off paragraphs to figure out who’s talking on the next page.
The second major weakness of the book is language. The Witch Watch is set in Victorian England (well, a version of Victorian England where magic exists), but it isn’t written in Victorian English (nor, thankfully, is it written in 21st century American English). It’s written in a painful hybrid that, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or 99% of Harry Potter fanfiction, is clearly written by someone working in a dialect of English that isn’t his own. It’s hard to point to specific places where this showed through, but for me at least, the contrast between setting and language was so stark that I had a lot of difficulty becoming fully immersed in the story. (Contrast Patricia C. Wrede’s A Matter of Magic, which is set in Regency-England-plus-magic but doesn’t have this problem.)
And that was a shame, because The Witch Watch is an original story with engaging characters. Shamus’s system of magic is well-thought-out and internally consistent, and the plot is exciting and interesting. I’m trying to avoid spoilers, so I won’t discuss it further here, but I was very definitely not bored at any point! I liked all three of the protagonists, and secondary characters like the patron of the Witch Watch added a lot of flavor to the story. The villains, both minor and major, were also inspired; I really enjoyed cheering for their downfall. The story leaves the possibility of a sequel open, which would be great.
In short, while I was disappointed by The Witch Watch, I do still recommend it for fans of low fantasy, steampunk-y stories. It’s good value for your $5.
Update: The above is more-or-less the review I posted on my blog. I do have some additional thoughts. One is an unoriginal observation; someone in Shamus's comments pointed out that the major characters don't have arcs. They are generally the same people at the end of the book that they were at the beginning. I agree, and I think that contributes to the book's episodic feeling. It doesn't feel like a self-contained novel. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there it is.
My other thought is that the comments to Shamus's various posts about The Witch Watch revealed that while Shamus's readership (or commentership, actually) is extraordinarily well-read in science fiction, they do not read a lot of Victorian fiction, either fiction written during that period or historical fiction set during that period, and Shamus himself is not a wide-ranging reader. The latter explains why the language is so "off" - Shamus hasn't read enough in the time period he's describing to know how people really talked. (Heyer, for example, obsessively read every primary source [letters, diaries, etc.] she could get her hands on in order to get her Regency-era dialogue just right.) And the former explains why I was lukewarm on so many aspects of the book that other people got really excited about. Moxley, for example - I do think Shamus did a great job with him, and he's clearly original. What he is not is unique. I would be hard-pressed to name an historical fiction novel set in England that doesn't have a "fop" character like Moxley. So it was a little bizarre for me to read so many commenters gushing over how unique Moxley was. To me, he's a stock character.
Anyway, all that said, I do still recommend the book to people who like low fantasy.
October 21, 2020
#Readathon2020 - eBooks
My Readathon 2020 so far
My Readathon 2020 so far
December 15, 2020
An older book that I picked up at my Little Free Library. Thoroughly enjoyed the writing and plot.
June 13, 2012
I want to say 3 and half stars, but I'll spot you half a star for being a new author, and for actually writing and publishing a book.
I enjoyed this. Reminded me a bit of Pratchet in its self-mocking humor. The plot was interesting, and managed the nice trick of letting me guess what was going on long before the characters did, without my feeling like they were idiots for not getting it.
The problem I have is that the characters and their arcs feel a bit shallow. And I actually ascribe this to the genre at least as much as to the author; seems like whenever anyone tries to do Victorian-era fiction - steampunk or not - we get a lot of caricature not character. Various stereotypes saying British things like "Cheerio" and "Pip pip", and sounding like Oscar Wilde characters. For all I know they actually said things like that in Victorian England, but it doesn't matter; realism does not always equal believable - the characters end up feeling flat. Funny, but fake.
But overall this was a fun read, just not deep. And I don't think it was ever intended as anything else.
I enjoyed this. Reminded me a bit of Pratchet in its self-mocking humor. The plot was interesting, and managed the nice trick of letting me guess what was going on long before the characters did, without my feeling like they were idiots for not getting it.
The problem I have is that the characters and their arcs feel a bit shallow. And I actually ascribe this to the genre at least as much as to the author; seems like whenever anyone tries to do Victorian-era fiction - steampunk or not - we get a lot of caricature not character. Various stereotypes saying British things like "Cheerio" and "Pip pip", and sounding like Oscar Wilde characters. For all I know they actually said things like that in Victorian England, but it doesn't matter; realism does not always equal believable - the characters end up feeling flat. Funny, but fake.
But overall this was a fun read, just not deep. And I don't think it was ever intended as anything else.
October 9, 2013
Unlike a lot of other reviewers, I wasn't familiar with Shamus Young before I picked up this book (my husband was, and recommended the book to me). I thought it was enjoyable, funny, peopled with interesting characters, and made good use of the historical setting. For me, it lagged a little in the middle, and there were a couple of suggestive conversations I could have done without, but overall it was a good story. I don't do the "for a self-published novel" thing, because these days there's no reason a self-published novel can't be just as good as a traditionally published one. I thought this one held its own against plenty of other stuff I see on the bookshelves.
June 18, 2015
I've been a fan of Shamus' blog for years and enjoyed his Static Shock online novel a great deal as well so I had pretty high expectations from this novel. I wasn't disappointed. The book itself is of nice quality - great for reading on the train. The content though is excellent. A quick read but interesting, engaging and funny.
If you'd like to support a small, independent author who churns out quality content at ridiculously reasonable prices so that you get far more value than you expected - this is the book for you. The universe this is set in is excellent as well. I sort of hope there are further works in it.
If you'd like to support a small, independent author who churns out quality content at ridiculously reasonable prices so that you get far more value than you expected - this is the book for you. The universe this is set in is excellent as well. I sort of hope there are further works in it.
April 9, 2012
I bought it because I know the author's sister, and obviously she proudly told us all about it. :)
Honestly, though - I enjoyed it. I thought it was relatively well written (I could've used a little more character development and a little less stereotypical aspects to the characters, though). That being said, the storyline was fun and unique, and I enjoyed the premise. I also enjoyed the alternate England - that was a lot of fun, and I think there's a lot of room to grow in that "world" - even without the characters that were identified in this book. I'd like to see more of that!
Honestly, though - I enjoyed it. I thought it was relatively well written (I could've used a little more character development and a little less stereotypical aspects to the characters, though). That being said, the storyline was fun and unique, and I enjoyed the premise. I also enjoyed the alternate England - that was a lot of fun, and I think there's a lot of room to grow in that "world" - even without the characters that were identified in this book. I'd like to see more of that!
January 27, 2013
I bought this book because the author created one of the funniest web comics I've read: DM of the Rings...it is a self-published book, so I was curious about how it would measure up to other commercial things I'd read in the genre (fantasy). I was very pleasantly surprised to find a fun, well-thought out tale with interesting characters and an un-predictable plot. I hope to see more in this vein from Mr. Young in the future.
September 17, 2012
A fun and reasonably light read, with a great story that doesn't get too bogged down in details or endless exposition. Endearing characters with selfless motives are perhaps a little holier-than-thou, but nonetheless are engaging and extremely likeable. Definitely had a great time reading this book, and looking forward to the possibility of another.
April 18, 2016
I had originally started on Witch Watch back when it came out, but got derailed from finishing it. Having finally done so, I can say it's a solid light fantasy/steampunk novel. Shamus Young writes with a touch of Pratchett-esque humour and full command of the English language. The story moves steadily forward, and takes some unexpected turns along the way.
May 30, 2013
I enjoyed The Witch Watch. I've been reading the author's blog for several years now, and I've always appreciated his style. That being said, it's not a perfect book. The characterization sometimes fell flat, and the ending felt a bit contrived. Not bad for a first outing, though.
June 23, 2013
Aw, damn.
June 12, 2012
Yllättävän tylsä. Lukemisessa meni aikaa, kunnes loppuvaiheessa oikeasti alkoi tapahtua, ja siinäkin vaiheessa ratkaisut turhan helppoja kohdeyleisöön nähden. Lopetuksesta pidin.
October 4, 2012
Some serious "first book" issues make this a clunky but overall enjoyable read.
September 11, 2012
This was a really clever story and I enjoyed reading it. If he writes a sequel, I will definitely read through this one again before reading the sequel.
May 3, 2019
Gilbert has two problems. The first is that he died. The second is that he didn't stay dead. Now he's hunted by the Church, the cult that revived him, and Her Majesty's Department of Ethereal Affairs. Gilbert must keep his head long enough to save London, the Queen, and his brassy and opinionated mother from the forces of evil and good alike.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews