The Witchwood Crown: Book One of The Last King of Osten Ard Tad Williams 9781473603240

'Fawless epic fantasy . . . An instant fantasy classic' - Kirkus

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Thirty years ago Ineluki, the Storm King, was destroyed and his armies scattered. Osten Ard has been at peace ever since, ruled by Simon Snowlock, kitchen boy made king, and Miriamele, King Elias' only child. But now age weighs upon their reign. Simon's dreams have deserted him, old allies die and betrayal and assassination threaten. His son and heir John Josua is years dead and his grandson, Morgan, is a wastrel. A journey of redemption and discovery beckons in the darkening world.

And in the frozen North, in Nakkiga, the mountain fortress, Ineluki's ally, the Norn Queen, wakes from her deep, decades-long sleep and tells her followers that she will sleep no more. Humanity must be destroyed. Her sorcerers will bring a demon back from death, her warriors will seek the world for living dragon's blood...

And finally the greatest artefact of all, the Witchwood Crown, will be hers.

With a cast of hundreds - humans, giants, dragons, trolls, Sithi and Norn - The Witchwood Crown is epic fantasy as it used to be: classic, grand and sweeping and evidence that Tad Williams is the greatest living writer of the form.

About the Author
Tad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages. His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the Otherland epic now plays as an MMO on steam.com. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house. @tadwilliams @mrstad

Reviews
This is flawless epic fantasy. . . Williams' grand-scale storytelling mastery is on full display here. Not just utterly readable-an instant fantasy classic. * Kirkus *
The Witchwood Crown is very well written, and the author clearly knows how to manage a story this vast without letting any part of it be sacrificed for another . . . Definitely recommend it to readers of epics like A Game of Thrones and The Wheel of Time series * Novelknight *
Williams' prose, characterization, and world-building are top-notch, as always, and the return to Osten Ard is so seamless . . . Williams' injects The Witchwood Crown with the same aged and thoughtful writing that gave the original trilogy its trademark air of melancholy, creating a lovely sense of reverberation for those of us who've grown up - and grown old - in this world * Barnes & Noble *
'The Witchwood Crown is a weighty, emotional and engrossing launch to The Last King of Osten Ard series . . . I was overjoyed to return to this world, the characters, and the type of story Tad Williams tells with the most skill and gusto * SFFWorld.com *
This book had me crying in the first 100 pages and yelling WHAT THE HECK throughout the last third as secrets were revealed, some characters turned out to be duplicitous, and the fates of others were not what I expected. Some of the twists were so surprising to me I had to go back and reread what I'd just read because I almost couldn't believe it! * Unicorn Parade *
Praise for Memory, Sorrow and Thorn * - *
One of my favourite fantasy series -- George R. R. Martin, author of A Game of Thrones
One of the main reasons I started writing fantasy . . . Tad Williams' work is an essential part of any science fiction and fantasy library -- Christopher Paolini, author of the Inheritance Cycle series
Ground-breaking . . . changed how people thought of the genre and paved the way for so much modern fantasy, including mine -- Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Kingkiller Chronicle



Book Information
ISBN 9781473603240
Author Tad Williams
Format Paperback
Page Count 736
Imprint Hodder Paperback
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Series Last King of Osten Ard
Weight(grams) 520g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 46mm