Wynter Moorehawke and her father have finally returned home. Called back after five years in the Northlands, they arrive exhausted and ill, desperate for healing and the sight of family and friends. But King Jonathon’s land is no longer the safe haven of Wynter’s memories, and the politics that ripple through the kingdom represent danger, betrayal, and choices that could lead to the deaths of everyone Wynter holds dear.

The Poison Throne is the first in a new trilogy and good enough to hold its own as a standalone novel and make the reader exceptionally happy that at least two more have been promised.  The setting, an alternate, slightly fantastic, version of medieval Europe is evoked with exquisite detail, and Celine Kiernan has peopled it with characters that fit their world and fascinate the reader.

The focus of this novel  is Wynter Moorehawke. Her exploration of the changes in the kingdom allow the reader to learn along with her, and her passionate defence of those she loves make her a compelling and compassionate window into her world. Fifteen years old, an excellent carpenter, and, above all, an adolescent girl, Wynter is protective of her friends and family and assured in the knowledge that she can navigate the world of the court.   The reality is, of course, infinitely more complicated, but watching Wynter struggle and grow adds an everyday energy to a complex and original story.

Wynter and her father have returned to a kingdom rife with danger and despair.  The King’s heir, Alberon, has fled, supposedly to plot a coup, and Razi, Wynter’s childhood friend (and the King’s illegitimate son), is being held hostage as the new heir, with his friends’ lives forfeit if he fights against his father’s wishes. Aside from Wynter and her father, the only person Ravi can trust is Christopher Garron, a young man with a mysterious past, and someone Wynter is not sure it is safe to rely on.

The story draws you in from the first; it is so easy to understand why Wynter, and her father, and Ravi, would fight to save the kingdom because Kiernan makes the love they feel for the country, and the love they once held for its king, a real breathing element in the novel.  When Wynter first returns home, she rejoices:

She left the horses, happy in their dim stalls, and quickly crossed the wavering heat of the redbrick stable yards. Her footsteps rang back at her from the stable buildings. Little swallows sliced the sunshine around her, darting moments of shadow in the shimmering air, and the sound of contented horses and the sweet and dreamy smell of dung soothed her.
Home, home, home.  It all sang to her, You’re home.

The plot is complicated, the details evocative, the characters compelling and fully drawn, Kiernan has created a world that fascinates and written a novel well worth reading and then re-reading, in order to make the wait for its sequel seem a least a bit shorter.

Bookmark to