Lost Covenant by Ari Marmell
Note to self; Get the first two books in Ari Marmell’s WIDDERSHINS series, so that I am current on this fascinating character. If Lost Covenant is representative of this series, I’ll be in for a great time.
Widdershins is a young, snarky female thief from the city of Davillon. She is unusually skilled, not only at climbing, running and skulking, but also swordplay and even firing flintlocks. Widdershins has a bit of an edge over other humans, although it is a mixed blessing. A god lives in her head. True, Olgun is a “tiny” god, with only one follower currently, but he can give Widdershins boosts of magical power when she needs it. The two of them live in a precarious symbiosis; Olgun needs a follower to survive; Olgun’s magical strength depends, at least in part, on how healthy and focused Widdershins is, at any point in time.
Lost Covenant is the third book in this YA fantasy series, and takes place not in Davillon but in the city of Lourveaux. Here, Shins soons discovers that a noble house is plotting against the local branch of House Delacroix. Back in Davillon, Widdershins was taken in by a member of the Delacroix family, and she feels a certain loyalty to the Lourveaux clan even though she has never met any of them. Soon she is swept up in a multi-layered scheme involving betrayal, magic and alchemy. Meanwhile, in Davillon, old enemies are stalking her friends.
Marmell’s prose is brisk and funny. The book starts off a little slowly, with a bit too much forced banter and exposition, but by page 56 things start happening. Once they start, they never stop. Widdershins meets the Reeve (alderman or mayor) of Loureaux, and the entire local Delacroix family, including its coldly ruthless matriarch Calanthe. The youngest son of the family, Cyrille, quickly develops a crush on the young thief, but he actually does prove helpful in the end.
Much of the book’s humor comes from Shins’s one-sided dialogues with Olgun (we read her comments, not his, and her responses and reactions). There is a lot of banter, but the bond between these two is strong. Olgun and Widdershins both witnessed the horrible murders of all of Olgun’s other followers, and this trauma is part of their bond. Widdenshins is also the mistress of the dizzyingly circular comment, and it is fun to watch other characters try to parse these out, and often just give up and shrug.
“Trust me, I’ve dealt with these sorts of people a lot. You can always count on them to be stupid enough to use it against them, but not so stupid that they’re too stupid to use it against them.”
“I… you know what? Let’s just go.”
The villains are brutal and genuinely frightening. The alchemy plot was quite convoluted, but Marmell pulled it off, mainly by creating a compelling cat-and-mouse game between Cyrille and Widdenshins and the villains that took center stage.
While I am eager to know more about Widdenshins and her past, I did not feel lost coming in at the third book, which is a testament to Marmell’s control of his subject. Without knowing all the details, I still can tell immediately that what is happening back in Davillon is very bad news indeed, not only for Widdershins but for her friends, and probably the whole city.
Widdershins grows in this book. She comes to some realizations about herself and some past actions. She also comes to grips with some grim realities about doing what needs to be done, even if it means, in this case, killing — if that death is needed to keep others alive. This is not an easy dilemma. Marmell plays fairly and does not give Widdershins an easy out.
All in all, I was delighted by Lost Covenant, and look forward to getting caught up. I can’t wait to see just what Shins is up against, back in her home town.
Widdershins Adventures — (2012-2015) Young adult. Publisher: Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city’s aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces — human and other — stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder. Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon’s underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It’s not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it’s hers. But now, in the midst of Davillon’s political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she’s built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, something ancient is reaching out for her, a past that refuses to let her go. Widdershins and Olgun are going to find answers, and justice, for what happened to her — but only if those who almost destroyed her in those years gone by don’t finish the job first.
This sounds wonderful. I will put these on my list. Thanks, Marion!
I’ve had them on my TBR list for a while now. I’ve read some of Ari Marmell’s other books and he’s a darn good time.
Oddly, though my library system has all three books in this series, they’re scattered throughout the system at different libraries! Still, I can request them all and have them brought to my local library, so I have. Yay!
I read The Goblin Corps and The Conqueror’s Shadow (plan to read the next one, The Warlord’s legacy). Both are an easy 4 stars as far as entertainment value.
I’d consider Marmell’s books to be in the same vein as David Gemmell.
In many ways, Lost Covenant isn’t representative of the series as a whole. Of the four books, it’s the only one that doesn’t take place in Davillon, and doesn’t have terrifying supernatural monsters for Widdershins to face. But it stays true to the core of the series, which is Widdershins’… unique… personality, and her relationship with Olgun. If you like those, you’ll love the rest of the books.
You can’t feel the full impact of the epilogue without the first two books, though, so definitely read them first.