Book Review: The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison
Fantasy: The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison
Katherine Addison created a world in The Goblin Emperor inhabited by goblins and elves. In her new novel The Witness for the Dead she returns to that world in a book that is beautiful and moving.
Thara Celehar now lives far away from the capital and the emperor’s palace, serving as a prelate to the god Ulis and as a witness for the dead. A witness for the dead has the power to touch the body of someone recently deceased and sometimes glean information from that person’s spirit. This gift has many limitations: for example, not every spirit cooperates, if the person died too long ago the voice cannot be heard, and often the information being sought (such as who murdered the victim) is not actually known by the victim him or herself. It is still a powerful gift, one that Celehar uses to assist those who ask for his help. He does not accept payment for his services beyond what his office provides. He is too honest to bribe and too humble to brag and too faithful to lie.
His calling does seem to put him into the middle of awkward situations. A family asks him to witness for their dead patriarch, hoping to settle a disputed will. A police officer asks him to witness for an unknown murder victim pulled from the river. A town some distance away needs help dealing with a dangerous ghoul that has started to cause trouble.
Being a witness for the dead comes with great responsibility and is a very serious calling. I absolutely loved Celehar. He is serious, thoughtful, pious, philosophical, and very aware of his own shortcomings. He is not tactful. He is not a people-person, at least not the ones who are still living. Frankly, most people are nervous around witnesses for the dead.
I have noted this before, but one of the failings of most writing is how it treats religion. Religion is used as a reason for violence or hatred, it is dismissed as being irrelevant or foolish, it is utterly ignored, it is seldom a central part of the story. The opposite is also true, sometimes books written by religious adherents are so focussed on presenting the case for their faith that they fail to tell a compelling story. Their characters are as ignorant of other faiths (or non-faith) as characters in more mainstream novels are of any religion.
The faiths in The Witness for the Dead are part of a fictional world, but Katherine Addison writes about them very seriously. There are competing faiths and various gods, there are devoted adherents and committed skeptics, there are factions and sects and differences in interpretation. What is lacking is mockery or judgment or disdain. In our world, faith can indeed lead people to foolishness and intolerance and rejection of science and common sense. Faith can also be a powerful force for good. In Addison’s work, Thara Celehar is shaped by his faith. His calling moves him to serve. His faith prevents him from using his office for personal advancement or profit. His personality is neither bold nor compelling, but his quiet determination to live out his faith and his calling for the good of others wins him friends and admirers. That kind of faith earns my respect and admiration whether in life or in literature.
The Witness for the Dead is a beautifully written and deeply thought out story. It is a fantasy. It is a mystery. Most of all, it is a man’s (well, half-goblin’s) journey of service and devotion, one that I hated to put down once I finished the last page.
Book Review: The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison