Of Sea and Shadow by Will Wight

I’ve been a fan of Will Wight’s work ever since I picked up House of Blades a couple of years ago. I devoured the rest of the Traveler’s Gate trilogy and moved on to his Cradle series, which was even better.

So far, The Elder Empire is shaping up to be his best work yet.

Of Sea and Shadow is one half of a pair of novels that make up the “first” entry in the Elder Empire series. The protagonists in each novel show up as the antagonists in the companion novel. That alone makes for an amazing series concept from a structural standpoint, but each novel is excellent on its own. You don’t need to read one to enjoy the other.

The story follows Calder Marten, a former thief who’s joined the guild of Navigators as a ship captain. He’s Soulbound to his ship, giving him the ability to control as an extension of his own body. And his ship has a giant Elder horror chained to the bottom, acting like a magical engine and defense system rolled into one.

In the five years since the immortal Emperor died, the empire has begun to fall into chaos. Calder is approached with the offer of a lifetime: obtain a priceless artifact that will allow a new Emperor to ascend and restore peace to the empire. The only catch? The guild of Consultants has been hired to stop him, and they’ve never failed a contract.

All of this makes for a compelling setup, especially when the protagonist from Of Shadow and Sea, Shera, is an elite assassin from the Consultants. But the world in which these stories take place is richly imaginative and just plain awesome.

What exactly are the “Elders” in the Elder Empire? If you’re familiar with the works of Lovecraft, Wight’s Elders are essentially eldritch horrors and monsters of the deep. The Great Elders sound truly horrifying, so it’s a good thing they all died out when the Emperor ascended to power. Unfortunately, death for an Elder is closer to sleeping. And that which sleeps shall soon wake…

Humanity’s greatest defense against these Elders and their Elderspawn is the magical power of Reading. Every time any object is used, it absorbs some intent from the user. Over time, this can make a rusted and chipped knife far more effective than a brand new blade. While everyone can imbue objects with intent, only Readers can shape that intent and read an object’s history by touching it. With enough intent, an object can eventually be Awakened, giving it additional powers and limited sentience.

Occasionally, it does feel like parts of Calder’s story are meant to be the background in Shera’s story. A few events feel like they are left unexplained in order to give more substance to the parallel plot. But these are mostly minor nitpicks in an otherwise excellent book, and the parallel structure adds to the enjoyment more often than not.

Of Sea and Shadow was an incredibly fun and fast read. These days, it’s not too often that you’ll find an Epic Fantasy book under 400 pages, but Wight has pulled it off in a way that just works. If you’re familiar with his other stories, you already have a good idea of what to expect here. And if you’re not, this is a fantastic place to jump into the interconnected worlds of Will Wight.

I recommend this book if you’re a fan of…

• The bizarre worldbuilding and flashback structure of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive
• Witty con artist characters who constantly stumble into situations out of their depth like in Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series
• Detailed magic systems intricately woven into the world like in Brent Weeks’s Lightbringer series