Raine, Sanvaunt, Liara, and Castus all return from the failed diplomatic mission. All are traumatized by the loss of their fellow apprentice. Raine and Castus deal with the deaths they’ve caused by self-medicating. Raine likes her rose-thistle, and Castus prefers wine. On the other hand, Sanvaunt and Liara are rehearsing a play. And we know from the first book that Sanvaunt writes as well. I can’t help but see the contrast between the four returning characters as commentary. Sanvaunt and Liara’s art helps them cope as much as Raine and Castus’s self-medication.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing for an advance copy of the second book in a a very promising fantasy series dealing with growing up, politics dark magic, love, relationships, and secret enemies who want to tear it all down.

Customer reviews

Ed McDonald has, once again, presented an excellent fantasy adventure in a world that parallels our own. With a Scotland-inspired protagonist who rivals Brave‘s princess Merida, Traitor of Redwinter is an incredibly solid second entry for this series. Greater depth is given to all of our returning characters, and the world is fleshed out considerably more. Political intrigue, romance, violence, and magic blend brilliantly. I love the time I’ve spent in this world, and I look forward to hearing the audio version of this one as well. Light Above, the stench of it,’ Castus said. He put a handkerchief up against his nose, but I doubted it would do much good. On the road he’d got into some kind of pissing contest with Sanvaunt about who could see the furthest. Both men were Draoihn of the First Gate. They’d mastered the trance of Eio, and proven their dedication to the Crown. As an apprentice, I could hold the trance steadily, but I was glad not to use it now. Eio could sharpen the trance holder’s vision enough to spot a field mouse at a thousand paces, let you sense the slight twitch of a muscle that was about to uncoil. But the First Gate was so much more than that. It expanded one’s consciousness out, out, into the whole misery and glory of the world around. The bodies had been ditch-dumped a half mile from the road, and with the First Gate drumming its rhythm, Castus had inhaled that stench like a fist to the nose. He and I had broken off from the rest of the group to investigate. There was a bet on whether it was just some dead cow, mouldering in a ditch. But it wasn’t, and it was horrible, and with only the First Gate to our names, there was little we could do to change it. In the second book, I feel like we've taken some strange turns. It takes place eight months after the first book. The characters started acting a bit differently, the pacing was a bit halting and overall it's been a weird experience.

There’s so many secrets, secrets everywhere mixed with betrayals and more betrayals, it’s hard to know who to trust. Theres also some focus on family and it was interesting to learn more about this relatively unique magic system I loved the additions to the world-building in Traitor of Redwinter. There was so much cool history exposed. The magic system is still one of my favorites ever, and I enjoyed getting to see it in action again, especially some of the more esoteric powers that came into play. Grandmaster Robilar was a key figure in the story, and it was fascinating to see how her history intertwined with the current conflict in so many ways. There was clan drama, as well, with plenty of political intrigue. I think my one complaint would be that for most of the first half all of the interesting political maneuvering was happening around the characters without actually involving them.Sometimes we act on instinct. Sometimes things can be forgiven when they happen automatically, a knee-jerk reaction to something out of the ordinary. Like when I’d fed my strength into a ghost to topple Kaldhoone LacShale. I hadn’t known what I’d been doing, not really, and I’d been desperate. We forgive those things. Or we should. This, what I was about to do, I should perhaps have feared more. I've been interested to learn more about the magic and history with the main character. I also really appreciate the title of this book, it isn't clear for a long time who it refers to.

Traitor opens eight months after the end of Daughter, and I won’t lie, that bugged me. I’m not a fan of timeskips generally, and this one stretched the bounds of belief when it came to the romantic tension between Raine and her two love interests, Sanvaunt and Esther. It’s a little difficult to buy into the fact that all of that stalled for eight months, after how intense both relationships were becoming towards the end of the previous book. But on the one hand, we have both Raine and Esther’s hesitation and confusion over their sapphic feelings, in a world where that’s not commonly accepted; and on the other hand, Raine and Sanvaunt both had A Lot to deal with in the final chapters of Daughter, so…it’s just about possible to let it slide. Just. Daughter of Redwinter is so good…I was hooked from the brilliant opening line.”—James Barclay, author of The Chronicles of the Raven series Well that’s not good,’ Castus said. ‘I guess Arrowhead didn’t want the townsfolk to know what he was doing? Maybe these were the town’s leaders. You’ll probably find the mayor in there somewhere.’ Suffice to say the worldbuilding continues to be second to none here and TRAITOR OF REDWINTER dives even deeper into the history and tumultuous past events that have shaped the present. There's also a deeply hidden mystery that cannot be denied and I found myself wanting to know more with each enticing (although infrequent) revelation. Hey, we can't give everything away in the second book am I right? So as it happens that excellent worldbuilding and an interesting history are my two favorite elements in a fantasy book, I'd say yeah this one hit all of the right notes for me. Now don’t get me wrong. This is not a bad book. Ed McDonald is a fantastic writer, and I have seen that others have loved this book, and there were aspects of the book that I enjoyed. His world building is great and the addition of more of the mythology surrounding the magic users of the world was enjoyable. I loved all the fantastical aspects of the book and how the final act played out, but I am not sure it was worth all the constant diversions of the first two acts.I believe that art has the power to heal; that it can be a coping mechanism. It can also be a tool to work through our issues. I like to think that’s what is happening here. Sanvaunt and Liara are attempting to create, to put something into the world as a balance to the thing they took from it. Granted, addition and creation will never balance with loss. But creation allows that attempt. The second in Ed McDonald’s Chronicles of Redwinter, full of shady politics, militant monks, ancient powers… and a young woman navigating a world in which no one is quite what they seem. I'm a huge fan of stories told in the first-person perspective. I love that they're written as if the main character is telling their story to me. I especially like it when the character has a few things to learn either through youth or inexperience because then I get to learn about their world as they learn it. It wasn’t war. Not yet, anyway, but it was the fronting of war, the way that two drunks square up to one another outside a bar that should have closed hours ago, that moment of posturing before the blows start to fall. Our view of Raine’s world doesn’t just widen; it deepens. We learn a lot more about the dreaded Sixth Gate in this book, and its connection to the other gates…but what startled and interested me most was how much Raine’s relationship to the Queen of Feathers changed from the last book. Some of the things she says; some of the visions/dreams Raine has; some of the ways the two interact forced me to toss out all of my theories about who and what the Queen is…and the new ones have been keeping me up at nights.

Nevertheless, I felt like this expanded Raine’s understanding of herself and showed us her flaws as she struggles to be fair and good to others. A main character with flaws, yes! I just want to say a few words,’ I said, which was honest. ‘They deserve a blessing to send them on their way.’ Which was also true, but not what I intended. The first half of Traitor of Redwinter largely focused on character development and a bit of world-building. The narrative explored Raine's response to the horrors she experienced in the first book, and the impact of PTSD on her relationships. She understandably regressed as a character now that she felt the emotional weight of everything for the first time. She had nightmares and became addicted to drugs to numb herself, while also engaging in rash behavior. All of her new friendships fell apart, as she isolated herself from those she loved the most to avoid them seeing the parts of her that she considered rotten.It's so immersive and, because I'm literally inside their heads as the story unfolds, I'm privy to their most private thoughts and emotions as things progress. I might not agree with decisions they make, which could be foolish or even idiotic, but I understand and accept those choices, even support them because I understand how they came to those decisions. After Daughter, I was wondering about the possibilities that this sequel might deliver to the reader, and really, plot wise, all expectations get exceeded. It's blown into epic proportions and major betrayals. But I have to say... I was always suspicious of our villain in this particular story. I knew it. I just knew it! There's no shortage of examples of "men writing women badly" (and women writing men badly) in fiction in general and, in speculative fiction in particular. So, I was amazed by how well Ed McDonald wrote Raine in Daughter of Redwinter. It was a book that I literally could not put down not only because of the great protagonist, Raine, but also because of her "found family" and the great action. I also loved learning about the magical world of the Draoihn (mages) and the terrifying power they can wield. Had we been able to trance beyond the Second Gate we could have turned the dead flesh to stone, or liquified it with a touch. With the Third, the Gate of Taine, we could have burned them. There was nothing that Fier, the Fourth Gate of the mind, could have done to pry into their thoughts now, and they were long past the point when the Fifth Gate of healing could have helped them. That just left Skal, the Gate of Death. The Sixth Gate. And I didn’t think they needed much help in that arena. But the grandmaster has her own plans for Raine, and the deadly training she has been given has not been conducted carelessly. In Raine she seeks to craft a weapon to launch right into her enemy’s heart, as Redwinter seeks to hold onto power.