Woodwalker: Creature Of Light book 1 by Emily B Martin (book review).
We follow Mae, who is a Woodwalker, that is a ranger who patrols the woods to ensure the people are looked after. After having a few run-ins with her king, Mae has been banished under threat of being hung from the nearest tree if she dares to enter the Silverwood. Unfortunately, she bumps into a set of three siblings who need her help to get them through the forest and back to their kingdom of Lumen Lake so that they can reclaim it and save their people.
This is one of those odd fantasy books that crop up that actually contain no magic at all. I’m always a little bemused by this but, to be fair, this is an excellent book even with that lack of magic. The characters and the amount of world-building leaves you not even noticing there’s no magic. I’m still not 100% sure about magic-less fantasy books but this one is bringing me around to the idea.
This is a very quick book to read with not too much depth or political intrigue. There are a lot of interesting elements to the tale but, compared to some other fantasy novels, this one is a little lighter. Which is great because that’s just the kind of fantasy I love, I find it quite comforting to read something where you don’t feel confused every two seconds. There are only a minimum of characters to remember, not too many place names to get your head around plus there’s a map. I found it to be a good book to settle down with of an evening.
I loved that there is so much nature in this book. I know that the main characters are mostly travelling through a giant forest for most of the book but this could easily have been quite dull. You can tell that the author knows about and loves nature and especially forests as there are so many interesting details and descriptions of the wildlife. We learn so much about the flora and fauna of this new world, but it’s all done with such a light hand. It made me want to go out on a long nature hike every time I picked it up!
Along with the main story of travelling through the forest, we get a few short stories told by various characters. For example, ‘The Wood Folks Emergence’ which gives us a bit more about how the people who live in the forest feel that they came into being. We also got a tale about how the swimming folk felt they were created. I really enjoyed reading these as it gives a little more insight into how these different people think as they all seem to have some kind of creation story so I’ll be interested to see if we get to read any more. I was interested to see that they all worship the light in their various ways, my favourite was the glow worms.
Overall, this is a lovely book with nothing much in the way of swearing or sex scenes and only the mildest of peril. I would say that this is suitable for younger readers of fantasy novels or those who just prefer not to read too much that might be triggering. I can’t wait to get on with the other two in this series to see how everything works
Sarah Bruch
March 2018
(pub: Harper Voyager, 2016. 326 page paperback. Price: £ 5.18 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-06247-371-4)
check out website: www.harpercollins.com
