Eschewed Obfuscation

A Witch for the Minutemen
by Charles Coleman Finlay (ccfinlay)
445 pages (manuscript draft)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Historical

Charlie Finlay, whom I met at Alpha (wonderful, amazing workshop that it is), most generously offered to let me be a first reader for the first book in his new trilogy. The version I read, obviously, is not final and significant changes may well be made in the editing process. Nevertheless, he said I could post publicly on my thoughts, since I keep a booklog, so I shall. No spoilers, obviously.

The novel is set in the midst of the Revolutionary War, alternate-world because witchcraft and witches are real. The protagonist, Proctor Brown, is a normal young man who enlists in the militia (being loyal to the colonies) and is drawn into the secret world of mysterious magic and witches, not all of whom are out to do good.

First, I will say that it's obviously a trilogy, or at least not intended as a standalone. The ending resolves only the main plot and few of the character arcs. But I believe Del Rey plans to release it very closely together, much like Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, so really the problem of disconnection is minimized. I will probably read the other two volumes either from the library or by begging ccfinlay, but the story didn't grab my interest from the beginning. This is not the author's fault, because the narrative is fine. I just don't like historical war stories, period. I slogged through the first third of the book, but when Proctor becomes more involved in the magic/witchcraft elements, I found it a lot more interesting. I also love how the various relationships are portrayed. Proctor's eventual romantic choice is obvious, but I sympathize with both women and I hope that no matter what they'll all get a happy ending. Because <namecensored> deserves to be happy, even if she's not meant to be with Proctor.

Take my thoughts as you will, and keep in mind that if you like historical novels or war novels more than I do, you'll probably like this way more. I have no idea when it's going to be published, though. Maybe in a year or two?