Thursday, January 30, 2025

Review: The History of the World Begins in Ice by Kate Elliott

A diverse set of stories and essays set in Kate Elliott’s world of Cold Magic (Spiritwalker)

The Spiritwalker/Cold Magic books by Kate Elliott are self-described as taking place in a post-Roman Afro-Celtic icepunk regency fantasy setting. That’s a lot of adjectives and nouns, but the complexity of this Earth, that never was but resonates with our own, is a rich invention that, beyond the bounds of the three novels, begs for more development, involvement and exploration.

The History of the World Begins In Ice: Stories and Essays from the World of Cold Magic is here just for that. We get a curtain pulled away to watch the author develop and create a setting from more angles and facets than the novels you “see on the screen.” A lot of worldbuilding for novels, especially in SFF, is below the waterline of the iceberg, never to be seen. Given the wide range of writing that Elliott had already done in developing this setting, bringing it all together seemed like a no-brainer. And given that the Spiritwalker series is (unusually for Elliott) a first-person point-of-view series, having stories from other perspectives is a way to get some of the wider-screen experience you get in many of her other works, in bite-sized formats. And the essays give a look underneath that waterline.

So what’s here?

The three quarters of the book are fictional pieces arranged in chronological order, starting decades before the events of the novels, up to a story about the youngest daughter of Andevai and Cat, thirteen years after the series ends. We get a variety of points of view, characters, themes, and styles, ranging from the origin story of Kemal, far to the east, to the epic poem of the Beatriceid, to a story about a little girl who is convinced what she wants to be when she grows up... but more importantly, wants to find her stuffed animal. The stories are relatively light, fresh, and delightful. I had read several of these before, and it’s good to have them in one place. Many were unavailable for years until this volume came along.

For me, the last quarter is where this book really sings and comes to light. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Beatriceid, and The Secret Journal, and much else in the fictional section. But it is when Kate starts talking worldbuilding that I sit up and *listen*. We get essays on why Kate wrote this book, the thinking process behind the magic system, the geography (Doggerland represent!), the development of the Antilles creole, character development studies, maps, and more. You can guess how much detail and research goes into a thick Kate Elliott book and series; here is where she shows her work and the way it’s done. The true extent of the “iceberg” is revealed. I found the essays on the creole language particularly fascinating; it’s the deepest dive I’ve seen on the subject short of talking with a full-on linguist.

One last thing to note is that the book is well illustrated throughout. Some of these stories and works, such as The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal¹, already had copious artwork, but others are newly commissioned for this edition. Like the artwork for The Secret Journal, the addition of art for this work really completes the book, and it would not be nearly as compelling without it. Through the history of the Spiritwalker series, the art really has gone hand in hand with the writing, and I am pleased that tradition continues here. The galley review copy proudly lists the artists’ names on the cover. Part of the reason to get this book in print is to get the artwork (which really is wasted on a digital screen).

The last and important thing to ask about this book is: Who is it for? If you are a fan and reader of Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker series, this review just confirms known facts, and you may have purchased this already. (If not, get thee to a bookstore or library.) If you are a reader of hers but haven’t read the Spiritwalker books and have been curious about them, you might like this collection if for no other reason than its “back half.” The process of Elliott’s worldbuilding and the facets of it may well be in your interest... and this collection in general might then spur you to pick up Cold Magic.

But what if you haven’t read any Kate Elliott? Is this volume for you? This is where I feel uncomfortable and conflicted. I want to say yes, because I do want her work widely read and loved as I love it. But the stories are atypical of her longer SFF works (when she’s written things like even novellas, it felt like an ill-suited fit for her). She’s widescreen, big screen all the way. So while you get tastes of the world she has built in Cold Magic, the stories do resonate better if you have some “buy-in” to that world, so reading the origin story of Kemal, or the Beatriceid, or the funny misadventures of Rory in To Be a Man may just not land quite as much without that background.

So I’m going to have to reluctant come down on the answer of *mostly* no. If you’ve never read any of the Spiritwalker books, or any Kate Elliott, this is not the place to start with it. Unless, maybe if you are a fantasy writer, or aspire to be, and want to see how a master writes an intensely built and created world. For those people, the last portion of the book may be an invaluable guide.

For those curious, Kate has a blog post on where to start with her work, written in a unique format.


Highlights:

  • Great art that compliments the writing
  • Fascinating worldbuilding essays
  • Welcome return overall to the Spiritwalker 'verse

Reference: Elliott, Kate. The History of the World Begins in Ice: Stories and Essays from the World of Cold Magic [Fairwood Press, 2024].

¹ A formatting criticism that really doesn’t fit elsewhere: I am glad that I had read The Secret Journal before. As it so happens, the electronic review copy I had was not formatted well, and treated this section of the book like a PDF, which made it impractical and unpleasant to read on my Kindle. I skimmed through a physical galley I had to make sure I had not forgotten details of the story. I hope the final electronic copy does not suffer the same issues.

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.