Elen’s story continues and finishes in a land of lost magic, royal intrigue and much more
The Nameless Land is the second half of the duology started in The Witch Roads. The setup of the book as described in the first one holds: Deputy courier Elen winds up escorting a royal prince to the north, but things do not quite go as planned, with intrigue, conflict and revelations about Elen’s extra-empire origins in the final chapter.
And so we continue on with her story. The novel really can’t be taken on its own; it really is pretty much written as a second half. While there are references, now and again, back to events in the first book (especially in times of explanation), the novel relies on you having the preceding situation freshly in mind in order to fully appreciate the intricacy of the plotting. That also makes it difficult to recount the specifics of this novel without a lot of foreground explanation.
So let it be said that the scheming and intrigues of the first novel, between and within the Royal Court, as well as the provinces of the Empire, get an additional factor, as Elen and the others find themselves heading into territory only Elen knows—lands outside the Empire itself, her origins. So, in this half of the duology. Elliott expands the physical playground by introducing new societies, characters and conflicts. She does a great job in hooking them into the existing worldbuilding and further complicating the plot. Elliott loves to contrast how the Empire does things versus those (and there are multiple values of that) who handle a world where the Pall is a threat. Elen’s extra-empire origins, a secret she has mostly held from everyone (even Kem), become extremely important in the main thrust of this book. Through her unexpected return to her roots, we get a rich sense of someone who has a perspective on what she’s seeing that she doesn’t always share with her compatriots, but shares with the reader.
Also, once again, we have some small sections from the Imperial investigator Luviara, providing an outside perspective here and there. And once again, Elliott shows that more characters than just the protagonist(s) can have their own arcs and developments. We find out what Luviara has really been up to all this time, and why. I must say,as much as I love Elliott’s worldbuilding, her mastery of character may be even better and stronger.
As a result of all this material that we get, the classic “stop asking questions and start answering them” rubric for this book in terms of its placement doesn’t quite fit the duology as a whole as one might expect if these were two separate books rather than one book split into two. What this means is that there’s a lot of run-up, especially counting the first book’s narrative, to the point that, when the final revelations of what is going on and what is to be done become clear, and Elen and the others are forced into decisive final action, it is a timebomb that goes off with explosive speed and power and narrative compression. This is not to say that nothing happens, but there is a continual slow burn, and bursts of action, up to when everything goes off. Elliott has plotted both novels very carefully and pays off the promises made way back at the beginning of The Witch Roads.
In keeping with that, Elliott has the space, will and interest to continue to explore her fascinating set of characters and include new ones. The universe is queer, diverse, with many women in varying kinds of power, and at the same time, thanks to the Empire, has a chance to criticize various abuses and frames of power, including patriarchal ones. Readers of the first book will see that Elen’s nephew Kem’s story and their attempt to hold onto and make their own destiny and autonomy are a strong strand within this book. Also, looking at the novel as half of a single work, one can also see that the story of Elen is, in the end, a romance. But to say more about that would be spoilery. Readers of the first book can be assured, however, that the second book does return to the romance of the first novel, unexpectedly but delightfully.
The novel doesn’t quite explain everything in the plot and background explicitly and completely, and does leave a lot of wonder and mystery in the playground of the imagination. We do get some answers and a rough sense of why things are as they are, as far as the characters know them. The reader can piece together a little more of the background of the world that the characters miss, but there is still plenty of mystery left in this world.
The obvious pairing for this book is another duology: The Witch King and Queen Demon by Martha Wells. Both are interrogating imperial societies, one pair as a resistance to a hegemon, and the others as people living in a quite flawed one—but one that has a purpose given the dangers of the world around them with the Pall¹. Both interrogate gender and gender roles within a narrative, although Elliott is far, far more direct about it than Wells. Both of the books feature fascinating worldbuilding, with a setting that doesn’t stand still. Here Wells has the better of it hopping in time and space with Kai in both books. Elliott, on the other hand, has a character with a wider perspective, but the considerations of past societies are as overhangs and problems of the past affecting and poisoning the present. Both novels, moreover, talk about the uses of history and narrative and how misunderstanding what happened in the past can lead to issues in the present. The novels aren’t quite in dialogue with each other, since they were written contemporaneously. However, in a time and age when questions about power, empire, control, gender, autonomy and more are prevalent in our society, The Nameless Land takes its place with The Witch Roads, and with Wells’s novels, among others, in exploring these themes and concerns of our society, our moment—and beyond.
I know there will be at least one more story set in this fascinating universe. Once again, Elliott has paired characters with a deep and fascinating setting, and while Elen’s story is clearly finished here, there is still much to see and many more potential stories to tell in this world. And the geopolitical situation at the end of this novel is significantly changed compared to the start. Elliott’s worlds are never static and never go status quo ante. I’m sure that will influence what comes out in any subsequent story. I look forward to reading it, and more of them.
Highlights:
- Ably completes the second half of the single story
- Much more detail about Elen’s homeland
- Strong character-focused narrative
- Alas, still no live Griffins!
Reference: Elliott, Kate. The Nameless Land [Tor, 2025].
¹ Given the other two societies we see in the novel and how they handle the Pall and its threat, is the Empire the best of a bad set of choices for dealing with it? I think Elliott is deliberately showing us a variety of possibilities here, and that there is no definitive best society. But even given it being terrible in many ways, I think the Empire is a preferable society for the average person to live in.
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.
