"Nightwatch Over Windscar" ARC review

Overview

Expected publication: Nov 8, 2022 USA // Oct 25, 2022 UK

Title: Nightwatch over Windscar

Author: K. Eason

Subgenre: Military Scifi / Mystery

2022 Bingo squares: Weird Ecology (HM), Revolutions (HM depending how strict you’re being), Initials, Published in 2022, Non-Human Protagonist (HM), Features Mental Health (HM), No Ifs/Ands/Buts (HM)

LGBTQ rep: N/A

Recommended if: You like well-written characters, good worldbuilding, and/or excellent science fiction in general

Not recommended if: You have zero tolerance for horror at all

Stars: 5/5

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!

What is it?

Nightwatch Over Windscar is the 2nd book in The Weep, spinoff series to the Rory Thorne duology. Where Rory Thorne is more political scifi with some action, The Weep is pretty solidly military scifi, and if that’s more your thing you can definitely skip Rory - though I would recommend reading in publication order because both series are amazing, and The Weep, despite taking place a couple hundred years later and being fully self-contained, does spoil some plotlines from Rory.

I’m trying to keep this review as spoiler-free for the entire series as possible, but if you’re extremely spoiler averse just know that I recommend the Rory Thorne universe 5/5 and go start from the beginning.

Review

Nightwatch Over Windscar continues The Weep series, with all of the strengths of the first (Nightwatch on the Hinterlands) and not a single bit of mid-series downturn. Iari and Gaer are back, and Gaer’s chapters continue to be my favorite (and we also get a bonus Char chapter partway through!) Eason sustains character voices masterfully, and as in Hinterlands it’s delightful to see Iari and Gaer adapt each other’s speech patterns.

The story takes off where we were at the end of Hinterlands, and if you’ve read the first book, you’ll realize that’s no small task - but Windscar totally delivers. It’s 400 pages of adventure as Iari gets her first field command and has to figure out what that means for her and how she’s going to deal with her newfound (and not entirely wanted) responsibility.

I’m always a fan of politics in any spec fic that I read - that’s part of why I loved Rory so much - and there’s enough politics here to keep me happy, but not too much to distract from the mystery & military scifi plots. Indeed, it’s pretty incredible how much Eason was able to pack into this novel, without sacrificing depth of character or worldbuilding.

And if it’s been a while since you read Hinterlands, don’t worry - Windscar does a pretty good job of jogging your memory at the start, so you’ll get caught up on all the important plot points you need to know.

Overall, Nightwatch Over Windscar is an easy 5/5 for me, this was the first book I’ve ever requested as an ARC and I couldn’t have asked for a better one!