Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn

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Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Elizabeth A. Lynn's Watchtower.

The Short of It

Plot: The Southerners picked the wrong keep to invade; Ryke will do everything he can to get it back. 
Page Count: 240
Award: 1980 World Fantasy Award
Worth a read: No
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Fantasy Babble: Minimal.
Review: The sweet, sweet taste of subpar writing. World building: "You people from the hot South are not used to how cold it is here up North!" Character Development: "You mean... I don't just need to indiscriminately murder people?!" and "You mean... women can fight too?!" Writing Quality (Verbatim): "He thought it might have ben a room in Tornor. The room was hot. He went to the window to open the shutters. They stuck. He had to force the latch. At last one opened."

1148914

The Medium of It
Spoiler Free!

Don't read this book. It's not good. It's not a fun variety of not good, it's just not good. Picture the most generic medieval fantasy setting you can; the book cover is a good place to start. Now outline the most milquetoast story you can using the following keywords: Honor, Redemption, Prince, Oath, Tarot Cards, War. Congratulations, you've written a better story.

One thing I do need to acknowledge: there is a same-sex couple in this book that are treated like people. It's not fetishized, it's not obsessed over, they're just two women who are a couple. It's part of the characters but not their only trait. That is certainly not enough to redeem this book, but credit where credit is due. 

I'm not going to put an affiliate link in this one. I'm better than that. You're better than that, Stranger. I will, however, spend way too much time beating this dead horse (with spoilers) below. Please come along for the journey. Perhaps we will learn that the real Watchtower was the friends that we made along the way!

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead!

I'd like to present my imagined Q+A session with the author.

Q: Do we need to actually see the protagonist win... anything... to establish that he is a good soldier?
A: No, we can just tell people that he was one, and maybe if he wins arm wrestling matches against drunkards that'll count as heroism.

Q: How would you describe the different groups of nations of your world?
A: Well, it's really cold in the North. And very hot in the South. So, you know. It's like that. I like to think that if we have some characters from the North and some from the South together, at least one person can constantly complain about the weather.

Q: Does backstory need to be fit seamlessly into a book?
A: Ideally people should just read genealogies out loud to their captors, and if that doesn't work, people should loudly speculate about past events.

Q: Which characters would you say the reader should feel invested in? Or attached to? Or engaged with?
A: Sorry, I don't understand the question.

Q: Is killing the only way?
A: Nay! One can learn non-lethal fighting techniques! 

Q: What cool non-lethal take-down are we going to have for the Big Bad during the final fight?
A: Well, he's going to get shot with arrows.

Q: Non-lethal arrows?
A: No, you silly goose! The murder kind. In the stomach and the neck.

Q: But his soldiers are spared, right, because while he was too big of a threat, they were just following orders?
A: Actually, he was one of the only characters that was shown to be morally grey. His army? Well, some of them become slaves. Like, a few. You know, the ones that are not stabbed to death. Because of peace or something. As I see it, the moral high ground is atop a head of corpses.

Q: So main guy has a sister, who he barely knows, and does not seem that interested in, and then she starts sleeping with the bad guy, and then she gets raped and murdered, seemingly by his allies. What is our emotional response supposed to be and does adding this help the story in any way, shape, or form?
A: I'm just going to go with a blanket "War is Hell" and call it pretty good on that.

Q: Walk me through your process in regards to foreshadowing.
A: Alright, this is going to knock your socks into next year. The Prince has a deck of (basically) tarot cards that he reads sometimes. Here's an example:
"These are the Cards of the future. The Scholar, reversed. Unorthodox ideas. The Phoenix. One of us is going to be tested. The Weaver. A person of power. The Mirror, reversed. One of us is a pessimist. That's Ryke."

...so, yeah, that's about it for foreshadowing. A guy tells the reader what will happen, and it does, 100% of the time, with little to no ambiguity. It's even better than foreshadowing. I've decided to call it... fiveshadowing. 

Thanks for indulging me with this one, Stranger!
And don't forget to read a book!

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