Review: Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland

Britain, 60AD. Hoping to save her lover, land and her people from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the king of the Otherworld. But years pass unheeded in his realm, and she escapes to find everyone she loved long dead. Cursed to wield his blade, she becomes Lord of the Hunt. And for centuries, she rides, reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield – a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes.

Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is a proven fighter. But when she leads her forces to disaster in battle, her husband’s court turns against her. Yet King Ine needs Æthel more than ever: the dead kings of Wessex are waking, and his own brother seeks to usurp him. Ine’s only hope is to master the magic that’s lain dormant in his bloodline since ancient days. When their paths cross, Herla knows it’s no coincidence. Something dark and dangerous is at work in the Wessex court. The Otherworld seeks to rise, to bring the people of Britain under its dominion. As she and Æthel grow closer, Herla must find her humanity – and a way to break the curse – before it’s too late.

---

Atmospheric, deeply emotional, and gripping, Song of the Huntress is Lucy Hollands best work yet. Herla, Ine, and Æthel were strong characters, and I very quickly became invested in their lives. If you have read Sistersong, then you may find a few familiarities within this story, but it is set many generations later and the Saxons and Christianity have conquered most of England and very few pockets of Britons and their old ways remain. This brings the physical tension to the story, with the kingdom of Wessex pushing into Cornwall hoping to increase their land and rule. Ine, the king of Wessex, wants to absorb the Britons into his kingdom with minimal bloodshed, but his dreams of an ordered and peaceful world are upheld by his wife Æthel on the battlefield, where she has to not only fight her enemies but also the disdain of her own people for being in a male-dominated world and for her lack of children.

As she routs a rebel king for her husband, a host of riders sweeps through the battle, and she narrowly avoids a fatal sword blow. This is the first time she sees Herla, Lord of the Wild Hunt, cursed to ride out every month to reap the souls of any in her path. Æthel is the first person Herla has ever missed, and the queen’s narrow miss awakens something in the huntress that has been dead for centuries. The two warrior women’s paths meet as they both try to solve the mystery of Britons who possess the old blood being killed in strange ways, and Æthel must try and keep her husband safe from a court that is slowly slipping from his grasp, even as their relationship becomes more and more strained. Basically, there is a lot of drama, and I felt every emotion keenly.

I know that a lot of that is down to the writing, which was excellent, but I am having a bit of a Celtic binge at the moment and I do find that something about the time period and the setting evokes really vivid reactions in me, and the stories and feelings linger with me for a long time afterwards. And the inner conflict and relationships were really well balanced by the external conflict and the growing threats, both human and otherworldly. There were a few twists that took me by surprise, and I loved the way the magic is described, and the way the Land is given real life in this story. I felt a deep sense of loss at times as the magic is so tied to care and respect for the land, and sitting here in the modern age it’s easy to see how much we have lost of that.

Song of the Huntress is a standalone, and you can pick it up without having read Sistersong as, though they are loosely related, each tells its own story. But Sistersong does give a bit more context, and there is one character that meanders their way through both tales. Besides, both books are stunning and deserve to be read! I am already very excited for what Holland will bring out next, because she’s going from strength to strength, and there is so much still to tell within the setting of ancient Britain. In my mind, she is following in Tolkien’s footsteps and giving Britain back a little of the mythology it has lost to time, albeit doing it in a slightly different way. And she is doing it very well! If you want to know more about the creation of this book and the author, you can check out my chat with Lucy Holland here.