Rating: 2.5
Description: Originally published in Great Britain as three separate volumes, Fisher's ice-coated saga tells of an evil sorceress and her lust for power. The witch Gudrun, the Snow-walker of the title, has come to the Jarlshold from the far north and used her magic to overthrow the Wulfings, the rightful rulers, and install her husband as "Lord Jarl," as a puppet leader. Most of the subjects live in dire fear of the new regime, but young Jessa, from the Wulfing lineage, whose father was killed in the coup, speaks her mind in front of the Jarl. She and her cousin, Thorkil, are now "old enough to be dangerous," so the ruler exiles them to a faraway outpost where Gudrun has imprisoned her son, Kari, since his youth. "The child is a monster," say the rumors. But Jessa learns otherwise: "[Kari] has her powers. [That's] the reason she locked her son away and never even let him be seen." After Gudrun kills the Jarl, the four know they have little time before she shows up there. Over the course of the three books, Kari confronts Gudrun, who flees the Jarlshold; the witch sends monsters to seek revenge; and the books build to the inevitable mother vs. son showdown.
Note: This description is from Publisher's Weekly - the book was so meh I couldn't really remember exactly what it was about
Review: This book is entirely uninteresting. I liked the premise, and the individual plot elements are decent enough, but the action skips around a lot - there is sometimes a lot happening all at once, then there are long periods of drawn-out nothingness. There are parts that feel as though more should be happening. Considering that the book involves Norse mythology, you'd think the characters would meet lots of interesting creatures, but the few they do encounter seem to serve no purpose at all except to liven up the book a bit (they don't manage it). Despite these things, the plot would be palatable if it weren't for that fact that the characters are all very flat and their interactions are stilted and boring. There is little to no character development in anyone other than Kari, and he isn't even the main character. "Snow-Walker" should only be read by the hard-core fantasy or Norse literature fan that's out of other things to read.