Songwoman by Ilka Tampke

Songwoman by Ilka Tampke is set during the time of the Roman invasion of Britain, around the 40s AD. It is technically a sequel to Skin, but actually both books stand alone fairly well. They follow the same protagonist, but the two stories are separate, if sequential. I read Skin during a blog hiatus, so there is only a mini review of it, alas.

Haunted by the Roman attack that destroyed her home, Ailia flees to the remote Welsh mountains in search of the charismatic war king, Caradog, who is leading a guerrilla campaign against the encroaching army.

Ailia proves herself an indispensable advisor to the war king, but as the bond between them deepens, she realises the terrible role she must play to save the soul of her country.

Set in Iron-Age Britain, Songwoman is a powerful exploration of the ties between people and their land and what happens when they are broken.

I started reading Songwoman after a day trip to northern Wales, during which a friend and I visited a few castles (built more than a millennium after this book was set), and drove through Snowdonia with some breathtaking views, even in winter. So I was excited to start reading a book set in roughly the same area. The setting of Songwoman did not disappoint. The plot, however, was a little slow.

The bulk of the story involves Ailia being part of the inner circle of Caradog's resistance army. Her personal journey is split between learning the mystical arts, her relationship with Caradog, conflict with some of Caradog's other advisors, and the actual war. The war is mostly a series of small skirmishes and recruitment negotiations, and hence felt like it moved slowly, but in a realistic way. I actually found the relationship with Caradog the most drawn out. I don't want to spoil too much, but I will say that it was interesting that he was portrayed in a way that could be read as bipolar, but that was the most interesting thing about him. I did not quite understand Ailia's emotional attachment to him, especially since I spent a chunk of the start of the book hoping a key character from Skin would make an appearance (he did not).

So on the one hand, Songwoman was a little slow — though not unpleasant to read, aside from a few brief atrocities — but on the other hand, I was actually surprised at how little time was covered in the book. Near the end, there's a scene in which Ailia returns somewhere and notes that it's been a year since she was last there, at the start of the book. I was honestly shocked that only a year was supposed to have passed. This is maybe because, as the author mentions in the afterword, a few years of historical events were compressed  into one year for expediency. However, given my other reaction, I'm wondering whether that was the best choice. That said, I actually liked certain events around the ending a lot. (Being vague to avoid spoilers.) It added an extra dimension to the story, confusing timing aside.

Anyway, I mostly enjoyed Songwoman, even though it took me a while to get through. I recommend it to fans of historical fantasy and, particularly, Welsh settings. While it makes sense to read after Skin, it's not entirely necessary. While I don't expect a sequel, I am broadly interested in the author's future works.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2018 Text Publishing, with US edition March 2020
Series: sequel to Skin
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss