Once Was Willem by MR Carey

I would like to thank Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Orbit

Published - Out Now

Price - £20 hardback £11.99 ebook

Eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England, I, Once Was Willem, rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham. The words enclosed herein are true.

I speak of monsters and magic, battle and bloodletting, and the crimes of desperate men. I speak also of secret things, of that which lies beneath us and that which impends above. By the time you come to the end of this account you will know the truth of your own life and death, the path laid out for your immortal soul, your origin and your inevitable end.

You will not thank me.

We tend to think history as factual and focused on the real but go further back the borders between history, folklore and myth get blurry. It’s not unusual to hear people consult ‘Cunning Folk’ for using magical powers to assist them find items or even fall in love or kill. There are times when magic sits unusually comfortable with religion and there are lots of little pieces of unexplained folklore about an area from visits from the devil to acts of various witches and magicians. Now MR Carey in their excellent historical fantasy novel Once Was Willem has taken us to the U.K. in the early 11th century and a small village is about to be a battle between villagers, an evil wizard and a group of ruthless mercenaries and only the local monsters may be the only way to save them.

King Stephen is at war with the Empress Mathilda in the early 1100s but for the village of Cosham that is far too distant one worried about. Instead they are more worried how the local Baron has just been deposed led by the forest rogue known as Maglan Horvath and his skilled band of mercenaries. Adapting quickly (some would say ruthlessly but also very practically) to the new Boss taxes start to be paid again and a quiet life beckons but a farming family named the Turlings will help change this. Their very young son Willem is suddenly very ill and passes away. Desperate with grief they find a wizard working the area named Cain Caradoc who agrees for a piece of Willem’s soul he will resurrect the boy. But after a year what comes from the ground isn’t recognisably Willem however much it says it is and the boy/monster is thrown out of Cosham. But Cain Caradoc has his own agenda for appearing in this area and seeks a greater power and that carries a very high price. The hated creature now known as Once-Was-Willem may be Cosham’s only hope.

So this is a beautiful piece of historical fantasy with a unique storytelling framework and hugely unique lead character. Willem tells us very quickly he is has come back from the dead and that quickly pulls your attention. Before we think the usual vampire or zombie fear not we are in much weirder unique territory here. The young child that was Willem is via a sorcerer’s deal brought back as sonething very different - he looks no longer human, he has strength and an ability to resist wounds and he has a different personality and knowledges. Willem is an engaging narrator with a sense of humour but also an observer perspective as he tells us his story and as he is now inhuman his reactions to us and how his family and village cast him out is less tormented and more sad. But at the same time Willem finds the wider world of the forests and mountains is more for him and there are more magical beings sound than anyone expects.

What we have them is a fascinating set of chapters that each act almost as a short story all told in Willem’s unique dialect. It’s a mosaic novel of local history, magical encounters from witches to sorest sorcerers. What I loved is how each stands on its own two feet as an interesting story but it evolving in links between key characters and events. This is worldbuilding in the sense we get to know all the key players from our new mercenary baron, his sorcerer The deliciously ruthless and evil Cain Caradoc and then key villagers plus the interesting characters Willem brings from the more supernatural side.

What Carey does well is slowly introduce us to the way people think here. Villagers we see aren’t entirely upset by a change in Barons - that’s the kind of things nobles do and they always cut taxes to be paid, we get the beliefs of the time Christianity is something people do but we have magic accepted, witches feared and it’s all deliciously complex. We like and can feel ashamed of people at the same time - these are truly human characters that aren’t simple yokels with pitchforks. They have ups and downs with changes in leadership offering wealth, threats of violence and as the main plot they suddenly haven’t learn how to take on much more bigger powers. Fortunately there are some they too can rely on.

In the first half of the book we start to be introduced to the non-human characters some we meet as are or like Willem we meet their origin stories. What I loved about this group of chatters is here there isn’t intricate explanations magic is real, it acts weird and that can cover shape-changing, ghosts, witches and then things like Willem that we’ve never seen before. In opposition is the equally smart and very powerful Caradoc who has his own agenda and will stop at nothing for his own gains. Caradoc is a villain who we see is full of guile and therefore feels like he can beat our not quite heroes. The level of evil he can do is pretty impressive and no one is safe he will do whatever he needs to get his goal.

This means the latter half all the plots come together in really infesting ways. In some despite the 12th century setting it resembles a western (you may want to count the number of key characters at some Point) but it also has a much weirder and magical backstory of the powers actually behind the world, magic and life and again that’s something we have to just accept. It’s got that sense again of this is the real weird world and we have to learn how it works without too much exposition. That for me is fun as the reader has to get involved in interesting things but the overall sense is we are in world you don’t see often in fantasy and there are hints we could come back to this if Carey wishes (I hope so!).

Once Was Willem is perfect for those who enjoy fantasy with a taste of the weird and the unpredictable. Huge fun, very inventive and also links to the old tales in lots of new ways. I thoroughly enjoyed it and strongly recommend it!