The West Passage

Jared Pechaček
Completed 7/12/2026, Reviewed 7/12/2026
3 stars

This was a very strange book.  I would put it under the subgenre of weird fantasy.  The author throws a multitude of strange characters at the reader, some very large, some small, some with rabbit ears, square heads, four arms, three legs, tentacles, many eyes, one eye, scales, feathers.  Needless to say, the world building is simply unbelievable, which leads me to my general feeling about the book.  It was overwhelming for me.  I couldn’t keep up with all the characters and their characteristics.  I had trouble visualizing the layout of the land.  And I never got the significance of the title location.  A lot of work and imagination went into this story and I can acknowledge that it was well written.  It was simply just too much for me.  This book has been nominated for the 2026 Mythopoeic Award, but I read it because the author is nominated for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, presented at the Hugo Awards ceremony.  Since I’ve already read three of the authors nominated, I decided I would finish out this category and vote on it this year.  

Winter comes suddenly out of order to the Grey Tower.  Mother Yarrow dies prematurely, leaving young Pell to assume the mantle.  Pell, the new Yarrow, is not trained in all the ways of the Grey Lady.  But she decides to go to the Black Tower to ask the Black Lady why this is happening.  Were the women in grey being punished for something?  At the same time, the Guardian of the West Passage, who is from the Grey Tower, dies prematurely as well, leaving her apprentice Kew unacknowledged as the new Hawthorn.  He decides to go to the Black Tower to be formally acknowledged so he can defend the West Passage from the Beast.  Kew is assigned a squire, Frin, and together, they journey to beg help from the Black Tower to defend the country from the Beast.    

This book is very complex and describing the plot and the characters is not straight forward.  There’s so much more to this book than what’s in my summary.  I have to say I enjoyed the travels of Kew and Frin because of their relationship.  At first, Kew doesn’t want help, but comes to appreciate Frin and the two become friends, a first for Kew.  There’s an implication that there may be more between them which is quite endearing, whether I was reading into it or not.  I have a soft spot for boyfriends on a journey to save the world.  Pell, on the other hand, who becomes Mother Yarrow, is less endearing.  I found her reticence a little tedious, although I do understand her plight as she was thrust into this position without enough training.  There are many, many other characters who come in and out of their lives, but few stay through the whole book.  

The prose is sumptuous as is the world building, but again, I was overwhelmed.  And the order of the storytelling made following the journeys of Kew and Frin and Yarrow tough to follow.  Rather than the chapters alternating between them, the chapters would follow Kew and Frin for a while, then switch to Yarrow.  It made it a little difficult to keep track of each.  There’s also interludes which explain the history and mythology of the five Ladies and their Towers.  Every now and then, there’s an interlude which tells a brief story about the common people in the midst of the chaos of the approaching destruction by the Beast.  I appreciated those even though I didn’t always see their relevance to advancing the plot.  

This book is not an easy read.  It took me ten days get through it because I was never completely taken with any of the plot lines.  When I read it, I enjoyed it, but the effort involved kept me from picking up the book more often than I did.  Gender is pretty fluid throughout the book.  When Kew becomes the new Hawthorn, he becomes a woman, which doesn’t affect their relationship with Frin.  Props to that, but considering that the people were mixed with animals and shapes and forms, gender wasn’t that significant.  I give this book three stars out of five.  I think the average person will either love this book or get lost in the complexity.  I’m in the latter, but I acknowledge the brilliance and effort that went into it.  Hence my rating.  I am definitely interested in seeing what else Pechaček will come up with next.