Witches Steeped in Gold: Rich world-building bogged down by a too-slow plot

These days, fantasy novels often feel longer than ever. It’s a rare series whose first tome doesn’t clock in at 500 pages, stuffed full of lore, complex magical systems, and shifting character motivations and it can be difficult to strike a balance among them all. Ciannon Smart’s Witches Steeped in Gold is a story so dense that it approaches overstuffed, full of the sort of rich lore and complicated worldbuilding that are a hallmark of this genre.

It’s obvious that Smart has put a ton of time and attention into creating a universe that feels fully formed from its first page. But the downside of all this is that it takes entirely too long for the story to really get going.  More than two hundred pages pass before we get even the vaguest hint of the vengeful witch team-up we’re promised in the novel’s synopsis. On the whole, this isn’t a bad thing, entirely – but I’m not going to fault the readers who bail before the good stuff starts.

The Jamaican-inspired fantasy centers on a matriarchy fueled by magic, bound by betrayal, and held together by manipulation and sheer force of will. Witches Steeped in Gold is a story of political intrigue as much as it is magic, following the story of two warring witch factions that have been at odds for generations: The Obeah and the Alumbrar. Seventeen-year-old Jazmyne Cariot is a witch of the Alumbrar order and next in line to become doyenne of the island of Aiyca, though she has yet to come into her magical abilities. Iraya Adair is an 18-year-old Obeah witch who is the rightful heir to the Aiycan throne – if you believe the Obeah should be ruling instead of the Alumbrar – and newly free after 10 years in a fairly terrible sounding prison.

The two eventually decide to form an alliance in the name of bringing down the current doyenne, though their differing motivations and the longstanding historical antagonism between their clans means their partnership is often a shaky one at best. But as the two women learn more about both themselves and the society that raised them, they discover that things aren’t exactly as they seem – or what they’ve been told to believe.

As you might expect from the basic set-up of this story – as well as the general promotion surrounding this novel – Witches Steeped in Gold is full of twists and turns involving revenge, betrayals, and morally grey charcters . No one in this world – and no one reading the story of its characters – should easily trust anything anyone says. (Though, again, fair warning that it will take quite a long time for these twists to actually kick in)

Smart’s story is rich and well-thought out, with the same in-depth level of attention paid to the Alumbrar’s complex system of conduit magic as the basic layout of the Aiycan royal estate. This is a world that is fully lived in and wildly original. However, the characters are sometimes not quite so clearly drawn – there are moments where it feels that Jaz and Ira are too similar to one another. This may in fact be the point of a story about competing magical castes who are more alike than not, but it doesn’t make for easy reading. The vast swaths of supporting characters also means that it’s sometimes difficult to remember who is who and how they all connect to one another, particularly in the early going of the story.

There are certainly many worthwhile elements to be found in Witches Steeped in Gold, which will certainly appeal to fans of intricate fantasy and those who’ve been searching for more complex genre stories about diverse protagonists. This novel has those things in spades, along with one of the more original magical systems I’ve seen lately. But it’s hard not to wonder what the version of this story looks like that’s just a little sleeker and more focused – and maybe 150 pages or so shorter.

Witches Steeped in Gold is available now. Let us know if you plan to check it out!