Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Emily Wilde's Map of th Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is the second book in Fawcett’s delightful alt-history series set in 1910s academia. Emily Wilde is a researcher in dryadology that studies fairies and other mythological beings that aren’t mere folktales in this universe. She’s a resourceful, no-nonsense woman in her early thirties, and the books are narrated as her journal entries.

In the first book, she conducted field studies in Norway with her colleague and academic rival Wendell Bambleby, but it turned out he’s not a human but an exiled king of a fairyland. He’s joined academia because he’s searching for the door to his dominion. The two became romantically involved and he even asked for her to marry him. She didn’t give him an answer.

In this second book, the pair sets out to search for the door. Emily has become convinced that a researcher who disappeared in the Austrian Alps fifty years earlier had found a nexus that is a door to several places simultaneously, Wendell’s kingdom included. All they have to do is trace her footsteps.

Joining them is their head of department, Professor Rose, who doesn’t trust her research methods, and Emily’s niece and assistant, Ariadne, who is a bit afraid of her and a lot afraid of Wendell, after learning who he truly is.

They find themselves in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere surrounded by borderlands to fairy and with people who are at least partially fay themselves. Finding the door isn’t easy though, even if the villagers can pinpoint the exact place where the researcher disappeared, and have seen her wandering around for decades, lost in the fairylands. Making things even more difficult are the hostile or mischievous fairies attacking or hindering them, and the assassins sent by Wendell’s step-mother who has usurped his throne.

The biggest problem is, however, that Wendell has been poisoned by the assassins. They try everything to cure him, but in the end the only solution is for Emily to travel to his kingdom for a special cure. It’s never wise for a human to go to fairy, and less so when the place is ruled by the person who wants them both dead.

This was another great book. I like Emily’s dry academic tone with which she records everything, with footnotes, and her unwavering belief in herself. Wendell is funny with his fastidious ways, and his devotion to Emily is heartwarming. Professor Rose was a good addition, if annoying at times, and Ariadne was nice, even if she didn’t really rise from the background.

The story flowed smoothly, helped by Emily’s habit of recording only the pertinent. That lowered the tension during the action scenes though, as she left a lot unsaid, but it made the overall feel of the book cozier. And she finally gave her answer to Wendell’s proposal too. Onwards to the next book.