The Last Witness

Amazing novella. I've never read anything quite like it. It's in first person, in the manner of someone telling their life story to the reader, which works perfectly for the unusual concept. The plot did not go at all where I expected, but everything seemed inevitable in the end, which made it very satisfying to read. It's also pretty tightly written, with very few extraneous details, like a classic short story.

A lot of the reviews mention how evil the main character is, and yeah, he's pretty bad, but in an almost ordinary way. He never seems to glory in anything but his own cleverness, never in violence or his other crimes. So it creeps me out a lot to consider him, and to know there are probably many people like him in reality, just without his supernatural ability. But while reading, I didn't find him disgusting or impossible to identify with, or anything like that.

Sometimes, I really like these sort of vague fantasy settings that aren't that different from our world, just without real countries or historical figures. It lets my imagination fill in the blanks, which I usually do with Elder Scrolls settings, but I'm not really all that imaginative. Specifically, the first city made me think of Bravil in Oblivion, because it has a very seedy feel.

This was my first time reading something by this author, and I look forward to reading him again.