Judgement of the Witch, Volume I of the Speaks the Nightbird, is one of the best books I've read all year. When I look back on this novel, I see that nothing much happened, yet there is so much going on. McCammon developed his characters so well that I feel that I know all of them, yet there is still so much to learn about them. My one beef with this is it seems to me that the publisher seemed to just pick an arbitrary point at which to split the original novel. No real cliffhangers, no real resolution on anything in the first book, so looking at the book by itself, it was very unsatisfying, but that has nothing to do with McCammon and his story and all to do with the publisher. I am starting the second part of this today as I can't wait to finish this as I do feel this (taken as a whole) will be the best of the year. ( )

Excellent story, though, about a magistrate and a clerk who travel to a small town in 1699 to try a witch. Most everyone in the town is convinced she's a witch, but the clerk, who's curious by nature, has a lot of questions, and things aren't adding up. Good characterization. ( )