The big Quest always gets all of the attention in storytelling but there are tales still left to be told about what happens after everyone returns home. The Afterward by E.K. Johnston gleefully delves into this mostly untapped time frame, just as the title indicates, delivering humor, friendship, adventure, and (most importantly) a love story and the world would be a better place if we had more books like this in it.
It’s been a year since Apprentice Knight Kalanthe Ironheart and thief Olsa Rhetsdaughter and the rest of their companions returned from their Quest to find the Godsgem to save the king. While the others are all full knights with a bit more freedom to adapt to being heroes of the kingdom in their own ways, it’s a bit harder for these two to go back to how life once was. Thieving isn’t as simple for Olsa anymore now that everyone knows her and the king’s reward only made a small dent in Kalanthe’s training debt. Will they remain separated by their own pride and honor or will they find their way back to each other again?
Johnston expertly engages with high fantasy and many of its tropes while also making them entirely her own. The world building here is thoughtful in a way you don’t always see and doesn’t fall back on certain unnecessary tropes that seem to plague certain prominent fantasy stories. Cadrium is most definitely a high fantasy world but it’s also one where women can be knights and no one blinks twice at the thought of a woman in steel. But at the same time, dowries and arranged marriages are still a thing. Kalanthe has to think about marriage after she’s knighted so she can pay off her training debt and also the following expectation that she’d provide heirs. There’s nothing about the world of Cadrium that was put in thoughtlessly, making the world building all the more impressive.
Where the book truly soars is with its characters. The story jumps between the main story set after the quest and back to moments during the quest itself where we are put directly in Olsa and Kalanthe’s heads. It’s a unique sort of story structure that uses point of view brilliantly to not only quickly let us know when we are but to also get to know them and Kalanthe and Olsa are people I absolutely want to get to know. Each of the other four knights (Uleweya, Terriam, Branthear, and Erris) are just as well fleshed out and each get their time to shine. I could happily read a book about each of them. Heck, I’d even love to read about what happens after The Afterward.
The Afterward also features one of the most diverse cast of women I’ve ever seen in a book. There may be some naysayers who say it’s just checking off boxes but personally, I felt delightfully seen and represented in a way I rarely am by fiction. It’s a rare joy. Also a joy is seeing a creator not afraid to use the b-word… no, not that one: bisexual. That page is actually one of the highlights of the book but I’ll let you discover that delight for yourself. What I will say is that this is the queer lady knight book I’ve always wanted in my life but never realized until Johnston gave it to us.
And that’s ultimately what my love for this book boils down to: The Afterward is a delight. Perhaps I was already inclined to love the book given not only all of the above but that also it’s essentially the letter the dedication wishes had been written, but I found myself loving it even more than I thought I would. Which is quite a lot. This is book that made me grin with glee at one page and made me tear up the next. There’s no big bad villain to defeat here, just two girls in love trying to figure out what’s next and whether there’s any chance they could be together. The Afterward is quiet and soft even when it’s hitting you right in your emotions and making you faintly squeak because you just love these characters so much and you want only the best things for each of them. It’s the sort of book I want to hug tightly to my chest and buy copies for all my friends so they can experience it too.
You can purchase The Afterward now from your preferred bookseller and you really should because The Afterward made my heart happy and I think it might makes yours happy too.
Thank you to Penguin Random House/Dutton Books for providing a copy of the book for review purposes.
