This is the third in the Birthgrave trilogy and, like book 2, is narrated by Vazkor, son of the eponymous 'White Witch' whose real name is Karrakaz. It continues where book 2 ended, with him embarking on a sea voyage to follow his mother to the southern continent, on the quest set by what seemed to him to be the spirit of his father, to murder her in revenge for his father's death at her hands.

As his mother did before him, in Book 1, Tuvek/Vazkor grows into his powers. At first, he wields them in a godlike fashion, walking on water, flying, healing, killing with lightning bolts - whatever seems most pleasing at the time, rather than what is necessary. He is profligate with the lives of mortals, such as his devoted servant Long-Eye, and when it's too late feels a bit sorry, but not much. He has inherited his mother's ability to heal even from fatal injuries - she is the sole survivor of the godlike Lost Race - and so the sorrows and suffering of humanity have little impact on him.

Vazkor, as he now calls himself, arrives in the main city of an empire established by the Masrimas, formerly a warrior race who conquered the older civilisation of the Hessians. The latter are now mostly slaves in the city or else inhabitants of a benighted slum, the remains of the former capital/port which has sunk into an unhealthy swamp a little way along the coast. Vazkor sets out to become notorious as a wizard by organising public mass-healing sessions for ordinary folk, and to become wealthy by charging the rich large fees to heal their illnesses. Through hubris, he becomes involved in a stunt to rejuvenate a malicious old woman and restore her to fifteen years of age. His subsequent decline of her attentions has serious repercussions when her vengeance takes in the whole city, aided by the link he has inadvertently created, enabling her to use his powers against him.

As with the case of his mother, who was transformed mostly against her will into the goddess Uastis for his father's political benefit, he becomes a catalyst in the ongoing political instability whereby the emperor has set aside his first wife and her son Sorem in favour of the elder son of his second wife. Vazkor becomes Sorem's right-hand man and the secret lover of his extremely capable and beautiful mother, a secret that will ultimately lead to a falling out between the two men. In the meantime, Vazkor becomes a key player in the conflict between Sorem and his half-brother, and enables Sorem to win, though at a price. Sorem is about to become emperor when disaster strikes as a direct result of Vazkor's earlier behaviour.

Surviving against enormous odds, Vazkor becomes wiser and feels old beyond his years. He travels away from the city in the company of Gyest, a wise man from an egalitarian tribe, who helps him understand his nature and convinces him not to renounce his Power but to use it for the good of humankind. Eventually, rumours of his mother lead him to a more distant land, and gradually he reaches a full understanding of the isolation from humanity that his power has forced upon him, and his obligation not to misuse his abilities. His earlier thirst for vengeance recedes, but he still wants answers and perhaps retribution for his mother's rejection. Their final face to face confrontation provides surprises for him and for the reader. ( )

The end of this final book of Tanith Lee's Birgthgrave trilogy makes an interesting contrast/complement to the end of the first. Where The Birthgrave ended with something like a deus ex machina that in some ways tore open the narrative, Quest for the White Witch concludes in a way that seems retrospectively inevitable, and completely within the frame of the larger story. Still, as with the first book, I can imagine some readers being outraged by the "twist" of the ending.

The trilogy as a whole defies the usual three-phase structure of beginning-middle-end, which seems to be consistent with the history of its writing, where the first book was likely conceived as a stand-alone novel. The second book is therefore a second beginning with a new protagonist, and the third is a sequel that ties the two earlier ones together. The result is a sort of dialectical progression.

I had remarked that the second book, Vazkor, Son of Vazkor, had a lower level of numinosity than the original novel, but as its protagonist attains near-omnipotence in this third book there is numinosity to spare. There is also a greater sense of historical sweep and the destiny of peoples and nations, not so central as, but akin to that found in Lee's Wars of Vis novels.

One of the odd features of this book is the sustained dramatic irony, since the reader of the first volume necessarily knows more about the object of his quest than does the ambivalent antihero Vazkor Junior. In the first half of the book, though, Lee introduces a fascinating set of events that can make the reader question assumptions about the White Witch of the title, thus maintaining suspense and allowing readers to better appreciate the protagonist's perspective.

Tuvek, now known as Vazkor continues his quest to find and destroy his mother. Through conquered cities, across the ocean and into strange magical lands, he discovers and shapes his powers, brooding on how he will end his mother's life and avenge his father.

To be honest, this book didn't hold my attention the way the previous two did. It still centered primarily around Vazkor and his journey, and while he did progress as a character, I was more interested in his mother. I found myself getting impatient, just wondering when he was going to find her. Vazkor spends a decent amount of time in book two and three in the same city and I grew bored - none of the more minor characters were very compelling. I wanted to know more about the race Vazkor and Uastis were descended from and less about the people living in the land now. I also expected the sci-fi elements to come back into play and sadly they didn't, making their appearance in the first book puzzling and mostly useless. The ending was a let down too, though there was one little twist. I don't regret reading this book but it certainly didn't live up to the quality of the first two for me. ( )

This is the final book of a trilogy that started in Birthgrave, Lee's first novel. That one was a phantasmagorical journey of a woman without any memory of herself through a landscape with that pulp fiction feel of H Rider Haggard tales of lost civilizations, or perhaps even more akin, Jane Gaskell's Atlan Saga The middle book, Vazkor, Son of Vazkor, as signaled by it's title, is centered on a Conan-like character called Vazkor, son of the heroine of Birthgrave. He retraces her steps, like her tells the story in his own voice, and if the fascination of the first book lies in the mystery of her identity, the fascination of this middle lies a great deal in his so very different perspective. Vazkor is very hard to like in that book--a raping sword-swinging barbarian. But there is more to him here, as in his quest--for revenge against his mother--he increasingly comes into his powers and sees the value in others. Lee's style and her world could both be described as lush. Though along with Tanith Lee's poetic prose you're going to get a psychological complexity you're not going to find in Conan the Barbarian. ( )

Next in the Vazkor series, he's roaming the world trying to find the woman who gave birth to him, in order to fulfill a vow to kill her. It's a road story and a tale of how he changes as he experiences the world as a sorcerer. He's oppressed by the humans clamouring for healing and for him to use his killing Power to help them, as well as the betrayals and double crossings as he gets more into politics. He's still pretty misogynistic, but at least we see him caring for some females this time. There are some disturbing bits, but I liked how his parents and his reactions to them wove through the story. ( )