Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Witch King

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Witch King by Martha Wells

44 reviews

mmmicah's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

THE CRUELEST THING ABOUT THIS BOOK IS THAT THERE ISN'T MORE. MS WELLS I NEEED MOREEEEE!!!

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beckyraines's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I’m not sure if this book is part of a series, but it felt like book one of a trilogy. As a stand-alone story, the plot left something to be desired-it was a lot of world building and less plot.

On audiobook, it was hard to keep the characters straight; around hour four they locked in a bit for me.

But I do love found family and I do love a sad demon boy.

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pirat314's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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amylynn44's review

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adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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witcheep's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In Witch King Wells builds an outstanding fantasy world with very detailed cultural differences and interesting, well-rounded characters who have their own motives for action. The main character Kai is an immortal demon prince, and the plot revolves around solving a mystery: who betrayed Kai by capturing him into an underwater prison to die, and why? If you love Wells' the Murderbot Diaries where the Murderbot tries to figure out the uncertainties of their past while being on the run, you'll enjoy the similar elements of the mystery plot of Witch King's as well.

The plot progresses quite slowly, and the present narration is frequently interrupted by chapters where we are told about Kai's past. Both the past and the present begin to slowly intertwine with each other, showing us possible motives and suspects for the betrayal. They also show the reader the different aspects of the worldbuilding, at times in a somewhat infodump-feeling way but often through plot-related action. This slow story progression requires some patience from the reader, but if you enjoy vivid descriptions of worldbuilding and slowly building relationships between characters, you'll enjoy the book.

The main characters of the book are all multidimensional, and even the side characters are shown to have more than just one trait. All of the multiple characters are introduced in a character list in the beginning of the book by their titles, but you'll get to progressively know more about them throughout the plot. The most multidimensional character is unsurprisingly the main character Kai. On one hand, Kai is immortal, and besides that a very powerful magic user. Kai thinks he has been forced by circumstances to become a powerful, violent thing, and this doesn't sit well with him: "Most of the time Kai felt like he was made of razors, bleeding from the inside."

"I'd tell you to be careful, but..."
Kai looked at her through the black film of the veil. "You could say 'be violent' instead."
Tahren, who Kai was beginning to suspect had a very dry sense of humor, patted his shoulder and said, "Be violent."

On the other hand, though, Kai is quite vulnerable in his personality. He yearns to live a peaceful life with the people he cares about. To achieve that, Kai has helped to start a revolution in the past and in the present exerts to stop another one, both motivated by his will to make the world a better place or "unburn the world" as his dear friend once told him. Kai sympathises with the oppressed and has a drive to free any and every enslaved being. During his endeavors to live a peaceful life, Kai has been badly betrayed many times, but he still chooses not to give up on trusting people. In his opinion, the only way to know if a person is trustworthy is to trust them and "then wait for the knife in the back". This makes Kai a very hopeful person in the end.

The worldbuilding is what captivated me the most in the Witch King. There are multiple ethnicities, cultures, and languages around. There are also different magic systems for different kinds of magic users (Expositors, the Blessed, Witches, and Demons), which adds to the depth of the worldbuilding.

Expositors didn't draw power from pain in their own body, like Kai did, or by forming relationships with the spirits inherent in the different levels of the world, both living and otherwise, like Witches. Expositors drew their power from life: new life, stolen life, life on the point of death. It was why they were so dangerous, why greed was their driving force. It was why their power was so susceptible to a true demon's ability to steal life from anything living or once living.

Representation of different identities is done beautifully in the book. For example, some cultures are more queer than others, and this is shown as a continuum between binary and fluid gender and sexual identities presented as varying levels of normal in different cultures. The cultural differences are found in the multiple languages of the world as well. There's a widely used linqua franca Old Imperial, multiple regional smaller languages, and a sign language for Witches (witchspeak) used throughout the book. I loved reading how the link between culture and language, and therefore their connection to one's identity, was brought up in the book many times. My favourite discussion about language is about how swearing shows what is believed to be powerful in a culture.

Ziede said, "Sanja, if you're going to swear, don't do it in Old Imperial. If you use their curses, you'll take on their beliefs."
Sanja blinked, distracted by that thought. "That's the only language I know," she pointed out.
Kai told her the Saredi word that meant "go into the wetland and eat shit-mud."
Sanja repeated it twice, trying to get the vowels right.

Curses are used when you want someone to suffer, or need a way to express extreme emotions. So, in those situations you need impactful language, and it comes from beliefs (what holds power in one's culture). So, Ziede's comment is actually very deep and meaningful, not just a quick way to chide a cursing child.

The different groups of people have some disagreements and interests of their own, which provide interesting challenges to the interaction between them. The plotline of the past shows that most of the differences can be put aside when there is a great common enemy threathening all the groups: the Hierarchs came to conquer the world, killing everyone on their way, which required all the other people to unite against them. On a side note, no one knows where the Hierarchs once came from and if there are more of them, so finding out about the potential threat of Hierarchs' reappearance could make a premise for a sequel. The aftermath of the conqueror Hierarchs and the other people battling each other isn't pretty; it doesn't end in a happy ever after. When enough time passes, the battles and hardships become only legends and the once united people start to scheming against each other to gain power over each other.

"There aren't many people there. Most of them died." Kai looked down at her, watched her tremble on the edge of a terrible understanding. "The world used to be a much bigger place, with so many more people in it."

The underlying message of the Witch King seems to be that there will always be hardships and battles to fight, but trying to prevent them or –if unavoidable– going through them is always worth it for the people you trust and love and for creating lasting peace. I would love to read more about Kai and his friends, or in some other form return to the world of the Witch King.

Review written 5.3.2024

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saracat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I loved so many of the ideas in this book, especially concerning demons. I have never come across demons written in this way before, though it's possible Wells drew inspiration from somewhere specific.

I really liked the main character as well, Kai. Though, there were some characters with similar names that I often got confused. And while trying to remember and keep track of so many characters that weren't in the majority of the book was hard, I didn't think you could tell a story like this without a large cast of characters.

Towards the end when things began to get resolved, revealed, and brought to a close, there were some cases where it felt like bits and pieces I remembered fell into place. But for a few, I couldn't recall even hints about certain things and it felt like completely new revelations. However, halfway through reading this book I had a lot of life stuff happen so there was a 3~4 period where I didn't make progress on the book. So it's possible I just forgot some details.

I would like to read this again and see if I pick up on more of the hints and clues throughout the book leading to the conclusions the characters come to at the end.

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