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laurareads87's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
The Witch King is a stand-alone fantasy novel set in two timelines, both following Kaiisteron, a demon. In the earliest timeline, here positioned as a backstory, the novel follows Kai's emergence into the mortal realm into his first human body, his meeting most of the supporting characters, and his participation in an uprising. The later timeline begins with Kai awaking from imprisonment and needing to figure out who betrayed him and to what end. Both timelines are, effectively, adventure stories, complete with magic artefacts, dangerous terrains, outmaneuvering enemies, and the need to keep complicated, messy coalitions and allegiances together.
This novel does a lot of things that I love: multiple timelines used effectively, political intrigue that isn't predictable, wonderful relationship dynamics between characters. It is worth noting that this is not entry-level fantasy - Wells throws the reader into the world with a list of characters and not much else to go on, and the reader must navigate a ton of new terminology (for peoples, organizations, forms of magic, etc.) without any real guidance. The benefit of this is that there is zero 'info-dumping' here. The drawback, I think, is that it can feel a bit hard to get into at the beginning. It's worth it: when it comes together, it's wonderful.
While not the focus of the book, there are ways that gender is addressed that are worth paying attention to -- demons (at least all the ones we meet throughout the book) seem to have fixed gender identities (Kaiisteron is unambiguously 'he' throughout) but may of course occupy any and all kinds of bodies, and the different cultures in this fantasy world do (or don't) distinguish gender in different ways (ex. sometimes dress is a distinguishing factor, sometimes it isn't).
This novel is, as I understand it, written as a standalone and it absolutely works as one: it is self-contained. I will say, though, that given the depth of this world-building, I'd love to see more works by Wells set in this series, whether with this same cast of characters or otherwise.
Content warnings: violence, murder, death, injury detail, war, colonization, forcible confinement, blood, torture
This novel does a lot of things that I love: multiple timelines used effectively, political intrigue that isn't predictable, wonderful relationship dynamics between characters. It is worth noting that this is not entry-level fantasy - Wells throws the reader into the world with a list of characters and not much else to go on, and the reader must navigate a ton of new terminology (for peoples, organizations, forms of magic, etc.) without any real guidance. The benefit of this is that there is zero 'info-dumping' here. The drawback, I think, is that it can feel a bit hard to get into at the beginning. It's worth it: when it comes together, it's wonderful.
While not the focus of the book, there are ways that gender is addressed that are worth paying attention to -- demons (at least all the ones we meet throughout the book) seem to have fixed gender identities (Kaiisteron is unambiguously 'he' throughout) but may of course occupy any and all kinds of bodies, and the different cultures in this fantasy world do (or don't) distinguish gender in different ways (ex. sometimes dress is a distinguishing factor, sometimes it isn't).
This novel is, as I understand it, written as a standalone and it absolutely works as one: it is self-contained. I will say, though, that given the depth of this world-building, I'd love to see more works by Wells set in this series, whether with this same cast of characters or otherwise.
Content warnings: violence, murder, death, injury detail, war, colonization, forcible confinement, blood, torture
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, War, Murder, Blood, and Torture
bookcheshirecat's review
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
“Mother bared her fangs. “Stop being overdramatic.” Kai would have loved to, if dramatic things would stop happening to him.”
I received a digital Arc from Netgalley and Tor in exchange for an honest review! The quotes are taken from the Arc and are subject to changes!
I was SO excited to read my first Martha Wells book outside of the Murderbot Diaries, but it gave me a lot of conflicting feelings 😔 Witch King sounded fantastic with a Demon Prince and his mysterious imprisonment, but the execution left a lot to be desired. In the end, I settled on 3 stars, as I enjoyed some of the characters and ideas but felt like the convoluted worldbuilding and slow pace took away from my reading experience. I buddy read this with Destiny @ howlinglibraries so definitely check out her Review as well! ❤️
WORLDBUILDING
✅The idea and concept held so much potential! I was immediately drawn in by the image of a Demon King who’s a bit of a black sheep of his people and has been around for centuries. A deadly betrayal resulting in Kai’s imprisonment and us finding out about it via dual timeline could have been an amazing setup. The idea and tension of the premise were so good and what made me name this as one of my most anticipated releases. I love demons in my Fantasy books in general and I liked what we saw of the Demon world and their interactions with humans via the possession of certain vessels (people who have died and are then possessed by a demon). The relationships between the demons and the humans’ attitude towards demons were such interesting aspects of the story that I would have liked to see explored more. Kai switches between bodies of various genders throughout the story and encounters different reactions to him being a demon. The angst and internal dilemmas we saw were so good, I wanted more of that!
❌ The worldbuilding was convoluted and despite its volume, very mismatched and surface-level. I feel like the author was trying to build an impressive fantasy world, but went a bit overboard. I don’t mind complex magic systems or intricate worlds, but I didn’t see a cohesive worldbuilding anywhere. We have witches, demons, sorcerers and Hierarchs, on top of multiple countries with their own cultures (some of whom don’t exist in the present anymore). The author barely explained any of her concepts and expected the reader to somehow figure it out from the avalanche of details she provided in her description (from the landscape to languages to the fashion style of every single culture, there were simply too many things to pay attention to at once). Sadly, this was the opposite of an infodump – the author didn’t explain anything. Luckily, I knew this going into the story and I actually took notes, but even they didn’t help. Some things, like the origin and true motives of the Hierarchs were still NOT explained by the very end and a lot of concepts remained very superficial because we never got a proper explanation to how they work.
“Kai groaned under his breath. He had been hoping for one dramatic masterstroke that would take down the whole bridge and maybe make him feel better about his continued existence.”
CHARACTERS
✅ Kai was one of the best things about Witch King. He’s the titular character and a powerful demon prince who has been possessing human bodies for centuries. I loved his wry humor and capacity for violence and power, though he also had compassion for others such as Sanja. I wish we had seen more of his humor though, as I feel like it would have made the book a bit lighter. Kai has a vivid past full of loss and pain, but also strong companions such as Ziede who are on his side. I loved seeing his more vulnerable moments and the struggles with what the Hierarchs did to him and his kind. His dynamic with Bashara in the past was really intriguing and the connection he forms with Ramad in the present really spoke to me. Sadly, Kai and Ramad’s dynamic kind of fades out and I was a bit disappointed that the author never properly had Kai express any romantic feelings.
✅ Kai’s friendship with Ziede and the found family vibes warmed my heart. I loved the easy banter and deep loyalty between Kai and Ziede, you can tell that they have been friends for ages. Even better that there’s nothing romantic at all between them, Ziede is dedicated to her wife, who she’s desperate to see again after being imprisoned alongside Kai. Sanja is a little girl who was freed from the sorcerer who kidnapped her and brought her as a sacrifice for Kai. I loved how she didn’t leave, even when given the chance and stuck with Kai. One of my favorite tropes is found family, so I wanted to see even more of these dynamics 🥺
❌ There were a TON of characters, but most of them didn’t get any meaningful Arcs of their own>. The fact that the book opens with a multiple-page long “Cast of Characters” index was a bit of a red flag for me from the very beginning. Especially as there are characters in the Past and Present to keep track of. Some of them, I didn’t find that relevant or interesting and after a while, I gave up trying to learn the names of the random side characters and focused on the main cast. It just made me sad that characters like Ramad, who had an interesting (almost romantic) dynamic with Kai didn’t get much development, as I saw so much potential in them!
“I’ll give you one more answer. The words Bashasa spoke to me before he died were ‘Don’t let everything we fought for be for nothing.”
PLOT & WRITING
✅ The beginning of the story had so much promise! When Kai awakened and found himself almost enslaved by a sorcerer was such a good opening with lots of tension and suspense. I was actually excited to read more as I was eager to find out who had betrayed Kai and why they had done it. After breaking out with his friend and a girl he saved from the sorcerer … it sadly all went downhill. I did love the audiobook narrator, but was only able to listen to the first two chapters that were shared by the publisher for free. I’d definitely recommend the audiobook, as I feel like it makes reading this a lot faster and more engaging! Generally, I also like Martha Wells’ writing style, there is no doubt that she’s a talented author and her Murderbot Diaries – that I love so much – definitely prove it.
❌ The plot was incredibly slow and not much happened. The first couple of chapters were great, but it all went downhill from there, as I was waiting for the action to start. If I had to sum it up, I’d say that the majority of the book is just travelling. The actual progress Kai and his team were making was so small and the fact that we had two timelines didn’t help. The Present chapters were sometimes altered with Past chapters and the latter were a chore to get through.
❌ The ending fell flat and all the work I invested in trying to understand the world didn’t pay off. That was probably the most devastating part of the book. After taking notes and trying to work through the book for days, the ending was so unimpressive. There were no great twists or shocking reveals. Even worse, there was no proper buildup for the reason Kai was imprisoned, so it felt completely fabricated. The story had such potential to lean into the political intrigue of the world, but it never did anything with it!
❌ I enjoyed the Past chapters the least and they really dragged down the story. There were too many of them IMO and I would have rather focused on the Present chapters with an occasional flashback when it was relevant. Often it felt like the chapters of Kai’s past life were like textbook entries meant to teach us about the world. Very few of them had any actual intrigue and most of them dragged so much that I was looking forward to being done with them. They didn’t offer the insight into Kai’s world and past that the author was hoping for. Instead, they added more names and concepts that were barely explained.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, and War
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Genocide and Torture
ehmannky's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-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? Yes
5.0
Gorgeous, dense and intricate fantasy writing. It's definitely not as breezy and funny as Murderbot, but the same heart, found family elements, and wry wit is there. The story bounces back between Kai, an immortal demon, and his companions in the "present" day (waking up after being entombed and trying to figure out who temporarily killed them and also where his best friend's wife and her brother are) and the beginnings of a war that Kai fought against the genocidal and imperial Hierarchs that happened 70 or so years before. Despite these two disparate timelines, at no point did I find them disjointed and I never felt like either of the plotlines dragged on. It is, as I said, a dense fantasy. Like, there is no real exposition about the magic system or the history is going to be explained outside of what the characters naturally decide to share. But it's so good. And the main relationships between Kai and his family are so beautifully written and the theme that you just have to keep going to unburn a world that has been burnt are so beautiful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: War, Genocide, Self harm, Grief, and Blood
aprica's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Body horror, Murder, Genocide, and Gore
Minor: Slavery
blacksphinx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is my second Martha Wells book and I can't help but notice their endings both do the same thing - the linchpin of the plot occurs off screen, where no present characters see it, and the audience is told about it afterward - and if this continues to be a pattern in her writing I don't know how many more books of hers I'm going to wind up reading.
However... This one is so full of heart with such a unique world that I'm wrestling with the rating. I think it's a little too much, with all its rich cultures and three different magic systems (and all the various Fantasy Words used to describe them), but I can't fault her for having a big and varied world? The danmei influence upon this work is powerful and welcomed. But the actual plot is so thin. "Nothing really happened, but it was beautiful and made me feel a spark of hope" is such a hard thing to assign a number between 1 and 5 to.
However... This one is so full of heart with such a unique world that I'm wrestling with the rating. I think it's a little too much, with all its rich cultures and three different magic systems (and all the various Fantasy Words used to describe them), but I can't fault her for having a big and varied world? The danmei influence upon this work is powerful and welcomed. But the actual plot is so thin. "Nothing really happened, but it was beautiful and made me feel a spark of hope" is such a hard thing to assign a number between 1 and 5 to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Torture, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Death, Child death, Murder, Confinement, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Slavery, Grief, Genocide, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Alcohol
marsh_mall0w's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
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
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, War, Confinement, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Abandonment, and Genocide
hailstorm3812's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-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? Yes
4.25
I was dubious about this at first since it's a big tonal leap from Murderbot and a lot of worldbuilding to get into, but I am glad I stuck it out because I really ended up liking it. I ended up really attached to the characters and wouldn't mind returning to this world. There is really something to the concept of a group of immortals being glued together by a human who's gone now, which isn't the main plot but rests just below the surface the entire time. It got to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Confinement
Moderate: Gore, Death, Colonisation, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Murder, and Grief
adancewithbooks's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Thank you Tor Publishing and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
Witch King isn't an easy book which one can see in the ratings of some of the other reviews for this book. It is certainly not perfect. Yet regardless I found something in it that I quite enjoyed.
I won't lie, it took me a while to get into this book. We were dropped into this world pretty hastily without much room for a work up towards the world building. We had to gather our wits while also trying to figure out along with our main characters, what exactly was going on as they come out of a slumber. I could have used more explanations and slowly ease us into this world. But the plot and the writing didnt quite alow that. There is still a lot to be discovered and a lot to be explained.
A few chapters in we start going back towards Kai, our main character, past. How he came into our world and into the place he is now. Or at least the position he was in. There is still a lot to be explored in his past. While initially it didn't help me to get into the story, later on I felt it was a great asset to help us understand who Kai and his friends are and their positions in the world.
Witch King isn't an easy book which one can see in the ratings of some of the other reviews for this book. It is certainly not perfect. Yet regardless I found something in it that I quite enjoyed.
I won't lie, it took me a while to get into this book. We were dropped into this world pretty hastily without much room for a work up towards the world building. We had to gather our wits while also trying to figure out along with our main characters, what exactly was going on as they come out of a slumber. I could have used more explanations and slowly ease us into this world. But the plot and the writing didnt quite alow that. There is still a lot to be discovered and a lot to be explained.
A few chapters in we start going back towards Kai, our main character, past. How he came into our world and into the place he is now. Or at least the position he was in. There is still a lot to be explored in his past. While initially it didn't help me to get into the story, later on I felt it was a great asset to help us understand who Kai and his friends are and their positions in the world.
'How did it come to this Kai? I remember how we started. Now you're all razor barbs and I'm an angry shrew.'
At some point I grew to enjoy the book. Most of this had to do with Kai. He can't really be described as kind. He will unleash all he has on you, but he won't harm an innocent. In fact, considering the extra strays he takes along throughout the book, he is a bit of a care taker. I grew fond of him and his gruff ways.
'This whole conspiracy might have missed him because he was off reading in some forgotten archive, and no one thought he was important enough to track down.'
And not just him but the characters he takes along with him. His long time friends and his new found friends. They have their own family and are not afraid to take on strays.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
sabrinalefebvre's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
2.25 ⭐️
Trust me, no one is sadder than me to give Witch King this rating. I was going to rate it higher but I couldn’t lie to myself, from a crafting standpoint, this book was a mess
The beginning of this book is better then the rest, where we have a goal in mind, an intrigue and an interesting world. But the more we progress, the more everything turns to shit.
I was confused the majority of the book. We’re thrown into the world and are left to our own devices. The world building is truly awful. I found myself blacking out while reading and being lost. Words are said but we’re never fully given the context of what they mean or what the magical creatures of this book can do. What’s a witch exactly? Why is Kai called the Witch King when he’s a demon? What’s the difference between a hierarch and a higher blessed or whatever they’re called?
I’m also confused of the relationship between Kai and Bashasha. What we’re they?
Ramad’s character also felt useless in this story, not even being used to further anything. If he wasn’t there, there would be no difference.
Towards the end, I felt something missing. Like there’s a missing portion to this novel or a sequel. But goodreads doesn’t say there’s a sequel.
Overall, I think you can skip this, focus on The Murderbot Diaries and you’ll be fine
Trust me, no one is sadder than me to give Witch King this rating. I was going to rate it higher but I couldn’t lie to myself, from a crafting standpoint, this book was a mess
The beginning of this book is better then the rest, where we have a goal in mind, an intrigue and an interesting world. But the more we progress, the more everything turns to shit.
I was confused the majority of the book. We’re thrown into the world and are left to our own devices. The world building is truly awful. I found myself blacking out while reading and being lost. Words are said but we’re never fully given the context of what they mean or what the magical creatures of this book can do. What’s a witch exactly? Why is Kai called the Witch King when he’s a demon? What’s the difference between a hierarch and a higher blessed or whatever they’re called?
I’m also confused of the relationship between Kai and Bashasha. What we’re they?
Ramad’s character also felt useless in this story, not even being used to further anything. If he wasn’t there, there would be no difference.
Towards the end, I felt something missing. Like there’s a missing portion to this novel or a sequel. But goodreads doesn’t say there’s a sequel.
Overall, I think you can skip this, focus on The Murderbot Diaries and you’ll be fine
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
narsere's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Genocide and Colonisation