Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Witch King

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Witch King by Martha Wells

22 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

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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jessica_thelen's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious

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

4.5

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maryellen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

I liked this book much better as an audio book!

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kkulhannie's review

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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grinchem's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Witch King was an excellent read. The cast of characters is fantastic, it's funny, and has good worldbuilding. The plot kept me interested, and it was hard to put down. I think the book's single biggest strength was the cast of characters. Each and every one of them was distinct and engaging, and left me wanting more.

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briely's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes

3.75

I liked the general plot and the characters (Martha Wells makes such compelling characters), but the worldbuilding is a lot to try and memorise as you read. I feel like if I reread this and made graphs and diagrams as I went, I'd enjoy it more.

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artstitute's review

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I thought Bashat and Bashasa were the same person for an embarrassingly long time. "Oh but it says Bashasa is dead in the present timeline—" Yeah. I know. And yet!!
That aside — loved it! Martha Wells never misses. I love her sf and I loved this too. Lovable characters as always, and (Bashat/Bashasa notwithstanding) I think she did a commendable job maintaining two timelines while also telling a consistent and not-confusing story. The way that past and present events were linked made the timeline fairly easy to follow without it feeling too much like she was holding the reader's hand.

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scifi_rat's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

Plot: 4★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 3.75★
Concept/Execution: 4★/5★
Characters: 4.5★
Worldbuilding: 4★
Ending: 4.25★

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