Reviews

Witch King by Martha Wells

becksus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious tense 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? No

4.5

Wow! Holy wow! This really held my attention from beginning to end. I love that there was no hand-holding-exposition, but rather everything was explained within the story throughout. I am fascinated by the magic systems of Witches and expositors!! This was such a good combo of found family and anti-imperialist political heist. It flowed well with chapters alternating between the current and the past. 

The eventual "revelation" and convo with

Ramad

felt a little out of the blue and quick, and I would have liked a bit more Kai x Bashasa but alas you cannot have everything 

kikireigns's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

thndrkat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

An interesting read for a lover of the Murderbot Diaries; there are common tropes (mainly groups of diverse and unlikely companions on a high-stakes adventure) and themes (friendships/partnerships, trust/betrayal, states/entities vs. individuals), even as the imagined world, not to mention the genre, is very different. I will need to reread this to fully digest it and be able to follow all the characters and schemes (which was challenging via audiobook), but I expect to like it even more the second time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

xpff2273's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

nil033's review against another edition

Got dang boring. At least have something happen instead of just characters standing around talking for page after page. Zzz. 

nat_craig's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.25

katlovestea's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

5.0

dykish's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

hjswinford's review against another edition

4.0

I'm honestly a little disappointed that I can only give this one 4 stars because I wanted to LOVE it. There were aspects about it that I did love. Like Ziede. Just....all around. Loved that girl. And after a while, i really liked Kai as well. I loved his empathy and his desire for the world to be good and fair, even though it was largely not that. I also adored the strange uniqueness of the world. I really would like more about it. I like that the story didn't do anything like I expected it would, and mostly in a good way.

What didn't work for me was the overall politics, which were really just too complicated and elusive for me to wrap my head around. I feel like I missed out on some of the impact of the story because the political machinations were not laid out clearly enough. I also felt like there were a lot of characters that didn't get enough page time for me to really comprehend who they were and how they played into Kai's situation. I didn't want the book to be longer but I did want it to be clearer. I don't like to be hand-held through world-building, and yet I felt to adrift through parts of this book. Still, though, the things I loved kept me invested and I was so happy to see

Spoiler

Ziede and Kai reunited with Tahren in the end.

Plus the closing paragraphs were just wonderful.

Pre-review: Ziede is the level of quiet, self-assured snark that I aspire to. 4/5 stars

amanzel2's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.0