Reviews

The death of the necromancer by Martha Wells

aneel0's review against another edition

4.0

I thought this was the Martha Wells book that I've been looking for for years, so I borrowed it from Maggie while helping them move. Now I'm pretty sure that I've read this one before (though not totally sure), and that the one that I've been looking for is actually The Element of Fire.

It's pretty good. The setting is cool: it has the feel of a magical Victorian Europe, with lots of little details about dress and manners to add verisimilitude. Oddly, the characters have the feel of a party in an RPG: very different characters, each with a suspiciously useful skill-set, thrown together with a flimsy rationale. One wonders if it was inspired by a Castle Falkenstein campaign or some such.

I'm looking forward to Wells's new books in the same world.

m_buchanan's review against another edition

4.0

This book was just a tiny bit slow for me. But I was in the mood for a sort of period novel. Which means despite a bit of slow pacing, I liked it quite a lot. The main character is daring and inquisitive. The romance is an already established thing, so there isn't a lot of tension there. It was kind of refreshing to read a book that just allowed the story to progress organically. Without all of the boy meets girl business.

mannatus's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

cait_s's review against another edition

4.0

Clever lines, high stakes, interesting characters. A complex plot for revenge derailed by a necromancer wreaking havoc. Everything is wrapped up neatly at the end.

slibourel's review against another edition

4.0

This is the second book in this series by Martha Wells. I've read a few other books and a series by her and loved them. The first book in this series (Ile-Rien series) was rough, but this one was a lot better. Characters were more fleshed out and the world-building was an improvement. Very good book overall -- looking forward to more in this series.

whisperingwaves's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

4.0

gracecrandall's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

fruitcd's review against another edition

Thoroughly delightful! This quickly shot up to the top of my favorite Martha Wells fantasy list and sits comfortably up there with City of Bones. The Death of the Necromancer is a murder mystery gaslamp fantasy set in a Paris-London fusion city hovering on the brink of industrialization, and Martha Wells flexes her anthropology degree here, the city being packed with an abundance of small details that help it feel real and lived in. This book is also vaguely a Sherlock Holmes adaptation, with our morally grey protagonist Nicholas being Moriarty, sidekick/gay best friend Reynard being his Sebastion Moran, and sidekick/lover Madeline being Irene Adler (Holmes and Watson also appear later on in the novel as their rivals-turned-reluctant-allies Inspector Ronsarde and Doctor Halle). I am not usually a big mystery or Holmes reader, so maybe this will feel derivative if you are a big Sherlock Holmes fan, but like I said-- it was all new to me and I found it very engaging and fun. The characters are great, the pacing is great, and the ending is great! 

Although for me personally, Nicholas got over the whole "all I have in my life is revenge" thing way too easily after it was built up as this big inner conflict, and it also kind of felt like Reynard kind of just fell out a hole in the back of the story at the end. This is probably because the true ending of this book has Nicholas/Reynard/Madeline doing some Challengers shit, but sadly it was published in 1998 so it was not to be. Can't believe there's a scene in this book where Madeline is like "Did you ever sleep with my boyfriend" and Reynard is like "Well no but if I really asked he probably would be down" and Madeline is like "Real and true"... thank you for this food Martha Wells.  

aido_potato's review against another edition

5.0

Extraordinarily fun fantasy novel. I love when they team up with the detective.

research_department's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

3.5⭐️, it’s a good book.
Stats: Gas lamp fantasy mystery, dual third person POV/past tense

A young man, aided by his lover and a circle of friends and employees, is set on revenge against the man who framed his foster father, but he is distracted from his goal by the interference of someone who appears to be dabbling in necromancy.

It took several chapters before I was hooked, and even then, I felt somewhat remote from the story.  The characters are likable, mature, and complex, but this is not a character driven story (I probably would have enjoyed it more if character motivation were more prominently featured).  I have seen some comments that this features found family, and I understand why people say so, but it seemed more like a collection than a family.  It is possible that I would have been more engaged if the pace had been zippier.  There’s some banter and witticisms, but I had hoped for more.  

I had read that the protagonist begins as an anti-hero, and many reviewers here on Storygraph seem to think that this is dark.  I feel that the protagonist is light grey, at most.  We certainly spend a lot of time in sewers or catacombs, so literally in dark surroundings, but it wasn’t bleak or depressing or morally challenging.

I suspect that this would appeal more to people who are drawn to either mysteries or plot driven stories.  I don’t read mysteries critically, so I cannot say whether this hit that magic middle that neither under- nor over-telegraphs the plot twists and solutions to the mysteries.  I did enjoy the sneaky way that the protagonist finally got his revenge.