I am a big fan of the Murderbot series and know that Martha Wells' roots are in fantasy so I was excited to try a stand-alone fantasy novel of hers but, sadly, this wasn't my cup of tea. We are immediately immersed in the world building without much build up as well as alternating timelines so there was a lot of confusion throughout for me. Sometimes, I am just not in the right frame of mind for undertaking the task of absorbing all the new aspects of a world to be able to fully read and enjoy some fantasy books. This one took a lot of effort but didn't have as much payoff as I wanted. Martha Wells is still on my TBR list and I will definitely try again with some of her fantasy books down the road. Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is very different from the books that I read and I had quite a hard time reading it tbh, but all this said I’m sure that it’s a great book for those who read this genre

When one of your most anticipated release turn into your most disappointing read of the year.

Like many people, I fell in love with the Murderbot Dairies by Martha Wells. So when I saw Witch King in a list of 2023 releases, I immediately added it to my ‘Want to read’. Unfortunately, the storytelling style used in Witch King didn't work for me at all.

Right from the start, the reader is thrown into a scene with next to no context, backstory nor explanations. And while it can be intriguing and engaging when done well, in this book it didn't work for me at all and didn't improve as I progressed through the story. It was as if the author had decided to give the minimum information to the readers to make their book more complex than it really is. I would have DNF this book very early on if it hadn't been an ARC.

I had no idea what was going on 99% of the time. Between the scenes of the present and the scenes of the past (which were always cut as soon as something interesting was going to happen), the reader must guess who is who or go back to the (long!) character sheet at the beginning of the book every two pages. No matter what format you read this book in, it's not practical or enjoyable at all! And that inevitably leads to a lack of connection to the characters and the story.

Witch King had a lot of potential, especially in its world building. From what little we see, the world is very complex and vast, but so little is shown to us that it's like someone is talking about the most delicious ice cream in the world but never letting you taste it. Frustrating. And I'm not even talking about the magic system.

I lost all hope of ever caring about the characters and plot halfway through, and a book I should have read in days took me weeks to finish. To say I was disappointed is an understatement for all the frustration this book brought me. I wouldn't recommend.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I feel like 25% of this was just way over my head. But the 75% I did understand, it was awesome!

The world building is so interesting, and I loved exploring the life of a demon who lives in different bodies. It something that seems so scary and unnatural, but Wells really explores this concept, fleshes it out (oh no was that a pun?). There are whole cultures in this world who have incorporated demons into their religion and way of life and I found this so compelling.

Kai is a great character - funny, violent, with a soft side, of course.

You're really just plopped into this world without a ton of explanation. Things unfold slowly as you go. This was one of the hardest books I've read in a while, prose-wise. I enjoyed this challenge though! I just mention because if you're looking for an easy fantasy read, this isn't it. The complexities and layers do pay off if you're willing to settle in for a long ride.

Wanted to love this one a lot but it was truly just too confusing for me to continue plowing through.

We know nothing about the MC or his past for like thr first 20% and I just couldn't keep going.

Maybe one day I'll come back to it but not now.

DNF @ 45%

A jumbled, sterile mess. It was told in a very convoluted way but didn't earn it's convolution; I couldn't be bothered to care about anything going on or when in the timeline we were or why any things were happening. All the characters were boring and the demons were sometimes different names depending on who they were inside...just dial it down, Martha.

3.5 ⭐️
This started out so interesting, the world building and characters were intriguing…but by half way through it just started to drag and I had a hard time getting through it. I felt like it was lacking in character/emotional development, it just turned into a series of things happening without much to make you actually care about the characters or their story, unfortunately. Very much a case of telling instead of showing everything that’s happening and it’s in such a like…detached, clinical way, that (for me, at least) there was just no emotional attachment to keep me engaged. This was one of my most anticipated spring releases, so, sadly, I was pretty disappointed.

Witch King-Martha Wells
DNF 40%

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.
He’s not going to like the answers.

First off thanks to NetGalley, Tor publishing and the author for a free E Arc of the book. I was genuinely excited for this book and feel bad about Dnfing (mainly cause I never dnf I usually push through) but I just couldn’t keep trying to read this story. I’m sure for others it’ll be great but I just found it so boring. I love the Murderbot stories from the same author but this doesn’t keep me interested from the very beginning like those do. I still 40% through have really no clue what’s going on or what the magic system is. The only thing I know is Kai’s a demon in a human body, someone murdered him and he’s looking for his friends wife. There are some interesting parts but then I just get confused again (maybe it’s me lol) and continue to be bored, I would rather move on them keep trying to get into it. So unfortunately it’s a DNF from me.

Martha Wells has written an exciting, unique, and engaging adventure in her newest book, The Witch King. As a longtime fan of her work, I was eagerly anticipating this latest addition to her growing collection of novels. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

Wells has a unique way of crafting a world that feels both wholly original and yet grounded in familiar tropes. Her characters are always richly drawn and complex, and The Witch King is no exception. Kai, the protagonist, is a fascinating and flawed character who I found myself fascinated by from the very beginning What I particularly enjoyed about The Witch King was the way in which Wells explores power and friendship, magic and the mundane, past and present, the human and the nonhuman.

One of the things that sets The Witch King apart from Wells’ other books is its focus on pain magic and demon main characters. While it may sound grim, the way in which Wells weaves this type of magic into the story is both inventive and captivating. It adds an extra layer of tension to an already gripping plot. It’s a unique and fascinating system, and weaves into the worldbuilding very well.

While I thoroughly enjoyed The Witch King, there were a few moments where the pacing felt a bit slow and some plot threads I felt were not entirely tied up. I also am not the biggest fan of time jumps unless very clearly labelled.

Comparing The Witch King to some of Wells’ other books, I would say it’s on par with her prior epic fantasy work in terms of both world-building and character development. That said, it’s a departure from her more well-known scifi novella series, Murderbot, but still excellent in a new way. Wells’ characters are always particularly alive, unique, and relateable, and I enjoyed reading about Kai in The Witch King.

Overall, I highly recommend The Witch King to any fans of fantasy, especially those who have enjoyed Wells’ previous work. It’s a captivating story with richly drawn characters, and it left me interested in more. As her first fantasy publication in a long time, I’m excited to see where she goes with this new world.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Martha Wells has a true gift for writing fascinating, complex main characters. In this fantasy novel, the reader must pay attention to fully appreciate the intricate plot and the way Wells slowly reveals the story through a split timeline. This book is not a palate cleanser or a light read, but it rewards the reader with a rich world and a host of engaging characters. The Murderbot books are so much fun and so easy to tear through that I can see why this book is getting a more mixed reception, but I ended up really loving it and thinking about the novel long after I finished it. The book drops you into a world and you just have to trust the process and not worry too much about the details. Kai awakes from imprisonment to find a mage trying to harness his magic. He doesn't know what has happened to him or how long he's been held in an unconscious state, but he gathers his friends and they set off to get answers. Meanwhile, every other chapter or so, we get a piece of the past which illuminates each step of the journey. A satisfying, engrossing, and thoughtful read. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for a digital review copy.

I absolutely loved this book. It was rich in detail, and with a fantastically woven storyline. The characters were brilliant, and I couldn’t put the book down. Highly recommend!

DRC provided by Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Martha Wells is a powerhouse. Witch King destroyed me.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for an advanced reader digital copy of this book!

We are dropped into the middle of Kai's story, where he wakes up after being murdered and have to piece things together along the way to determine how Kai and his friends got to this point in time. It is a slow-burn fantasy with an intricately detailed world that is filled with magic, mystery, and a bit of mayhem. Wells not only gives you characters that you can see and hear, but the detail into their cultures and their experiences surpasses expectations. There is so much depth and complexity in the world of Witch King that one can get lost in it.

Wonderfully crafted, epic fantasy. It is quite dense initially, and some of the magic/concepts of the world can be a bit confusing. It was a bit too complex and for my personal tastes, however I still found it charming. However, once immersed into the world of Kai and the mystery surrounding his murder I could not put it down. I have never read a novel such as this where the reader is dropped into the story with no prior context as to what has happened. It is a unique method of storytelling and it only adds to the question, what happened to Kai and his friends?

Witch King is a delight of a standalone fantasy novel. Thrown into the deep end with Kai, an immortal Demon prince who wakes up in a coffin and doesn't know what is going on, the perspective shifts back and forth between a present day political conspiracy plot and the past rebellion that brought Kai notoriety. With each shift, this full world reveals a little more of its compelling personality and motives of the complex characters that inhabit it. Rich characters, interesting magic, and complex fantasy culture leave a little something for everyone to enjoy while finding their footing in this world.

As I am finding to be typical of Wells as an author, Witch King isn't much one for big battles, flashy wit, and grand morals. In a refreshing turn against the grain of sweeping, allegorical epic fantasy, Wells presents the power of trustworthy allies, painstaking efforts, and a determination to see the mission through. As Kaiisteron Fourth Prince of the Underearth and victim of a political conspiracy, gives way to Kai, formerly Kai-Enna of the Saredi, readers are left with a simple, yet poignant message of hope and a yearning to know what comes next.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for that epic fantasy feel without the obligation of several sequels and complicated family trees.

I haven't read the Murderbot series so this is my first introduction to Martha Wells. The world-building confused me a bit, especially in the beginning, but that honestly just comes with entering a new fantasy world. However, the pacing threw me off a bit.

I'm working my way through the MurderBot series by this author (starting with [book:All Systems Red|32758901], just finished [book:Exit Strategy|35519109]) but haven't ready any of their previous work, so I was excited to try this new fantasy. I don't like it, for a lot of the same reasons I struggle to enjoy other popular high fantasy novels.

There is a very large cast, all with made-up names that I couldn't keep straight right off the bat. The story takes place in two time-lines, one "present" and one unspecified past. The length of time between these two time-lines isn't specified into well into the second half of the book-- by which time, it hardly matters anymore.

There are some interesting gender dynamics at play-- in the dominant culture the men wear skirts and the women wear pants; demons posses human bodies but keep their "original" gender identity regardless of the host's gender; plenty of female guards and fighters, enough that it seems to be a "woman's" job-- but these are so mixed and muddled up with all the other things the reader has to figure out, it's hard to know which bits are important. The reader is dropped into a seemingly-globe-spanning war of conquest, with no map, no history, no orientation markers, and has to figure out who's fighting, why, where, and also, simultaneously but in the future timeline, who's still salty about it, who's in on the conspiracy, and why. I guess if you like your reading experiences to feel like a cross between Perfection and Operation with the required anxiety and attention to detail, well then, good news!

eARC from NetGalley.

I’m not a Murderbot fan. I’ve only read the first one, and don’t really remember it. I didn’t dislike it, but it wasn’t what I was in the mood for at the time. Given Wells’ popularity I’ve always meant to go back and try again, but I’ve never found the time. So if you want to know how her fantasy compares to her science fiction, I can’t really help you.

I can tell you that, independent of any shadow of Murderbot, this was an excellent character-driven standalone fantasy.

Our protagonist is Kai, a demon with the ability to take over the bodies of mortals. He wakes up in a glass coffin in some kind of prison, with no knowledge of where he is or how he ended up there. But there are people there who mean to kill or enslave him, and he senses a dear friend is also imprisoned nearby. And so we’re off.

This is as clear an example of *in media res* as I can think of. While the story moves forwards, and Kai works out who imprisoned him, and how, and why, we also learn about his past fighting against the world-conquering nigh-invincible Hierarchs. The two threads of the book play off of each other; as we learn about something in the present, we learn about the events of the past that provide the relevant background. Kai gathers friends and allies as he goes, especially ones he was very close to during the war.

As a story goes, it is quite good. The present kept pulling me along with the whodunnit aspect of things, especially since it’s made clear that someone close to Kai had to have been involved. The past storyline kept pulling me along because I was invested in Kai and his relationships to his friends, and needed to know how those bonds were forged. But I called this character-driven for a reason. Kai is the heart of this book, and Kai is what keeps everything moving.

I called this a standalone, which I don’t actually know to be the case. There’s definitely room for Wells to write more stories in this universe if she wants to, but this book is whole and complete. There could be a sequel, but it’s not needed.

Strongly recommended, and makes me want to revisit Murderbot.

Thank you to Netgalley and TOR for the ARC!

First off, this was my first Martha Wells read, and it definitely made me interested in checking out the Murderbot Diaries series as well!

I enjoyed the story of this one overall. As a standalone high fantasy novel, I felt myself wanting more world building in particular. I also continued to get names mixed up with one another, and altogether was confused by the world the story took place in. But I don't necessarily want to say that Witch King did a bad job of this, because I do not often read high fantasy, which this definitely is, and so I'm not as used to so many characters and terms being thrown at us and hardly explained. I also felt like the ending felt lackluster, and as I was reading the ebook, I was about 96% done with the story and was completely unsure how it was going to end in a satisfactory way (spoiler alert: it didn't really). I actually think this could have been a great first book in a series, and in a lot of ways it felt like the beginning to a series, so some of my issues with it might be that so much was packed into it to make it a stand-alone. But as I said, overall it was a fun read and I definitely got invested with the characters and the story

3 Stars!

I thank Netgalley for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I requested this arc because I read an excerpt of the first few chapters. The beginning was so nice, how we along with the characters know nothing about what happened to them and how they got to the situation where they find themselves at the beginning. Normally, I also love split timeline povs in books, so I was excited when I found out that this book also had a past and present timeline. Unfortunately the book stops being interesting almost until 80% in. It was not boring enough to dnf but also not interesting enough to keep me reading once the chapters ended and the next one was of a different timeline. It was almost as if I was reading 2 books with both of them starting out really slow and only getting interesting at the end. I wish one timeline would have been more fast paced than the other at different times.
Although I have to confess that I got really emotional at the endings of both timelines. This is probably also the reason I gave this book 3 stars instead of 2.5. The characters were another reason. I loved them all and they grew on me the more I read how they came to be and why they are the way they are.

Even though I gave this book only 3 stars, I would definitely read more of these characters and if there is ever a second book or a spin-off, I will be picking those up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an eARC of Witch King!

From start to finished, you will be entranced in this action packed fantasy world. Kai, the Witch King, is a demon from the Underworld and he was assassinated. Kai makes his way into another body, determined to find out who put him in his watery grave. While moving through the story, you will be transported into Kai's past and then back to the present as the mystery begins to unravel. This was definitely an epic fantasy adventure!