This book had a lot of nothing going on.
I truly am beyond the definition of bored with this novel.

I was very excited to listen to this book because I love the Murderbot series. It is so much fun, and explores one of my favorite areas of sci fi, "Who gets to be a person?" In a way that is lighthearted while still being meaningful. I liked that it was secondary world serious fantasy that, despite the title, doesn’t hold up monarchy as a good idea. There are lots of independent and loosely allied societies trying to fend off a genocidal invader.

Unfortunately, this book really didn’t work for me overall. By about 20% in I really didn’t care about any of the characters, with the possible exception of Sanja. I liked Kai more as the book went on, but none of the characters really grabbed me. The world-building was very complex, which is not a bad thing, but by the end I still felt like I didn’t know exactly what the various races of magical and non-magical beings all are. It felt like there were too many secondary and tertiary characters. I also had trouble identifying the universal themes that drove the purpose of the book.

I know Martha Wells wrote fantasy before Murderbot, but I haven’t read any of it so I’m not sure how it compares. I fully acknowledge that part of my issue with it might have been that I saw the name Martha Wells and expected snarky fun, but instead got a fantasy that takes itself pretty seriously. Without her name attached this isn’t the type of book I would have chosen to pick up in the first place. I also think the promotional text kind of tries to make it sound like it’s funny, probably to appeal to her Murderbot readers. Kai’s inner monologue is nowhere near as entertaining or unique as murderbot’s, and there are some good moments in the dialogue, but overall it just doesn’t have the same snap.

The narration was good. I didn’t have strong feelings about it one way or the other.

I would recommend the book for people who like to be immersed in new fantasy worlds and new magic systems. There’s a lot to chew on here if that’s your thing.

My full review was released as a Narrated podcast episode posted on May 30, 2023.

Martha Wells remains an absolute legend and I look forward to reading more from her. The lore in this is deep and complex--very different from Murderbot, but still an excellent read!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I have been sitting on this one for a while, mainly because I was unsure how to review this. I wanted to like this so badly, I am a huge fan of Martha Wells previous works so I went into this with the expectation that I would enjoy it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here.

I think the book started out strong. Martha Wells is great at building characters and I loved our MC Kai at the start. The premise sounded great. I murdered Demon King that has to piece together memories to find the identity of his murderer. I love stories that jump from past to present in time. Unfortunately, as the story progressed I lost so much of that initial interest. The characters felt flat and the story was so convoluted. It took me almost 1 month to finish a book I would have normally devoured in a few days.

2.5 Stars

Martha Wells’ latest fantasy offering suffers from comparison to her wildly popular Murderbot Diaries novellas. If you’re looking for more of the dry wit and solid characterization that Wells’ is known for, you may be disappointed by Witch King. Packed with great ideas and featuring an interesting world, this standalone fantasy novel should’ve been a slam-dunk, but it fell short for me.

Witch King introduces the demon prince Kaiisteron – call him Kai – an infamous demon known as the Witch King. Feared and respected in equal measure, demons can possess mortal bodies and drain life from living things. Powerful even by demon standards, Kai’s latest adventure starts when he wakes from a long imprisonment, disoriented and separated from his most recent body. His murdered body, now resting in its watery grave. Severely weakened and unable to recall the events leading to his imprisonment, Kai knows he’s been betrayed – but why? And by whom?

I absolutely loved the setup of this story. Solving your own murder while occupying a new and unfamiliar body? Raging against your oppressors and blasting them into the netherworld with magic? Sign me up! The story’s conceit is compelling, but it never seemed to find its feet. Told in two timelines, the present focuses on solving “Kai’s” murder and the past timeline explains Kai’s rise to power and how he became the Witch King. Tons of characters are introduced in both timelines, most of them with reason enough to want Kai dead.

Unfortunately, the overabundance of characters bogged down the narrative in both timelines. The result? A poorly paced story packed with characters I didn’t really care about. I loved Zeide, Kai’s badass best friend and guard, but even Kai himself couldn’t capture my attention for long. He holds a lot back from the reader in his narration, so is it any wonder I felt distant from him? From a characterization and world-building perspective, I do appreciate Witch King’s normalization of queerness in many forms. There isn’t really a romance, although tender feelings are hinted at between Kai and other men in both the past and present timelines. Zeide is also married to another woman, Tahren, and no one bats an eye.

This is a classic example of marketing doing more harm than good. All the buzzy things I heard about Witch King made me expect an action-packed adventure, when in reality it’s a slower-paced story about a famous fantastical figure. Readers going in with those expectations are sure to enjoy the story more than I did.

Audiobook lovers should take note: Eric Mok narrates and he delivers a solid performance. Mok’s voice is mellow and pleasant, and I thought his “proper” sounding English accent fit Kai’s somewhat uptight personality quite well. I’d happily listen to another book narrated by him!

DNF'd at 30%

I think this book started out with a strong hook but ultimately got bogged down with convoluting or minimal plot development. I may return to this in the future physically but the audiobook was not for me for this one.

DNF @ End of chapter 7, page 161
on July 7, 2023

I started out by listening to the audiobook and that may have been my downfall. All the unfamiliar places/names threw me for a loop and I just couldn't keep up. The narrator was wonderful, I enjoyed his voice a lot! But I had no idea what was actually happening in the book. 161 pages in and I could not tell you a single thing of this plot.

There were chapters told in the present and some in the past - sometimes it takes me a bit to get into stories like that. (Nevernight by Jay Kristoff, for example. I was confused until something clicked and then I loved it! I was reallyyyy hoping that would happen with this book but I've read enough to call it quits.)

I've heard so many good things about Martha Wells though, I will certainly be giving her Murderbots series a try one day!

Witch King. Wow.

Martha Wells is the absolute Queen Bee of fantastical world-building.

Her MurderBot is probably my favourite SciFi series ever.

This one was fantasy vs SciFi, but Wells does nothing half-assed.

This book WAS A LOT.

A lot of world building.
A lot of characters.
A lot of politics.
A lot of history.
A LOT OF EXPOSITION.

Thank goodness for the Character Index, or it would have been easy to get lost.

If you like getting totally immersed in a world to the point you don't know past from present, good from bad, or up from down, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.

Eric Mok is an excellent narrator, but in this case, I felt his voice was a bit too soothing. There were scenes that needed a bit more depth of emotion. Otherwise, love the voice!

I loved the Murderbot books and was excited to dive into Martha Wells’ latest release, Witch King. It’s fantasy rather than sci-fi but I like both genres so my hopes were high.

The first problem was that the book starts with a “dramatis personae” – ie a cast list. It is long. Many of the names are complicated “fantasy names”; some of them are very similar and, there was just no way I was going to remember almost any of them. The cast list describes who they are, their race and/or role and where they might fit into the story. Or, at least, I expect that’s what the intention was. It’s completely useless on audio.

In a print book, one can go back and forth from the story to the front matter to refresh one’s memory about who is who. In an ebook, it’s harder but possible. (I think it would be annoying though.) On audio it’s just not an option.

Consequently, I started the book with only the blurb to help me. There is no explaining – I was just plunged into an entirely different world with many characters, most of whom I could not place. And, apart from about five or six of them, when they came up again, I couldn’t remember exactly who they were. I made it about a third of the way into the book but really at that point I was so lost and I had no real hope of ever being found. It’s not enjoyable to spend hours listening to something where my prevailing thoughts were “who is that?” and “what is happening?”. Most of the time, I could not answer those questions.

Added to that, the narration was unevenly paced with some parts being at a good speed and others being way too fast. It meant I couldn’t slow the entire listen to fix the problem. Mr. Mok had little differentiation between characters of different genders and that made it even harder to work out who was who. After a third of the story I really didn’t know all that much more about the world or the story than I had from the blurb.

Possibly Witch King is a great book. But it’s best read in print I believe. Maybe once a listener is familiar with the story and the cast (ie having read the book already) the listening experience would be entertaining. But for me, it was not.

I’m sorry to say Witch King was a DNF for me.

This was my first title from Martha Wells, and I absolutely loved it. The story world building, and characters were so dense that you really felt a part of this world. This truly felt like a great band of adventurers, very reminiscent of dungeons and dragons type vibe. . Definitely fell in love with this world and story and especially the characters. I love a good found family trope book. Thank you net, Galley and Macmillan audio for this early copy and I am very excited to see what Martha does next!

I was told to not expect Murder Bot when picking up this book. After reading Witch King, I can somewhat agree with that sentiment. There is one thing that consistent between these "books" (I know M-bot is a series), Martha Wells finds a way to create completely loveable characters. It's found family!!!!

The premise and magic in this book is incredibly unique. We follow Kai is a demon prince, who can inhabit mortal bodies, in two timelines the past and the future. The past we see how Kai got his name the Witch King. The future were is awoken after being betrayed and no idea who did it.

Warning you will be thrown into this world and it does take a minute to figure out what is going on. This was an enjoyable read for me.

*This is ONLY a review of the audiobook and not the actual content of this novel, as such the rating is not for the quality of the content and will not be posted to goodreads.*
So I made it 46% of the way through this audiobook and I can't, for the life of me, figure out what is happening. I know this is a book I could really love since the writing is deep and immaculate but the audiobook has something lacking as far as understanding timeline shifts and settings. I'm thankful to TOR to also have an ARC of the e-book so I'm going to try that in order to give an actual review on the book. I want to love this so bad and I felt like the audiobook was the only was to trick my brain into not being scared of this chunky title but....maybe the chipmunks in my brain have just taken a break. On to the e-book I go!

I was excited when I was approved for Martha Wells's new book (fantasy). I have read her Muderbot Diaries series (science fiction). I gave this book 3.5 stars. It started with a lot of characters. I almost had a hard time wanting to finish the book, but I did.

This is unlike anything I’ve read from Martha Wells before. This is by no means a quick read as it’s filled with betrayal, political intrigue, and time jumps from present to past that (for me at least) can be a little over whelming. These flashback help build the world to piece together the current state of the stories affairs and how they ended up in their current predicament.

This felt like a high fantasy novel. The magic system has strict laws on how it’s operated, a unique language between witches, diverse cast of characters and cultures, and excellent representation. The world is beautiful and Wells does a fantastic job out laying and bringing this world into vibrant visuals. I loved listening to this story and it was certainly a had me captivated.

Review for the AUDIOBOOK version of Witch King.

I'd like to start this review by saying I'm a fan of Martha Wells. Some of my favorite books/novellas are the Murderbot books. I've read each one twice, recommended the books to others, and am an unabashed fan. Imagine my excitement when I was approved by Netgalley to listen to the audiobook version of Witch King!

Unfortunately, this book is not listenable. I have the digital book on hold at the library, and I promise to try again with the digital version. However, I cannot recommend the audiobook version.

The audiobook starts off with a list of character names that go on forever. I did myself a favor and found the character list online and printed them out to use for reference so I could skip this part. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

The audiobook is narrated by Eric Mok. This is my first time hearing this narrator. Eric has a beautiful accent that I did enjoy. I didn't have a problem with Eric's voice. I think it had something to do with the sound production. The audio wasn't crisp. It was... soft? I'm sure there are technical terms I'm not aware of to describe this. The audio was soft. I thought I could correct it by turning up the volume, but it wasn't a matter of volume.

I attempted multiple times to listen to this audiobook and had to give up. It simply is not listenable. The combination of the story, the muffled sound, and the voice quality of the actor didn't combine to create an enjoyable listening experience.

I'd like to thank Tor and Netgalley for the audiobook version of this book in return for my honest review. As a Martha Wells fan, I do plan to read this book in another format in the near future and provide a separate review.

DNF at 12%. There was so much info dump that I have no clue who anyone is and what is even happening.

*3.5 stars*

This took a while to get into but I think it was worth it in the end. This was a really interesting stand alone high fantasy book. I enjoyed the world building and political intrigue. I loved the found family aspect, and Kai as a character.

This was a little chaotic and not necessarily in a good way. A lot of books I love just throw you into the world without any info dumping, and while Witch King certainly does that I’m not sure it does it well. The world you’re thrown into is very elaborate and there are so many characters that are hard to keep track of. The magic systems are not explained well, leaving you guessing how the world works. I felt that the pacing was off between the past and present story lines which made it hard to feel the urgency in the flashbacks and made the present feel slow. If you like slow political intrigue with found family I think you might like this.

The audio narration was good, but as an audiobook no being able to see names spelled out made things more confusing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

I really tried since the narration is decent enough, but I think this has broken my brain?? I can’t finish it I’ll stick to Murderbot…

Thank you for the advance reader copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Wells returns to fantasy with this story of a demon prince (aka witch king) that unfolds across two timelines: during a rebellion against the genocidal Heirarchs and long after, when some things have gone well and others haven’t. There was a lot to process—humans, witches, demons, Immortal Blessed, their constructs, and the Heirarchs were the key players, with lots of palace intrigue as well as fighting. I know it’s reasonable to fear descending into caricature when the market really likes one of your projects, but I confess I want more Murderbot instead.

Oh my soul is broken. Okay it wasn’t that bad, it’s like a 2.5 out of 5 stars for me. Like there's a morsel of enjoyment there, kinda. I just found this book to be as dry as the Sahara desert. The story itself was the best part. So Two different timelines, one at the height of the main character's power and then another, set after his betrayal by an unknown ally. but the way it was written, I don’t know, I couldn’t enjoy it at it’s max. This book reminds me why I really hated The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons because there's also a double timeline here moving back and forth between past and present, which only adds another level of confusion and no, it’s not like I can’t read double timelines, but it has to be coherent and it didn’t feel like that here. I had problems remembering and deciphering between characters, locations, lore. The names never stuck and I read the opening introduction multiple times. For all the time that I'd spent reading this whole book with these characters, I had no idea what they were going to do what to think of there choices because I didn't feel I had a good grasp on the world at all, or whether they were still in danger, or...anything. I was left pretty confused by this book, wondering what I was supposed to get out of it. Yeah, maybe martha wells is too smart for the world because it felt like I read a book that was written by an ancient alien language and then transcoded into English..
Audiobook performance wise: 5 STARS