I approached "Witch King" with high expectations, drawn by the intriguing premise and the fact that Martha Wells, whose previous works I've enjoyed, was returning to the fantasy genre. However, after reading the book, I'm left feeling rather disappointed and underwhelmed.

While the concept of a demon prince with the ability to inhabit deceased bodies held promise, the execution fell flat. The alternating timelines, meant to add depth and mystery, only served to confuse and frustrate me as a reader. The convoluted plot, which I can appreciate if backed by engaging characters, failed to connect with me emotionally. Kai, the protagonist, lacked the depth and charisma necessary to truly invest in his journey. I struggled to feel any attachment or care for him as a character.

One aspect that particularly let me down was the writing style. Martha Wells' prose, which had previously captivated me in her other works, felt surprisingly dry and devoid of charm. The storytelling lacked the vivacity and spark that I had come to expect. Coupled with poor pacing, the reading experience became tedious, and I frequently found myself losing interest and struggling to maintain focus.

The world-building, while holding potential, felt muted and unrealized. I longed for a deeper exploration of the secondary world, its intricacies, and its impact on the characters and their motivations. Instead, I was left with more questions than answers, which left me unsatisfied.

Even the supporting cast of characters failed to make a lasting impression. The large ensemble felt overwhelming and lacked the development needed to evoke genuine interest. I struggled to form connections with them, and their individual quests and motivations often felt overshadowed and disconnected from the main narrative.

In conclusion, "Witch King" didn't live up to my expectations. Despite an interesting premise, the book lacked the charm, emotional depth, and engaging storytelling I had hoped for. The dry writing style, confusing plot structure, and underdeveloped characters made it a challenging read that left me feeling indifferent. As a fan of Martha Wells, it pains me to say that I cannot recommend this particular work. I suggest exploring her other, more captivating novels instead.

DNF at 36%. I’m so bored. So, so bored. I don’t care about any of the characters and the brick wall that is the writing is too dense to comprehend who’s even speaking half of the time.

Wonderful fantasy from a favorite author of mine. The narrator was a perfect match for this and I will definitely be able to recommend this to a wide variety of readers.

I absolutely adore the Murderbot books, so was very excited to read Martha Wells newest book.
And while I loved Kai, I found Witch King a little confusing to listen to via audiobook. I'm no stranger to reading/listening to books with multiple timelines, but there was so much going on and so much jumping about that I found it difficult to follow at times.
That being said, there was a lot I enjoyed about this, enough that I will give it another try in print form. Kai was a delightfully complex and clever character and Wells created an interesting, new world for Kai to exist in.
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Thank you to Martha Wells (author), Eric Mok (narrator), Macmillan, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley, for a free advanced reader copy of "Witch King" for an honest review.

I came to the worlds of Martha Wells, like many in the last few years, through the Murderbot Series, so I absolutely could not resist when I saw that she was putting out a fantasy book. I was even more moved when I found out, during my listen, that this book was the product of her COVID time seclusion and the Murderbot Series needing a breaking, and on the other side of this generous, magical, sprawling tale, I am absolutely glad she followed the muse and did it.

I am in love with these new characters, and over the moon that the people we know in the "now" who are family (siblings, dearest friends, married, etc) all started out as erstwhile companions as the best and enemies at the worst. The storyline is so compelling, how everyone is drawn together while we're solving mysteries about what is happening in the past and what happened between the past and the present timeline.

I am dying to see where things might go from here, and hope there will be much more in this world, with these characters.

Possible Triggers:
Death | Fear of water

Positives:
+ Such cool magics! Yes you read that right, MAGICS, as in more than one. I love when there are multiple different magic systems with clearly defined rules and limitations. Really enjoyed how we learned about them as well. There are also nifty items in this book that did magical things as well, which is always also a benefit.
+ Loved the unique world and creatures of this story.
+ The love between the characters is so evident. How they care about each other in various ways.

Final Thoughts:
I want to preface this review with a thing I have seen in SO MANY other reviews…this book is NOT like the books in the Murderbot series. This is an ENTIRELY different freaking genre. So if you are reading this book because you are looking for the same tone as that series, you are coming at it entirely the wrong way.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator they chose to read the story read it with such gravitas and his voice was absolutely lovely. Martha Wells freaking did it again by making you really care about the characters in this story. Even when you aren't sure what exactly is happening and the history of what went down is going on, you WANT the characters to succeed; you hurt when they hurt. If you like reading interesting fantasy worlds with really strong connections between the characters that only deepen as the story goes on. I very much recommend this book.

I ended up not finishing this one. I got about 20% in and I was very bored. This is more of a storyteller, character focused story than I typically prefer. I needed a bit more worldbuilding.

I was so excited for this book, but I think ultimately it was a little too dense for me to get through. I kept trying to push through, but I didn't connect with the characters and got a little lost in the information. I think this is a great book for people who love intricate high fantasy, but I couldn't get into it. Definitely recommend reading this book vs going for the audiobook.

Ok, so don’t kill me for the 3 stars!

I know, I know, everyone is loving this book! And I so wanted to join in on the fun!

I’m a huge fan of the MurderBot series and was so excited to see this new Fantasy book from Wells. I really expected this to be a 5 star for me.

But, me head was actually hurting a bit trying to keep up with this one. Maybe it was things going on in my life at the time I tried to read this and not the actual book, but this felt really confusing and slow. Oh, so slow moving.

The story begins amidst a confusing action scene. Kai is dead and being resurrected. The rest of the story is about Kai, and his small group of cohorts, trying to determine who betrayed them.

There is tons of world building throughout the story, which is probably why it felt slow to me. The characters were wonderful but there was just so much going on with flashbacks and understanding this world that my brain just felt confused all the time.

While there was a bit of humor throughout, it was nothing like the MurderBot series sarcastic humor, and honestly, I really missed that.

I also felt like there was so much world building for what I believe is supposed to be a stand alone book. Why couldn’t more time have been spent on the characters in that case?

I may need to go back and try and read this at another time. Maybe then it will be easier for me to piece together and ultimately be more enjoyable.

The narration was really great but I think the way the story was laid out, this one may have been better for me to read versus listen to. Less confusing for me

This book is not what I expected. Having not discovered Martha Wells until Murderbot, I was unfamiliar with her middle fantasy work.

That being said, it's a great fantasy world with some amazing side characters. Kai fell a bit flat for me, but Ziede was the real star of this book. I could read an entire book about her and her wife. But I didn't feel that way until near the end of the book, when I finally felt like I was getting to know the characters.

The world built in this book, with witches, demons (but not the kind you know,) grasslands people, hierarchs, wind devils, lions and tigers and bears...is intricate and at times, confusing. This book delves almost too far into the "show don't tell," but at the same time I can see why - this book is plot driven, not character driven, so while I know the motivations of the characters, the getting to know and care for them was slow and plodding and didn't occur until at least 60% of the way into the book. Much of that is due to the split timeline.

However, some of it is due to the author naming almost every secondary character in this book something starting with T or B. I could not keep them all straight, and I wouldn't recommend this book in audio format. You'll need a paper copy so you can highlight, annotate, or just make a quick character list to keep everyone straight.

If this is the first book in a series, I think it will be a good one, but I think that this book would just be the setup for it. It was jarring to read, because Martha Wells wrote such a great plot and made me fall head over heels for a MC in the first Murderbot book, so I know she can, but she didn't do that here, and that's what I was looking for.

Overall, I ended up loving this book! Unfortunately, I don’t think it worked well in audio format. It could be a combination of the performance/production, and the writing itself, but there were lots of elements that were tricky to convert to the audio format, like trying to distinguish telepathic dialogue from regular dialogue when they were happening at the same time. And some fantasy names for things that didn’t seem very distinct in audio format, even as someone who frequently listens to high fantasy audiobooks.

It had three main things that worked for me:

First, I am an absolute sucker for powerful, traumatized, snarky characters, and Kai completely fits the bill! He was an excellent leading character, expertly crafted by Wells.

Second, this books is full of interesting character interactions and banter. It’s got great dialogue and compelling dynamics between characters.

And finally, the world was rich and expansive. It feels like a fully developed setting, where there is always more to learn, and more things going on in other places.

All those positives aside, I do understand why this book may not be for everyone. I honestly think that making this a longer series, and adding more POVs would have let this book live into its full potential. The expansiveness of this setting feels a bit underutilized.

I also feel like sometimes the book relies on the tension from the “past” perspective too much, without more fully developing the “present” conflict/danger/goals to the same degree, which led to some inconsistent pacing and leaving readers less invested in how things would develop.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of reading this, despite sometimes feeling less drawn to pick it back up than I would like. If you enjoy Wells’ prose, stories driven by interesting characters, and aren’t daunted by some dense world-building, I think this is well worth the journey!

When Kai wakes after his murder he harnesses his magic to find another body and search for the person who thought they could imprison him. Who would be stupid enough to think they could keep THE demon confined?

Martha Wells is a master storyteller and this is a sweeping high fantasy steeped in world-building. Beautifully narrated by Eric Mok, this epic adventure is riveting, but sometimes hard to follow on audio with such a robust cast of characters. Definitely worth the listen though.

Like so many readers, I picked up this new release after reading the Murderbot Diaries. I knew this work would be unrelated and tried to separate my expectations accordingly.

Without comparison, I found The Witch King to be a solid, well written start to a new fantasy. The writing and character work is good.

However knowing this author is capable of such innovative storytelling, I couldn't help by being slightly underwhelmed by this good, but safe, epic fantasy.

Personally I don't feel that anyone's enjoyment of Murderbot will predict their enjoyment of this novel. Instead I would specifically recommend this one to readers who are looking for new fantasy series to start.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

My inability to read anywhere pass the 10% mark for this novel is likely more due to my misreading of the premise - which I thought would spend more time building up a relationship between the possessed character and the demon king character - than what the book may have set to achieve.

What an outstanding novel by Martha Wells, she hit the ball out of the park. The pacing was great, the character development was amazing, and the world building was so immersive. The narrator did a fantastic job bringing the audiobook to life. It was completely different from Wells' Murderbot series in the best way. I would highly recommend this book for fans of Robin Hobb and John Gwynne.

I received the audio from NetGalley for review. I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Murderbot Diaries, so I was excited to get into this.

First, I would just like to say that I technically gave this book 1.27x chances. I tweeted about having no idea what was going on at 27% and how I was afraid it was just me or how fast I was listening. I completely restarted, with a slower speed, and it did not help.

Second, I have written several rave reviews about books that drop you right into the deep end from the jump, but this one just never recovers. It more so drops you right off a cliff…into a bottomless pit. I had problems remembering and deciphering between characters, locations, lore. The names never stuck, and remember, I listened to the opening twice! There are different beings called witches and demons and other things, but our main character seems to be referred to them all by the end as if they are interchangeable. To be honest, I’m still really not sure what this is about or even what happened during it, and let me tell you that is such a strange feeling because I WAS paying attention.

Third, and maybe this is just me and the style really didn’t work for me or something, but there is not really any climax? We’re just going going going, end. The action scene towards the end didn’t feel impactful, I didn’t feel the build, and maybe that’s why it didn’t read as climactic to me? Also afterward it literally launches like directly back into dialogue and travel and then END.

Personally, and sadly a 2/5* for me. Not a fan. The snippets of lore that struck me as great were just too few and far between.

The opening of Witch King is both a bang and a whimper as Kai wakes up dead (really, truly, sorta/kinda) and has to literally pull himself and the pieces together as he goes. We – and he as it turns out – are plunged into the middle of a story where neither knows quite how we got here – or is fully cognizant of what it is going to take to get out.

It’s also more than a bit of a “how it started/how it’s going” story, with both parts told in parallel as it goes along. Kai doesn’t know how he ended up entombed underwater as the story begins, so he’s trying to figure out how he and his friend and ally Ziede Daiyahah arrived in this most insalubrious location and circumstance.

They are also both desperate to learn what happened to the other members of their family during what they presume was a sudden disappearance from the world’s stage – just as they were about to step onto that stage for a critical negotiation.

But their immediate problem, once they dispose of the rogue agents who planned to assassinate them on the spot – only to provide a path for their escape instead – is to figure out what happened while they were gone. Beginning with locating – and rescuing if necessary – Ziede’s rather formidable wife, Tahren Stargard, along with Tahren’s occasionally hapless and always preoccupied younger brother Dahin.

In that process of chasing clues from pillar to post and all around the territory of the Rising World Coalition of which Kai, Ziede and Tahren are founders tasked with guarding the balance between the more, let’s call them human and mortal, factions, the trail leads through all the light and dark – all too frequently dark – places they fled through on their way to the founding of said coalition. Forcing Kai to walk through memories that he hoped to never revisit no matter how long his nearly immortal life might turn out to be.

Someone is leading them on a not-so-merry-chase. Someone, or several someones, is about to discover just how swiftly the tables can be turned – or perhaps just how long ago those tables were upended..

Escape Rating A-: Witch King is a book that really, truly, seriously rewards a second reading. I’m saying this so emphatically because I read it back in December for a Library Journal review, and at the time I liked it but didn’t love it. I listened to it this month and on the second go around I found it so compelling that I listened to the final quarter in a single go. (I played a lot of mindless solitaire that afternoon!)

I think there were several reasons why it worked so much better for me that second time around, and I think those reasons cannot all be laid at the feet of the narrator even though he was quite good and a terrific choice to serve as Kai’s first-person voice.

I believe that just how much anyone will like Witch King depends on what you were expecting from it. If you’re looking for more Murderbot, these are not the droids – or the SecUnits – you are looking for. (Those are in System Collapse coming out in November.)

If you’re looking for epic fantasy, this isn’t quite that either. Well, the setting feels like epic fantasy, but there’s not enough worldbuilding, or perhaps that not enough explication of the worldbuilding – particularly the wildly exploitative magic system – for this to qualify. Putting it another way, the worldbuilding is very densely packed, the reader is dropped in the middle of it, and there’s not nearly enough book for the reader to get up to speed on how this place is supposed to work before it seems to be falling apart around Kai’s and Ziede’s ears.

And if that title, Witch King, has you expecting anything like what is usually referenced by the term “witch”, well, this definitely isn’t that. Kai isn’t actually a witch at all, either by his definition or ours – and that has nothing to do with the gendered term witch and everything to do with what Kai really is. He’s a demon. Just not exactly what we think of as a demon, either. In other words, in spite of the genres that Goodreads has put this in, Witch King is not remotely paranormal as that’s usually defined.

And not that certain factions in his world haven’t taken all of the monstrous implications of the word demon and used them to apply to Kai’s people, who may come from the “Underearth” but not from any location that corresponds in any way to anything like Hell.

And not that there isn’t evil in Kai’s world, because there certainly is. It’s just the usual evils of power – and the desire for it – corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely.

What Witch King really is, IMHO, is the story of not just one but two profound, life altering friendships, one of which, sadly, can only be honored in memory. And is, to the last full measure, leaving the reader with just a touch of heartbreak in its glorious end.

I hope someday the author returns to this world, because it’s beautiful and FUBAR-ed and fascinating in the way that all the best high fantasies are. And I’d love to find out what happened in the years between how it started and how it has, at least so far, ended.

Solid audiobook adaptation of a solid fantasy novel. I'd like to see more of this world, as described in my review of the book as a whole.

I always been a fan of Martha Well's fantasy book so I was excited for this. I find myself getting lulled by the narrator and then tuning out the story. I love the world that is created despite taking a bit to understand what is fully happening. I found myself losing interest to pick it back up.

***3.0 Stars***

Overall,
This was a bit of a hard one for me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was reading the physical book, not the audiobook. The first chapter lists characters and affiliations which is difficult enough to remember while reading but with the audiobook there is no easy way to go back to those for reference. I found myself getting lost and confused quite often throughout the book which took me out of the story. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy the overall story which in the grand scheme of things is a small story in an epic world. I just think if you are going to pick this book up, read a physcal or ebook form so that you can go back and reference things as they come up.