I love the characters this author writes. Murderbot comes to mind with it's super compelling main character and fun, well-developed assortment of side characters. This story is no exception with Kai, a demon. I also liked the way this story alternated between past and present, but every once in a while I had to remind myself what section I was in. I loved the world-building in this book and the pacing was so tight and well done that I found myself flying through this. This was such a compelling work of epic fantasy and I highly, highly recommend this! I can't wait for more in this world and/or more from this author.
For the audiobook specifically: I enjoyed the narrator's voice. I thought he had a good voice for reading stories. However, I'm not sure that his voice specifically works for this story, I felt sort of removed from the story at times because it felt like someone was reading a book to me rather than the book itself coming to life, if that makes any sense at all.

I haven’t experienced well-known The Murderbot Diaries series, so Witch King was my first read by Martha Wells. The story follows a demon from the Underworld named Kai who wakes up imprisoned. There are two timelines where the reader follows the past of how he got there and the present of what he will do next. The story starts in the middle of the action, so it takes awhile to put all the pieces together. This may work for some readers and not for others, so for me I do wish there was a bit more introduction to the story just to captivate me more right away. As-is, it took me a few times to pick up this story, but the audiobook did help move it along more, for me. I think it would have taken me a lot longer to read if I did the printed version or I may have been distracted by other novels instead.

There is a lot of detail in this novel, including descriptions of the clothes and culture. At times, the volume is a bit much as they take away from the plot. In others, though, they were well-done and added a lot to the story. I think the writing had a difficult time finding the sweet spot in the amount to include, but I can see the potential with this author. There are a lot of characters in this story. I think if I tried to memorize all of them, I would fail, but I was able to, at least, track everyone enough to follow the story. Kai was a great protagonist where he was darker yet likeable. The other characters in the story all fit well together, but I do wish that the story went into more about them. At times, some of them read a little flat and other times they read well-rounded. I believe this may be due to everything being crammed into a single novel. Since the reader is dropped in the middle of the action before the pieces are revealed, it reads like a sequel, and I think a prequel novel to fully explore the background would be nice.

The novel is more plot-driven and follows Kai’s journey. The pieces are put together slowly. With the past and present happening plus the unique chapter structure, the novel is a little convoluted. The concept is great, but I think the execution did not quite get there. Eric Mok was an engaging narrator, but it was still difficult to follow the material. The ending is satisfying with some questions being answered, but there are still some questions left. There is a lot of material packed into the novel where there would be enough to break it apart and make it multiple books. I think there are readers that will love this story; however, it just did not quite work for me. Overall, I think Wells has a lot of potential to work with me as an author, but this story did not quite get there.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for the opportunity to read this enjoyable novel. The opinions expressed are completely my own.**

I love this book! Kai wakes up next to his own casket and knows he has been betrayed. He just need to figure out why. Alternating between Kai's past and present, an rich world and incredible magic system are slowly revealed. I loved all the characters and the story that was told.

Wow, what a stunning fantasy from Martha Wells! I discovered this author thanks to the Murderbot Diaries, and while this book is nothing like that in terms of tone or plot, it still has the same heart and amazing characters of their other series. If you played Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom and want something with the same vibes (note: vibes, not plot) then this book is DEFINITELY it. I loved the alternating timelines between the past and the present, and how the history repeated itself in different ways. If you liked the setup of Lies of Locke Lamora, you'll love this book. I had a little trouble keeping up with the names, but that's because I read via audiobook and my brain wasn't ready. The narrator did an amazing job, with distinct character voices and brilliant acting. Highly recommend as long as you're used to high fantasy via audio! Overall, thoroughly enjoyed this book and will read again.

You will be pulled into this mysterious and complex universe from the first chapter where Kai awakens in a prison cell at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately for the expositor who has trapped him there, Kai is the witch king and far more powerful than anyone can imagine. Jumping back and forth from the past and the present, the complicated history of demons and witches inhabiting humans through warfare, political intrigue, and revolution will slowly be revealed. The battles are quick but the clean up is bloody and dark.

My biggest issue with the book is that it is a bit too complex. It seems the author, Martha Wells, has a very well thought out world but just forgot to explain it to the audience. The list of characters at the start of the book are normally just references as you go through the book, not the only explanation of who any of these people are and their relation to anyone else. But that's exactly what it is and it makes the book maddeningly difficult to keep straight. With this convoluted world building, Martha Wells seems to have fallen into the trap of trying to make the world seem more fantastical by making everything have a new name. Do the magicians really have to be called expositors instead?

The story is intriguing overall and I do appreciate the queer characters, who play with the genders of the humans they inhabit but also the non-straight relationships these characters develop.

I received an early reviewer's copy of Witch King from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Here is the deal - this is Martha Wells at all of her fantasy, world building glory. I know a lot of people have only read her Murderbot series and are surprised by how intense her fantasy writing is (and has been). I started with Murderbot a year or two ago, and then I spent a whole summer with the Raksura and realized how intricate all of her worlds are.
So! With that being said, this is a solid entry into Wells's fantasy bibliography. One of the main reasons I love her fantasy books is because she just drops you right in the deep end. It's a great way to kind of, spurn a sense of wonder at the largess of the worlds she creates.
The world she has created in Witch King is expansive, not just physically (though her worlds are usually so large in distance), but in the concepts of what it means to be human - gender, sexuality, ability... Sometimes you're a demon in a new body and you're just having a bit of a Time. It's so refreshing to be able to read a big-F Fantasy novel and not cringe internally at homophobia, transphobia and general LGBTQ squeamishness.
Witch King is the kind of book that is an escapist's dream: a world where it isn't all a metaphor for a current/recent social issue. (Don't get me wrong, I love books on both sides of this, but sometimes you need a book to let you stop thinking about the world so you can relax for a second.) And while it is unfortunately still a world that will be taken as a "political statement" by some, just due to Wells's standard inclusiveness, it is really just a story you can get sunk right into and inhabit the world in your mind.
Also, if you are a new Wells reader from Murderbot or just finding her for the first time: if you liked this book, you are going to *love* her back catalogue.

This book starts right in the middle of something, what does it start in the middle of? I have no clue. I had a very hard time being interested in anything going on. For me, if I don't already ha e enough info I can't be invested and care about anything moving forward.
I DNFed at 20% and honestly it was hard to even get that far.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook.

I ended up DNF'ing this book about 33% of the way through. There was a lot of info dumping and I was really struggling to read. The characters all seemed really interesting but I struggled with them because of all the info dumping, I felt like there was more exposition than seeing the characters actually doing something. My book club will be reading this over the summer so I will pick it up again then and see if I like it better the second time.

Martha Wells is such a clever writer. From nail biting tension to moments of laughter. I love Murder Bot, this is not that. This is such a complicated entertaining superbly original fantasy epic!

Kai is a demon. Demons inhabit important members of important families. This gives the families demonic powers & longevity. Why is this killer so likable? RAFO!

The book runs on 2 timelines. The past helps explain the present. At times you’ll stop and ask yourself where you are in time.

This (like Murder Bot) is such a cool premise and the groundwork has been lain for a new series. Please.

Good narration for this epic!

Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan Audio! I’ve pre-ordered a special hardcover edition.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC.

If you like incredibly epic world building and strong characters, this book is for you. The beginning of the story was giving me major Sabriel vibes, but I'm not sure why because it was nothing like it. There is a character glossary in the start and you WILL need it. The timeline bounces back from present to past and there are an overwhelming amount of people that are introduced. There were several times that I zoned out while listening to the audiobook because I just couldn't keep anyone straight. The narrator also didn't really change his voice between characters so it was hard to tell who was speaking at times.

It was truly a great story, but I was definitely confused for about 95% of it.

I love Martha Wells books and this was no exception. Amazing storytelling going back amd forth, deep characters, world building that might confuse you until you get in tune with the story and then you're along for the ride. And what an amazing ride! I loved the MC a lot and I was on the edge of my seat trying to understand who wanted them gone. I am not a very good detective so I didn't guess anything but I loved listening the story unfolding from his POV and seeing all the characters he encountered along the way.

An entertaining new sweeping Scifi epic that was thoroughly entertaining and genre defying with memorable characters and a very unique plot. Great on audio and highly recommended. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor for an advanced listeners copy of this book for a review.

This book was not for me. I had such a difficult time feeling engaged with the storyline.
We start off with Kai who we find out is a demon otherwise known as the witch king. He and his friends have been trapped and the journey begins to find out how he was tricked and trapped. The timeline changes between past and present in order to give the reader some history on the world, which is an element that I typically enjoy. However, I could not feel engaged to Kai’s character as he was a bit too closed off for me and I found it difficult to care about the story. I eventually stopped about 40% in. The premise of this story seemed very interesting, and I have enjoyed Wells other Murderbot series, so I hate that I didn’t connect with this one.

The description makes this sound a lot more interesting and snappy than it turned out to be for me. It started out so strong, with Kai taking over a new body and being all bad***. But then it was slow. Not much happened for a while. Lots of talking and explaining. There were scenes of action, but somehow they didn't make it feel any more exciting for me. Then when things did happen, I just didn't feel that invested. Even when they got the answers they spent the story looking for and some things were revealed, it felt like, "Oh, ok." Half the story was in a past timeline too, which is already more difficult to make readers interested in because we sorta know how things turn out, and there just wasn't enough personal stakes and relationship growth and those small scale sorts of things to make me invested regardless.

This is both compliment and complaint---I wanted more of those small scale things. I wanted to see more of Kai's relationships with people, how they grew close in the past, more moments growing close in the present, etc. There was friendship and found family and maybe romance. I was interested in all that. But it seemed like, aside from the way he and Zeide interacted in the present, we really only got glimpses.

I also think Kai was an interesting character, or rather he could've been, but he was a bit too closed-off to me, the reader.

But if you like complex fantasy worlds, I have good news! This story is, in large part, about the world. Different groups vying for power or going to war or killing each other or working together. There's also magic and demons, though the demons are not quite how we think of them in terms of Christianity but just a different species from a different plane with different abilities. They can take over mortal bodies to exist among the humans, but it's not a constant body jumping thing, and they can drain life from living things.

And there are lots of queer characters! Nothing that I would call romance, but Kai and some of the other men seemed to have feelings for each other. Zeide and Tahren are a f/f couple. The demons are sort of trans or nonbinary by our definitions, since their gender doesn't always match the gender of the human body they inhabit.

Think of this as less of an action-filled rescue mission story about a demon, and more of a slow-paced story about some important periods in a character's life and the politics of the fantasy world he lives in, with just a touch of found family, and maybe you'll have the right expectation and therefore a better experience.

The audiobook narration by Eric Mok was enjoyable. He has a very pleasant voice to listen to, with an English accent, and sounded natural. Voices weren't super different, but I never had trouble knowing who was talking. He could've had a bit more oomph during action scenes, but it was great aside from that.

Overall, I wasn't interested enough to get really into the story, but I was interested enough to keep listening to it. I think it's a standalone, but if this does turn out to be a series about Kai, I'd probably give it another chance since more time with the characters could be just what I need to get into it.

Martha Wells has built a fascinating and richly drawn world filled with dense, conflicted, yet clear and believable characters. Kai is a demon prince from the underworld. Powerful, immortal and favored, the book opens with Kai being resurrected from a spell keeping him trapped in darkness for over a year.

He awakens his best friend Zaide and they begin a quest to reunite their found family of demons, witches, star guards and mortals and wreak vengeance on those who want them dead.

Chapters flip from present and past and I love the past chapters best. As Kai’s character and relationships and powers are revealed, he becomes a hero within the machinations of powerful forces. Present chapters are political intrigue and shifting loyalties and it was sometimes confusing.

I think this book must be read and not listened to. The book opens with a list of characters with their titles and family trees, which is impossible to refer back to in an audiobook. Maybe the hard copy would have a map too? It is a dense complicated world building novel which, for me, was hard to follow in the audiobook format.

The narrator for this book was very engaging and giving a very solid performance. However, I could not connect with the story. I really really struggled getting into this book. It drops you right in medias res with a bunch of characters and more new worldbuilding jargon in the first couple chapters than I want to handle right now. I just could not engage with the narrative or characters with this writing style, and once I get turned off from a read like this it's hard for me to muster the motivation to keep going. Maybe one day in the future I will pick this up in print and bring the right amount of patience to bear to give it a fair shot.

DNF @ 20%

Found to be very confusing and almost like I started a book partway through. Not for me!

I was given the audiobook and ebook versions of this courtesy of NetGalley. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I made it 35% through the ebook and 24% through the audiobook before I finally DNF'd. Murder bot was a slay, this , sadly didnt live up to my expectations. However, the narrorator was good and the writing style is beautiful. The storyline just wasnt for me.

Witch King by Martha Wells is a very difficult book for me to even describe. We start the book with Kai, and Ziede being freed from a water prison. Kai has been forced to take the body of a prisoner and murders everyone but a young girl, who like the previous owner of his body is also a prisoner. Upon reconnecting with Ziede, Kai finds he's unable to sense his other friend Tahren. Kai and Ziede precede to try and find out why they where imprisoned and where Tahren has disappeared to. We also see Kai's past and how he came to be allies with Ziede and how he became the legendary witch king.

I'm new to Martha Wells so all of my opinions are based purely off of my experience with this book. When I started this book I will fully admit I was very confused by most of what was going on for about the first quarter of the book, This is just one of those fantasy book where you have to embrace the confusion and ride it out. The world building is interesting and very alien, to the points where I had to double check that this was considered just a fantasy book and not sci-fi, knowing now that Martha Wells is best know for Sci-Fi it makes a lot of sense, this is not a book where countries can be seen a thinly veiled illusions to country X, which is refreshing in a way but adds to that feeling of confusion from the fact that their is no hand holding. With Kai changing bodies and the different cultures having different ways of expressing gender differences this book bends gender excellently along with queer main characters it does a wonderful job representing LGBTQ.

Overall of me this was a very interesting read and for the most part I did enjoy my time with it once I got past the confusing start of the book. I will say that I can see this book not being for everyone.

Rating: Absolutely Loved It, 5 stars

I think that if this turns into a series, I have the potential to bump it up to all-time favorite status. Or if it's not a series, on reread it has that potential!

Witch King by Martha Wells follows the perspective of Kaiisteron, or Kai. Kai is a prince demon who is the titular Witch King. We join him as he is awakened from a magical trap underwater by a mage attempting to harness his power for their own. It doesn't end well for that mage. Kai has to piece back together how much time has passed since he was last conscious, what has occurred in that time, and where his chosen family, many of them also immortal or long-lived beings, is at.

We also follow Kai in the past, which is used to give his history and help understand the context around the events that are happening in the present, namely a huge war and the toppling of the known world order. Some of the cast in the past are characters we know in the present whom Kai considers to be his family. Some of them are not.

I will say before I get into my main complaint of this book that this book feels like a Martha Wells book, and that I would honestly love it for that alone. She creates a fantastic cast of characters and really excels at creating a found family and making you care about the bonds between the characters. This book is filled with her dry wit and humor, which is a huge selling point for me. More on those pieces later though.

The only thing that didn't work for me as much as I would have liked was the dual timeline. I thought it was a really interesting setup, and I enjoyed the pieces of both the timelines. However, I did have some quibbles with the way that they intertwined. I definitely experienced a strong preference for one over the other as the book progressed, and that actually changed multiple different times. Now this preference usually happens with a dual timeline story for me, but I usually don't flip flop back and forth between them, and I can't decide if that's better or worse. One thing that I think a lot of people won't like is that a lot of the present timeline didn't make sense without all the pieces of the past. I jumped in not having a clue what was happening but being okay with it, to not having a clue what was happening and being frustrated because it seemed like I was supposed to know, then slowly to some understanding and feeling like I had a grip on things, back to being thrown for a loop again. Whereas the past was a pretty linear progression from not knowing anything to having a decent understanding. So that was a bit of an odd experience. However, the positives largely make up for that, and that is why I am rating it 5 stars.

The character work is, as always, excellent. Martha Wells writes perfect characters for me. They are compelling and relatable. Kai fits right in with her other hot mess express main characters that I've read: Moon and Murderbot. He is witty and sarcastic, and perhaps not the most morally sound, but leans towards being a good guy and regardless, I love him anyway. I think that the cast of characters in general is really well written. This is primarily a plot driven book, but you come away with an intimate grasp of the characters and their relationships with each other. That is incredibly well developed, and I suspect will only get better if this continues into a series.

I love Martha Wells' fantasy world building. While it certainly has familiar elements, the world building and the political structures in this book still come off as being very fresh and unique feeling in my opinion. Her prose is clear and straightforward and I think all the better for it.

Overall, if you like Martha Wells' other books, I think you will like this one. I don't 100% know if this is the first entry in a series or a standalone, but I'm leaning towards a series because while it is a complete thought, it just feels like there is a lot more of this world and Kai's story to explore. But regardless, I think it would fare well either way. It's well paced and a compelling read start to finish.

If you have the opportunity to pick up the audiobook, narrated by Eric Mok, I highly recommend it! He was an engaging narrator and captured the tone of the characters perfectly. I will say that there are a lot of names that sound fairly similar, so it would be ideal if you could access the list of characters in the beginning of the story as you follow along, or at least it was ideal for me. I was mixing some of them up between timelines and similar sounding names, but I sorted it out pretty quickly once I was able to see how the names were spelled and who belonged where. 5star audiobook production!

Two quotes that I feel like embody the brand of dry humor that Martha Wells specializes in:
"Kai thought Bashasa was optimistic with that choice of the word 'hiding' rather than 'waiting.'" (said about a potential ambush situation)
"Salatel glanced at Kai, and he realized she was asking his permission. Was he actually in charge of the bridge now? Whose brilliant idea was that?"

Thank you to Tordotcom and Netgalley for access to an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Witch King by Martha Wells releases on May 30, 2023. Be sure to check it out!