Thoughts: The Witch King by Martha Wells

Source: Netgalley – Thank you so much to the publisher!
TL;DR: An absolutely fantastic epic fantasy about two journeys, one to save a family and one to save a world.

Plot: The plot is my only complaint – it’s a dual timeline plot line. One is to save a found family member, the other in the past telling how Kai became the Witch King and helped save the world
Characters: Martha Wells does amazing characters and this is no different, flawed but lovable and very realistic.
Setting: I love the setup of this world. I desperately want more in this world.
Magic: Sometime else I really enjoyed. The magic is well thought out, and there are varied styles.

Thoughts:

Witch King by Martha Wells is her newest epic fantasy novel, a big change from her more recent works. Witch King follows Kai, the Witch King of the title, as he goes on a quest with his friends to find another old friend. Along the way we are also told the story of how Kai grew up in this world (in a fashion), was caught up in a war, and became the ‘Witch King’.

This is a, like I mentioned, a big change from the Murderbot Diaries. For one, though Well’s humor and amazing character work is evident, there is a lot more to catch up on and time needed to get used to the world. The Past/Present time jumps help in a way, yet also confuse the reader as we move between the Present (Kai’s escape from his watery tomb), to his past. The Past helps us understand the world, but it doesn’t quite do the pacing of the novel any favors. That in truth is my only complaint about the whole book. Just a strange disconnect with that pacing and the novel’s dual timelines.

Outside of that the world is complex and beautiful. Martha Wells is an amazing character writer, but she also has incredible gift for painting a scene. The world felt vivid and wet and alive, but relevant. No wasted details were given, only what we needed to see the scene and somehow we still got a beautifully rich one. I will 100% pick up anymore of these books, and this has cemented my plans to dive into her backlist. It’s been many long years since I’ve read some of her fantasy, but I intend to return.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this for all fans of Murderbot, unless they enjoy epic fantasy and are willing to put the time in for the payoff. It worked damn near perfectly for me however, the work was worth it and I ended up loving this one. Witch King is a fantastic new fantasy novel, I cannot wait to get more like this from Martha Wells in the future.