May 4, 2023
Witch King by Martha Wells
Kai (short for Kaiisteron) is the witch king, a royal demon. He wakes trapped in a glass coffin in an underwater structure, where he manages to overpower his captors, take one of their bodies, and then free his companion Ziede. They have no idea how long they have been asleep, who imprisoned them, where they are, or the state of their world. They travel to Kai's underground home kingdom for answers, then search for Ziede's mate Tahren. Tahren was supposed to attend a coalition summit but never showed up.
High fantasy is not usually my thing, and this is high fantasy (I usually prefer urban fantasy or steampunk, where magic and fantasy are layered over the real world). But I love Martha Wells' Murderbot series so I thought I'd give her latest novel a try. In essence, it's a search for a missing person while trying to discover who is working against them. The timeline moves back and forth from the present to 60 years ago when the main characters all met. Lots of characters, names, locations, often confusing. At the end, we are left wondering what is going to happen so some of the characters who have been with the main characters throughout the book (such as Raman and Tenes). Martha Wells began as a fantasy writer and then branched out into sci fi, so this is a return to her roots. Readers of pure fantasy will love it, but others will find it confusing.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.
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