Witch King
February 19, 2024 8:42 AM - Subscribe
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai's magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.
He's not going to like the answers.
The author, Martha Wells, is probably best-known these days for the Murderbot Diaries. This is not like that, and in fact, her bibliography runs more toward fantasy.
I'll admit this was slow going for me. Witch King has numerous characters, elaborate politics, and a fully conceived fantasy world, but I felt as if I was starting with the second book, after all that stuff was explicated in the first book. But this is the first (and as far as I know, only) book. The fact that it was slow going meant that I wasn't getting through big chunks at once, which made it harder to keep all the moving parts straight in my head, which just made it slower going.
That said, it's an interesting fantasy world with characters that have believable inner lives. The writing is devoid of cliche. Others might have an easier time with it.
The author, Martha Wells, is probably best-known these days for the Murderbot Diaries. This is not like that, and in fact, her bibliography runs more toward fantasy.
I'll admit this was slow going for me. Witch King has numerous characters, elaborate politics, and a fully conceived fantasy world, but I felt as if I was starting with the second book, after all that stuff was explicated in the first book. But this is the first (and as far as I know, only) book. The fact that it was slow going meant that I wasn't getting through big chunks at once, which made it harder to keep all the moving parts straight in my head, which just made it slower going.
That said, it's an interesting fantasy world with characters that have believable inner lives. The writing is devoid of cliche. Others might have an easier time with it.
I finished this one but, unlike every other Martha Wells book, only once. With its in media res plot, its deep worldbuilding, its extensive cast of characters, and its twin timelines, It just feels like it requires more work from me than I'm willing to put into it to appreciate it fully.
Maybe I'll read it again someday with a pen and notepad in hand and it'll be a different experience. For now, though--eh. I wish I could escape the feeling that Wells was working on both this and System Collapse at the same time, and that most of her attention was on this one.
posted by johnofjack at 1:34 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
Maybe I'll read it again someday with a pen and notepad in hand and it'll be a different experience. For now, though--eh. I wish I could escape the feeling that Wells was working on both this and System Collapse at the same time, and that most of her attention was on this one.
posted by johnofjack at 1:34 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
Worldbuilding in fiction is an interesting problem. I don't read that much fantasy, but my impression is that it is especially important in fantasy. Maybe that's the outsize influence of Lord of the Rings—say what you will about it, but damn, Tolkien could describe the hell out of a scene. When the movies came out, I thought "yep, that looks exactly the way he wrote it, it's uncanny."
In Murderbot, we don't get a lot of scene-setting, but SecUnit is not exactly human and is kind of autistic and maybe doesn't know it's writing for an audience in a different universe, so I interpreted the spartan worldbuilding as reflective of those facts. But now I wonder if maybe worldbuilding is just not Martha Wells' thing, because in this book, I also felt like there was never quite enough to ground me in the story and give texture to it.
Some authors are better at it than others. William Gibson can flesh out a scene in just a few rhetorical brushstrokes.
posted by adamrice at 2:52 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
In Murderbot, we don't get a lot of scene-setting, but SecUnit is not exactly human and is kind of autistic and maybe doesn't know it's writing for an audience in a different universe, so I interpreted the spartan worldbuilding as reflective of those facts. But now I wonder if maybe worldbuilding is just not Martha Wells' thing, because in this book, I also felt like there was never quite enough to ground me in the story and give texture to it.
Some authors are better at it than others. William Gibson can flesh out a scene in just a few rhetorical brushstrokes.
posted by adamrice at 2:52 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
I didn't finish it. I am a skeptical fantasy reader and if something doesn't grab me I don't continue. I know a handful of people who really loved this book and I picked it up hoping to be one of them, but I was not.
posted by potrzebie at 3:20 PM on February 19
posted by potrzebie at 3:20 PM on February 19
While somewhat agreeing with some of the criticisms raised -- I thought there was almost too much world and characters for the story -- I liked it. Found it a real page-turner.
If you want to try Martha Wells fantasy that doesn't have those issues, I can highly recommend the trilogy that starts with The Wizard Hunters. (There are some previous books set in the same world, with a bit of character overlap, but they aren't necessary to read before the trilogy.)
Another good one is the Raksura series that begins with The Cloud Roads, but there is definitely a proliferation of character and worldbuilding there; the world that's been built, however, is a particularly interesting one.
posted by kyrademon at 3:45 PM on February 19 [5 favorites]
If you want to try Martha Wells fantasy that doesn't have those issues, I can highly recommend the trilogy that starts with The Wizard Hunters. (There are some previous books set in the same world, with a bit of character overlap, but they aren't necessary to read before the trilogy.)
Another good one is the Raksura series that begins with The Cloud Roads, but there is definitely a proliferation of character and worldbuilding there; the world that's been built, however, is a particularly interesting one.
posted by kyrademon at 3:45 PM on February 19 [5 favorites]
I thought this one was pretty great and I will need to read it again to decide exactly why I didn't bounce off it as many other seem to have done. My initial vibe was that the opening seemed like something out of a lost Patternist manuscript or some such, and then the rest of the world came together from there.
I think there is maybe a structural problem in the kind of alien-world fantasy that Wells seems to specialize in: how to open in a way that makes it easy for the audience to relate to both the alien world and the inevitably alienated alien protagonist. Of her works I've read so far, I would agree with kyradaemon that the Ile-Rien trilogy is probably the most Murderbot-like in opening in a world that seems initially like something I have a frame of reference for (sort of 1910s Europe with a relatably depressed protagonist), and its alienness unfolding fairly slowly over time. Maybe a little further along that continuum would be City of Bones, which opens with a broadly relatable haggling scene and we don't really delve into the nature of the kris and the Waste for a while. A little further out would be the Raksura books, where we open with the protagonist relatably dealing with having been thrown out of a camp, and it takes half a chapter or so before things start to get weird. And then at the far end is this one: "Waking was floating to the surface of a soft world of water," etc.
Idk, I think it's a hard problem if you're trying to do what Wells does. But I do wonder if this one might have flowed a little easier if it had opened in "The Past" in Kentdessa Saredi. Still a hard landing in a very strange world, but maybe not quite as disorienting.
posted by Not A Thing at 5:05 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
I think there is maybe a structural problem in the kind of alien-world fantasy that Wells seems to specialize in: how to open in a way that makes it easy for the audience to relate to both the alien world and the inevitably alienated alien protagonist. Of her works I've read so far, I would agree with kyradaemon that the Ile-Rien trilogy is probably the most Murderbot-like in opening in a world that seems initially like something I have a frame of reference for (sort of 1910s Europe with a relatably depressed protagonist), and its alienness unfolding fairly slowly over time. Maybe a little further along that continuum would be City of Bones, which opens with a broadly relatable haggling scene and we don't really delve into the nature of the kris and the Waste for a while. A little further out would be the Raksura books, where we open with the protagonist relatably dealing with having been thrown out of a camp, and it takes half a chapter or so before things start to get weird. And then at the far end is this one: "Waking was floating to the surface of a soft world of water," etc.
Idk, I think it's a hard problem if you're trying to do what Wells does. But I do wonder if this one might have flowed a little easier if it had opened in "The Past" in Kentdessa Saredi. Still a hard landing in a very strange world, but maybe not quite as disorienting.
posted by Not A Thing at 5:05 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
I liked this one; it does immediately throw you into the deep end, but I was satisfied with how the backstory was unfurled by the end. I can see how it might be frustrating to other people but I thought it was exciting and refreshing to dispense with all the origin story/traditional hero's journey stuff and just get going with an immediately competent protagonist who already knows exactly who he is and what he is doing. I hope this isn't just a one-off and that Wells writes more in this world.
posted by jordemort at 9:59 PM on February 19 [4 favorites]
posted by jordemort at 9:59 PM on February 19 [4 favorites]
I really loved this book!
Lately I have been feeling like a lot of books have literally the fate of the entire world at stake, and that turns me off sometimes. This one felt more like a romp (OK, a very angry and vengeful romp), and I had a ball reading it.
I thought that opening the novel in media res worked fine: the main character is waking from a deep sleep, and I learned things as we went along with him. The world sort of unrolled as I went along, like Robert Silverberg's Majipoor where every single page is a new wonder to be shown off.
I could happily read a handful more books in this world. It was my first Martha Wells fantasy novel, FWIW.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:35 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]
Lately I have been feeling like a lot of books have literally the fate of the entire world at stake, and that turns me off sometimes. This one felt more like a romp (OK, a very angry and vengeful romp), and I had a ball reading it.
I thought that opening the novel in media res worked fine: the main character is waking from a deep sleep, and I learned things as we went along with him. The world sort of unrolled as I went along, like Robert Silverberg's Majipoor where every single page is a new wonder to be shown off.
I could happily read a handful more books in this world. It was my first Martha Wells fantasy novel, FWIW.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:35 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]
I really enjoyed this one. I really liked how it was always moving forward and I thought it came together really well. Was always moving forward and I didn't feel that I didn't know the characters, they're sketched enough for me that it worked.
posted by Carillon at 8:19 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 8:19 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
I liked this one too. I didn't mind the start at all, it made a lot of sense.
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:46 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:46 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
I bounced off this one pretty hard when I read it in print, which surprised me since I love everything else Wells has written. (Heck, I have a Murderbot-themed vanity plate on my car!) I recently listened to it on audio, though, and enjoyed it a lot more that way, for whatever reason.
posted by maryellenreads at 2:31 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
posted by maryellenreads at 2:31 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
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I really like Wells' writing, and was enjoying the characters and plot a great deal, but when I found myself still getting confused and surprised by the world building more than a third of the way through the book, I put it down and add it to my DNF list.
posted by Frayed Knot at 10:17 AM on February 19