I appreciated that this had the sense of humor and character development that Martha Wells has perfected in the Murderbot diaries, but I'm afraid the world-building here was too dense for me to appreciate it as I should have. This is a book that's for seasoned fantasy readers who don't shy away from a challenging book.

If you're a fan of Wells' exquisite world building and incredibly well-written characters then look no further than this newest release. This high fantasy adventure told in dual timelines features demons, witches and magic of all kinds is action packed and will sweep you along until the very last page. Wells' characters are complex and not always likable but you will grow to love and root for them to succeed. While very different from the Murderbot Diaries series, I look forward to reading more of anything Wells' writes.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
OK. I LOVE Murderbot. Love, love, love. I was actually a little suspicious of this. It is not, after all, Murderbot.
I kept putting off reading it. What if I didn't like it?
Well, no worries. This was SO good! It's true, the main character is a demon, but you are going to love them anyway. I got so involved with this. It was the kind of book that people kept talking to me and I had no idea what was going on around me and finally someone would tell me to go to bed but I didn't want to. Great characters, great pacing, great story, loved this too.
I do, however, still love Murderbot.

I read Murderbot a while ago, but wow did I enjoy this one just as much!

We follow a confused king as he wakes up from a slumber after being killed, in a human body, to find that everything he has ever known has changed, Kai is a demon from the underworld, and the banter and humour he had with the other characters was so much fun to read about! This book has high stakes, and the story moves quickly after the introduction to our characters, but I did think there could've been more action. With that said, I loved the writing and Kai as a character. The magic system was intriguing, and I liked Zaide's character a lot!

Switching between past and present, it was initially hard to keep up, but I got the hang of it, and become deeply immersed in this world! Highly recommend!

Thanks to netgalley for the e-arc!

I am a big fan of Martha Wells Murderbot Diaries so I wanted to try something new by her. I'm so glad I did!

This story felt unique in a world where most fantasy references something else. You're thrown into the middle of a story and you have to figure out whats going on and how the universe works as you read. I liked the magic system and the characters.

This story is told in two parts, same characters current and past. I kinda wish this was two different stories, I had some issues realizing the time change.

Overall I recommend.

Thank you netgalley and Marth Wells for this wonderful escape into a densly rich world.
This story follows Kai and Zeide as they escape a watery tomb and begun the journey to save Zeides wife.
It is wonderful tale of adventure with a sprinkling of mystery.
The jumping from one timeline to another added depth to the story telling and really enhanced the reading experience.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and having never read a Martha Wells book before , I have now discovered a new favourite and I cannot wait to get stuck into her Murderbot series.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm basing this review on what I DID read, and letting you know I DNF'd this book at 32%, with the possibility of revisiting it at a later date.

First things first, it's taken me a few days to waffle on whether or not I should DNF this book or try to power through, but upon reflection, I realized at 32% I didn't really care much what happened to these characters or on their journey. That, right there, was an issue, and when I realized I should probably put the book down. I DID like Kai, but just not enough to try and power through, every other character just felt like background noise. This book took me about a month of on and off reading and I was still only at 32%, and thus, my decision to DNF. I wasn't missing it between my other reads, and wasn't going back for it much.

Reasons why: I found the world as written to be overly dense and hard to understand, match that with the fact that some chapters would also be flashbacks into the past, and I was well and truly lost. I was having a hard time just figuring out the world where the characters are in the present, but then being thrown into past places or experiences was tough. I would also say that it's hard to keep tabs on our MC Kaiisteron because he/they switch bodies, so in flashbacks his name would be something different than in the present, which made for a ridiculously hard time. The names of places, ranks, people in this book were so complicated that it was easy to get confused, then to add on top of that, the writing is not necessarily easy. The prose is definitely for the more educated adult who likes the advanced vocabulary sprinkled into their reads for a more elevated reading experience. In my personal opinion, if you're trying to get a reader to understand a complex world/plot/theme, the writing shouldn't be too complex because the reader is ALREADY working to understand an entirely new world/political system/magic system/etc. and I would say in this instance, that's where this particular book just fell flat.

What I did like: I did really enjoy seeing Kai both in past and present, I think the idea of a possible betrayal of one's closest friends due to political intrigue is interesting. I loved the mystery aspect as well as the missing persons and not knowing who you can trust. I thought the concept of demons making bargains with a group of humans(or witches?), to give demons bodies once the mortal life had naturally expired was a really interesting concept, and would have liked an easier or more in depth look at this type of exchange. And maybe it's there and I haven't gotten to it yet. That being said, that is a reason why I would maybe try to either pick this up and slowly keep going, or pick it back up down the line and try to dive back in. Not sure.

HUGE thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Martha Wells never disappoints! I fell in love with her writing with the Murderbot Diaries, so when I found out that she was writing a brand new standalone fantasy I had to check it out.

The novel follows Kai, a demon prince who - after spearheading a revolution against the imperial Hierarchs - is imprisoned in a watery tomb. Upon escaping with his friend Zeide (and low-key adopting a young orphan)
they set out to find and rescue Zeide's wife - and figure out what is happening with the new Rising World Coalition spreading across the globe.

The intense and detailed worldbuilding in this novel is quite intriguing, though I found in a bit confusing at first. Patience is rewarded however with a stunning tale of found family, rebellion and truly epic fantasy.

In conclusion, Martha Wells could write a shopping list and I would read it she is that talented.

Did I enjoy parts of this? Yes
Did I hope to enjoy it more than I did? Also yes
I found the first 80% of this book extremely confusing.
The Plot
You know when you are starting a new fantasy book, and the character doesn’t know anything about the society they are entering, and you engage with that character slowly uncovering things?… yeah, this book is not like that at all. We start in the middle of the story with dual timelines. And when I say the middle I mean the MIDDLE. Kai wakes up in an underwater tomb with no memory of how he got there. I’m all for starting in the middle of the action, but I would have like a few clues about what was happening. Several words are used that have completely different meanings in the book, a pearl is not a pearl, and an intention is not an intention. We use the word Cadre, but we don’t get the meaning of this word until we hit the 70% mark.
“Kai hadn’t completely settled into his new brain yet and couldn’t understand what they were saying.” Same Kai, SAME.
I felt like this book was written from start to finish, complete with worldbuilding and descriptions and plot flow, and then someone took a knife to it and cut it in half and shuffled it. It takes a long time to figure out what is going on. I enjoyed the last 20% of this book immensely more than the beginning because I finally felt like I knew what was going on. Personally, I would have preferred to read this book in the linear format, I think it has enough going on that we don’t need to time jump around.
The Characters
FOUND FAMILY- a friendship between a demon, a witch, and an Immortal Blessed. So precious.
Kai is a unique protagonist, he’s a bit dark, very grumpy, and yet still likeable.
Ziede steals the show, especially when she drops in with “Let’s start the way we mean to go on. Whose skin am I going to peel off until someone tells me where my wife is?”
Lots of characters have similar names: like Bashat (bad guy) and Bashasa (good guy), this was confusing for me.
The Worldbuilding
It seemed as though there were a lot of descriptions of clothing. Lots of skirts for men and women, lots of generalizations about people from a particular region all having the same skin tone, hair etc. This created an additional source of confusion for me, as our main character sometimes resides in both male and female bodies throughout the story. He remains “he” and “prince” even when he is in a female body.

Overall, I am grateful I was able to read this book, I have heard wonderful things about Martha Wells Murderbot Series, and now I understand her writing style.
A special thank you to #NetGalley and TOR Publishing for the ARC of this book!

First and foremost I would like to give massive thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me access to this advanced copy of Witch King by Martha Wells.

If you LOVE MurderBot, you will really enjoy this novel! Fantasy at it's finest. This book is thought provoking, filled with adventure, found family, and what it takes to protect those you love. I really felt connected to Kai and Zeidi and enjoyed their storylines the most. For me to really enjoy my reads, I have to feel a sense of connection to the characters in the story, especially when it's such a character driven story. Wells makes it so easy to want nothing but the best for these relatable characters. I am definitely intrigued by that ending and am looking forward to the next installment.

Thank you again for allowing me access to this read! I recommend this book to anyone who loves witty, fast paced fantasy that has aspects of science fiction threaded through!

DNF
I have read many books where the author throws you right into the story, but this was way too much for me.
And the index in the first pages??? Info dumping like that? No.
Maybe for another time.

Witch King is the latest novel from one of my favorite SciFi/Fantasy authors, Martha Wells, who has recently hit a high mark in reader popularity and critical acclaim for her Murderbot series of SciFi novellas/novels. But, at the risk of sounding like a hipster, I was a fan of Wells even before her Murderbot success, with her Raksura series of fantasy novels featuring a group of incredible characters (Queer polyamorous shapeshifting creatures in a bee-like hierarchal society trying to survive among other fantastical creatures with their own civilizations and societies, some of which prey upon others and look similar to them) being among my faves, and her Ile-Rien series of fantasy/steampunk novels being tremendous fun as well. I've basically read every book of hers that isn't a tie-in novel (and I do want to get to those eventually) so I was super excited to hear about Wells returning to fantasy with her latest novel.

And yet I kind of wanted to love Witch King more than I actually did. The story is centered around Kai, a powerful "Demon" who the story makes clear at first was once part of a group of rebels who helped overthrow the Hierarchs, powerful and terrifying magical invaders somehow, and the story begins with him and one companion awaking to discovery they'd been unknowingly imprisoned by someone for some time, with their close friends/family members missing, and others hunting for Kai and his companion Ziede. The story then takes place over two timelines: first, the main timeline where Kai, Ziede and others they encounter search for answers while avoiding dangerous pursuers and second, a flashback timeline as to Kai's origins, his meeting with Ziede and those others, and how they began their fighting back against the Hierarchs. And while both stories have compelling moments, especially as you get a hang of the setting (which might take a few chapters), there's a substantial gap in time between those stories where relationships have clearly formed, characters have developed, and the world has changed, and as much as I enjoyed the characters here, I felt like I was badly missing that story from this novel, which would've made the developments, betrayals, and reveals more meaningful and given me a bit more to care about.

I'll try to give more specifics after the jump.



----------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------
Kai wakes up one day and knows something is wrong. He's surrounded by water and his feeling of his body feels wrong, and he doesn't know how he got there. Of the friends he is mentally connected to, he can still feel Ziede, but Ziede herself finds that she can't move and that she doesn't know where she is. And when he uses his powers to look at his body, he can tell it's been a year or around there since he was last aware, and that he's only woken up because someone is coming for him.

But Kai is no ordinary being. He is Kaiisteron, the immortal Prince of the Fourth House of the Underearth, known as a demon, the one called "Witch King", who years ago came from unknown origins to help Bashasa Calis and his allies rise in rebellion against the most dangerous and seemingly unstoppable invaders known to the world, the mysterious Hierarchs. Kai was once captured by the Hierarchs himself along with other demons, with his entire people, the Saredi, massacred around him. But when Bashasa rescued Kai, Kai found himself, Ziede, Bashasa, Tahren (a rebellious Immortal Marshall), and Tahren's lesser Blessed brother Dahin, in a desperate attempt at rebellion, one that would change the world entirely, and give him a prominence and power he never could have expected or wanted.

Now, an expositor of the kind who used to work for the Hierarchs is coming for Kai, seeking to obtain Kai's power for his own. But Kai isn't just any demon, he's The Demon. And this fool of an expositor will soon learn to regret waking Kai up from his prison and giving Kai the chance to escape, find out what happened to Tahren, Dahin, and the rest of the world, and to take action to get revenge and freedom from those who put him in this situation......
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As I mentioned above the jump, Witch King's narrative is split in two: its normal chapters deal with Kai, Ziede and others they encounter as they try to figure out what happened to them and their friends and what to do about it and then it features chapters titled "The Past", which tell at first Kai's origins and then the origins of the rebellion against the Hierarches and Kai's meeting with the found family he is trying to reunite in the present story. As you might imagine, the story interposes the flashback storyline such that it reveals events just as they become relevant to the main story, and the two storylines do converge as past characters and settings recur in the present. The timelines are each written well, with prose that is very readable and easy to get into, but the epic fantasy terms and aspects of this setting are thrown at the reader pretty much from the jump of this book, and that can be disorienting to a reader who is explaining some handholding or explanations for a while. But by the time you get to the quarter-mark of this book, you should be able to understand things well enough for all intents and purposes (mostly).

The story is centered naturally around Kai, since he's the perspective everything revolves around, and Kai is an excellent character in both story arcs. In the present, Kai is enormously powerful and confident in his own powers, yet he's extremely uncomfortable with his own feelings and the world around him: after all, there was only a small group of friends he trusted, as well as the Prince he once believed in, and someone - quite possibly that Prince's successor - had to have betrayed him to get to this point....and that group of friends is mysteriously separated and AWOL. That's why the biggest concern for him and Ziede is finding Tahren - not only is she Ziede's wife, but Tahren is one of the few people Kai and Ziede can absolutely trust and care about, as opposed to this strange new world which is not quite the world Kai and his friends once wanted to build. And in the Past, Kai is not at all comfortable in his powers, especially as he gains new ones through uncomfortable manners, finds himself losing the family and people who he expected to grow up with when the Hierarchs conquer the Saredi and imprison them and is thrown abruptly into a revolution on behalf of a prince he doesn't know at all. Kai does not want to be a leader in the Past - and honestly doesn't want to be in the Present either, although he's more used to it there - but momentum carries him, a boy whose people were destroyed around him, and whose closest people - the other demons - seemingly come to reject him (for reasons that become revealed in the past). And Wells writes Kai's and other character's dialogue and actions really well, so its easy to care for him in particular and to get some of the feelings the characters are experiencing.

And yet, while I enjoyed the plot and Kai as a character, I just felt for much of the book like I was missing something, and I realized near the end what it was: that there was a whole ton of things in the setting and in development of the characters and their relationships that the book omits, and it made it hard to really care as much as I wanted to about a lot of it. There's a fifty year time gap between the past storyline and the present storyline, during which a ton of things happen in the setting that really matter to the present plot: Kai and the others finished overthrowing the Hierarchs and set up a new world order of some sort, which some call a new Empire (to Kai's distaste), but . The Prince who united Kai and everyone else has died and his successor might be the one who betrayed Kai...but we never really get to know that successor or even the world order to really care about the global politics or the betrayal for it to really make much of an impact.

And even more importantly, there's a lot of character development that happens in between the two plots, that the book relies upon despite never showing it. So Ziede and Tahren get married, and while there's glimpses of their attraction in the past, we never get their romance or Kai's growing friendship with them; Dahin has a traumatic experience that results in him breaking off from the group that is only explained briefly but has an impact, and Kai and Prince Bashasa have some kind of relationship before the Prince's death, which is alluded to and has impact but we never really get to see it.

I don't mean to sound too down on this book, since Wells does make it work. But I'd honestly rather have read the story of those 50 years and how it all came together, than the present-time storyline we get here, since those character developments are really interesting, but we only see the end results here. Without those developments on page, it just feels like we're supposed to take the characters' words about their emotions for it without us really being able to understand them, which just weakens things a bunch. Witch King is still a solid book, but I just feel like there was more in this world that I would rather have read, which is an unusual feeling for a book by Wells.

When I opened this book to see a Dramatis Personae, my first thought was “uh-oh.” Dramatis Personae in high fantasy usually means I’m about to be extremely confused. More so than I usually am when starting into a new high fantasy world - it always takes me a while to understand what’s going on. And this one was no different. (I really need to learn to only do high fantasy on audiobook, I fare much better when the story just keeps going whether I understand it or not.) Anyway - a third of the way through the book I was still struggling but hopeful that I’d be able to break through, and by the halfway mark I was a little more into it, but then by the last 100 pages or so I was just going through the motions and ready for it to end. I felt like I couldn’t DNF because I got it from Netgalley. (For Netgalley copies I’ll only DNF if I find something offensive, though maybe I should revisit that policy.)

There are strong found family vibes in this book, which I always enjoy, but I feel like there were heavy emotional stakes I completely missed out on because I didn’t know what was happening much of the time. The worldbuilding is strong, but for me, it was dense to the point of being nearly inaccessible. A lot of the book seems to revolve around the politics between different factions, and I felt like when those elements were introduced, I didn’t really understand them, and therefore couldn’t retain it, and therefore stayed confused. The dual timelines – a structure I usually enjoy – sometimes made the story more interesting, but at other times it made it even harder to keep track of characters, events, and settings.

If it weren’t a review copy for Netgalley, I would have DNF’d at about 100 pages and waited for the audiobook instead. I am still planning on seeking out the audio, so for what it’s worth, I was interested enough in the story and the characters – and fond enough of the author’s other works – to want to try again in a format that might work better for me. I will also admit that the lack of reading comprehension may very well be a flaw on my part rather than the author’s. People who usually have little trouble acclimating to a new high fantasy world might not have the same trouble as I did.

Representation: POC characters, queer characters, disabled characters

Martha Wells is a masterful author. She built her world so seamlessly, using audience stand-in characters and subtle exposition. The characters are all so vibrant and unique. And I'm always a sucker for found-families. I loved the magic system she created and the ways in which she illustrated its uses. The back and forth between present day and past kept me rivetted to the whole story. Parts of the ending felt a little abrupt, but were still satisfying in the payoff. This was truly a wonderful read!

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this at around 50%. I was not enjoying myself, so I had to make the move to put this down. I had never read Martha Wells, I am still interested in the Murder Bot series. The writing was enjoyable, but it was slowly paced.

I am going to focus on what I did like with this review.

I loved the characters and the premise of this plot. I like the relationships and friendships. The writing is very good and is easy to read.

However, this story was just very slow for me. I wasn't invested in the journey. I skipped a large portion of this book just to figure out what happens. Even then the ending was just okay to me.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. I made it 45% of the way through this book and I still had no idea what was going on. I understand the different characters and how they fit into the story. But its almost like they beat around the bush and added all these meaningless details without actually moving the story further. I could not get into the storyline or the characters. I had no emotional or even mental connection to the characters or the plot line, and without being more invested in the outcome I could not bring myself to continue reading the book.
I love a book with a thought out and complicated plot. But this was just really overwhelming and confusing. The characters had no introduction or explanation, at any point of the story. We are sprinkled with details throughout the book, but we aren't given much, if any, clarification as to how they fit into the story. I have never DNF'd a book before and I tried so hard to get through this story. I wanted to like it and understand the story. I would love to know what happens. But, at this point I am not even sure what is currently happening in the story.
I received an ARC of this book for free from NET Galley, and am leaving a review voluntarily.

After about a year trapped in an underwater prison, Kaiisteron, known as Kai to his friends and Witch King to his enemies, surfaces to find an overconfident enemy spellcaster (called an expositor) trying to enslave his mind and will. However, Kai is by no means defenseless. As a demon from the underearth, he has the power to drain life through touch, inhabit dead—and occasionally, living—bodies, and heal himself. Over his long life of more than fifty years, he’s also had training in two other magic disciplines: cantrips, commonly used by Witches, and intentions, commonly used by expositors. Kai quickly dispatches his enemies, saving a little girl and former slave named Sanja. Sanja trails along behind as he saves his best friend Ziede, who was entombed with him. The three embark on a quest to learn more about their captors, understand the changing political landscape of their world, and save Ziede’s wife, Tahren Starguard. Tahren is a former member of a group of powerful, cult-like magic users that call themselves Immortal Blessed, so her capture is mysterious and unnerving, implicating that some Immortal Blessed might be involved in the plot.

The story is told in two timelines, in which Kai's present-day quest is interspersed with scenes from an important historical event that occurred approximately 50 years previously: Kai’s defeat of a group of genocidal conquerors called the Hierarchs. The two timelines allow us to understand Kai’s past: his childhood among the nomadic Saredi, his traumatic capture and imprisonment by the Hierarchs, and his fight, led by the enigmatic nobleman Bashasa, to overthrow them. After overthrowing the Hierarchs and building a coalition/empire called the Rising World in its place, it’s implied that Bashasa and Kai became lovers. Unfortunately, Bashasa dies in between the timelines, so we readers don’t get to learn more about this queer relationship.

Summarized here, the plot and world of Wells’ Witch King seem simple enough to grasp. But—as is typical in the fantasy genre—the influx of new names, nations, and historical references feels almost nonstop. Of course, hand-holding readers when it comes to worldbuilding is a drawback. However, while some novels do a great job of thrusting readers headfirst into new worlds, crafting storylines and plots that turn unfamiliar terminologies into exciting mysteries, the readers’ lack of knowledge about the world and Rising World politics makes the story cumbersome rather than engaging. Wells describes a vivid world full of exciting mythical creatures and cultivates a real sense of culture: each region has its own fashion, architecture, and scenery. However, between navigating two timelines every other chapter, being served a low-stakes plot, and having to flip back pages to remind oneself, “what are Imperial Marshals again?,” only serves to drag the pacing of the book to a slog.

The overall lack of suspense in the novel is attributable largely to this inclusion of a two-timeline structure. The constant skips means that we are never afforded time to grow to love our cast of characters, including Kai and his found family. Given that the present day timeline also establishes the convenient resolution to the stakes in the past, it is hard to be invested in either plotline. The Hierarchs are established as the Big Bad, but we enter the novel in the present day with the understanding that Kai has already defeated them—negating any tension involving the Hierarchs that Wells crafts in the past timeline. Alongside the resolved tensions with the Hierarchs, an already-established Rising World, and coexistence between demons, witches, and Immortal Blessed, it feels as though the alternating present day timeline is set in, arguably, the least interesting time.

Kai is a typical fantasy book protagonist; though he doesn’t literally fulfill a prophecy, he attains every type of magical power, and with it, the ability to fight his way out of any situation through grit and self-sacrifice. Witch King uses a soft magic system (i.e. it doesn’t focus on the rules of its magic, instead opting to just describe its effects), which generally serves the storyline well, allowing for a lot of dramatic magical destruction and escapes. However, one aspect of the magic system disturbed us: in order to avoid drawing on the same source of power that the Hierarchs use for their intentions, Kai uses his own (often self-inflicted) pain as a source of power. In battle, combined with his magical healing, he’s nigh unbeatable—after all, if he needs more magic, he can just stab himself. It’s clear that this repeated self-harm is a problem, but it is a problem that is never really addressed. Wells simply frames it as a necessity and leaves it at that. Kai’s friends express sympathy and distress, but they merely stand by while he does it again and again.

Kai is straight out of a YA novel: in the present timeline, he’s a sensitive, dark-haired man who can’t stop hurting himself. Someone should really teach him to love himself and find other solutions to his problems that don’t involve self-harm, but nobody does. This is, at best, a wasted opportunity for character growth, and at worst, an endorsement of an uncomfortably capitalist and competitive mindset—the idea that punishing our bodies is the path to success.

We’ve mentioned previously that Kai has a queer love interest, Bashasa, in the past timeline, though we don’t get to see whether they actually get together. The present day timeline also features a love interest for Kai: Ramad, a Rising World diplomat (called a vanguarder) who resembles Bashasa (possibly a distant relative). Ramad, an amateur historian, is very curious about Kai’s past, and Kai does find that he is attracted to him. However, after almost fifteen chapters of small gestures and tension, their relationship doesn’t go any further. Meanwhile, Zeide’s relationship with her wife is sidelined throughout the book. In the past timeline, Zeide and Tahren go from being reluctant, wary allies to suddenly caring for each other in between chapters. There is very little transition or buildup, and certainly no scenes of intimacy. In the present-day timeline, Zeide’s reunion with her wife at the end of the book is offscreen. For those looking for explicitly romantic or sexual queer relationships, this is not the book for you. There are some heartwarming scenes with Kai and Bashasa, as they first meet and find a connection, and Zeide’s fierce love for her wife is clear throughout. However, neither relationship is explored further.

Martha Wells’s bestselling Murderbot series has been lauded for its aromantic and asexual representation, but coming off that series, she struggles to depict queer relationships that are romantic (and, presumably, sexual). The queer relationships in this novel are more repressed than celebrated; despite being openly gay or lesbian, her characters aren’t ever given an opportunity to show their feelings openly on the page. There is definitely a place in queer SFF for crushes and pining and weird awkward friendships that could be something more. There are also great books that depict the flip side of the coin, in which characters feel uncomfortable being openly gay because of systemic or social repression. These are also important parts of queer life. However, Martha Wells doesn’t successfully write either of those scenarios. It’s unclear whether either of Kai’s relationships could be something more, or even if they should be. Moreover, even if she did write a kind of rom-com story line, would an epic fantasy about mature, immortal adults be the right place for it? One advantage of the two timelines is that we get to see Kai grow from a lost, grieving teenager to a decisive and jaded adult. In the past timeline, he is unsure of his place in the Rising World alliance and yearning for Bashasa’s approval, but by the present-day timeline, he is easily able to think up complex plans on the spot and kill his enemies without hesitation. We don’t get nearly the same amount of character development for Zeide, but she certainly develops a fearsome reputation between timelines. It’s disappointing to see powerful, capable queer adults in such superficial relationships. In 2023, with a burgeoning market for queer literature and representation, we expected more.

I really loved these characters, especially the main character Kai. I loved the beginning of the book, but as the story went on, I just cared less and less and it became a struggle to want to pick this book back up. This book has a lot of good elements, and I love Martha Wells writing, but I just wasn’t invested in this book the way I wish I could’ve been.

Really fantastic world building. Dual timelines. Characters are good, not great.

I’m not a huge fan of being immediately plopped into a story and starting behind and that’s how this felt. Figuring how the varying degrees of magic work or the different demons. Also, with the timelines, I struggled a little figuring out who was in each and wasn’t able to keep track as much as I like to.