It’s definitely a sign that you’re going to have a bad day when you wake up dead. One would think that Kai, the protagonist of Martha Wells’s electrifying novel Witch King, would be used to it. This isn’t the first time he’s woken up dead. He is a demon, after all. But waking up dead this time portends a lot more than just a bad day. It might mean the end of everything Kai, his friends, and his allies have worked for.
Wells splits her narrative into two pieces. Kai’s present follows him, his witch friend Ziede, and a young woman who unfortunately got caught up in the plot as they try to figure out a) what the hell is going on and b) who killed him. The other piece takes us back into Kai’s past, generations before, when the Hierarchs showed up and destroyed his world with their terrifying death magic. Both plots were utterly engrossing. There were so many questions to be answered, mysteries to solve, and lore to be discovered. At the risk of gushing too much, Witch King is everything I want in a fantasy novel, and none of the tropes that annoy me right out of the story.
Kai is a wonderfully unique character. I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered a character who is so flexible when it comes to problems and fights. Superpowered and supernatural-powered heroes sometimes have a limited playbook that they over-rely on. Kai, however, is used to getting out of problems with the merest scraps of his abilities. He makes deals with ensorcelled whales. He steals knowledge and power from every enemy spell he finds. He’ll use physical strength as often as he uses his demonic powers. It’s little wonder that his enemies killed his body and had him entombed under the sea; you never know what this guy is going to come up with.
Not only does Witch King give you amazing characters, a fascinating setting, and enthralling plots, it also develops a large and intriguing question: how does one save the world without taking over? Someone as powerful as Kai could impose their will on the world. Doing that, however, would make him no different than the Hierarchs who shattered his world. Surrendering power has its own risks. How does one ensure that someone in the future won’t try to build an empire and wipe out all of the beautifully diverse cultures that survived the Hierarchs? It’s an impossible question to answer, of course, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to think about.
I had an incredible time reading Witch King and I can’t say enough good things about it. Run, don’t walk, to get a copy!
Witch King was such a great book! I read it through twice, then got the audiobook, which was also amazing. Great choice in reader.