The demon Kaiisteron returns in Martha Wells’ new novel, Queen Demon, to tackle threats to his beloved Rising World. I had a blast with the first novel in this series. Witch King was a breath of delightful original air in a genre that struggles to break free of its tropes. Unfortunately, the sequel suffers from repetitive prose and slack pacing. The dramatic ending, however, makes up for a lot if you don’t mind waiting for the next volume in the series to tie up a major loose end.
Kai is one of the few of his kind left in the world. Most of his people were killed by the monstrous invading Hierarchs. Readers who’ve read Witch King know that the Hierarchs were defeated through the collective might of the peoples they hadn’t managed to kill, under the leadership of a remarkable mortal named Bashara. Queen Demon is told in the same split time fashion. Some chapters are set in the present, alternating with chapters set during the war that finally destroyed the Hierarchs.
While both plotlines were interesting—I am fascinated by the cultures Wells created for her characters—there were several places where the plot dragged as Kai and his allies travel, negotiate alliances and deals with secondary or tertiary characters, or details about clothing customs and gender are repeated. Even a few of the otherwise exciting battle scenes feel truncated. Some of these issues could’ve been cleaned up with editing but, I am sad to report, Queen Demon suffers from middle book syndrome.
The last third or so of Queen Demon did a lot to sooth my annoyance with the pacing and repetition. Both Witch King and Queen Demon are stories about Kai, more than they are about war or politics. Kai never expected to be at the center of a bloody, maybe impossible revolution. He was trained to be a simple scout and warrior. His preferred solution for most problems is to kill whoever is causing said problems. These two books show us that Kai feels very deeply and struggles to follow the philosophy of the forgiving Bashara, who is no longer around for Kai to lean on. Because of his past and his formidable powers, Kai has to take center stage again in Queen Demon. He has to make decisions for the greater good when he would rather put heads on spikes and/or just walk away from the whole mess.
I am very curious to see what future volumes (not sure if this series is a trilogy or meant to go on for a while) because I have grown to love the Rising World, Kai, and his found family. If you were a fan of Witch King, give Queen Demon a try, if only for the interactions between Kai, Ziede, Tahren, and Bashara—but maybe wait until the next book comes out so that you don’t have to grumble about the cliffhanger-y ending of this book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.