With the new Murderbot adaption airing right now, I’ve been on the look out for more of Martha Wells books. The only other works of hers I’ve read have been The Books of the Raksura Series, which were mostly quite good—very different from Murderbot—but sort of a mixed bag overall.
But one thing you cannot accuse Martha Wells of is lacking in creativity. Witch King is, again, vastly different from any of her previous novels, both in setting and narrative style. But it also shares come commonalities as well: a very strong narrative voice, some great trope-subversions, and a fish-out-of water main character: in this case the titular Witch King, Kai
We’re first introduced to Kai as he wakes up after being murdered. How is that he can do that, you ask? Despite the title ‘Witch King’, Kai is first and foremost a demon whose soul inhabits the bodies of the dying. His original body remains in the Underearth. Every new body he inhibits involves a period of adjustment, of course—which gives us our fish-out-of water element.
Or fish-stuck-underwater, in this case. Kai has found himself stuck in a watery, cavernous tomb, with his old—mortal, previously possessed—body in a glass coffin, and only a tenuous connection to his companion, Ziede. Thankfully (or foolishly), someone dumps a young girl and a dead body into the burial chamber in hopes of further entrapping the demon. And this gives Kai an out. He still doesn’t know how he and Ziede became entombed—or where Ziede’s wife is. But he’s hellbent on working it all out.
Alongside the present day narrative, these a second one that’s set a number of decades in the past, around the time Kai possessed his first human body—a young girl from the nomadic Saredi tribe. The Saredi are actually pleased that the young demon is possessing Enna’s physical body, as it is seen as a great honor. Demons, it seems, are not perceived an evil in all cultures presented here. Its an interesting contrast; past Kai (or Kai-Enna) is not as strong as the demon we see in the present and it’s though the past narrative that we learn how he became the Witch King we see in the present.
This narrative choice also allows us to see the before and after of a large political upheaval and a pretty significant nefarious scheme—but interestingly, not the middle. For the most part, I really liked how this played out; not only does it allow for some effective foreshadowing, but it also works well to showcase Kai’s development. One branch of Kai’s magic relies on suffering; he’ll use it in the present and the past provides the context. Or we’ll be introduced to a new setting in the past and shown how certain actions paid off over fifty years later.
The world building here is also top notch: Wells a great character creator and world builder. There are multiple cultures and magic systems on display here and they all feel very natural. Throughout the novel, we feel a distinct otherness from how people and clothing are described to how they relate back to certain forms of magics and demons. I always appreciate this in a fantasy; with the full power of your imagination at your disposal, why would you just stick to a facsimile of known cultures? Why not build your own from scratch? It’s all fantastically well integrated and a joy to read.
My one main issue with the book though is despite all the world building and narrative choices, the story is so very tightly focused on Kai and his friends. This personally gave me the feeling that many of the greater, world spanning parts of the plot ended up just… consequential? Sometimes a little anti-climatic? We have this lovely, lush dense world and complex but-well-tied-together narrative system and greater scope of it is neglected?
Honestly, I was relieved when I heard that this wasn’t a one-off, like I first thought, but the start of a series. I’m not asking for greater depth in terms of world-building in Queen Demon—I’m asking for more weight!
This is a three-and-a-half for me—this final criticism annoyed me more and more as I processed my thoughts while writing the review. I would still recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a nice, dense fantasy, though—I think it’ll still be a fulfilling read. But if you’re just a casual fan of Murderbot? I’ll reiterate: this is very different.