When I read and reviewed Witch King in 2023, I was hoping there would be more books in Kaiisteron’s story. I got my wish, but I flailed around for a while before I was able to sink into it. First, I realized that I needed to reread Witch King. Next, I needed to recalibrate. In a lot of fantasy series, there’s a person or entity that is the ultimate antagonist. In The Rising World series, I think the antagonist is a kind of power. I had to stop forcing Queen Demon into my idea of where it should go. Once I let it be what it is, I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to the next installment.
I read Queen Demon both as an arc and as an advance listener copy. Eric Mok returns as the narrator and does a great job. He navigates timelines and characters deftly. Mok’s narration pulled me along in places where the eyeball read started to drag for me.
Queen Demon is very much a middle book. Kai, Ziedi, Tahren, and Darin are reunited, they know what happened to them, and have picked up a couple of new people along the way. The dual timeline takes us back to Bashasa’s campaign to overthrow the Hierarchs, and moves forward in the present as Kai and his family deal with new complications. The urgency of Queen Demon is more dilute until you get towards the end. The ending is quite a banger. It made me gasp and broke my heart.
The strength of Queen Demon is Kai and his found family. Martha Wells has built an interesting world and she’s using it to explore memory, culture, and power. In Witch King, the erasure of history endangers Kai and his family. In Queen Demon, the rediscovery of history threatens the world. It feels a bit like the present moment when people are choosing to forget the benefits of science and diversity and trying to bring back an imagined glorious past.
I received advance reader and listener copies from Tor Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.