I have been eagerly anticipating this book for months since I first heard about it (and then read the excerpt on Amazon). I am a long-time fan of Martha Wells’ work, and her settings, worldbuilding, and characters are always top-notch. As a result, I was extremely gleeful to get a galley from NetGalley.
In Witch King, Our Protagonist must solve his own murder and get to the bottom of a conspiracy. Kai wakes to find that he’s been bound/imprisoned in a watery cave. (The “waking up” part happens because his body has been dead for months at this point.) Also imprisoned is his friend Ziede. (Who fortunately is still alive.) Both Kai and Ziede were part of a Resistance against the Hierarchs, an extremely nasty bunch of magic users (called “expositors”) bent on world conquest and genocide.
Kai is able to find an escape route in the form of an expositor showing up with victims he planned to sacrifice in order to power himself up and enslave Kai. Instead, Kai inhabits the body of one of the victims (who was deceased) and completely destroys the expositor and his hench goons. (Kai then ends up kind of, sort of adopting the other victim, who is a street kid named Sanja.)
Once they’re both freed, they discover that Ziede’s wife Tahren can’t be reached. This leads them on a quest to get to the bottom of the conspiracy and find Tahren. Interspersed is the story of how Kai’s people were wiped out by the Hierarchs and how he ended up joining what eventually became a coalition army to defeat the Hierarchs.
This is a fascinating setting with Martha Wells’ trademark attention to detail in regard to worldbuilding and the creation of cultures and nations. The characters are interesting and sympathetic, and the narrative has a lot of wry or sarcastic humor that lightens the darker sections of the novel. (I will warn for some body horror. Expositor magic is kind of horrifying and gross!) I loved this book and was not in any way disappointed or let down by this adventure. (I am hoping this is not a standalone novel. I would love to read more about Kai and his found family.)
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