This is as spoilery as I want to get about Martha Wells’ Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King: you will spend a great deal of time mentally screaming, “WTF? What are you DOING [character]?” This is not because anyone has been handed the idiot ball, mind. Everyone is making (what are to them) reasonable choices. It’s just that these are “reasonable choices” made by extremely traumatized people who don’t have the best coping mechanisms. So they make reasonable choices that only make sense to them.
The found family vibes are strong here, with some additional vibes for what you might call “strained family relationships.” If you were trying to win the Internet Hugest Understatement Prize. (Dahin’s desire to stab his aunt–and probably most of his relatives–continues to be valid.) In addition to Dahin and Tahren’s strained relationships with their family, Kai ends up having to confront (with extremely reluctance) Bashat. It goes about as well as you are probably guessing.
The summary does a slightly better job of describing the plot this time around. (The summary for Witch King as you’ll recalled, implied that Our Protagonist had been imprisoned for centuries, but we find out it’s been maybe a year or less?) This created a number of false flags and red herrings while reading! Which is hopefully not what the publishers were looking for. So, just pretty much take the summary with a grain of salt.
In Queen Demon, Kai’s desire to head home has been subverted by Tahren needing to speak to the Rising World Council about the conspiracy. This means riding with Tahren and Dahin’s aunt, and the remaining members of the conspiracy. This somehow leads them into a desperate search for the location of the Hierarch’s well. Also, Arnsterath and Ramad somehow attach themselves to the expedition which Kai really doesn’t want.
These chapters are interspersed with chapters taking place at the very beginning of the war against the Hierarchs. Kai thought he was going to be a bodyguard! However, Bashasa had decided that Kai is going to be a general! (Well, eventually a general.) The war chapters are grimdark, with some hopeful notes. (It helps that we know they win? Because really, the Hierarchs were nasty.)
I love the snarky and mildly sarcastic humor of the characters. The humor, which is a little bleak at times really offsets the darker elements of the story. (This does not take away from those darker elements. It enhances them, if anything.) I love the banter between Kai and his family, and even the angrier exchanges Kai has with Arnsterath, Ramad and Bashat. The ending though–it’s somewhat of an open ending, for reasons which you will find out. (It is not a bad ending, but it is one of those situations where you know that thematically, the author made the only possible choice–but you still hate the choice.)Overall, this was an excellent read that I’m probably going to re-read a few times in the near future. I will be making so many memes about this.
This review was based on a galley received from NetGalley.
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