I am a diehard fan of acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy author Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries series, which I absolutely adore.  WITCH KING is a new standalone dark fantasy and I’m slowly discovering to my dismay, however, that the great love that I have for Murderbot does not necessarily extend to Wells’s other works. 

Kai is a demon prince who took over a human host body above ground.  Kai awakens after being murdered from his first body, confused and in pain while trapped in an elaborate water trap that does not allow any demons to use their vast powers. Kai must figure out what happened to him and to his compatriots, and the reader is alone for the confusing ride!

I love it when an author drops me in the middle of the action and allows me to puzzle out what exactly is happening as the story goes along, but WITCH KING is too much of a good thing. The story is told in alternating time frames of flashbacks and current events, which made the storyline perplexing. I often found myself frustrated trying to follow along.  The descriptions are lyrical and the world-building is great, but these could not overcome the lack of a cohesive narrative that kept jacking things up for me as I waded through the book. 

I love morally ambiguous characters, especially antiheroes, and WITCH KING has more ambiguous characters than you can shake a stick at.  What fun!  The magic used in this fantasy world is also compelling, and I loved watching Kai and others struggle to make their tricky magic do what they intended it to do.

Martha Well’s new dark fantasy WITCH KING brings us a complex world of betrayal and battle, but ultimately cannot overcome the over-complexity and confusion of the story.  I will stick to my beloved Murderbot stories by Wells in the future.