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WesternSFA


Witch King
by Martha Wells
TOR, $28.99, 414pp
Published: May 2023

The story opens when Kai awakes and discovers his body is dead and someone is trying to use it for their own purposes.  Apparently he'd been assassinated and his body stored in an underwater chamber so his consciousness couldn't escape.  But some damn fool drained the water, thinking to tempt his consciousness into a weak body they could control.  Anyone who knew Kai could have told them it would never go well. Kai is a demon who can drain life from a body. One of the captives they'd brought with them to tempt him had just died from their abuse.  There was enough left for Kai to take over the body.  After dealing with the idiots, he went looking for his friend, Ziede, who was a Witch.  He found her in another underwater chamber and released her.  Together, they realized that many months had passed and neither of them remembered anything that led them to this isolated place.  And worse, they couldn't mentally communicate with Ziede's wife, Tahren. So their first order of business was to determine what happened after their demise; and who was running the country.  Then, find Tahren and destroy anyone in their way.

The story changes POV and brings the reader back to a younger Kai before he met Ziede or Tahren.  In the manner of his kind, he had been invited to take a body of a young woman of the Saredi clan who was dying.  But the clan had been overrun and murdered by The Hierarchs. Kai was imprisoned in one of their courts.  He is released by a motley crew of people who supposedly took orders from the Hierarchs; but apparently were somewhat disenchanted.  In releasing Kai to help their rebellion, they selected him simply based on the availability of a dead body to put in his place; not because they knew who he was.  To those who knew him, he was The Demon; not one to suffer fools.  But he was won over to their cause with the temptation to try and kill the unkillable Hierarchs.  No one knew what they were but when they came into a country, they simply killed everyone in their way; there was no one to stand against them.  And their legend spread so much that no one believed they could be fought.  Until Bashasa freed a demon and united him with a Witch and a Blessed Marshall, no one could have.  They did manage to kill a Hierarch; but two more were within the palace and during the battle that raged with Hierarchs and their soldiers against the mortals and freed demons that Bashasa brought, Kai used a bit of "magic" to flood the palace until there was no one left.

Back in the present, Kai and Ziede search for their friend and Fallen Blessed Marshall, Tahren, and her brother, Dahin.  Their intent is to find those responsible for their imprisonment and rip them apart. But what they find is a "game of thrones" as various power cliques try to consolidate power and horde the Hierarch relics. 

The story flows between the past events that led to the present events in a really sound and logical way.  Before we were introduced to something or someone new in the present, we were familiarized with the past.  I didn't realize what the author was doing when I was deep in the story but it became obvious when I skimmed back over the material.  It is a complex plot and while I can appreciate how the author tried to give us a roadmap, I do have to confess that I felt adrift until halfway through the book.  I think it was a case of too many unfamiliar titles and names and no substantial backstory to ground the reader. 

And they never did figure out who killed Kai and imprisoned him and Ziede.  I suppose that will have to wait for the next story.  So, I'll be keeping this book as I intend to reread it before I read the sequel.  If I'm right, I'll find more depth to the story when I have a better understanding of this universe.  The writing and plotting were excellent and the characters were easily understood.  I was lost, I think, in the nuances. Wells is such a good writer that I want to believe she will give us a sequel worth the wait.   ~~  Catherine Book

For more titles by Martha Wells here

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