#not the martha wells witch king different book

[softness-and-shattering]

The Fae Keeper, sequel to The Witch King by H. E. Edgmon

Context: The trans guy protagonist is being offered magic transition by an antagonist he's been chasing. She's stalling for time.

Italics are from the book, bold is mine for emphasis.

Page 24

I refuse to bend to the cis logic that my body is wrong, that I am a boy's soul stuck in a girl's bones, that the only appropriate way to be trans is to hate myself. I dont want to be cis. I don't want the magical penis Clarke is offering me, and I wouldn't go back and give up the experiences transness has given me either.

Seriously. Me, a cis man? No thank you.

And yet...there is a part of me that wants to buy what she's selling, and I hate myself for it.

1. Relatable oof ouch ow that dichotomy

2. "I dont hate myself because Im trans! I hate myself for other reasons! My self hate has nothing to do with you! I hate myself for all my own reasons!!! Nyeehhhhhh"

This is so fucking funny.

(This is not lack of reading comprehension. Its deliberate character work. Its good writing. Its also hilarious. Dude is making progress. He has very far to go).

[prince-liest]

I’m reading Witch King by Martha Wells, and now that I have read more than one (1) series by this author, I have been suddenly brained with a two-by-four sharpied over with “realizing that I really enjoy novels by Martha Wells because they live in the specific niche created by the intersection of casually and thoroughly queer casts and non-romance storylines”

I am as ever a sucker for non-human main characters struggling with their very human feelings, which is why I jumped on Witch King the moment I saw “the author of Murderbot wrote another book with a main character that’s non-human,” but I live in this dichotomy where I can really enjoy reading queer romances but I don’t really identify with non-ace characters (which is not actually something I figured out how to differentiate until I was Last Week Years Old). so there are lots of books out there that I enjoy reading but it’s comparatively rare for me to read something that feels like it was written For Me and Martha Wells does that very well

anyway, give me more ace it-pronouns human-spliced robot main characters and people-eating demons who consider rank over gender when finding new bodies to inhabit

[reviewsthatburn]

THE WITCH KING by Martha Wells is excellent and I had a great time reading it. The worldbuilding is nuanced and well-developed, with factions and history in a way that implies much more going on, but not getting bogged down in little details that don’t matter to this particular story. It deals with colonization and empire from the perspective of a quasi-immortal character (Kai) who has not been around forever, but has been around long enough that things which are part of his culture and history are now details that would fascinate only historians. The narrative shifts between two time periods in his life. This means that some events are mentioned before they were actually shown, but it was generally in a way that made the whole thing easier to follow. The two timelines are connected, as the main characters are trying to figure out whether the plan they were working on when they were betrayed is still salvageable. 

Full Review at Link

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #43 – Witch King by Martha Wells

Last Hugo (novel) nomination of the year! And I actually read them all before worldcon for once. (Maybe I should actually buy a supporter ticket and vote next year.) Unlike most of the other nominees, I walked into this one with pretty firm pre-existing expectations – I am an absolutely massive fan of Wells’ Murderbot books and so have a generally quite high opinion of her, but I have heard rather mixed things about the book from friends who’ve read it before me (some very positive, others quite harsh). Unfortunately, I mostly have to side with the negative appraisals here.

Well, ‘negative’. The book was fine. If it had been a hugo nominee last year it probably would have been in my top three (happily, in 2024 the competition is much, much tougher). So most of this review is going to come across as very hostile, but to be clear I read the thing in four days or so, it was never offensively bad or anything. It’s just its flaws are most of what seems interesting to talk about as I sit down and think about it.

The book follows Kai, a demon prince left stranded wearing a human body after the passage between the mortal and demon worlds is sealed off. The story begins with him being woken after being imprisoned in an ancient tomb for nearly a year, and jumps between the present day (where he is escaping imprisonment and investigating what happened and etc) and about a generation previously, where he is a key part of the beginning of the rebellion which overthrew the Hierarch's empire and created the world which now seems threatened.

My biggest issue with the story, I think, is that it felt unfinished. Both in the sense that it could have used a sharp editing pass on cutting some fat, and that it only felt like the first third or so of a story. The past timeline is basically the first act (if not the prologue) of a traditional epic fantasy story, while the present day storyline ends in a complete anticlimax, and in any event turns out to be a sideshow to and cleanup of the real actually important plot that had all occurred offscreen before Kai was captured. In both cases there were many scenes where when reading them I was left wondering why this was what the book was spending precious, finite wordcount on.

The comparison I’d draw isn’t Wells’ murderbot books, or even really any traditionally published books at all – it’s serial fiction. When an author is publishing chapters week-to-week, you naturally end up with many scenes that exist because they were easy or fun to write, and the author needed to build themselves up a buffer while they figured out where the story was actually going. Which is frankly just a necessary fact of life in that medium, but far less understandable when you are trying to fit a complete, compelling narrative into 400 pages. I wouldn’t otherwise care about the sheer number of words dedicate to describing seemingly every supporting character’s outfits or the architecture of random hillforts, but as I saw the amount of book left shrink they did start to grate (I would have found the drawn-out-yet-tensionless action scenes annoying regardless).

Which is all very irksome, because there is a very compelling story there – the immortal companion to the heroic rebel, helping him overthrow a cruel empire and establish a new, peaceful and liberated order, only to grow increasingly disillusioned as he watches his friends son try to cement his grip on power and create a new empire in all but name. Pathos, intrigue, meaty character drama! It’s all there! And it just all happens off screen and entirely between the two stories, for some inexplicable reason.

So leaving aside plot, there’s the setting. The book goes out of its way to draw the readers attention to it, with epigraphs at the beginning of chapters lecturing on some bit of sociology or history, and lots of exposition within the main text. There’s a half dozen different cultures and ethnicities with their own naming conventions, political systems, and styles of dress. It’s clearly presented as something impressive – and it just all feels very surface level?

And okay, I am someone who reads an essay series on the economics of premodern wheat agriculture for fun, my expectations in this realm are atypical and probably unreasonable. But, like – this is ostensibly a setting without elves or dwarves or any non-human races besides demons. But the Hierarch’s empire only makes sense if they’re just literally orcs. Crossing an ocean to conquer a new continent seemingly just so you can massacre and depopulate it is not really normal human behaviour! It’s not like they were colonists settling the land, either – it’s explicitly mentioned that much of the continent is just a desolate waste. I kept waiting for some dark wizard ritual or eldritch scheme to explain the why here, but despite repeatedly teasing some secret about their homeland, this wasn’t something the narrative was actually interested in.

The nations of the Rising World Coalition aren’t really as load-bearing to the plot, but still – the idea that there was this whole state system of premodern principalities and republics that had no institutional memory of war kind of beggars belief, and I’m left slightly annoyed that there was a implication-laden conversation about witches being so profoundly weird that they had no renegades because ‘there was nothing to rebel against’ despite clearly having institutional lineages and elders, which was absolutely never followed up on. But all that is admittedly picking out quite tiny nits.

Of more significance is the fact that the societies and politics of the world feel like set dressing for the actions of the dozen or so people who are powerful and Important enough to actually matter, with everyone else helpless against their influence. This is the issue with having a book that wants to be about the importance of doing politics and forging alliances and convincing people of a better way forward, but which has no interest in actually showing what goes into any of that onscreen – so you end up with a prince whose just supernaturally charismatic and persuasive, and a demon who reveals that they already won at court intrigue five years before the story began.

Character interactions are a big part of the real meat of the story, and I leave them for last because I actually do have some nice things to say here. The jumping between past and present letting you see how the relationships begun back then developed and ended up panning out makes everyone’s dynamics very fun (even if doing that you probably could have been a bit less obvious about the foreshadowing in the past too. Bickering reluctant allies to lovers is a fine plot, but if you’ve already revealed they’re going to end up married you don’t need to signpost it so obviously in every single scene they have together in the past too).

By far the most compelling relationship to me was actually the one between the imperial agent who ends up tagging along and helping in the present (who was several decades from being born in the past timeline) and Kai. In large part because there was a real sense of ambiguity and tension there, and subtext that wasn’t instantly dragged up into the foreground.

Anyway, yeah, I probably went into this with expectations too high – but oh boy does it not live up to muderbot.

[booksandchainmail]

Hugo Best Novel Finalists 2024

I've read all 6, so here's my impressions and loose ranking. The numerical ranking is only approximate for now, I'm going to pin it down once we get closer to voting closing. I could see the top two books switching places, or any rotation within books three, four, and five.

The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera This was one of my top books of last year and one of my own nominations. It's a very strange book, twisty and creative, and left me with a lot of thoughts, particularly about how it handles government. I appreciated the mishmash of worldbuilding, all sorts of things that felt incongruous next to each other but somehow fit together. It also felt more literary than most sff novels? I am not normally deeply noticing of language, but I kept coming back to individual turns of phrase here. All books should have a 50-page chapter in the middle where the protagonist wanders through a neverending surrealist prison land.

Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh Another of my nominations, this is a more straightforward exploration of, essentially, the deradicalization of someone raised in an authoritarian military camp. I respect how this book lets Kyr be awful, be completely convinced she is correct, and be defensive and lash out when confronted with her home's issues. I think the ending stumbles a bit, but really I mostly wanted this book to be much, much longer and have Kyr's character arc spread out more. Also, the choice of title and epigraph is excellent.

Translation State, by Ann Leckie Not much to say here, it's a new book in the Imperial Radch universe, I read it when I came out so don't remember detail. I liked the different intersecting plotlines, and particularly the Presger merge-and-devour adolescent instinct

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty This one I hadn't read before but enjoyed. I don't know how deep I'd say it is, but it's fun, a good classic adventure story with a putting-the-crew-back-together plot common to heist narratives. It benefits a lot from its setting: my main takeaway was that the Indian Ocean in medieval times is a criminally underused setting for any kind of nautical/swashbuckling/adventure story.

Witch King, by Martha Wells I read this one when it came out, and remember liking it a lot. The two intertwined narratives, set centuries apart, worked well for me to let the backstory unfold to inform the main plot as it progressed. I think I preferred the backstory narrative? But that might be due to also having the present narrative, since my favorite part was seeing how the echoes of relationships are still going on centuries after we get to see them form

Starter Villain, by John Scalzi I did not like this. I had some criticism last year for Scalzi's Kaiju Preservation Society, on the grounds that it was fun but not substantive enough for an award. But at least with that one I enjoyed reading it! My main thought while reading Starter Villain was "Well, at least it's short." I think my main problem with this is tonal: it doesn't commit enough to the over-the-top goofiness of "guy inherits his uncle's supervillain empire" and keeps trying to ground it in what an actual secretive genius billionaire pulling strings behind the scenes for his own nefarious purposes might look like, but then any attempts to actually be serious with the grounded stakes and world established kept running into the fact that it also featured sentient cats and talking dolphins! Also, I couldn't stop noticing that the protagonist talks the same way as the major supporting characters, which is the same way the protagonist talked in KPS last year

[bomberqueen17]

The Witch King

This is not like, a coherent review or anything.

Yesterday I was just like possessed with anxiety nonstop the whole day and everything I did seemed to make it worse and i just like spun my wheels and I got some things done but mostly felt worse and worse and more and more stressed, due partly to external circumstances but largely, i think, to nothing in particular. And finally after dinner I was sitting on the couch comfortably and realized you know what, fuck it, I am not going to "try to write" and wind up refreshing tumblr and chatting on discord all night, not while I'm already fretting and stewing like this, i'm going to be miserable and probably get in a fight or something and i don't want that. Fuck it. So I went to the tab I already had open in my browser, which I'd had open for weeks but the time was never right, and I bought the kindle version of Witch King and read it right there in my browser, the whole way through, did not click away or put it down or move or do anything else, and you know what it was fantastic.

I'd read a preview and been like hm i don't know what this is about and read a couple of amazon reviews that were like this was really confusing, some of which concluded so i didn't like it and some of which concluded so i super liked it, and like, I've been a fan of Martha Wells since she put the Element of Fire up for free chapter by chapter on her Livejournal when the rights reverted to her in like 2006 or so, so I knew what I was going to get and also knew that I would not particularly know exactly what I was going to get until I got it, and I also knew I was going to enjoy the ride, but I hadn't wanted to read it in stolen or exhausted moments lest the "this is confusing" bits prove too much.

In the end I found it not in the slightest bit confusing, it was a very straightforward interspersed flashbacks storytelling technique that i thought suited the story beautifully (not to be spoilery but we join a character in medias res with an action scene and it's him trying to figure out who has betrayed him in a complicated political scenario, and in the process of unspooling this he has to revisit the site of where the complicated political scenario was first set up, some sixty (?) years earlier, so he's retracing his own steps and it's really well done I think, introducing new bits of history right as they're relevant to the current storyline-- and just fantastically done, not at all forced, completely natural and compelling, and no the reader isn't told anything they don't need to know but you do get everthing you need to know, there's no unneccessary coyness at all).

So anyway i loved that, and I hope there's a sequel planned but it stands alone just fine if not, I'm already figuring i'll alternate my rereads and do every other chapter each time, so I can do All The Backstory first, then All The Current Timeline story, and that's such a fun way to eke out many many many rereads of a story that like all of Wells' works I will reread until I have chunks of them memorized (anyone who has read my works surely has found whole undigested bits of hers bobbing around in there because I do this so much; I found the phrase weary past bearing in something of mine the other day and was like oh that's moon when ember first shows up i stole that whole emotion wholesale out of the third raksura book yes i did).

Little side notes: Love the aroace qpr vibes with Kai and Zeide, also sort of enjoy the lowkey genderfuckery that comes with a demon who has his own gender then inhabiting bodies that had different genders. Great magic system too, and I love that we first get introduced to how Kai's pain magic works as a like totally fait accompli chunk of didactic worldbuilding and then in a later chapter we get to see the flashback of him inventing it and understand why it works the way it does, that was also so well-wrapped-up.

Anyway-- Definitely recommend this one but probably it is best if you can do it like I did, in one big binge-read. It took me probably three hours and I was trying hard not to read it too fast.

Yeah. Anyway. People assume I'm a big reader. I was, as a kid. I am not now. This is the first new book I've read since probably the spring sometime. I don't casually read things i only read them if I'm going to add them to my Pantheon of Rereads, and that goes for fic too mostly.

[platoapproved]

Well at this point I have to ask - top 10 books you read this year!

SUCH a tough one! But delightful also, thank you for asking! Lots of these are parts of larger serieses, for what it's worth!

Witch King by Martha Wells - Indescribably wonderful and rich. I'm vibrating out of my skin waiting for the sequel. Truly no one can pull my heartstrings like Martha Wells. Nobody out here doing it like her. Fantasy w/ queer vibes.

Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher - Gay traumatized paladins in intricate terrifying mazes. Fantasy/adventure and romance.

Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold - Probably still my favorite of the Vorkosigan saga thus far. Secret double identities and clones and plots and betrayals and feelings! Sci-fi, space opera, intrigue.

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian - Fave romance novel of the year so far. Two great leads, all the conflict feels earned and realistic. I devoured it all in a night and was so miserable at work the next day and it was worth it. Historical romance.

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell - Having a hard time describing this concisely. It makes use of some interesting mechanics involving mind control / dominance / identity-merging and hits some great emotional beats. Space opera romance.

Asunder by David Gaider - YES it's a Dragon Age novel NO i will not apologize for including it. I simply love Cole, and honestly, as a novel? It slaps. Fantasy.

The Bell in the Fog by Lev A. C. Rosen - Great setting, great characters, and a solid mystery at the heart of it. ALL THE WAY enjoyable. Historical queer murder mystery.

Flight of Magpies by K. J. Charles - It's got magic! It's got gays! Another one I'm failing to describe well but it's a thoroughly good time. Historical queer supernatural romance.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker - Gorgeous gorgeous prose, such a detailed portrait of a specific time and place and the cultures therein. This one is dense and slow but it's worth it. A lot of what I read are sort of popcorn books but this one's like, a healthy well rounded meal. Historical supernatural fiction? Literature? Classifications are hard.

"In the Mountains of Mourning" (from Borders of Infinity) by Lois McMaster Bujold - Another solid Vorkosigan entry, this one is so different because it's more melancholy and subdued but beautiful. Space opera (?).

[agardenandlibrary]

Books Read in August 2024

August is already over?? I had a pretty good reading month! September is going to be wild, since we’re closing on our new house (!!!) this week and moving. We'll see how it goes...

Witch King by Martha Wells

I enjoyed this one a lot! Neat world & history. 

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (audiobook)

Finally trying more Nix, not just his Abhorsen books lol. Pretty good. I do love a “child of the ancient Powers discovers their heritage” story. I was pleased at how many people were excited about working in a magical bookshop (will I ever forgive Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore? Only time will tell). 

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart (for the podcast)

This was SO GOOD. I’ve heard the sequels ARE NOT. Full of hubris, I believe I will go on anyway, that’s how good this book was! 

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

The History of the quaddies! Overall, good! I really liked the decisions to take personal responsibility – Graf being like “someone should help these kids – fuck it, I’M someone”. Another line that stuck with me was Graf on the station being threatened by someone planetside, another person planetside saying “You have to stop him” and Graf saying “Hey, I’m out in space. You’re in the same room. You stop him.”

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

I do love a living city. Curious how it ends, since I know it was supposed to be a trilogy and then got turned into a duology instead.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (audiobook)

It’s a Kingfisher! Very good & interesting take on the Goose Girl story. That sure was a fucked up horse! I do love those geese!

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (for the podcast)

And the month ended with a whimper. Return to the world of your childhood portal fantasy! Be overall disappointed with how the story was told! The interjected “storyteller corners” could’ve been better if they’d been completely different. Oh well.

[lizziethereader]

I last read...

'Witch King' by Martha Wells

what I wanted: to see what non-Murderbot books by Martha Wells are like

what I got: a story of pain, strength, and love

what I thought: This honestly took be a while to get into, but it was worth it once things started coming together.The cast of characters is interesting (although there are a lot of names sometimes) and found family is a trope that I always enjoy. I particularly enjoyed how the chapters from different timelines played off of each other! Overall, I rate this 4 out of 5 painful memories.

[ilovedthestars]

**Contains character/worldbuilding info that is slowly revealed over the course of Witch King, but no big plot spoilers**

Witch King was the first non-Murderbot book by Martha Wells that I've read, so I spent a lot of it playing "Spot the Murderbot Parallels." They're very different books in style & content but there's also lots of of fun little things that reminded me of Murderbot. (I'm curious how many of these are Wells trademarks that show up in Raksura or her other books, but I don't have any other points of comparison). I kept a running list while I was reading, and most of them ended up being related to the respective protagonists, so without further ado:

Similarities between Murderbot & Kai

Villain-coded protagonists

Set apart from “mortals”/“humans”

And also exist somewhat between two worlds/two different kinds of being

And also are somewhat unique and alone among beings like them because of their choices/circumstances

Very dangerous to go up against as an individual, but also very much in danger themselves from larger societal/political forces and spend a lot of time on the run or hiding who they are

Fewer physical limitations (don’t need to breathe as much, can heal/repair, not slowed down by injury or pain)

Have the ability to become disembodied and occupy different “hardware” (ES gunship and 2.0, Kai’s body swapping and travel between the underearth and upper earth)

Also have telepathy (the feed) allowing private/secret communication, detecting people from far away, and sharing of senses

Touch is significant to them and associated trust/intimacy (although it sort of works in different directions for the two of them)

Despite all the politics happening around them, their driving force is “keep my people safe” (Kai uses the phrase “my mortals” at one point which made me very happy, and getting his found family back together is what drives the plot)

Use pain magic / self sacrifice to protect others (Making the decision "not to be like them" even at personal cost to self, more of a vague theme than a specific thing but I think they have this in common. this could probably be its own whole post tbh)

But also very willing to murder people when necessary in self defense, pursuit of goals, or occasionally sheer anger

“If they hurt my human(s) I will murder everyone”

Bonus: other similarities with the Murderbot books

Casual brownness and queerness and polyamory!!

Switching to very matter of fact writing style for effect, often when describing violence/emotion (Wells is really good at deploying this at just the right moment and it was so cool to see it in literally the first chapter of Witch King)

Worldbuilding elements are dropped in without ever being explained for the convenience of the reader (what exactly is the feed? what exactly is a cursebreaker? who knows)

There's clearly a huge world full of culture and politics and history and we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg

Oddly specifically, there's a lot of different conflicting calendar systems (none of which are ever explained, obviously)

and finally, even more oddly specifically:

Chapter Four of Witch King 🤝 Chapter One of Network Effect Protagonist sneaks onto a boat and then beats up the people on it

[a-yarn-of-purple-prose]

My brain has been buzzing like there's hornets in it so I started reading Witch King, by Martha Wells because fiction wounds all heals, right?

Well I'd like to inform you all that me and my horrible taste in men have collectively decided Kai is perfect.

[Inevitable, sure. The guy's an immortal body-switching demon that starts the story by going ~oohh you made bad life-choices~ at a bunch of grave robbers (his grave) (he wasn't even aware he was dead) and ending all of them spectacularly.]

Anyway, if any of you out there is on the market for a standalone fantasy book set in a firmly secondary world (no pseudo-europe here! Martha Wells never disappoints) filled with magic users doing interesting badass magic, starring said hot demon guy, his witch BFF and all the people they collect while looking for the witch's (paladin blessed warrior) wife, then look no further.

Also, if you're the kind of fantasy reader that needs a chewy magic system, this one is very interesting. Lots of levels, different magical traditions. Very clear without being nitpicky, keeps the wonder in magic.

[emilysidhe]

I watched Martha Wells’s interview on Instagram Live yesterday, and she says she’s currently working on a second book for Witch King!

I’m not sure how to link an Instagram video, but in this different interview with the Ashland Library, she says that the past timeline in the new book will probably involve Kai getting the nickname “Witch King” by bringing the witches (other than Ziede) into Bashasa’s alliance:

[aurorawest]

Reading update

Conned by Kim Fielding - 4.25/5 stars

Odder Still by DN Bryn - 3/5 stars

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - 4/5 stars

Ended up enjoying this one a lot more than I thought I would. Definitely one of those philosophical-books-masquerading-as-fantasy books, but it was well written and the message resonated with me.

A Draught of Ash and Wine by Kristin Jacques - 3.75/5 stars

Draakenwood by Jordan L Hawk - 5/5 stars

This may have been the first in the series that I handed a 5 star rating to. Not that the rest of the series isn't really good, but this one stood out to me as being really REALLY good.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr - 5/5 stars

Another one that I enjoyed WAY more than I thought I would. I normally don't go for books that do the whole characters-connected-through-time-by-the-same-story trope, but this one was very well done. The characters in the different time periods definitely played to things I love. The fact that it was unexpectedly queer was also such a nice surprise. This book is heavy going, and I wouldn't say it's exactly happy, but it's hopeful. A hyped book that was actually worth the hype.

Blyde and Pearce by Kim Fielding - 3.5/5 stars

Bring Me Home by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

Jackdaw by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

AHHHHHH omg omg. Oh this book. Ripped my heart out and stomped on it, then tenderly mended it. Ben and Jonah are one of the sweetest couples Charles has ever written. Maybe the sweetest? (considering there's a very dubcon-y sex scene at the beginning, this may seem like a strange thing to say, but really). I actually far and away preferred them to the main couple in the original Charm of Magpies trilogy. To be completely honest, I like all the Charm of Magpies World books better than the original trilogy, haha.

The Rest of the Story by Tal Bauer - 4.25/5 stars

Fool Hearts by Emmy Sanders - 3.75/5 stars

Shadows of the Lost by Maxym M Martineau - DNF at pg 60

Actually not a bad book at all, but it was too dependent on the author's previous series, which I didn't have any interest in reading.

The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro - DNF at pg 26

All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim - 5/5 stars

Lovely, funny book that had lots of music and cooking. It's told in a split time period structure which I thought worked really well.

Witch King by Martha Wells - 5/5 stars

I LOVED this book. I love Kai so so much. He's total blorbo material, so I'm honestly surprised this book isn't bigger on tumblr. The worldbuilding was immaculate, really interesting, and very refreshing in that it was very central Asia inspired. You don't see Fantasy Asian Steppe Cultures very much, so that was really cool. This is another one that is told with a split time period, and Wells did a really good job of tying the events of the past and the present chapters together thematically.

I really really really want a sequel.

And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu - 4/5 stars

One of the reviews of this book said it had a very didactic ending, which I 100% agree with...but it was very well-written and worth a read. It takes place in Nigeria and is about two gay boys who eventually meet in college. It's not a happy book; don't be fooled by the blurb that makes it sound like a romance.

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley - 5/5 stars (reread)

You guys all know how I feel about Natasha Pulley.

The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott - 3.5/5 stars

Unnatural by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan - 5/5 stars

This book was so cute. Aiden and Harvard both finally pull their heads out of their asses. One of the unexpected joys of these novels is the relationship between Seiji and his father. It's really sweet.

I would fund Sarah Rees Brennan to continue writing Fence novels.

The Archive Undying - 2/5 stars

[fallowhearth]

Review - Martha Wells, Witch King, 2023

Spoilers, this is not going to be a positive review. I expect others will enjoy this novel more than I did, which is fine. I can only review based on my own tastes!

Kai, a demon in a human body, wakes to find that he has been imprisoned by an ostensible ally. After he escapes, he adopts a random child, finds his friends, embarks on several fetch quests, does a lot of brutal murder, and unravels the mystery of who betrayed him. Simultaneously, the book retells the story of how Kai came to be in his position of power in the human world in the first place.

The premise is interesting enough! But, my overwhelming sense while reading was that I was not in fact reading the canon version, but a very long, self-indulgent fanfic written by a teenager who over-identified with the protagonist and woobified them into oblivion. There was a distinct tone mismatch between some of Kai's actions - the brutal murders - and the focus of the narrator on Kai being comforted and soothed. Part of the reason I say fanfic, is that the novel treated scenes that actually advanced the plot in that way that is so common in longer fanfic - the author technically includes major canon events, but kind of moves through them quickly without much focus, because, after all, the readers are already familiar with them. The author uses these scenes as largely functional connective tissue between the scenes they are actually interested in writing, the comforting of the woobified protagonist.

The characterisation of Kai as both a highly effective killer, and as a highly emotional, traumatised smol bean, would not have been an issue if the narrative had leaned into this tension. It could have been interesting! It's a ripe source of angst and tension, that has been well used in all kinds of stories exploring the monstrous.

Structurally, it also feels like there was about a novella's worth of actual story in this. I was bored by endless scenes of characters standing around narrating logistics and telling each other what they would do next, while the actual scenes depicting action felt bare-bones. There were a few interesting set pieces (exploring a spooky flooded palace filled with corpses! awesome!) but again these didn't feel like the focus of the narrative, compared to the standing around. Characters felt kind of thin and one-note, apart from Kai, who felt thin and one-note, but also dissonant in what was said about him vs what was shown about him.

I also think that the flashback sequences were entirely superfluous. Novels that weave together different points in time can be great, but imo it's a high risk strategy. The flashbacks have to be showing the reader something compelling, both in terms of its relevance to the 'current' storyline, but also on its own terms. This novel did not meet that benchmark. The flashbacks were mostly extended narration of facts we already knew from the current storyline, without much additional nuance, and did not generally complicate the versions told by 'current' characters. There was also not much difference between the younger and current version of the characters. It's kind of strange, actually, how little they grew. Kai as a youth just newly possessed of a body sounded exactly the same as Kai as a fully adult revolutionary hero and political mover. I'm not sure why the flashbacks were kept in the final draft.

This was a disappointing read. I hope others enjoyed it more than I did!

[othercat2]

Second Verse Same as the First

So, I saw a thing I did not expect to see after many years!

See, Martha Wells has written fan fiction. And as far as I know still does write fan fiction. (She has also written Tie-In novels.) And intermittently her works are compared to her fan fic in a "This is derivative and we're not quite accusing her of plagiarism but we are totally doing that thing," kind of way. IIRC, this happened in regards to the Raksura books. Moon was compared to John Sheppard (StarGate Atlantis) and the Fell were compared to the Wraith.

As near as I can figure people thought this because of superficial comparisons between John and Moon, and also the Fell and the Wraith. And folks, this is not an example of something being derivative nor is it plagiarism. First, Moon and John Sheppard are not actually that close in personality. (Though Sheppard is definitely the kind of protagonist Wells' tends to write.) Second, the Wraith are not the only predatory sentient species to exist in science fiction or fantasy that predate on humans. Some of them are even also Bee People. Third, taking a concept and Doing Different Shit With It is a pretty common method of storytelling.

Most recently, I saw an accusation that Witch King is essentially MDZS with the serial numbers scraped off, and I all I say is...the hell? The reasoning here is that both Wei Wuxian and Kai both begin the story by possessing someone. That they both have to solve their own murders and get to the bottom of a conspiracy. That they both fought in a war against conquerors. <== Apparently the person wasn't aware that this is first, a very common story line in genre fiction, and secondly, the parallels are not actually that similar. Example: The entire Riftwar Saga, Laurie J. Marks Elemental Logic novels, and so on.

Kai and Wei Wuxian's circumstances are extremely different because they are entirely different people with completely different personalities. (Though again, Wei Wuxian is definitely the kind of Protagonist Wells tends to write.) Also, their histories are completely different, and their plots/conspiracies ain't that similar.

Here's a breakdown:

Wei Wuxian: kind of feckless or at least pretends to be. Extremely loyal to his family and friends. Most of his trauma is the loss of his family (multiple times!), but also his family situation is kinda toxic. He has to deal with the misfortune of having a lower social standing and being a genius. Forced to develop the ghost path after giving his golden core to Jiang Wanyin and getting dropped into the Burial Mounds. He dies horribly and brought back to life via a "sacrifice summons" ritual and ends up possessing Mo Xuanyu.

Wei Wuxian, while completely unaware that Lan Wangji like-likes him is still perceptive enough to get to the bottom of a mystery involving the death of Nie Huaisang's brother. (Which is part of Nie Huaisang's Master Plan to utterly destroy his brother's murderer. Nie Huaisang is basically using Wei Wuxian to reveal the conspiracy and Jin Guanyao's actions.)

MDZS is a romantic comedy layered over a tragedy wrapped up in a case fic

Kai: Is your average cheerful kid...who happens to be a demon. Has a high status background, and no trauma up until the bad guys invade. Is already possessing a (dead) someone because he is a demon and that's the only way he can live in the upper world. Ends up making a desperate jump to an evil magic user and since that person was alive at the time, acquires all the guy's knowledge of his magic system. Said magic system is based on pain, and Kai decides to solve the ethical conundrum by using his own pain and trauma on the bad guys.

Kai loses his human family and his entire culture, (and becomes estranged from his birth family/culture) then acquires a new found family and then is betrayed/assassinated by the heir of the prince Kai supported/aided during the war. An evil magic user decides to try controlling him, and this goes very badly for the magic user.

Witch King is a story that happens after the epic fantasy. It's grimdark with a silver lining of hopepunk. Kai's quest here is to find his friend's wife who is missing and find out all the particulars concerning who betrayed him. (Not apparently for revenge. Just to know, and to basically write the betrayer off.) Kai is doing all of this without being manipulated or being used to serve someone else's revenge.

These are similar in a superficial way, but it's clear that these are two distinct stories.

Having said all that, now I want a Witch King/MDZS crossover fic.

[ofliterarynature]

JULY 2023 WRAP UP

[ loved liked okay no thanks DNF (reread) bookclub* ]

A Thief in the Night | Bloodline | (The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting) | A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor | Spectred Isle | A Beautiful Crime* | You Just Need to Lose Weight | Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies | Necropolis | The Bombay Prince | (An Absolutely Remarkable Thing) | Witch King | A Guide to Midwestern Conversation | The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal | Stormhaven | Threshold | Widdershins | (Any Old Diamonds) | The Secret History of Food | Before We Disappear | The Secret Keepers

Another month!

The unintended KJ Charles marathon continues, though it has finally slowed down. I reread Any Old Diamonds to start and it did hold up two months in a row (yay!). Next I hit the Occult England/Green Men series, and The Secret Casebook was so close to perfect, I wish it was twice as long (I really ought to just read Sherlock Holmes at this point, hadn't I?). Spectred Isle I was less into, but still enjoyed.

Now is probably also the time to mention Jordan Hawk's Wyborne & Griffin series, which crosses over with The Secret Casebook. I read 5 of them and I still don't know why - if you're only in it for the plot and like Lovecraftian stuff, they're pretty good, but the character development is an absolute travesty and I was incredibly irritated with myself for still reading them (I did stop reading the sex scenes by book 3 though). I was so close to marking these as "no thanks," but that felt a little unfair.

I also revisited The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting, which was my very first KJ Charles book several years ago! It's still very good, and while a second time around makes it easier for me to see the parts I don't like, its also very clear why I did like it! I really enjoy the way Charles does plots and drama, but something that specifically irritates me in a lot of romance is contrived miscommunication - and these characters don't do that! They realize when they've fucked up, think it over, apologize, and try again. It's a balm to my heart. The sequel, A Thief in the Night, was also very nice.

A Guide to Midwestern Conversation was a fun little book to page through - I felt very called out at times lol (this *can't* be midwest specific, can it? Can it????), but I also have zero social skills and some things didn't quite hit me the way the author probably intended.

Witch King was my first non-Murderbot book from Martha Wells and it was a good solid fantasy read! It probably won't make my year end favorite list, but I'll definitely put more effort into reading the rest of her back list.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was another reread, and I forgot how incredibly smart it is. Even a second time around my stomach was a knot of anxiety the whole time because this is such a perfect picture of one of my worst personal nightmares, you couldn't pay me to take April's place. Waiting so long to read the sequel, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor was bound to let me down a bit, but it was still very very good. My one complaint is that while it was still grounded in real world issues, it felt much more fantastical (and spread out between the different characters), and it lost a little of the sharpness of the first book. I would still absolutely recommend.

I feel a little bad that it's taken me this long to actually write something about the Perveen Mistry/Mysteries of 1920's India series, because they are very good, but I think it's taken three books to figure out what it is about them I don't like. The Bombay Prince, like the books before it, feels grounded in the many, many real world injustices that the characters face. It can lead to a very unsettling reading experience that doesn't automatically feel like the good guys will win in the end - it can be a tough read, but it feels like I *have* to read them. Definitely look at the content warnings.

This next book definitely had me a bit nervous going in - I distrust titles that have brushed too close to BookTok - but Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries won out in the end, even if I did almost dnf it in the first quarter. I think things worked better once Emily had another character to really play off of, and then it was fun! Think Spinning Silver crossed with Olivia Atewater's Regency Faerie Tales, with a dash of A Natural History of Dragons. I'll definitely look out for the sequel.

You Just need to Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths About Fat People is, as it repeats, an intro and starting point to the topic. It was very well written, but as someone who does keep half an eye on the topic, nothing particularly surprised me. I should probably take some of the author's recs for further reading.

It's fitting that A Beautiful Crime is last, because I did genuinely dislike it. Maybe I went in with too high of expectations, but really, boyfriends doing antique fraud in Italy should be fun! The level of drama going on in the backstory honestly would not be out of place in a KJ Charles novel (I say with love), but this was so incredibly depressing and sad. It claims to be a literary thriller, but I was not feeling thrilled or getting any kind of suspense. Would not recommend, I definitely wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been for book club.

Some books I actually did not finish: The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart was a real blow, I loved the Mysterious Benedict Society, but either this was genuinely worse or I'm just too old, the main character was a little too immature for me to want to deal with. Before We Disappear by Shaun David Hutchinson I also had hopes for after reading one of his other books a few years ago, but I just could not click with it despite the interesting premise. I decided to cut myself off before I got truly irritated with it. The Secret History of Food was another non-fic pick, and it was interesting! But it felt like it wandered a lot, and I wasn't vibing with how irreverent the tone was.