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Witch King

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"Narrator Eric Mok makes this wonderfully inventive and diverse fantasy eminently accessible... Mok's Kai is appealing and relatable--he sounds simultaneously young and resigned, weary of death and pain and betrayal and yet still hopeful for something better. Listeners will hope we get more of this fascinating world."- AudioFile

From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes a remarkable story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.


"I didn't know you were a... demon."
"You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' WITCH KING....

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.

WITCH KING is Martha Wells’s first new fantasy in over a decade, drawing together her signature ability to create characters we adore and identify with, alongside breathtaking action and adventure, and the wit and charm we’ve come to expect from one of the leading writers of her generation.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.

Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Magic Magic Users Royalty Witchcraft Wizardry

Critic reviews

“A wildly original and complex fantasy exploring how revolutions are won through trust, and destroyed through selfishness. Wells excels at brooding, powerful inhuman protagonists who just need a little kindness to be their badass best.” —N. K. Jemisin

“Unlike anything I've ever read. A layered and complex novel that delivers on the promise of epic fantasy.” —Zoraida Córdova

“Fantasy readers looking for new worlds and characters to explore will be enthralled.” —Library Journal

All stars
Most relevant
Listening to this audiobook has been a terrible slog, the narrator is pacing and pronunciation was really hard work. Think I might have to read this book to actually see if I like it or not. I’m assuming I will because I do normally like Martha Well’s stuff.

It’s hard to judge the story with such mushy narration

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At the very start, there is a very long list of characters and their roles. This is fine in a physical book format where the list can be accessed at any time to aid memory, but that is not possible in this format and the whole thing just gets too complicated to keep track of.

This should never have been and audio book

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Very engaging. Not as challenging as others reviews hint but it does require some investment. Really hoping for a sequel.

Great story.

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I really enjoyed the flow of the audio book as it brought out the great writing. However my problem was the fact that this book was dual timeline which made it difficult for me to care about these characters and the people they cared about. Glad I listened to eat but overall just a meh experience.

Great audio, alright book

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Like most people I discovered Martha Wells through the murder bot diaries. I was excited for this book, but disappointed at first read, as it didn’t have the fast pace or the charm of MBD. But I warmed to it on the second read.
The book follows Kye a demon and the titular Witch King, as he wakes from a what is essentially a magical coma and tries to figure out what happened to him. The book goes back and forth between two timelines the past and present, the past is definitely the more interesting plot wise.
Like most people I feel Kye lacked personality I think it was a combination of writing and the VA’s performance. As I said the pacing is slow the first chapter alone is half an hour of essentially people talking. Again I found this jarring after reading the Murder Bot diaries, but now I have read some of Wells other works I realised this is the actual the normal style for her.
If you go in without knowing any of Wells work or preferring her fantasies novels you will enjoy this. If you reading this because of MBD either don’t read this it treat this book like it was written by a different author.

Slow but steady.

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