Okay I didn’t think I had anything to say about this book, but then I started listening to The Incomparable folks talk about it, and I can't believe so many people bounced off it and didn’t think it had a lot of good character stuff. It feels like we're talking about totally different books. I was immediately hooked, really liked the main character, and felt like there was a lot of understated emotional stuff that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m so glad I read the book first before listening to others talk about it, I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise.

It felt like the chapters got all jumbled up and placed out of order. It was an ok story but didn’t click for me.

I really enjoyed it, the story was good and the magic system was fun. I did listen to this as an audio book and in the first chunk had a hard time remembering if I was in the past or present if I had to pause in the middle of the section. But after a while it got much easier to tell, very enjoyable! :)

Well it pitches you into the deep and and you gotta start treading water fast. I don’t know if it is because I consume a relentless amount of fantasy that I vault the magic system quickly enough and pulled the story together fast enough that this blossomed around me in a way I thought was very interesting. I felt that the fact I did it in two sittings also helped because I didn’t have to come back and recall what was going on.

I loved the magic systems, I will say that, and the slow unraveling of the backstory was something I really enjoyed. And I like any story that has ships and frees compelled animals and takes on any kind of oppressive government/priesthood.

I think it would definitely be good on a second listen too as there are certainly depths I missed the first time. And I would love to see more books in this world.

I was so excited for this book because I thought the premise was so interesting (and still do), but I think I overhyped myself a little and the book didn’t completely deliver. The way the novel is structured is a bit clunky to me, just when I was getting settled into one place in time, we were jerked back to the other timeline. The first 250 pages were also a slog to get through. The world building, while interesting and varied, felt a bit incomplete to me in parts and left me with questions throughout. It also made for a very slow start to the book because the world is so enormous. It left me confused for awhile. But Kai as a main character is very compelling and was what made me keep coming back. Wells’ action in this book is what saved it for me. Once things started actually happening, I was all in.

Book starts like it's in the middle of a conversation. Very confusing and honestly makes for a slow world building. It was extremely hard to get through.

Witch King by Martha Wells book review. ⭐⭐⭐ Thank you Tor and Netgalley for an ARC of this audiobook for an honest review. I love Martha Wells and this was not a great time to find out that I dont like epic/high fantasy. I like our MC, Kai, and his magick abilities are unique. He starts the story entombed in water, breaks free, and sets out to find out who did it and why. He is very good at killing, and he can inhabit different mortal bodies, he can drain lifeforce. But the plot, political intrigue, betrayal was all boring to me. The audiobook narrator, Eric Mok, did a fantastical job! If you like epic/high fantasy you will probably love this one more than I did.

I received the audio from NetGalley for review. I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Murderbot Diaries, so I was excited to get into this.

First, I would just like to say that I technically gave this book 1.27x chances. I tweeted about having no idea what was going on at 27% and how I was afraid it was just me or how fast I was listening. I completely restarted, with a slower speed, and it did not help.

Second, I have written several rave reviews about books that drop you right into the deep end from the jump, but this one just never recovers. It more so drops you right off a cliff…into a bottomless pit. I had problems remembering and deciphering between characters, locations, lore. The names never stuck, and remember, I listened to the opening twice! There are different beings called witches and demons and other things, but our main character seems to be referred to them all by the end as if they are interchangeable. To be honest, I’m still really not sure what this is about or even what happened during it, and let me tell you that is such a strange feeling because I WAS paying attention.

Third, and maybe this is just me and the style really didn’t work for me or something, but there is not really any climax? We’re just going going going, end. The action scene towards the end didn’t feel impactful, I didn’t feel the build, and maybe that’s why it didn’t read as climactic to me? Also afterward it literally launches like directly back into dialogue and travel and then END.

Personally, and sadly a 2/5* for me. Not a fan. The snippets of lore that struck me as great were just too few and far between.