Witch King (Rising World)

Das Ende hat mich enttäuscht, der Rest des Buches aber gut unterhalten. Vielleicht gibt es ja irgendwann mehr zu lesen von Kai und Ziede.

"Witch King" starts off with Kai, a demon, waking up in a water prison, confused about how he got there. The book follows him, and Zidi, who he finds imprisoned close to him shortly after, as they try to figure out what happened to them and why. They also try to find Zidi's wife and brother-in-law, unsure of their whereabouts and if they're free or similarly imprisoned. On the way, they meet and pick up diverse travel companions and unravel a conspiracy. All of this gets contrasted to the scenes in their past where our protagonists first met. My favorite part of this book has to be the double timeline and the way they tie into each other, especially in the conclusion (it seems this is becoming a trope that I like). The worldbuilding was interesting, as were the characters. We got to know them very slowly, but over the course of the book, I got a feeling for all of them. As someone who came to this book as a fan of The Murderbot Diaries, it was quite fun to find the parallels in Martha Wells' writing style. The heart pearl vs. the comms. The random people Kai/Murderbot pick up along the way and feel protective about. The way new places are treated as places to be scouted. It was fun, but I can't help but also feel it detracted from my reading experience in this specific case, due to the shift in genres from sci-fi to fantasy. (This is not a point of critique of the book, but a personal assessment of my reading experience). Occasionally I found the conspiracy and the revelations linked to it a little confusing, but I'm not sure if this wasn't just something caused by me listening to the book in audio format instead of reading it. Overall a very good book, but one that does not feel quite as special as The Murderbot Diaries, even if that is possibly an unfair comparison to make.

So much clever worldbuilding, not enough character.

The story starts out with a 'what happened before' scenario with the protagonist entombed, and the plot unravels from there. How did this happen? Who captured the Witch King and why? And who the hell are these characters we're meeting at the very beginning? All of this is embedded in a very rich world with its very own system of magic, mythology and politics. From the very start I was eager to find the answer to all the questions above and more. And it's very promising that they might get answered in two timelines (past and present). Unfortunately the book quickly gets deep into exposition of court politics and and introduces a lot of groups and people at once without explaining a lot. This made it hard to follow for me, while on the other hand the characters - who seemed really intriguing in the beginning - are hard to grasp. So even though the world is really well thought through and like nothing I've ever read, I just couldn't fall into the world and could not go deeply into the characters and their inner life and motivations. For me the book was all description and facts, but not enough emotions and passion.

So much clever worldbuilding, not enough character.

So much clever worldbuilding, not enough character. The story starts out with a 'what happened before' scenario with the protagonist entombed, and the plot unravels from there. How did this happen? Who captured the Witch King and why? And who the hell are these characters we're meeting at the very beginning? All of this is embedded in a very rich world with its very own system of magic, mythology and politics. From the very start I was eager to find the answer to all the questions above and more. And it's very promising that they might get answered in two timelines (past and present). Unfortunately the book quickly gets deep into exposition of court politics and and introduces a lot of groups and people at once without explaining a lot. This made it hard to follow for me, while on the other hand the characters - who seemed really intriguing in the beginning - are hard to grasp. So even though the world is really well thought through and like nothing I've ever read, I just couldn't fall into the world and could not go deeply into the characters and their inner life and motivations. For me the book was all description and facts, but not enough emotions and passion. 3/5 stars. Thank you so much @netgalley and @torbooks for the eARC. (Repost due to merging accounts)

Sadly this wasn't a story for me. I was confused for most of the book because a lot of events, people and politics were mentioned but not explained during the book. Some things could be pieced together during the story therefore I enjoyed the book a lot more towards the end.

Martha Wells is very, very good at writing protagonists with enormous murder capabilities that I just want to hug. A lot. They wouldn't appreciate it, but still! Very likely that I'll bump up my rating to 5 stars upon reread. I listened to the audio book (which I recommend, the narrator does an awesome job!), so I was a bit lost during the first 20% or so without being able to refer back to the dramatis personae. But once I had figured out more or less who everyone was, I was so invested in all our main cast!! The story stands well on its own, no sequel-baiting cliffhanger or what have you, but I already miss all the characters...

I loved the beginning, I admire the lore and the world, I like the characters, but in the end, if it wan't a Martha Wells book, I would probably have dnfed it. (And I realised hate split timelines.)