Witch King

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Eric Mok

Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

"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.

©2023 Martha Wells (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

I gave up

With two hours left I just have to quit listening. I pretty much have no idea what is going on in the story, and I finally realized that I don’t care anyway. A lot of the problem is the reader. He has a nice voice, but his narration is fast and choppy and sentences are stressed strangely so that I can’t understand the meaning or who is talking. With a different novel, this poor narration would be merely annoying or distracting, but this story has a ton of poorly differentiated characters and flips back and forth between the story’s present day and its past. It’s become a chore to listen rather than entertainment, so I’m throwing in the towel.

2 Hours in and stopping

Can’t follow the story. I don’t like the narration. Doesn’t keep my attention. I don’t know if it is just the English accent of the narrator or what but I can’t get into it.

I’m going to read the book

Like some other reviewers I found the complexity of the world and magic system confusing given the flipping back and forth between timeframes. Part of this was due to the fact that the two timelines had the same characters fighting similarly named characters and the battles and conflicts in each being much the same. If the two timelines had featured different themes it would have been easier. E.g If one had been about riding dragons and the other about fighting enemies while searching for a lost comrade, it would have been easy to differentiate them. When listening it’s easy to be distracted and then come back and wonder which terrible circumstances are these same named people in now and which time is it?
Secondly I do think an experienced reader could have helped this problem. Voice differences for early ages, different inflections for varying locations may have helped.
Finally the complexity of the history and magic systems were impossible to follow given the short shrift explanations were allowed. Without the luxury of a book in hand to flip back pages and read again I don’t know how anyone could catch the details flying by.
Soooo after restarting almost from the beginning I am now giving up the audio and ordering the book.
I have read hundreds of Sci Fi/fantasy and have hundreds of books in my audible library. I don’t think I have ever resorted to this.

DNF

DNF. Just not keeping my attention at all. Characters are bland. Not following the story. I suspect it's the narrator. It was very hard to keep up with who was speaking. This doesn't have any of the depth of the Murderbot diaries.

Another outstanding story from Martha Wells!

Martha Wells creates amazing characters, and this book includes some of my favorites. I love snarky, dry humor. The characters also have deep emotion throughout the story that is easy to relate too.

This is my first time listening to this narrator. I thought he did a fine job. He could voice a bit more emotion when the story calls for it. I still enjoyed the narration. I hope there are sequels planned!

Good story in Martha Wells` Fantasy

I listened her new fantasy novel and I found it as good as her book and her audible future. I like this as equal as her other similar Fantasy novels.

Dissapointed

I love the Murderbot series. I am a big fantasy fan and I was looking forward to the author taking on a new genre with her normal excellence. I find myself very surprised and disappointed.

The author has created a very complex world but drops the reader into this story with little backstory and inadequate worldbuilding. The story includes multiple timelines with flashbacks or dreams and introduces dozens of characters that float in and then disappear from the story. In the Murderbot series, the characters make the books. I found the opposite with the Witch King with the main protagonist failing to hold my attention or interest and I lost track of the supporting cast.

I kept waiting for the story to get better, but I found it was just adding layers of complexity without drawing me in. The writing is solid, but the execution failed me. I listened to the audiobook and the narration by Eric Mok was lethargic at best. At the 5-hour mark, I made a decision to call it quits. DNF and very dissatisfied with this book.

Solid but underwhelming

I really enjoyed the Murderbot Diaries, but this felt more confused with a lot of characters and worldbuilding but not enough cohesion. It felt like it belongs as a piece in a series, not a standalone or the first book, and a lot of threads felt unresolved by the end.

Missed opportunity

So much going for it and then failed to deliver. Interesting world, check. But too confusing with lots of names and places. engaging characters, yes. but too many of them and no real development. gender interesting, you bet. but then I'm repeatedly bashed in the head about male's wearing skirts. all the time, all the skirts. sigh.

Disappointed

Could not follow as an audiobook.
If you love the Murderbot concept and want more… this is NOT it!
Pushed myself to finish and won’t put myself through it again.

constant fighting, complicated names

I had been looking forward to thus, after I enjoyed another Martha Wells audiobook a lot. Unfortunately, this one was a disappointment. It took me some time to understand that 2 narratives (past and now) were intertwined. I found difficult to keep up with the names and sometimes was lost. The story consist of a series of battles, all presumed to mean guaranteed death for the heroes, but after a while that bored me, probably because I never fully understood who was an ally or an enemy. This one was not for me. The narrator had a pleasant voice and read well.