Review: Witch King by Martha Wells

Witch King by Martha Wells
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an audio arc of this book via Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, as always all opinions are my own.

I thought the narrator did a good job with the narration, however I wish I had also had a print version of this book while listening along.  There is list of characters at the beginning of the book that would have been really helpful to flip back to to keep track of all of the characters.  Hopefully the final audiobook version comes with a PDF so you can refer to the cast of characters and terms used in the book.  The ARC didn't have that available and I didn't have a print ARC.   This does have a large cast and a complex world and magic system and only listening to this book was a bit confusing without that as reference.  I still enjoyed the storyline once I was finally able to figure out what was going on and who everyone was.

As I mentioned this has a complex world and magic system, and it flip flops between the present time and the past.  I found that a bit confusing while listening to the book and it was hard to keep track of what was going on.  I think had I read the book in print I would have been able to keep track a bit better because I would have been able to easily look things up or reference past chapters.   That isn't as easy to do with audiobooks.  After about the 50% mark I was finally able to keep track of things and really engage in the story, but I think I would have enjoyed this more in print.  Personally I tend to enjoy really complex books with large casts of characters in print versus on audio.  This is one I need to reread in print to get all the things I missed the first time.

This follows Kai, the Witch King, after waking up without his body.  Weird right?  You see he's an immortal demon that can possess the body of another and he's got other pretty interesting powers.    He then sets out to find the culprits of his lack of body situation and sets out on quite the political and magical adventure with some old and new friends.  

Overall I enjoyed this story and plan on rereading it soon.  I'm not sure if this is a standalone or the start of a new fantasy series.  I enjoyed the characters and the world and would be interested in more.  

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