mark monday's Reviews > Witch King

Martha Wells turns everything upside down in this thrill-packed adventure that has its cast of superpowered immortals traveling across an atypical fantasy world as they seek to unravel a conspiracy and find a kidnapped friend, while the occasional flashback chapters detail a revolution against an insidious imperial power. this is the opposite of a European-derived fantasy, as it features various nomadic and Arabic or Persian-inspired societies, matriarchal cultures, heroic witches, and benign demons who include the Witch King himself (complete with a very positive spin on both possession and blood magic). the multiple magic systems on display all worked, as did the book's take on angels, who are basically rigid, haughty jerks riding flying chariots. the novel is a lot of flash and bang, with a strong undercurrent of melancholy and sadness as well, due to the multiple examples of slavery and genocide that once occurred while this world was subjugated by its former colonial masters. despite that darkness, Wells' story is bright and cheeky and very easy going down. at times I was pleasantly reminded of His Dark Materials, which is always appreciated. also: swimming through a drowned city!

the book has all of the most current of progressive ideologies on display, alongside more classic progressive tropes such as the centering of female characters and a strong critique of empire-building and colonialism. in other books, I've found attempts to merge modern progressive ideals with genre templates to be incredibly risible (looking at you, Every Fart a Doorway and The Book of Assholes); those chores were unfinishable for me. the virtue signalling from their supposedly enlightened authors just rang so hollow and felt so forced and so fake, it was nauseating. not so with Witch King! Wells did just what she needed to do to make it all work: she made sure that all of the au courant race and trans/gender ideologies on display were organic to her world and its characters; not shoehorned in by a clumsy author, but made an intrinsic part of the worldbuilding and the characterization. and so the book has multiple trans characters who are referred to by the pronouns of their inner selves, not their bodies; nonbinary characters; a non-jarring use of "they" as a default, until the gender of the character is established (and who include theys); a distinct queerness in the descriptions of clothing and hair choices as well as in the actual gender roles of various ethnic cultures; complete normalization of same-sex love and marriage; communal societies favored over rigidly hierarchical societies (demon royalty and their servants chat and eat together as equals; the villains are literally named "Hierarchs" and are aided by "Patriarchs" LOL); and a cast that is mainly all the shades of brown (with whiteness relegated to the evil imperialists and those obnoxious angels, LOL again). the book is basically a woke wet dream, and even as a person who has many issues with the modern far-left and its often annoying ideological stances, I could only sit back and admire the layered complexity of the author's vision and how she made it all feel so easy, so well-integrated, so wonderfully natural.

why 3 stars and not 4? as is often the case with the many 3-star books I've fully enjoyed, it comes down to the quality of the prose itself. despite my admiration for the seamless inclusion of (presumably) the author's politics, the fascinating cultures, the brisk pacing... the writing itself felt fairly basic, almost Young Adult at times. I wanted Tanith Lee but I got fantasy John Scalzi; the prose did not sing. the same goes for the dialogue, which was often too snarky and too modern in its vernacular, and its characters, who were fun but surprisingly shallow despite the richness of their backstories and cultures. despite being immortal witches and demons and angels, no one felt strange, let alone nonhuman; they felt like the friendly colleagues I see nearly every day. I also question the title, which felt bizarrely chauvinist given the very female-forward nature of this book (plus our hero Kaiisteron is literally not the king of the witches!). ah well, that said, 3 stars is still a positive rating for me and I had a very positive experience reading this entirely enjoyable book.