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A review by sarahfa
Witch King by Martha Wells
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
This is the second book I’ve read by Martha Wells. I liked it because it reminded me of one of my favorite YA series I read as a teen, Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy. The main character of Witch King was similar to Bartimaeus in that he wasn’t human, used magic that humans can’t use, and was distrusted by most humans. Also he didn’t really have a gender like humans do. But both characters do care about the other characters who are mostly human.
Witch Kind did the thing where it presented (what we would consider) non-traditional gender roles (for one community, women are traditionally warriors, also most men in the series wear skirts) and queer relationships as “normal”. Sometimes this doesn’t work and feels forced and like the author is trying to say, “Look at how good I am because I am writing my book this way!” But it worked here, but the details were not as fleshed out as in say Gideon the Ninth.
I read a reviewer that stated that they were confused by the plot, and I def agree with that. But I wasn’t going to back to reread things when I was confused. Did the story tie up all the loose ends? I don’t know? Yes?
If you are wondering if all the questions the story raises are going to be finished by the end, the answer is they will not be. But I liked it. Solid vibes. I really don’t know if it will be a series, but it is good either way. I hope it will be!
Witch Kind did the thing where it presented (what we would consider) non-traditional gender roles (for one community, women are traditionally warriors, also most men in the series wear skirts) and queer relationships as “normal”. Sometimes this doesn’t work and feels forced and like the author is trying to say, “Look at how good I am because I am writing my book this way!” But it worked here, but the details were not as fleshed out as in say Gideon the Ninth.
I read a reviewer that stated that they were confused by the plot, and I def agree with that. But I wasn’t going to back to reread things when I was confused. Did the story tie up all the loose ends? I don’t know? Yes?
If you are wondering if all the questions the story raises are going to be finished by the end, the answer is they will not be. But I liked it. Solid vibes. I really don’t know if it will be a series, but it is good either way. I hope it will be!