Like many people, I was introduced to Martha Wells’s work through Murderbot, but that is a review for another time. Yet in some ways I was very much reminded of Murderbot while reading Witch King, because Wells is a master at writing prickly protagonists—and no protagonist is more prickly than Kaiisteron, demon and Prince of the Fourth House of the underearth.

Witch King opens with Kai and his companion Ziede’s murders and the discovery that Ziede’s wife Tahren is missing. And Tahren played a key role in facilitating the ascension of the Rising World Coalition, an alliance of neighboring nations, after the overthrow of the conquering Hierarchs from the south. But the Coalition is at risk of failing without Tahren’s—and Kai and Ziede’s—support. Sure that both the attempts on their lives and Tahren’s disappearance are linked to someone who wants the Coalition to fail, Kai and Ziede set off to find Tahren.

Their journey takes them from the islands where they were killed to somewhere Kai never wanted to see again: the fortress where he was held captive by the Hierarchs, where he was tortured, and where he nearly died, 60 years ago. Where everything in the present began.

Witch King’s chapters alternate between the present’s quest for Tahren, and Kai’s past, from when he first came to the upper earth through his capture and emancipation at the fortress. This technique may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the novel would be poorer without it, for the journey in the present retreads the journey in the past, and provides much of the insight into Kai’s motivations and behavior. The trauma of the past lingers in the present.

This book is much more a character study than it is driven by plot, but I appreciated that—as I said, Wells is a master at writing prickly protagonists. Kai has had a rough life, and that is evident in his attitude and his mannerisms—but we also get to see the influence of the Saredi, with whom Kai lived before the Hierarchs’ invasion, and later, that of Bashasa, whom Kai meant during his captivity.

Kai doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but the influence of Bashasa cannot be overstated. While the trauma of the past might linger in the present, so too does hope for a better future.

You can read an extended excerpt on Reactor.