I discovered Martha Wells through All Systems Red, the first Murderbot Diary and acquired an unholy love of her anxious construct. I've also been aware since then that she writes fantasy fiction as well and I've been meaning to try it. It seemed sensible to start with her most recent fantasy novel.
I liked what I read a great deal. In the beginning, it reveals itself to be a rescue mission. Ziede's wife, Tahren, is missing and Ziede obviously wants to find her. But this is only determined by the reader as we unravel the first chapters, as Kaiisteron (the Witch King of the title) is extracting himself from his own captivity and then releasing Ziede. As I started to learn the basics of this complex world and all its various peoples, it became apparent that there were forces working against their mission.
There are a lot of moving pieces—many political factions, many population groups, lots of history. Wells manages to fill us in without pages of info dumps. She just shows us what's going on and trusts that we'll be able to keep up. As seems to be usual for her main characters, Kai and Ziede start to gather strays right away, showing them to be compassionate people as well as skilled. One of the things that I liked best was that although there was conflict with the Hierarchs, we aren't subjected to a long series of battlefield scenes. The conflicts are smaller and more personal. Although I adore fantasy, I grow weary of unending wars, battles, and strategy sessions. I absolutely loved that the bad guys are the Hierarchs. Yup, arrogant, bad men. Down with the patriarchy!
The story alternates between the past and the present. It effectively creates tension at the end of each chapter, as you have to leave that time line just as things are getting interesting. Often when an author uses this technique I'll have a favourite, but I was equally engaged with both in this book. Here it just kept me reading steadily.
Having sampled her fantasy fiction, I'll definitely be reading more of it.
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