Witch King

December 1, 2022

Set in an alternate 1840s New England, To Shape a Dragon's Breath features Indigenous teenager Anequs, honored by her people when she bonds with a newly hatched dragon but challenged by the repressive rules at her dragon school, run by Anglish conquerors; debuter Blackgoose is an enrolled member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe. Disappointed in love and life, Harlow Estrada returns home to The Enchanted Hacienda, where the women in her family purvey a gift she lacks, creating magic from flowers--but who knows what kind of magic might come her way as she runs the house in their absence; an adult debut from best-selling YA/Middle School author Cervantes. In The Water Outlaws, Hugo Award winner Huang draws on the Chinese classic Water Margin to tell the story of Lin Chong, who is driven from her job training the emperor's soldiers and taken in by the Bandits of Liangshan--thieves and murderers who seek justice for the empire's downtrodden (30,000-copy first printing). Living in an isolated apartment outside London five years after a microplastic storm killed most of Earth's population, Katie and son Harry--born after the storm--learn they are Not Alone in ecologist Jackson's debut; a stranger barges in, unsettling their lives but inspiring Katie to seek out her fianc�. In British Fantasy winner/Bram Stoker finalist Khaw's The Salt Grows Heavy, a mermaid murders her husband, destroys his kingdom, and runs off with a mysterious doctor to the taiga, where they discover a village full of creepy children whose blood sport jeopardizes their visitors (125,000-copy first printing). It is foretold that Psyche will vanquish a monster that makes even the gods quake, and she dutifully trains for battle, but in debuter McNamara's retelling of the Psyche and Eros myth, her victim is the god of love himself, pricked by his own arrow (100,000-copy first printing). In the mega-best-selling Paolini's Fractal Noise, a huge pit clearly made by someone or something is spotted by the crew of the Adamura on the supposedly uninhabited planet of Talos, and a team is dispatched to investigate (400,000-copy first printing). Seeking a cure for her desperately ill mother, Nat Drozdova travels to a snow-shrouded Manhattan skyscraper, where she encounters a winter goddess who sends her on a dangerous mission in the New York Times best-selling Saintcrow's Russian fantasy-inspired Spring's Arcana (100,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). In this new fantasy from Wells, winner of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex honors for her New York Times best-selling "Murderbot Diaries" series, Witch King Kai-Enna has been confined to a complex water trap after being murdered and is struggling to understand why he was imprisoned and why the Rising World Coalition is getting stronger by the day (200,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 6, 2023
Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winner Wells takes a break from her sci-fi Murderbot series to delve into a complex secondary world fantasy exploring the past and present of Kaiisteron the Witch King, a demon in human form. The past story line follows Kai’s first possession of a human body and his relationship with Prince Bashasa, who orchestrates a coup against the autocratic Hierarchs to avenge his sister’s death. The present begins with Kai abruptly waking to find his consciousness separated from his body—which is now a corpse entombed in a watery prison—and setting out to investigate his own murder. Among those helping him are Ziede Daiyahah, a witch searching for her missing wife; Sanja, a street urchin; and Ramad, a vanguarder and historian. The enormous cast is difficult to keep track of and the dry, workmanlike prose that works so well when Wells is writing robots can make it difficult to feel particularly close to any of these living characters. Laudably, however, Wells treats sexuality and gender (demons can move between male and female bodies) with a refreshing matter-of-factness and depicts the cultures of this world with an anthropologist’s care. Fans will not be disappointed by Wells’s return to fantasy.

April 1, 2023
In this new high fantasy, Wells creates a vast fantasy world in which demons and expositors battle. When Witch King and legendary demon Kai wakes in an underwater prison, his immediate reaction is rage. With his partner Ziede and new friend, Sanja, he sets out into the world to find out who imprisoned them and why--and what it means for the politics of their world. Meanwhile, in alternate chapters, we start at the beginning: how Kai first became a central figure in the war between demons, witches, and the mysterious Hierarchs. As always, Wells writes exciting action scenes that pepper this expansive, vivid plot, though the writing sometimes gets bogged down in exposition and untangling the vocabulary of the Rising Empire. Still, the characters are bright and exciting, rooted by Kai, this villainous, pain-powered demon with a soft, loyal center, and the relationships that push and pull between these characters. High-fantasy fans will want to dig into this new, inventive world from one of our sf and fantasy masters.

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February 1, 2023

Demon Prince Kai awakens in his own tomb, alone and unable to remember how he got there, although he knows he must have been betrayed. He'll have to recover his companions, retrace his steps, both in the past and in the present, and consume the life energy of anyone who gets in his way. After all, Kai is the Witch King, and he can't let anyone stand in the way of protecting his loved ones. Kai and his dearest companions saved their world from an all-consuming conqueror. His betrayal is an attempt to undo that work, and Kai must figure out whom he needs to kill this time around. The world is wide-open, its peoples are not the usual fantasy suspects, and the power of both friendship and heartbreak pushes the story on at a breathless pace. VERDICT After the rousing success of "The Murderbot Diaries," Wells has returned to her fantasy roots in a tale of revolt, rebellion, and betrayal. Readers looking for more Murderbot may be disappointed, but fantasy readers looking for new worlds and characters to explore will be enthralled.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.