Queen Demon

This review seems like a recapitulation of my feelings after Witch King: I was gripped by the world, have mixed feelings about the book as a whole, wish more characters had depth, and was disappointed by parts of the ending. It's not to say I didn't enjoy it (and maybe it's just that my expectations were too high) but overall it was "fine".

One thing I really enjoy here is that we get into some really good Martha Wells fantasy ruins. Witch King and Queen Demon both follow in the path of City of Bones (my favorite Martha Wells fantasy story) and some of the Raksura books as well. I'm not sure what makes these so appealing, but I think there's something about her use of dangerous and creepy structures full of unknown danger that she does a great job with.

This book continues with interleaved narratives from the past and present. (As an aside, I do wonder if this will be a trilogy and the past narrative will cover all the way up to the present narrative in the first book.) The first book interestingly had both narratives in the same Summer Palace location at different times, which echoed nicely. This book's present timeline foreshadows some of the dust witch history, but otherwise feels quite disconnected.

I continue to be somewhat skeptical about the effectiveness of this structure for this story; there's not much tension about what's missing in between the two parts and they are not particularly great foils for each other. If the book weren't committed to this structure, some flashbacks to more moments with Arn would have gone a long way to making some emotional moments feel more impactful.

But maybe that's a larger problem of feeling the book is a bit muddy. Both halves of the first book ended with wanting to unburn the world, but I don't know if I'd say that's the story here. Is working to destroy the Hierarchs truly unburning the world? If there's any consistent theme, it's coming together to resist authoritarian rule of any sort, but even that is maybe a stretch.

The characterization also continues to feel pretty shallow for everybody who is not Kai and Bashasa. Tenes and Sanja especially feel like they need more screen time and characterization or reason for being with the rest of the party. Nightjar and Highsun similarly feel like they're important characters but we hear and see quite little of them despite them being involved in pivotal moments.

The ending is my biggest disappointment. At least the present narrative carries the tension, but the past narrative just ... elides it? Maybe this is just a big editing decision here to just cut out action to keep the book at four hundred pages, but it feels like there could be such an emotional contrast to Kai's rescue in the Summer Halls and Kai's actions in Descar-Arik and all we get is a small concluding moment with Bashasa at the end. Additionally, there feels like there's some uh pretty momentous reveals at the end of the present narrative and they just get buried :drum: in the final moments of action and they're gone almost as soon as they appear. Both halves end unsatisfyingly, each in their own way.

I will almost certainly read the next book, but I really hope it can tie everything together in a more satisfying way.

The second book in the author's The Rising World series, this one immediately follows-on from events in the first book. Like in the first book, this book has two threads: one is in the past and one in the present, covering events in the war against the Hierarchs and what happens after the war has been ended. But danger still lurks for the world, even with the disappearance of the Hierarchs.

In the present, Kai, a prince of the underworld who is on earth in a mortal form, and his friends learn of details of an expedition to the south to try to find the homeland of the Hierarchs. They learn about the discovery of artifacts that may indicate that not only the Hierarchs may still be around, but that a possible source of their power, a Well created from the pain of victims, may also be present. It soon becomes a race to learn the truth before others try to claim it for their own uses. And it doesn't help when one of Kai's companions, a scholar of the Hierarchs, acts strangely as if hiding a secret: a secret that could endanger the new world order.

In the past, Kai and an army of former prisoners of the Hierarchs is on a desperate journey to, hopefully, save a city by conquering a Hierarch fortress before it can be used to destroy the city. But their journey may be prevented by the presence of 'dust witches' who initially ambush Kai. But they could be an asset in the war against the Hierarchs if he can convince them to join.

Event in the first book span a period of time, but in the second book, events happen over a few days in both the past and present. Both will challenge Kai as he has to decide what needs to be done to save as many people as possible, while possibly sacrificing others. The book also ends with a cliffhanger, indicating a possible big change in the relationship between Kai and his friends and enemies.