Martha Wells’s The Rising World

I was genuinely excited when Martha Wells announced a new fantasy series. After the well-deserved success of The Murderbot Diaries, it felt like a good time to revisit the roots of why I loved her writing in the first place. My introduction to Wells came sometime in the late ’90s, when I picked up City of Bones after a glowing review. Not long after, I stumbled across a used copy of The Death of the Necromancer—my first visit to Ile-Rien—and that was it. I was hooked. Hooked enough to hunt down a hardback of The Element of Fire through abebooks.com back when the site was still a treasure map for out-of-print fantasy.

Reading pace has been a casualty of life for many years, though things have improved as the kids have gotten older. Even so, I didn’t get to The Witch King until January 2025, long after I’d bought it near release. The digital reading pile is tall and competitive.

The Witch King — Two Timelines, One Explosive Start

The Witch King begins with a literal bang—Kai awakening into chaos—and I felt almost as disoriented as he does. The story splits into two alternating timelines:

• the present, following the fallout of Kai’s abrupt return, and

• the past, chronicling his role in the rebellion against the Hierarchs.

The contrast is stark: pacing, tone, themes—almost everything differs between the two. And as often happens with books that split themselves this way, I found the past timeline more engaging for much of the first half. Its stakes felt larger, the cast more vivid, the world more textured. The present-day conspiracy only really caught my attention closer to the midpoint, when threads finally began to cohere.

By that time, I would have happily rolled straight into Queen Demon, but of course it wasn’t out yet—one of the occupational hazards of reading unfinished series. Now that it is out, I’ve finally started it… only to realise that nine months is just long enough to forget half the cast.

Queen Demon — A Promising Start

I’m only a few chapters into Queen Demon, but so far the structure mirrors the first book: a present timeline paired with a past one. Interestingly, this time it’s the present storyline that’s drawing me in, even more than the flashbacks. Perhaps this is intentional—a shift in focus now that the groundwork has been laid.

I wouldn’t recommend these books as an entry point to Martha Wells. They’re dense, filled with characters and histories that don’t always get the oxygen they need. Readers who came to Wells through Murderbot might also find the pacing and tone more challenging. Some supporting characters in the present timeline—Sanja and Tenes, for instance—didn’t feel fully realised in the first book, overshadowed by the flashback sequences and their larger-than-life figures.

Themes — Friendship, Identity, and the Shape of a World

One thing the series does beautifully is its handling of Kai himself. As a demon, he’s effectively immortal and nearly indestructible; the emotional stakes come not from threats to him but to his chosen family. His loyalty and self-sacrifice are central, and his deep friendship with Ziede may be the beating heart of the series so far.

The books are rich with queer themes—gender fluidity, nonbinary characters, queer relationships, bodies inhabited across genders, disability representation—but none of it is presented as unusual within the world. It’s simply the fabric of how these characters live. Paradoxically, given how many such elements there are, I sometimes expected them to play a more direct role in the plot. Yet I suspect the intention is to portray a world where this is simply normal, accepted, and unremarkable.

Looking Ahead

Writing this has refreshed my memory somewhat, which should help as I continue Queen Demon. I’m curious to see where Wells is taking the story now that the present timeline seems ready to step out from under the shadow of the past.

Here’s hoping the momentum holds—and that this time I don’t pause long enough to forget who everyone is again.