James Nicoll Reviews

Queen Demon is the upcoming second entry in Martha Wells’ secondary-world fantasy series, the Rising World.

The Hierarchs dominated most of the world before they were overthrown. Whence they sprang, from what place and culture, is something of a mystery. There are no local Hierarchs to question; if any survive, they fled beyond the reach of Kai and his allies in the Rising World Coalition.

If any survive, they will no doubt try to regain their empire. Therefore, it is vitally important to learn all that can be learned about the Hierarchs. Unfortunately the Hierarchs made a point of destroying any universities and libraries they found¹. Libraries are slowly being rebuilt, but at their current stage will be of little help in the matter. What’s left? Fieldwork.

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Martha Wells’ 2023 Witch King is a secondary universe fantasy novel. 

Kai, the Witch King, wakes to find himself dead. Who is responsible? and what events led Kai to his current condition?

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2014’s Emilie and the Sky World is the second in Martha Wells’ secondary-universe gas-lamp-fantasy Emilie series. 

After the stupendous adventures of the first volume, Emilie finally reaches her studious cousin Karthea. Emilie scarcely has time to relate her adventures to Karthea when two complications present themselves. The first is her domineering Uncle Yeric, determined to bring his scandalous niece to heel. The second is a mysterious object in the sky, whose nature is entirely unclear.

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2013’s Emilie and the Hollow World is the first of two books (thus far) in Martha Wells’ Emilie series (a secondary-world gas-lamp fantasy). 

Determined to escape her uncle’s heavy-handed guardianship, sixteen-year-old Emilie sneaks out of his house, planning to take refuge in prestigious Shipands Academy in another city … somehow; many details of her plan are as yet vague. Her simple plan hits an almost immediate snag: she cannot afford the necessary ferry ticket. She stows away on a ferry, but is discovered in short order. She flees in haste, jumps into the harbour, and boards a nearby ship. Bad move, Emilie.

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Martha Wells’ 2021 Fugitive Telemetry is the sixth volume in the Murderbot series.

Preservation Station has a very low murder rate. The corpse in Trans Lateral Bypass corridor is an anomaly — and also a mystery. Murderbot is informally consulted and discovers that the murdered human has been dead for about four hours, and … and that it (Murderbot) is going to get dragged into the investigation.

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Martha Wells’ 2020 Network Effect is the first novel and fifth installment in her ongoing series, Murderbot Diaries. 

Having escaped from the mercilessly exploitive Corporation Rim for the comparative safety of Preservation System (and more remarkably, having not lost any of its human associates in the process, despite said humans having the self-preservation instincts of day-old rabbits), Murderbot is finally free(ish) to find a new place in life that doesn’t involve being an expendable slave. 

This is quite the challenge. Rather conveniently, a real-world crisis intervenes before Murderbot gets too caught up in a crisis of self-definition for which it has few applicable tools. Space raiders! 

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Stories of the Raksura: Volume Two¹ is the second volume of short works set in Marth Wells’ Raksura fantasy world. 

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Martha Wells’ 1993 debut novel The Element of Fire is a standalone secondary-universe fantasy. It is the first of Wells’ Ile-Rien books. It was followed by The Death of the Necromancer, The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods) and various short pieces. 

A daring night-time raid on a sorcerer’s lair, a victim recovered, a mansion left aflame: enough of an adventure in itself. For Captain Thomas Boniface, this was just the beginning of a longer, more perilous campaign. 

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Martha Wells’ 1995 City of Bones is a standalone secondary-world fantasy. 

The relic trade is chancy enough, but for krismen like Khat in a city like Charisat, it is especially risky. Even if Khat can avoid violating Charisat’s trade laws, he could still be murdered by greedy criminals … or off-handedly killed by the city guard or their masters. He is, after all, a despised non-human. 

Too bad that there are so few jobs open to Khat. This is the best of the few; as a krisman, he has some advantages. 

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2005’s The Gate of Gods is the third book in Martha Wells’ Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. 

Ile-Rien has fallen to the mysterious, implacable Gardier. Tremaine Valiarde managed to escape. She and her handful of allies — some from Ile-Rien, some from another timeline, and one ambiguously alive sorcerer —have taken refuge in allied Capidara. There they hope come up with a plan for defeating the invaders. 

But it turns out that the Gardier have infiltrated Capidara. The supposed refuge is in no way safe. 

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