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Suzi

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Suzi is Currently Reading

Suzi is currently reading

Witch King (The Rising World, #1)

by Martha Wells (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: fantasy, found-family, queer-lit, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in June 2023

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Suzi said: " 4.5 Stars. The kind of book where I'm glad it's so long, so I can spend more time with the characters :)

I loved Kai and Ziede's epic friendship as the core relationship in the book. Both of them also have or have had romances that are referenced, but 4.5 Stars. The kind of book where I'm glad it's so long, so I can spend more time with the characters :)

I loved Kai and Ziede's epic friendship as the core relationship in the book. Both of them also have or have had romances that are referenced, but the strength of their connection is what really holds the book together. And they gather a lovely group of found family and travelling companions as they go.

The book structure alternates between shorter chapters in the past and longer chapters in the present, which I found worked really well. There are some heavy things that have happened in the past and having those chapters be shorter kept the emotional equilibrium of the book from getting too dark. It was also a nice way to keep the action moving forwards while also learning the backstories of the characters and to deal with the fact that the main characters have lived longer than mortal lives. There were only a few times that I found some cliffhanger chapter endings to be a bit much to wait for!

If you are only familiar with the Murderbot books, this book is very much a departure from that short form, fast paced sci-fi. I've read pretty much all of Wells' work and it was also interesting to see how it departed from her earlier fantasy books. Wells hasn't published any fantasy in about a decade and it's clear that her Muderbot books have had a good influence on her writing! While I love Wells' older works, some of them do tend to wander a bit at times, but here Wells takes the tight plotting of Muderbot and shows she can apply that same level of finesse to a much longer work.

Really my only issue with the Witch King is the title lol I still don't really get why Kai is called that? He is neither a witch nor a king as far as I can tell? It is listed as one of his titles, but never explained why he has it and then it mostly gets dropped, to the extent that I literally forgot by the end that he'd been referred to that way and was just like, why is that the name of the book? I did a quick search count and Kai is referred to as the Witch King a total of 5 times, but as one of his other titles, Fourth Prince, 55 times! Maybe Demon Prince would have been a better title?

Nitpicking aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope Wells writes a sequel because I'd love to spend more time with these characters!

Content Notes: Kai draws his source of power from pain, which can be either his own or that of others. While this could have been depicted in a violent and gruesome way, I thought Wells actually handled this aspect of his character quite tastefully. While injuries are described, they aren't gory or ostentatious. ...more "

progress:

(70%)
— 38 minutes ago

Jun 09, 2023 04:15PM · see review

Suzi is currently reading

Let's Talk About Critique: Reimagining Art and Design Education

by Elissa Armstrong

bookshelves: school, non-fiction, currently-reading

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progress:

(75%)
— Jun 27, 2026 08:46PM

May 26, 2026 08:28PM

Suzi is currently reading

Inheritance (Adaptation, #2)

by Malinda Lo (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: queer-lit, science-fiction, strong-women, young-adult, poly, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in February 2017

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Suzi said: " Yay polyamory! Yay bisexuality! Yay aliens! Yay Malinda Lo! If only there were more books that blended explorations of teen romance and sexuality, complicated families, race relations, what it means to be human, government cover ups, and aliens so se ...more "

progress:

(50%)
— Jul 22, 2026 01:19PM

Feb 27, 2017 05:24PM · see review

See all 9 books that Suzi is reading…

Suzi’s Notes & Highlights

Book cover for When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle, #2)

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle, #2) by Nghi Vo

7 highlights

A deep and jagged snarl erupted from behind them, like something tearing through the stretched and scraped skin between the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit.

See Suzi’s 95 books with notes and highlights…

Suzi’s Quotes

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

tags: hope

186 likes

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
― Agatha Christie

tags: inspirational

6101 likes

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. ”
― Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

tags: love

4678 likes