From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes a remarkable story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose. Kai-Enna is the Witch King, though he hasn’t always been, and he hasn’t even always been Kai-Enna! After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well. But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence? Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions. He’s not going to like the answers. WITCH KING is Martha Wells’s first new fantasy in over a decade, drawing together her signature ability to create characters we adore and identify with, alongside breathtaking action and adventure, and the wit and charm we’ve come to expect from one of the leading writers of her generation.
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The Rising World
25 books in catalog
Award-winning science fiction and fantasy storytelling spanning decades reaches across intricate world-building, high-stakes adventure, and deeply introspective characters, most visibly in The Murderbot Diaries series. Martha Wells established her presence in speculative fiction with her debut novel The Element of Fire in 1993, building an expansive body of work that encompasses original secondary-world fantasy, character-driven space opera, media tie-in novels, young adult fiction, and essays.
Born on September 1, 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas, Wells grew up reading science fiction and fantasy from her local library and writing fan fiction during her youth. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Texas A&M University, where she also attended a speculative fiction writing class taught by author Steven Gould. Her academic background in anthropology provided foundational tools for constructing realistic, complex societies across her fiction.
Her 1993 debut led to the multi-volume Ile-Rien series, including the Nebula-nominated novel The Death of the Necromancer and the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. Over her career, Wells expanded her bibliography with major series such as The Books of the Raksura, media tie-in projects for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: The Gathering, and standalone novels including City of Bones and Wheel of the Infinite. Honored with Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, Locus Awards, an Alex Award, and a Dragon Award, she is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and serves as a consulting producer on the Apple TV+ adaptation of her Murderbot books.
Central to Wells's writing is a grounded, anthropologically informed approach to world-building and character agency. Rather than relying on standard fantasy and science fiction tropes, her stories explore non-human cultures, social hierarchy, corporate exploitation, and the psychological impact of trauma and isolation. Her narratives frequently feature reluctant protagonists who navigate complicated political systems while forging quiet bonds of loyalty and trust.
