TRUST! Wells is a remarkable human being. I love how her work depicts the exquisite complexity of human relationships. Witch King is Wells at her finest (yet). A completely new direction for her, no trace whatsoever of Murderbot or its universe, no snark either, but still recognizably Wells.

This time she tackles trust: the burdens of being trustworthy, the difficulty of figuring out the trustworthiness of others. The costs of betrayal. The comfort of gaining a genuinely trusted circle, of working together toward higher goals. For a responsibility geek like me, this was almost pornographic (in the good sense; the Cindy Gallop sense). Add in strong, independent, self-aware, well-written characters; plenty of reflection and brooding; a generous helping of gendernonconformity; and tragic losses; ... and you’ve got me swooning.

Great story. Great world-building. Powerful, believable dialogue. Such beautiful relationships. My one quibble was that the bad guys were a little too unbelievable: grand-scale torture, genocide, enslavement, cruelty. Then I remembered the rpblcn party platform and all of a sudden the story isn’t so far-fetched.