⋙ PDF The Death of the Necromancer eBook Martha Wells

The Death of the Necromancer eBook Martha Wells

Download As PDF : The Death of the Necromancer eBook Martha Wells

The Death of the Necromancer eBook Martha Wells

Ok, it's a slightly facetious remark, but I'm sure there are over 100 pages of action comprising the characters running to, from, around and back to assorted monsters and baddies, in tunnels, sewers, catacombs, sewers again, catacombs again.

I happen to find the underground passages in old cities fascinating in general, but honestly, I was about to throw the book at the wall about halfway through - it got incredibly repetitive. At least half of the Keystone Kops capers in the tunnels could have been omitted.

It also suffered from a case of too many villans - subplots are fine, but I found the main one in this book completely unsatisfactory. Maybe if there'd been less about the tunnels...

Ms Wells has always written well and vividly, but her writing style has definitely tightened up in her more recent books. I liked the characters and the quasi-Victorian setting in this one, but not much else.

Still a decent read if you can make it to the third act.


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The Death of the Necromancer eBook Martha Wells Reviews

The Death of the Necromancer is a tale of revenge, magic and thievery set in a fantastical version of the Victorian era. The story stars Nicholas Valiarde, a somewhat honorable criminal mastermind who has a vendetta with a local noble who wronged, and possibly murdered, his father. Nicholas' co-conspirator in this adventure is Madeline, a washed out sorceress-turned-actress who uses her talent for disguises to help him along. Yet Nicholas' scheme for vengeance turns sour when he crosses paths with a powerful necromancer. As things delve into the dark arts of forbidden magics, the characters must strive to outsmart their opponents by any means necessary.

I have to say, Martha Wells really has a knack for creating colorful characters. In this story, the main protagonist is a rather gray character. Nicholas isn't some noble do-gooder, a simple detective, or a talented magician. Rather, he's a thief. Of course he's a very good thief. At this point in his life, Nicholas has amassed a little criminal empire of informants and skilled tradesman who can help him break into almost any building or uncover nearly any piece of valuable information. His lover and co-conspirator in crime is Madeline, who plays a sizable role in the story. Now since Nicholas has no magical abilities whatsoever, you might expect Madeline to be some overpowered sorceress who balances him out. But the story avoids such predictability. Madeline did have a talent for magic, but instead of pursuing it, she decided to be an actress. Thus she can't perform any handy spells, yet she can whip up a nice disguise or infiltrate enemy territory.

Still, the main characters do get some help from the magically inclined. You also couldn't ask for a better example of how Martha adds flavor to her characters. Nicholas and Madeline's magical ally is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land...at least when he's sober. Arisilde is indeed powerful, but for reasons the book will explain, he's also a helpless opium addict whose gone a bit mad and has a hard time remember things or keeping focus. When he has his wits, he's unstoppable. Unfortunately for him, that's a rare occurrence. As a reader, I thought it was great. It balances the story out while adding a immense measure of fun. And there are plenty of other great characters too, each with their own distinct personalities.

As for the story, it has a bit of a Sherlock Holmes feel with a touch of Edgar Allan Poe. There are detective-mystery threads and there are also darker elements involving necromancy and ghoulish creatures. Plus it all has a Victorian era feel to it. The characters ride around in horse drawn carriages, streets are lit by gas lamps and people arm themselves with pistols. The world building takes a backseat to the characters and the plot, but it's more than sufficient to keep things easy to understand. There are mentions of the fay, ghouls, sorcerers, witches and magic early on, but the story takes its time in slowly seeding those elements into the plot. The build up works well, and once it gets rolling, it's hard to stop. Criminal schemes become struggles to stay alive. Sorcery is pitched against sorcery. Plans fall to pieces and chaos ensues amid intertwining plots. It's a lot of fun.

If you like good stories that include a touch of fantasy combined with great characters, The Death of the Necromancer is definitely a story worth checking out. I typically don't read stories in this kind of setting, but Martha Wells created such compelling characters that it was easy to get into and enjoy. It's also worth noting that this book takes place in the same setting as The Element of Fire, but several hundred years later. I haven't read the other book yet, or any of the other books in Martha Well's Ile-Rien series, so I can definitely say readers can enjoy this book on it's own. I give it a five out of five.
The author has actually expressed that this was her motivation-- tell the story from the point of view of the master criminal, and have the great detective as a secondary character. And it's a great starting point.
But it's also, like almost all of Martha Wells's work, a phenomenal speculative-fiction romp, with thrilling action and realistic romance (the protagonist and his girlfriend have a very adult, real relationship, very matter-of-fact and practical and based on mutual trust, but obviously the foundations are genuine love), unconventional characters that are beautifully fully-realized, even the incredibly-creepy murderous psycho villain (he's a real actual sociopath, no evil cackling or anything, just a fixed devotion to his work and an inability to recognize people as anything but objects in textbook sociopath fashion, despite the fact that he's literally an incredibly powerful undead sorcerer-necromancer-- and it says a lot, that a pretty-much-zombie is the most realistic villain I've encountered in a long time).

One of my favorite passages is when the protagonist, a man of diminutive stature, is being threatened by several burly guards, makes a self-deprecating joke, and then easily tricks them into letting him go. I love that he is so real, so complex a hero-villain, love that he is so unconventional, love that his motivations are so consistent, love the way he thinks and especially the ways he both does and does not change as a character throughout the course of the book.

Throw in the fact that it's a fantasy novel featuring fully-realized female characters with their own agency, as well as a gay character who is complex and yet gets a happy ending (unlike so many of the doomed-homosexual tropes), a character of color who is revealed to be much more than the simple servant he appears, an illiterate country-bumpkin character who demonstrates more sophistication and power than most-- her writing is always woven through with these kinds of characters, never props or stereotypes, and even the minor characters are *real*.
I believe that this is an early effort by Marth Wells. It shows compared to her later works. It's not bad, but the characters are a little bit too much and don't ring true at times, the dialogue has moments where it's awkward, and the overall plot feels very much like a first-time author. It does show promise of what's to come later, and there are sections where it's easy to get lost in the text for a while, but something always comes along to snap you out of it. If you're a Wells completist or enjoy her later work and want to see what her earlier stuff is like, this is for you. If it's still selling for $2 or $3 and you're curious, it's not a bad buy at that price. I wouldn't pay $7.99 or whatever the current full price for a book this length is.
Ok, it's a slightly facetious remark, but I'm sure there are over 100 pages of action comprising the characters running to, from, around and back to assorted monsters and baddies, in tunnels, sewers, catacombs, sewers again, catacombs again.

I happen to find the underground passages in old cities fascinating in general, but honestly, I was about to throw the book at the wall about halfway through - it got incredibly repetitive. At least half of the Keystone Kops capers in the tunnels could have been omitted.

It also suffered from a case of too many villans - subplots are fine, but I found the main one in this book completely unsatisfactory. Maybe if there'd been less about the tunnels...

Ms Wells has always written well and vividly, but her writing style has definitely tightened up in her more recent books. I liked the characters and the quasi-Victorian setting in this one, but not much else.

Still a decent read if you can make it to the third act.