Ravencry – Ed McDonald
Review by: Noelle Nichols
Another gritty adventure brought to us by Ed McDonald. O.M.G. The last hundred pages of this book had me glued to the page. Have I mentioned I really love this book yet? Because anyone who can have me staying up late to finish it, is rare these days.
Other than telling you the last hundred pages will make you want to reread them. (I did). And, I might just have to reread it again, I will admit that I was slightly annoyed by the beginning of this book. I have a few pet peeves in writing, one of them is when the second book starts off because the characters didn’t do the thing right in the first book.
A little vague, but if you’ve read the first book, which you should have, I don’t want anyone guessing what is the thing that jumpstarts the plot in book two, and honestly, I have a lot of book pet peeves, and I kept reading, so no big deal. I just rolled my eyes and soon enough, I was two inches from the words on the page, devouring the very same gritty, rich details I loved in the first book.
It gets better in the second book, perhaps because I’ve grown so fond of the misery and the awful, wonderful, terrible place it is that all the same wonderful writing transported me faster into the world. We get more darlings, more insight into the Deep Kings and more certainty that by the end of all this, there’s not going to be anything left of this world.
If you’re a fan of Tnota, she’s in this one more. (YAY) And there’s also a little girl, who you can imagine clings to Rhyalt, and Galharrow’s master is also in this one a lot more, which is fascinating to me because I loved the raven messenger in the first book, so seeing him around more is just amusing to me. The dialog between him and Galharrow is great.
This book is focused once again, on saving the world, but on a much more grand scale. We now know the world is much more screwed that we originally thought in book one, and we get to spend a lot more time in the Misery, which is my favorite part of the series. Rhyalt is haunted even more by his past, as are his companions. If you like seeing your favorite characters suffer and learning about their gruesome backstories, this book delivers.
There is more of a focus, I would say, in this book on the other character’s and how they aid Rhyalt in his quest. Which is great. Half the charm is seeing how characters interact with one another. I didn’t care too much about the new romance plot, but that’s because Rhyalt is an idiot and that’s all you can really say about it—he’s a lost cause, but for some reason you can’t come to hate him for it.
It’s the loyalty, I tell ya.
I’ve already gushed about the writing style in my first review of Blackwing, so I won’t say too much more except that it’s as great. The adventure is as equally fun in the second book as the first. Hopefully there’s more the Misery has in store for all of our characters in the next installment. I have a hunch our character’s own misery is not even close to being over.