It’s hard to launch a new world in a book series. It’s even less common to launch a book that isn’t the start of a series or trilogy.
But, that’s exactly what Ann Leckie was able to do in her new book, The Raven Tower. She created a compelling world that feels new and fresh while also breezing through a story with a distinct beginning, middle and end.
In short, The Raven Tower was delightful.
Leckie’s first book series was the Imperial Radch trilogy. Following a ship who existed in multiple bodies at the same time, it had a very unique narrative structure. It took a bit to get her style, but after you figured out things like the narrator couldn’t tell gender, so she called everyone “she,” the world clicked into place and the story gripped you.
In The Raven Tower, Leckie plays around with some narrative conventions, telling her story in what I guess could be called second person omniscient. After you get used to that, though, the book breezed along. It’s a pretty simple story told well, with a few mysteries and a momentum to the narrative that never lags.
The main thrust of the story is so interesting and leads to so many other questions, I find myself wanting to stay in the world longer. In this world that follows the course of Earth, “gods” are real and can interact with humans.
Prayers and offerings give these other beings power and what they “speak” happens. But there are limits to that power. There are also wars between these “gods,” as they fight over influence, territory and, ultimately, power.
In the book, we follow the course of time, from before life emerged from the oceans on this world so similar to our own, through the age of the dinosaurs, an ice age and humans following mammoths.
The characters are all well-drawn with believable motivations, even if there’s not a lot of time with any of them. They have flaws, but are rarely two-dimensional. Everyone has enough motivation to move the plot along and the ending is satisfying without leaving any loose plot threads.
The book is 432 pages, but reads much faster than that, flying through a split story of past and current events.
In all, Leckie once again created a non-traditional world with vivid characters, color and history that you’ll want to spend more time in.
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Popular Highlights in this book
Perhaps the length of one’s life was not important—except in the way it is to so many living beings, desperate to avoid death. Perhaps, long or short, it mattered how one spent that time.Highlighted by 301 Kindle readers- Stories can be risky for someone like me. What I say must be true, or it will be made true, and if it cannot be made true—if I don’t have the power, or if what I have said is an impossibility—then I will pay the price.Highlighted by 160 Kindle readers
- “A thing that’s old. The stars—no, negation of the stars. Tree. Bear. Water.”Highlighted by 159 Kindle readers
From the Publisher
Praise for Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower
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A New Favorite
The Raven’s Tower is an incredible and striking read from start to finish. It first gripped my attention with the interesting and uncommon use of second person. After believing this to be a “first chapter” gimmick, I continued forward with a curious eye towards the prose, only to promptly discover that I quite enjoyed this second person prose, found myself growing quite attached to the way it flowed and the way it conveyed its story. The book has no chapters to speak of, but this is to its benefit—it flows much better this way, and the breaks between scenes provided by the black figure of a Raven helps the reader find suitable places to break should they need to refill their cup of tea or grab a snack for the interesting novel before them. Though I will say, I found myself reading this book quickly, and not because it’s short—no, I was entrapped inside the pages and found no way to escape but forward. So forward I went.The book’s plot is wonderfully political—but not in the manner of talking heads or tensionless pages. While some turns in the road are perhaps easy to spot, others are not, and surely the reactions to these turns by the characters is sometimes alarming as well. If one thing does not surprise you, another will.Definitely go check this novel out. I, for one, may have myself found a new favorite book to add to the short list of esteemed stories.The Raven’s Tower gets full stars from me, and I will eagerly look forward to more books by this author.
Top reviews from other countries
JR
Immediately engaging, wonderfully different, a great book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2019