Listen. A god is speaking. My voice echoes through the stone of your master's castle. The castle where he finds his uncle on his father's throne. You want to help him. You cannot. You are the only one who can hear me. You will change the world. A triumph of the imagination, The Raven Tower is the first fantasy novel by Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. Gods meddle in the fates of men, men play with the fates of gods and a pretender must be cast down from the throne in this breathtaking fantasy masterpiece.
This book is so good. It makes me want to make friends with a giant rock and a swarm of mosquitoes. This is now my favorite Ann Leckie book.
I thought this book was pretty good, though it has a bit of a rough start. Once you get past the initial part and get used to the first/second person narrative it becomes much better. It's also not a particular long story, but the characters, especially the Strength and Patience of the Hill, are cool.
I can recommend this as a quick jump into Ann Leckie's works, particularly if you are more interested in fantasy than her usual science fiction.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2023/11/book-review-raven-tower-by-ann-leckie.html
Standard fantasy narrative, except...
The narrator is a god and uses second person narrative to follow a human "main" character. The human is trans, and this isn't a defect, or a super power, it just is present in the world and accepted. Although twins are hated and feared in some cultures, despite not controlling how they are born.
Very Leckie, and also my favourite, I think. It's faster paced than the Ancillary books. Less tea and gloves.
Merci de combiner un univers de style fantasy avec une vraie histoire. Combien d’histoires se contentent d’un univers de style fantasy et d’une histoire complètement manichéennes éclatée au sol qu’on a lue 40 fois depuis le Seigneur des anneaux… bonne histoire, réellement humaine.
This was a pretty good book, I'd give it 5 stars but the conversation about how it's okay to be trans was patronizing and cringey and forced. Coulda had more than one trans character instead of having a cis character ramble about her trans aunt. It was cool to have a trans character whose story didn't revolve around being trans, though.
