For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained via the blood sacrifice that every Lease must offer. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes.
But the power of the Raven is weakening. A usurper has claimed the throne. The kingdom borders are tested by invaders who long for the prosperity that Vastai boasts. And they have made their own alliances with other gods.
It is into this unrest that the warrior Eolo--aide to Mawat, the true Lease--arrives. And in seeking to help Mawat reclaim his city, Eolo discovers that the Raven's Tower holds a secret. Its foundations conceal a dark history that has been waiting to reveal itself...and to set in motion a chain of events that could destroy Iraden forever.
465 pages
Published February 26, 2019
I want to start out by saying that Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower gave me something I've been looking years for: a story written in the 2nd person, and written that way well. I've always thought it would be tricky to do well, and I think the author managed to do it in exactly the best way here, by switching viewpoints between the god known as the Strength and Patience of the Hill, and Eolo, the person said god is keeping a close eye on for reasons of its own. It was the perfect setup to write in that way, and I really enjoyed how the two viewpoints were expressed.
As for the story itself, it was rather light on physical descriptions, allowing the reader to fill in the gaps as to what places or people generally looked like. Which that could be a little frustrating at times (I'm a rather visual person and I like to let my mind just go off with a riot of colour and sound and every little thing that could make up a scene), it made sense when you consider that the whole story is told from the point of view of a god who doesn't much give a damn about what the air smells like or the shades people dress themselves in, or any number of details that, really, are inconsequential to the overarching narrative. It made contextual sense, and while it might not have been meticulously detailed, it was without a doubt meticulously crafted.
I really enjoyed seeing things from a god's point of view, if I'm honest. It was a bit of a unique perspective, that of a sentient rock. A rock's eye view of change that came slow and steady, but nevertheless caused untold strife among humans, and even other gods. The Raven of Vastai, a god who gave protection over a city and much of the surrounding land in exchange for the occasional human sacrifice, has a long history, one that stretches back for generations, and one that was rooted in invasion and war. One that the Strength and Patience of the Hill was eventually roped into, lending its strength first to the side that opposed the Raven's takeover, and then being essentially strong-armed into aiding the Raven itself after the opposition had lost.
And something is wrong with the Raven, something that threatens to destabilize the foundations of Vastai, and by association the whole or Iraden. That is why Eolo, and his lord Mawat, who is meant to be the successor to the Raven's Lease (the ultimate human sacrifice to the Raven), arrive in Vastai and are sucked into the mystery of where Mawat's father (the previous Lease) vanished to without fulfilling his obligations to the Raven, why Mawat's uncle now seems to be the Lease when he really shouldn't be, and why the protection of the Raven seems to be failing. It's a multi-layered mystery, and it's one where the pieces are doled out so carefully, so perfectly, that it was easy to get lost in it.
Piecing together all the little hints about what was happening really kept me turning pages. The flashbacks at first seem like little more than set pieces to explain the history and motivations of the narrative viewpoint, but in those sections lie loads of hints about the current predicament in Vastai, if you know where to look. I had the job of connecting some dots right before their reveal in the text, and then toward the end, when everything is coming to a head and characters have gone too far to reverse course, all the pieces fall into place in a stunning way that left me desperate to know what happens after the last page.
The Raven Tower does end on a cliff-hanger of sorts, though not in a way that suggests a forthcoming sequel. This slice of the world's story is done, though there's obviously plenty that can and will change after the book's closing. I want to know what will happen, I want to see more of Eolo and Tikaz, I want to encounter more gods. The whole book was politics all the way down, in one form or another, and you can't have politics without people (or at least sentient beings), and there's so much that might happen.
That said, I don't think I want a sequel, not really. The Raven Tower was perfect as a stand-alone fantasy, it told the story it set out to tell, and not everything needs to be a massive tale that's multiple books in the telling. I saw the beginning, and middle, and an end, and that was more than fine. While the world the author set up was a wonderfully creative one, and the characters were ones that prompted thought and consideration, it's okay to not see them again, if this story has been seen to completion.
What I do want to see, however, is more of Ann Leckie's writing. I was captivated by the creativity shown here, and I want to see if that creativity extends to her other novels. The skill shown in managing a 2nd person viewpoint also made me curious to see what else she's accomplished in her time as a writer. It's a good book, in my opinion, that makes you want to go right to the bookstore and buy up other things the author has written. I feel confident that after this, I won't be disappointed.
(Side note, The Raven Tower has queer characters whose queerness is just accepted as another part of who they were, rather than the whole of that person. Fantastic presentation, and fantastic allyship. I appreciate, and I approve.)
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