Review: Ravencry

Ravencry by Ed McDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free ecopy via Penguin Books First to Read in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that I have not read the first book in this series. I usually skip opportunities to pick up a book later in a series when I haven't read the earlier volumes, but Ravencry sounded so interesting I couldn't pass it up. It reminded me of The Black Company in some ways, which might be part of why I liked it so much.

Ryhalt Galharrow is the captain of a small pseudo police force employed by an extremely powerful sorcerer to help keep the peace in the borderlands. The story takes a bit to get going as Galharrow uncovers a series of strange, seemingly unrelated events. There is the emergence of a new religion centered around his dead girlfriend, a theft, and a man who returned from the dead. All of this culminates in the appearance of someone who could potentially rival Galharrow's benefactor.

I like McDonald's writing. It captured my attention pretty early, which is good because that helped keep me interested until the story picked up some more. The setting is wonderful. As a first time reader I could pick out the power hierarchy among the wielders of magic and I was able to get a sense of the world pretty easily. This is mostly urban fantasy, but the few times the characters venture out into the world bring a nice contrast.

The characters are written really well. Galharrow is defined by his relationships, or lack thereof. I enjoyed reading about how he connected with the people around him and seeing how that has changed. Even Galharrow is changed dramatically over the course of the book. The story might move slowly at times, but it does a lot of things right with the characters which makes that forgivable.

There are references to events that I can only imagine were covered in the first book. I never felt lost for not having read it, although it is clear that this book only touches on some of that. Having finished this book I am definitely interested in going back to read the first volume.

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