Ravencry

May I just say: Oh my God!

Blackwing was an amazing novel and finishing it left me with a pang of disappointment that it was done but Ravencry is like a splash of cold and dirty canal water welcoming me back to Valengrad, the Misery and Ryhault Galharrow's continuing service to Crowfoot.

Ed McDonald's skill as an author is maturing and his descriptions of the filth and violence of Galharrow's world were, at times, almost palpable! Ravencry is a continuation of Galharrow's story and is darker and richer than what came before! There is nothing not to love , the mystery of the Bright Lady and her growing cult, a return of old friends and new enemies plus the ever growing threat of the Deep Kings was well-worth the wait!

This is epic, grim fantasy that fills me with a sense of comfort and well-being!

fantastic follow up to Blackwing. McDonald had to feel the pressure to write a sequel to a book that received raves for a debut author. Besides reading fantasy genre I read a fair share of mystery. There is this feeling of great hardboiled detective novel. Rhyhalt is your tough as nails, over drinking fellow with his own moral compass. Grimnoir

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Blackwing was one of the surprise treats of last year. I picked up a hardback copy and almost made it last three days.

Revencry picks up about four years after the events at the end of Blackwing. Ryhalt Galharrow's still doing what he does best, drinking too much, smoking too much and sorting out trouble in the way only he can. On the plus side, the importance of the Blackwings has been recognised and there's now some funding and people available to do the work.

The story opens with Ryhalt meeting up on a barge one night with an old acquaintance who wishes to trade some information that he's stumbled upon for Ryhalt's protection. Things go south quite quickly and the informer is killed, with Ryhalt almost joining him before he tracks down and dispatches the three assassins that attacked them. The only problem is that Galharrow recognises one of the killers, he'd been executed a few week prior. From here on in things start to get messy, and then someone goes and breaks into Crowfoot's old place and raids his vault. This gets Ryhalt's tattoo itching at the most inopportune of moments.

Whilst all of this is happening mysterious sightings in the phos of a lady we know to be Ezabeth Tanza are increasing and to make matters worse, if they needed any help, a new cult has emerged around these sightings. Surely it's just a coincidence.

All our favourite characters return, Tnota, Nenn and Dantry, there's a far bigger part for the foul-mouthed, drunkard of a spinner trapped in a child's body, Gleck Maldon, and then Saravor makes an unwelcome return. Ryhalt's also become guardian to a young orphan girl and the object of desire for a coworker. Complications he just doesn't need.

The story rattles along at a good pace, although for me it's far more personal and introspective than the first. We spend a lot of time in Galharrow's head, especially during a "voyage of discovery" that he's forced to undertake.

Not unexpectedly for a story with a self-destructive protagonist, nobody comes away from these events unscathed, and that can be said of the reader too. We get to share in all the pain and sorrow. Very few punches are pulled.

I'm not sure that this is as good a book as Blackwing, but it's certainly worth a read and is an excellent continuation to the story.

This was a great sequel to an amazing debut. This definitely did not disappoint and I am looking forward to McDonald's next book.

This is a phenomenal followup to the excellent Blackwing.

The stakes are higher and the costs are almost unbearable.

I love the tight focus of this book, the story is Ryhalts and it's with Ryhalt we remain throughout the book.

The plot is excellent with loads of "what?", "no!" and "of course! how did I miss that?" moments.

The setting is vividly described, the Misery descriptions, in particular, are loaded with a sense of menace and dread. Again, the tight focus is delivered brilliantly - we are aware there are other places but we're not overloaded with details we don't need.

The "good" characters are really well written, with enough flaws to make them realistic and likeable. The "bad" characters are superb with reasons for doing what they do.

The pace is relentless and the action enjoyably tense.

I'm really looking forward to the third book.

ARC via netgalley.

When I reviewed Blackwing last year, I noted that it was a novel that “did everything very well”.

Blackwing was a great book, but I thought it stopped just short of excellent. It had solid characters, an engaging plot, an interesting setting… but I didn’t quite think it was top-drawer.

Then came Ravencry.

When I'd finished, the first words out of my mouth were “Now THAT’S a sequel.”

Too often I read the 2nd book in a trilogy and find myself a little disappointed. Maybe the magic of the first book isn’t there. Maybe it’s little more than a set-up for the third. Maybe it tries to be more introspective but the story falls a little flat.

There are countless things that can go wrong with a sequel.

I don’t think much went wrong here.

Ravencry has everything you loved about Blackwing and more. It’s a grimdark book, but not typically so. The characters are violent and coarse, but decent. It’s a gritty, violent world, but this story has a heart to it. It has a soul. It has a voice.

And it’s that voice that ties everything together.

Both Blackwing and Ravencry are written in an incredibly distinct, engaging style. We experience the story from the perspective of Captain Ryhalt Galharrow, and it's his thoughts and internal monologue that make the books what they are. Galharrow feels larger than the words on the page. He feels alive; angry and sorrowful and cynical. This is a character powerful enough to make you forget that you're reading a book. Instead, you experience a story.

But Galharrow isn't the only character. A few familiar faces return, as well as a few that aren't so familiar. The events of Blackwing have changed things, and McDonald isn't afraid to explore that change.

Ravencry doesn't retread old ground, and it doesn't try to be something completely different. Instead, it takes everything that was great about Blackwing and builds on it, making for an even better book.

The plot is established from the first chapter, but with just enough mystery to grab at your curiosity. The pacing is on point. It begins with a jog, then builds up to an all-out sprint for the second half of the book. The setting is fascinating: a neon-lit city on the brink of dystopia, bordering a magical wasteland crawling with nightmares.

Ravencry was everything that I wanted in a sequel.

It continued the story of the previous book, was a fantastic story in its own right, and left me wondering how the hell the next book was going to top this.

If Blackwing was great, then Ravencry is excellent.

I'm a big fan of Ed McDonald's first book, Blackwing. It was a really modern take on how to write a great fantasy epic. It had all the classic tropes — swordsmen, magicians, monsters, end-of-the-world stakes — yet it was done so differently that I felt like I'd never read anything like it before. It kept me turning the pages late into the night and became my favourite book of the year.

The great news is Ravencry is even better. It's everything I loved about the first book cranked up to another level of awesomeness. Poor Galharrow really gets put through the blender as does everyone else. The Misery lives up to its name and the bad guys got a whole lot more bad. It's compulsive reading. It's nail-biting stuff and, oh-my-god, it's brilliant.