The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, 1)
Hugo Award Finalist - Goodreads Choice Award Finalist - Locus Award Finalist Best of the Year at ELLE, Gizmodo, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and more! "A labyrinth of a book--vast and intricate, full of fiendish twists and clever traps--with a deeply human heart at its center. It's thrilling, romantic, often tragic, and always funny; I'm obsessed." --Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House The Raven Scholar is a masterfully woven tale of imperial intrigue and a breakout epic fantasy sensation from an electrifying new voice in the genre, Astounding Award-winning author Antonia Hodgson. Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, the reign of Bersun the Brusque has come to an end. In the dizzying heat of midsummer, seven exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists compete to replace him. When one of them is murdered, it falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor's brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer and fight for the throne. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in. If she succeeds, we will win an empire. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won't let that happen. We are the Raven, and we are magnificent. ★ "Sharply written and intricately plotted. A masterclass in storytelling!" --Ann Leckie, Hugo Award-winning author of Ancillary Justice ★ "Fiendishly charming and clever, this is a book you absolutely must devour." --Tasha Suri, World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Jasmine Throne ★ "The Raven Scholar is as clever as its namesake--each beloved character, each twist and each turn, is a shiny new gift. It is magnificent." --C. L. Clark, author of The Unbroken
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Community Reviews
There is a lot to like about this book: the autistic-coded main character, the talking raven (my favorite character by far), all the lovable and loathsome secondary characters. And I do love a tournament setting and murder mystery books.
I wish more space in this long novel was dedicated to world building (pretty basic, inspired by Kung Fu styles or Chinese zodiac, as far as I can tell) and less on the main character’s thoughts. The magical way the main character learned to fight could have been a fun thing to read, had it been flashed out. Instead, we are supposed to believe that the MC (and also another character at a different time) learned the basics of martial arts by watching others and practicing by themselves with no instruction or sparring partners.
I did have to mentally decrease the main character and her cohort’s age from 30 to 18ish, which made reading this book much easier and saved me the trouble of rolling my eyes every time the characters did something immature.
Although I usually prefer audiobooks over reading text, I didn’t like this narrator’s style. She overdid it with the uplifting intonations, which ended up sounding childish and as if she was smiling for half the book. I’ll read the next one in text, once it comes out.
I wish more space in this long novel was dedicated to world building (pretty basic, inspired by Kung Fu styles or Chinese zodiac, as far as I can tell) and less on the main character’s thoughts. The magical way the main character learned to fight could have been a fun thing to read, had it been flashed out. Instead, we are supposed to believe that the MC (and also another character at a different time) learned the basics of martial arts by watching others and practicing by themselves with no instruction or sparring partners.
I did have to mentally decrease the main character and her cohort’s age from 30 to 18ish, which made reading this book much easier and saved me the trouble of rolling my eyes every time the characters did something immature.
Although I usually prefer audiobooks over reading text, I didn’t like this narrator’s style. She overdid it with the uplifting intonations, which ended up sounding childish and as if she was smiling for half the book. I’ll read the next one in text, once it comes out.
Ok this book was hard for me to get through. The story was interesting enough but how it was written had a monotone feel to it and frankly I was just bored. It had its moments where it got a bit exciting then would drop back quickly to one note. I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I really wanted to enjoy it more but it wasn’t for me. 😢
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