I have such a good time with this book! After reading and enjoying Blackwing, I wanted to continue with the series before letting too much time elapse. After listening to a sample of the audiobook, I decided to go that route. I was enjoying myself but somewhere around the midpoint of the book, I admitted to myself that some of the details of the story were getting past me. I continued with the book but decided that I was going to have to listen to it a second time because I didn't want to miss anything. So I did. Yes, I started this audiobook over again at the beginning just as soon as I finished it. I did pick up on quite a few things that I missed the first time around on my second listen and found that I really enjoyed the story a whole lot more so it was a good decision. I guess you could say that I liked this book since I liked it enough to listen to it twice!

This book is set about 4 years after the events of the first book. Ryhalt is still the leader of Blackwing and is working with his group. He knows things that would be dangerous if others found out but he knows how to keep things to himself when necessary. This book jumps right into the action with Ryhalt leaving a meeting in a rather unconventional manner just to stay alive. When he sees a man that he is sure he recently killed, he knows that something is going on. Plus there is the small matter of an important and powerful item that goes missing. I knew that Ryhalt had his work cut out for him.

This book was just as dark and bloody as I expected it to be after reading the previous installment. The story is set in a cruel world where things can and often do go wrong. Things are rather desperate at times and I was more than a little worried about the safety of all of the key characters. I loved the way that the reader has a chance to really get to know these characters better in this installment. A lot of the book is centered solely on Ryhalt and I felt that his actions showed exactly what kind of man he is. I thought that a couple of other characters important in his life were wonderfully developed so that they had a bigger impact on the overall story.

Colin Mace was the perfect narrator for this book. If you had asked me what Ryhalt Garharrow sounded like after reading the first book, I couldn't have come up with anything that fits better than this narrator. I think that he really was able to bring this story to life. His reading added excitement, desperation, hope, and uncertainty of the story when appropriate. I believe that his narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story and I plan to listen to more of his work.

I would highly recommend this story to others. It is a gritty fantasy that is well crafted and entertaining. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley and I purchased a copy of the audiobook.

Excellent follow-up novel that furthers the adventures of Ryhalt Galharrow, a sort of police officer/sheriff who works on the border of a magically-destroyed desert known as The Misery. In this fantasy world, there are two sides at war with each other, the Nameless and the Deep Kings, and Galharrow is promised to Crowfoot, one of the Nameless. He bears a raven tattoo on his arm that periodically rips itself free from his flesh to pass on messages and warnings. When a magical device goes missing from one of Crowfoot's strongholds, Ryhalt must get to the bottom of the mystery of who took it and why. The solution is discovered only via lots of death and destruction. Very much looking forward to the next book.

3.5 stars. Ravencry was a highly anticipated sequel for me, and many other grimdark fans, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype. As high as McDonald set the bar in Book 1, Ravencry suffered from Book 2 syndrome and didn't do enough to raise that bar. The beginning was fairly slow going and nothing of worth happened until a little after halfway through. But man, when stuff did hit the fan, it shows just how great McDonald's imagination is. One thing is for certain: McDonald's prose is simply beautiful, yet guts with a rusty knife. This dude can write and I have high hopes for Book 3.

Last year, when I finished reading Blackwing, by Ed McDonald, I was unsure if I would be back for more. My review of the McDonald’s debut can be found here, but the short version is: good writing and interesting world, but a super boring protagonist. However, after sitting on the book for a few months I found myself still invested in the plot and curious to see what would happen next. So, I decided to pick up the second book in the Raven’s Mark series, Ravencry, and see if it stepped it up or dropped the ball.

The plot of this series is hilariously complicated, and you can find a much more in-depth run down in my review of book one (which is linked in the first paragraph). However, the short version is McDonald’s books take place in a post apocalyptic wasteland where two sets of gods wage war. Our protagonist, Ryhalt Galharrow, is a captain in the special forces (the Blackwings) of one of the supposedly less garbage gods (Crowfoot), and works as a combination detective/warden/bounty hunter. His general job is to investigate and track down anomalies that his patron is worried about. The plot of Ravencry is essentially that the events of book one have shaken the populace’s faith in the ruling class, and the common people have started to form cults and riot. While this is happening, a powerful artifact is stolen from Crowfoot’s personal vault. Ryhalt needs to find this artifact before it starts causing trouble, while dealing with the fact that the city he inhabits is in upheaval.

As I have said both in my previous review and the first paragraph, McDonald’s world is pretty fantastic to explore. A large part of the world revolves around a slice of land that separates the two warring gods: a horrific wasteland called the Misery. There is a dualism to the Misery; it is filled with untold horrors, but it is also constantly explored and mapped in order to maintain the boundary against the rival deities. This forced exploration provides a powerful natural narrative vehicle by which to show the reader all sorts of cool and terrifying things. You also find yourself buying in to the idea that the Misery is this awful place due to reactions of all the trackers who have gone in to map it. In Ravencry, the world continues its patterns of excellence. McDonald expands the scope of his world building. The first books primarily focuses on a single city and the Misery, while the second does a better job of selling these two massive countries at war.

However, while Ravencry still has the strengths of its predecessor, my real question was did it shore up my big issue with book one – the characters, specifically Ryhart. The answer to this is …somewhat. The support cast in Blackwing was decent, but I would argue that Ravencry‘s is slightly better. The supporting characters are a mix of new and old, and McDonald feels like he takes a lot more time to introduce, and flesh out, all the people you meet. I definitely felt like I understood the identities and motivations of characters in Ravencry, whereas many of the cast felt like one dimensional beings provided to enable Ryhart in the first book. Ryhart himself is definitely better, but I still think he has a little ways to go. I previously had two issues with Ryhart; he didn’t seem “special” enough to be the protagonist of book one, and I just didn’t like his personality. Ravencry does a great job fixing the first issue, but doesn’t fully fix the second. In the first book, Ryhart just seemed weirdly untalented for how much faith people placed into him. His principle skill just seemed to be that he happened to be standing in the right place at the right time, which didn’t really give him a lot of agency. In the second book, he feels much more like a knowledgeable detective who is deadly in a fight. I had a much stronger understanding why other cast members might look to him for leadership and why he felt important to the story. As to the second issue, I had a hard time explaining my problem with Ryhart’s personality in my review of book one, but I think I finally understand how to state it better with the second installment. As I mentioned before, one of the huge strengths of this series is the world building, and how the character’s reactions and identities really sell this post apocalyptic wasteland. This is almost universally true except for Ryhart himself, who feels like he doesn’t react to his surroundings as he should. Most of the character’s live life knowing that the Misery could murder them in a blink, and this is reflected in their bleak nature and lack of long term planning. On the other hand, Ryhalt feels like he has plot armor, and knows it, as choices and feelings he has don’t mess with what I would expect. This creates cognitive dissonance for me and makes it occasionally hard to believe him as a character. However, Ryhart is definitely better overall in almost every respect in Ravencry.

At the end of the day, I think Ravencry is an improvement on almost every metric compared its excellent predecessor. I harped on Ryhart a lot, but it really is a small blemish in an otherwise great read. While I was on the fence about the series after book one, Ravencry has cemented my loyalty to the Raven’s Mark series, and I eagerly await the next installment. It you are looking for a dystopian/horror fantasy that has an impressive ambiance, complicated but engrossing plot, and relatable cast – check out Blackwing and Ravencry.

Rating: Ravencry – 9.0/10
-Andrew

First of all, if you haven't read Blackwing yet, you should do that. NOW. You can check out my review of it HERE. I will try not too put too many spoilers from book 1 in this review.

Book 1 really could have been a standalone, but I am glad the author kept going with this story.

This book was awesome! It has a different storyline than the first, but with the same (and some new) characters, and of course, new magic and monsters.

I loved the ending, but hated it at the same time. It was a great, epic ending, but I wasn't happy with where it left some of the characters. I want to go into more detail and rant, but I don't want to give away any spoilers.

I was a little upset that there wasn't more Nenn and Tnota in this book. They were my favorites from the first book. I fell in love with Amaira and Maldon in this book, though.

Ed McDonald exceeded my expectations again! The only issue I have is that I have to wait until next June to read the 3rd book in the series, Crowfall!

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve mentioned this before, but 2018 has been a fantastic year for sequels, Ravencry among them. Ed McDonald debuted Blackwing in 2017 and what an epic piece of grimdark it was! Naturally I was really excited to pick up a copy of Ravencry as well and it did not disappoint. This was just as dark as the first book and I think is did a good job following up on the events of Blackwing.

This is set four years later and Ryhalt Galharrow is still captain of Blackwing, but things have changed significantly. His former love Ezabeth Tanza sacrificed herself to drive back a horde of the Deep Kings’s soldiers and she’s been manifesting as a ghost in the light to hundreds of people. These sighting have fueled the rise of a cult that worships her and insist she will be their savior rather than the Nameless. With this cult comes and influx of new people into the city, including a one that Ryhalt used to serve alongside though he is now funding the construction of a giant tower dedicated to the Bright Lady that doubles as a foss mill. Oh yeah, and do you recall creepy eyeball from the previous book? Yeah, it gets stolen a handful of pages in and Ryhalt spends a great deal of time trying to track it down.

My summary of the plot pales in comparison to the actuality of the book, so if you think that sounds even remotely interesting, then you’ll find the book to be exponentially more so. Unless a character died in the first book, you can expect them to reappear here and there are quite a few new faces in the crowd as well. I like the new characters, particularly the Blackwing assistant/second in command and Ryhalt’s servant girl who he treats nearly as if she were his daughter. He makes a rather gruff, tough love sort of father figure which is no surprise really. It’s interesting to see how the characters have changed and what sort of mischief they’ve been up to since the events four years ago. Ryhalt is obviously scarred by the loss of Ezabeth and he remains a bit of a loner and a risk taker as well. He’s quite the workaholic, though he at least has some assistance now and then. Nenn is a rough character known for punching people in the face if they disagree, though she begins to show somewhat of a softer side here.

Overall I thought Ravencry was a solid sequel and I will absolutely be continuing on with the series. I just have to know what happens! I want more destruction, more of the Deep Kings, more of Crowfoot and his allies (a bit tenuous), and most definitely more Ryhalt. This is an excellent series and if you’re a fan of the grimdark subgenre and you haven’t checked this out then you are SERIOUSLY MISSING OUT ON AN AWESOME SERIES.

<a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2018/08/24/ravencry-by-ed-mcdonald/" target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart</a>

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/224241-raven-s-mark" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em><strong>Raven's Mark series</strong></em></a> is what I call grimdark. This means there is violence, battles, blood and death. The good times are getting drunk, killing the enemy or winning the battle. Well, there is also loyalty to friends and causes, protecting friends, women and children.

The world is full of magic and those trying to grab power. Many are not honorable. There are upper classes and lower classes.  The military and the best magic users are a bit separate. It's been four years since the Blackwing crew saved Valengrad. Evil forces are at work, but it is difficult to see exactly what they are trying to do, so it's more difficult to stop them.

Galharrow is older, more worn, suffering from the loss of Ezabeth who sacrificed herself to save Valengrad the last time.  His previous decisions are also coming back to bite him. The way is treacherous and painful.  Also, the crew does not work as tightly together on this mission. He spends more time alone. I don't know how many books are planned but I will be interested to see where his journey takes him after <strong>Ravencry</strong>.

It's been four years since Blackwing Captain Ryhalt Galharrow and crew saved Valengrad from the Deep Kings. Things have been going well for him. His business is running smoothly, Nenn and Tnota are still alive. Everything is business as usual until someone breaks into Crowfoot's vault.

Of course Crowfoot expects Galharrow to find out who broke in and what they took. Who has enough power to get past Crowfoot's wards? No one but a Deep King or maybe another Nameless. As he investigates, clues quickly point to a new power. One that Ryhalt is familiar with. One that he hates.

Meanwhile, a ghost in the form of a woman is appearing in the light. She is called the Bright Lady. Ryhalt is afraid to believe the stories about her. If they are true, he will never stop until he saves her from the light.

When it becomes clear that all of these things are connected, Ryhalt knows he will only find his answers in the Misery. Hopefully he can make it back and save Valengrad again.

I absolutely loved the first book in this series. I think I loved this one even more!! As with Blackwing, I loved the characters, the magic, and the world. I felt like this one was way more intense and I was on the edge of my seat. I just love this series! This one did hurt me more though. It was gut wrenching in a couple of spots. Everyone must read this!!

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sometimes you read (or try to read a book) and it just doesn't quite work for you. That happened for me with Blackwing, the first book in the Raven's Mark series. Even though I couldn't quite get into that book, I knew there was something special there. And there was so much there that I liked, I wanted to pick up the second book in the series, Ravencry.

Ravencry continues the gritty story of Ryhalt Galharrow, a Blackwing - a bounty hunter who seeks out and turns over anyone who has been compromised by the immortal Deep Kings. This book takes place four years after the events in the first book, where he helped drive the Deep Kings back across the Misery.

Ravencry, though brilliant in so many ways, is still not quite right for me. I love so much about it - the world, the story, the details, and the emotions it ends up unexpectedly ripping out of me. But, it is still a struggle for me to get through it. And that's okay. I can appreciate the brilliance without loving it personally. It's enough for me to know what it is and then share it with people who I know will truly love and devour it (which is what I did with Blackwing).

If you love fantasy tinged with a dark grit and gruff, harsh characters that are hard to love - this is for you. There's a darkness in Ravencry that screams out (much like the Raven tattoo) to be heard, if not necessarily understood. Experience the Misery and develop your own thoughts, but give it a chance because the concepts are brilliant.

The below 5-star review was posted to Every Day Should Be Tuesday, Amazon, and Goodreads on 8/21/18:

I’m going to keep this short. If you haven’t already read the first book in the series, Blackwing, (1) you’re crazy, (2) go read Blackwing. If you have read Blackwing, then I probably don’t need to do much convincing. Ravencry is a work very much like Blackwing and equally as awesome as Blackwing but that builds on Blackwing and does its own thing.

Ravencry takes place four years after the victory over the Deep Kings in Blackwing. Money is up for Ryhalt Galharrow’s blackwings and trouble out of the Misery is down. But the Deep Kings have not been idle in that four year span, a god-artifact goes missing, and a new cult is in town.

Oh, and you remember Saravor? Saravor shows back up. You knew it would happen and damned if there still isn’t a pit in your stomach when it does.

Of course Ryhalt again finds himself right in the middle of the s___.

McDonald does everything right in Ravencry that he did right in Blackwing—bloody action set pieces, killer prose, ingenious worldbuilding, and careful, skillful plotting. But that alone doesn’t tell you much. A sequel needs to do more than that. Ravencry does. There is more madness from the Deep Kings and a truly epic trip to the Misery. So much of what Blackwing work so well—and why I called it “Grimdark with Heart”—was Ryhalt’s first person ruminations. How do you keep that sort of thing fresh? Craft, that’s how.

Ryhalt can be a mean S.O.B., but it is easy to like someone with his grit. Robert E. Howard would have liked Ryhalt.

“Knowing your weapons helps put you at ease before the storm hits. Lets you feel that you’ve done everything in your power to see yourself through. Of course, the smartest thing to do is turn around and ride back the way you came as fast as you can. But we run when we can, and we fight when we have to, and sometimes the dawn comes and there’s no choice but to grit your teeth, draw steel and scream against the night.”

Disclosure: The publisher provided me with a review copy of Ravencry via NetGalley.

It’s been four years since the end of Blackwing and all the shenanigans that went down in it, and Ryhalt Galharrow and the rest of Blackwing are enjoying a time of relative peace in the city of Valengrad. Until something very important gets stolen from Crowfoot’s vault – and then fire starts raining down from the sky. So much for relative peace.

So, it’s up to Galharrow to figure out what is happening and try and stop it, as that is what Blackwing does. They are the arm of Crowfoot and the other Nameless. And Crowfoot wants his stuff back, for one, and since it was probably a plot from the Deep Kings, the Nameless’ eternal enemies, to steal it, Blackwing is the perfect group to get it back.

At the same time, it seems as though the drudge, the underlings of the Deep Kings, are hurling fiery missiles at the Grandspire, a giant new building that is being erected in the city for use as a phos mill (people in this world can spin light from the moon that is often used as energy, this is called ‘phos’). People have reported seeing a woman in the light of phos as of late, and worship of her has turned into an actual religion. The Order of the Bright Lady believes that the woman in the light is going to come out of it to save them when the Grandspire is completed. So they obviously can’t let it get destroyed by the drudge. So we have a magically talented group of zealots protecting a building, and the actual leaders of the city’s government and their soldiers telling them not to. That goes about as well as you’d think.

I really like Galharrow as a character. This book is fairly dark, but it’s the world that’s dark, not the characters, per sey. Galharrow, while he will go to pretty long lengths to do what he needs to do (or what Crowfoot tells him to do), he’s not your typical grim protagonist. He’s not a hero, but he’s certainly not an antihero either. He doesn’t indiscriminately murder, he actually cares about his employees, and his friends. He’s a pretty good guy, all told, who will get stuff done when tasked to do so.

His banter with Nenn, and Nenn as a character was awesome, just as she was in Blackwing. Tnota is another character that I really liked. They both give Galharrow some good advice from time to time, and their part in the overall plot definitely kept me reading. There were additional characters in this one that I really liked, Amaira, Valiya, and most especially a talking raven who throws Galharrow snark at every opportunity. Beaucoup de snark.

Well written and immersive, this was a great sequel. It was mysterious enough that I kept reading far, far later than I should have. Characters that I wanted to read about, and an engaging plot that I wanted to see to completion made this a quick and easy read.

Like it did in Blackwing, the world imagined here still reminds me quite often of that of Trigun. This is specifically because of the similarity of phos and the idea of using harnessed magic as energy to the harnessing of the Plants as energy. While thematically quite different, with a much darker tone, the settings are somewhat similar. Somewhere around the second industrial revolution. Guns and gunslingers and horses and carriages, but also electricity and telegraphs, etc. A city surrounded by a wasteland that is difficult to safely travel across. Enemies that are somewhat ridiculously powerful, but mysterious. That sort of thing. This is not a bad thing – Trigun (both the manga and the anime) remains to this day one of my favorite pieces of media ever created, and for me, which should be apparent to anyone that reads my reviews, having a parallel in something else that I love makes books so much easier for me to latch onto. I’m more likely to love a thing if I love something similar, I guess is a good way to put it.

The ending of this one, probably the last quarter or so of the book, was bonkers and kept me up far past my bedtime reading. Very compelling and even got me in the feels a couple times, which I wasn’t expecting. I’m excited to see where this story goes in the future, because if events from this one are setting something up, it’s gonna be crazy from here on.

Thanks to the author, as well as Berkley via NetGalley for the review copy. :)

I'm always a fan of Ed McDonald's work. He has a unique world that I'm excited to explore. The characters were solid and full of life. The story had depth and was unpredictable. I was actually scared after wrapping up Blackwing, that this book was going to fall short of the greatness that McDonald had already created. I was not disappointed.

Four stars for Ravencry!

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

I found this book to be a bit heavy on the foul language, while language does have its place too much detracts from the story. Overall a decent book and if you liked the first one you will like this one.