I really liked this book and thought that it was a very fitting end to a great trilogy. Since this is the third book in a trilogy, I would highly recommend reading the first two books before jumping into this one. This book picks up some time after the events of the second book but Ryhalt and the rest of the characters have all undergone a lot of changes since we last saw them. I was hooked from the start and couldn’t wait to see where things would go as the book drew to a close.

Ryhalt has spent years in the Misery away from others. I absolutely loved the descriptions of the Misery with its hostile and ever-changing nature. The changes in Ryhalt were rather surprising and completely unexpected since he has lost a lot of his humanity. When he gets news that leads him from the Misery, things get intense very quickly. It isn’t long before he enlists the help of those that he has leaned upon in the past. The odds are stacked against the group as they head into the battle of their lives.

There was plenty of action and excitement in this book which kept me glued to the story. I love that I have come to expect the unexpected in this trilogy and that anything could happen at any given time. This is a dark gritty story that was oftentimes brutal. Things do not always go well for this group of characters. I thought that the parts of the story that occurred in the Misery were exceptional since the landscape added another layer of danger to the story.

I alternated between the digital book and audiobook when reading this novel. Colin Mace does a phenomenal job with this series. He does a great job in bringing Ryhalt to life and adds a lot of excitement and emotion to his reading. He has the perfect voice for this kind of story and would eagerly listen to his narration again in the future.

I do recommend this trilogy to others. I enjoyed this dark fantasy novel that was filled with great characters and a lot of excitement. I cannot wait to read more of this talented author’s work.

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

Crowfall, the conclusion from Ed McDonald’s debut series, The Raven's Mark, has the potential for being a contender for fantasy novel of the year. It was a superb postapocalyptic story set on the frontier of a desolate wasteland. A world ravaged by war with the immortal Deep Kings over a century ago. It definitely gives misery a new meaning.

This story was emotional and raw. It was an epic conclusion to an amazing grimdark series. The characters were interesting and the system of magic was intriguing. By the end of the novel, I no longer wanted to put it down.

I look forward to seeing where McDonald's career takes him!

Note: An ARC was received from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the final book to a fantasy series I highly recommend. While I won’t say to much since it is the final book, I will say this book gave me everything I was looking for. I even loved the cover and am hoping the author writes more in this world. Definitely can not wait to read his next venture. Highly recommend this series.

Too many endings right now! First this one, then Broken Veil, the last book in the Harbinger series, by Jeff Wheeler. I definitely wasn't ready to say goodbye to the characters in either series.

The first books in this series were awesome, so I had very high expectations going into this book. I truthfully was a little worried that it might not live up to my expectations, especially after certain characters died in the last book. I won't give up any spoilers though, in case you haven't read the first two books, year. However, again, if you haven't read the first two books, please stop reading this and go do that now, or at least check out my review of the first book HERE.

I was impressed with how well the author did the last book in the series. Everything is pretty well wrapped up but still had the same all-around weirdness, just like the rest of the series. There was actually some crazy, new weirdness in this book that was pretty awesome. I wasn't sure how Ed McDonald was going to out-do the last ones, but he definitely did it.

Although some old friends were gone during this book, some other old friends reappeared, which made me really happy. I won't talk about that, though. Definitely don't want to spoil that! You should probably just go read the book!

I love Ed McDonald's humor! While this book does have some dark moments, and some gory moments, and some (a lot) of weird moments, there is also humor sprinkled in there, as well.

Thank you to the author, the publishers, and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

With Crowfall, Raven's Mark series might have just risen up to be one of my all-time favorite grimdark series. Ed McDonald, take a friggin' bow! Crowfall tops off this incredible series, culminating in a delirious high with the last outing into the Misery for Captain Galharrow and his friends.

For people not familiar with the brutally bleak world that Ed has created in the Raven's Mark, I have one advice - go back and pick up the first book, Blackwing. Much of this review is going to focus on events only from the third book and it will be difficult to keep what happened in the first two books out of this narrative, so to build up the right continuity.

Crowfall starts six years after the cataclysmic events of Raven's Cry and we find that the Blackwing Captain Ryhalt Galharrow is a possessed man, given in to a mad dream that only the Misery can help him achieve. He has spent most of this time, wandering the wastelands of the Misery, getting further and further away from the rest of the humanity. An accidental meeting with one of the Nameless, Nall forces his hand to give up on this nomadic existence - to convey back the terrifying message that one of the Deep Kings, Arcadia is planning an all-out siege, having become an emperor now and having acquired the power of a terrifying entity called Sleeper.

Back in the city of Valengrad, Ryhalt - now almost a creature of the Misery with the taint having transformed his appearance as well, is finding it hard to adjust back. His only friend, Tnota - the drunken navigator is trying to settle down with his new found partner. Nenn's dead ghost keeps heckling him. His adopted daughter Amaira, now a full Blackwing Captain, has disappeared on a mission. And Valiya, who had managed his affairs as an efficient administrator and almost become his love, has now fully disappeared. There's a new mysterious sharpshooter in town, baying for his blood. The current Mayor of the city despises him. and to make matters worse, someone's been murdering Crowfoot's captains. And the threat of the attack by the Deep Emperor is getting closer. Life, as usual is a cakewalk for our bitter hero.
Ryhalt has always been a hard-bitten cynic. The series has primarily been about this central character. Raging under an aura of guilt [ for first having lost his wife and children, and then having lost Ezabeth to the "light", then his friends to hopeless causes to defend a city that despises him] Ryhalt's voice has always been the primal force driving the story forwards. Acerbic, unforgiving and sharp so to cut straight down to the bone with his observations on life. While his voice remains the same, there is an even harder edge to the man in this final book. There's a primal madness to his visions, a secret ambition that has been in the works for long. And now he's grown strong with the magic of Misery flowing through him.

He's hard on himself throughout the series and this book is no different. But you get the feeling, that this time, he is going to break. A palpable sense of tension as madness and poison flows through him, that impending sense of doom that he's going to fail again, making him eschew friends and relationships yet again. You really feel for Ryhalt and I think that's what made this book such an emotionally supercharged suckerpunch of a series-ending for me. Despite the brooding sense of grimdark that blotches through the whole narrative, there is also that feeble sense of clinging to the last dregs of hope - buried there in the hard-boiled cynic's mad plans somewhere. That at least this time, he will redeem himself. It's draining, I must tell you. I read this book in just two-three sittings and it's a crackerjack of a novel that will pin you down, force you to forego sleep and food in anticipation of that final showdown.

Throughout the book, this sense of hopeless desperation clings to you as a reader as you ride into the Misery for one last time. Back to where it all started for Ryhalt, as a young captain who was given the impossible task of guarding the town of Adrogosk. Now given the impossible task of defending the crumbling walls of the broken fortress with a meager handful of soldiers, less than a thousand against the incoming massive army of the Drudges led by the Deep Emperor, twenty thousand plus strong. It's absolutely heady stuff. I would have said heroic but nothing about Ryhalt smacks you of heroism. He's brutal, practical and downright demoniacal in his dedication to a cause that he's given his life up for. This is not the dreamy charge of the final light brigade. This one's a bloody carnage, mad magic flaring up from the Misery against the ruthless ambition of corrupted Ancient beings of power that would stop at nothing in their world domination plans.

What makes things even edgier is the fact the very sorcerers pledged to save mankind, cannot be trusted. And this is a message driven time and again as we are taken to various flashbacks involving the Nameless. there's quite the bevy of characters, some new, most old familiar faces back again one final time. I quite enjoyed Maldon's characterization throughout the series. Even here, he's in top form. The bitter hopelessness laid straight on by blazing black humor, the child-like former war hero now cursed with immortality and blindness is an absolute delight. I wished Nenn was back in form but we get glimpses of her insufferable humor in the form of her ghost who still plagues Ryhalt's conscience. Then there is Valiya - the lady whose love, Ryhalt think he's undeserving of, pining as he is, always and forever about Ezabeth, the lady he lost to light. Amaira's as refreshing as she was in the last book, now a grown up woman and still deriding Ryhalt over a lot of things. Their whole friendship is the rockbase on which humanity in this world is anchored on. Because this foolhardy fools are all that stands between total annihilation and survival. It's a shitty hand, this world has been dealt with. Having someone like Ryhalt as their last bet savior. But it's all they have and my word, the last half of the damn book was like a rogue bullet-train assaulting my senses. Ryhalt is magnificent, totally totally loved him.

It's a brilliant ending to this series that will be hailed as a modern classic of grimdark. There are horrors galore in the Misery that will kill you in a hundred horrific ways but ultimately, it is the tension that builds and builds throughout the book that will ultimately gut you. It's a story that ably builds up the foundations set in by the previous books in the series, giving you a lot of refreshing flashbacks that helps seal gaping holes in our understanding of the whole bleak dangerous world this is set in. A border world caught in the middle of a never-ending war between duplicitous sorcerers whom humanity cannot trust but could be their last hope and a horde of God-like beings hell bent on world domination and destruction. Where the rain that falls down is black and can burn through your skin to make you go mad. Where the sky has been torn to fragments and where madness and horrors alike reside in a desert that conspires to kill you and consume you in a thousand unthinkable ways. Where your only hope is a hopelessly cynical, mad guilt-ridden bastard whose personal intentions are more secretive than the untrustworthy sorcerers and whose mind is brittle, eaten away by the taint of this twisted desert-land.

I could go on and on about how utterly devastatingly amazing this series ending is. It ends in a gut-churning heart breaking manner but is ultimately the best way to end things off. My soul was satisfied. with the glut of blood, darkness, horror and gore that blotched up the last quarter of the book. It's a dream culmination for any lover of grimdark and with Crowfall, Ed McDonald I duly declare that I am now, a fan for life. I cannot wait for what is churned out from that devious endlessly imaginative mind of yours. Raven's Mark is a hallmark in the grimdark genre, epic fantasy at it's finest. One of the best books of 2019, period.

Crowfall is the third installment in the Raven's Mark series and it comes with a bang. The story in this one pretty much picked up from where the last book ended. Scenes that at first glance tend to feel a little throwaway often tend to turn out to be significant set up work for later happenings in the story. It leaves the reader feeling like the author had the story planned from start to finish and that there is very little waste and padding

I’ve been thinking a lot about why the plotting of this series is so great, and it’s because Ed Mcdonald is so good at planting and payoff. If a plot element shows up in the beginning of the book, it will be become a part of the book further on; within the world, with political elements, with character elements. Element after element is used for plot twists and it is always so satisfying and compelling.

Overall, a multifaceted narration filled with intriguing characters, weaving the political interests. I couldn’t ask for more! To this day I want to smack myself for not getting on with the series immediately after I bought them.

The final book in the Raven’s Mark trilogy arrived at last. Crowfall was one of my most highly anticipated sequels for 2019 and I can’t say that I was disappointed which is great! So often the final book in a series leaves me somewhat underwhelmed. Crowfall was a fairly satisfying conclusion to the Raven’s Mark series and I have to say, I’ll miss ol’ Galharrow.

Ryhalt Galharrow has spent much of the years since the last book hanging out in the Misery. He’s got his own freaky little house that disappears from time to time and he’s starting to look like one of the foul beasts that dwell there. Meanwhile, Dantry and Maldon are going around blowing up phos mills and they’ve been essentially labeled as domestic terrorists. All for the greater good, right? Crowfoot and the other Nameless have been devastatingly weakened so Ryhalt has taken the saving of the world into his own clawed hands to prevent a second event as devastating as the Heart of the Void.

I did enjoy this book, but compared to the previous two I was merely interested rather than gripped from the first page and unable to put it down. Ryhalt is clearly on the edge of complete madness (if not already there), speaking to the ghosts of his past and even accepting drinks from them as if they’re real. His corporeal companions are, as one would expect, a little concerned by this and what Ryhalt has done to himself to pursue his goals. Seeing him veer ever closer to the edge was fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

If you’ve not started this series I’d highly recommend that you do. Ryhalt Galharrow and his band of battle hardened warriors and miscreants are surprisingly likable despite their rough characteristics. The story is one you can easily lose yourself in and boy, I envy those who can sit down and read the entire trilogy one after the other rather than waiting a year between each installment. Crowfall was a compelling conclusion that satisfies at just the right level – I wasn’t yearning for more and I was happy with what was delivered.

I would also like to note that I love the cover of this installment – so ominous, yet so appealing!

Review copy was received from . 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 noreferrer"><em><strong>Raven's Mark series</strong></em></a> is  dark and gritty.  The main character is Ryhalt and he is a soldier in a long-term war.  At the beginning of the third book,  <strong>Crowfall</strong>, he has isolated himself out in the Misery, which is sort of a wasteland partially caused by the war.  It was a bit of a slow start with him on his own. You do need to read these books in order or you would be confused about some people and events.  Even the world building aspects might be confusing without the background of the first two books.

The world has many types of magic users both immortal and mortal.  The immortals are at war for power and the humans are an afterthought or tools for them.  There are two major groups, the Nameless and the Deep Kings.  The Nameless have captains within the humans who do work and fight to set things up for them.

Ryhalt's is part of the Crow's crew of Blackwings.  They saved Valengrad but Ryhalt lost the woman he loved.  Someone is now trying to murder all the Blackwing captains.  Ryhalt goes back to civilization to take up his part in the war. This does not go smoothly, at all.

The war with the Deep Kings is coming to a head and the battle is fierce and deadly.  Who will survive?  Will humanity live, particularly the people Ryhalt loves?  I think it ends up a bit quickly, but I'm glad it worked out that some of the humans did survive.

Rating: ★★★★☆+

Synopsis

Crowfall is a gritty epic fantasy for fans of Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch and Daniel Polansky.

‘Dark, twisty and excellent . . . Grimdark with heart’ Mark Lawrence

A sorceress cataclysm has hit the Range, the final defensive line between the Republic and the immortal Deep Kings.

Tormenting red rains sweep the land, new monstrosities feed on fear in the darkness, and the power of the Nameless, the gods who protect the Republic, lies broken. The Blackwing captains who serve them are being picked off one by one, and even immortals have learned what it means to die. Meanwhile the Deep Kings have only grown stronger, and are poised to deliver a blow that will finally end the war.

Ryhalt Galharrow stands apart from it all.

He has been deeper into the wasteland known as the Misery than ever before. It has grown within him – changed him – but all power comes with a price, and now the ghosts of his past, formerly confined to the Misery, walk with him everywhere.

They will even follow him, and the few surviving Blackwing captains, on one final mission into the darkness.

Review

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advance reading copy of Crowfall (Raven’s Mark #3) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel

Crowfall is a bloody, gritty, and downright stunning conclusion to the Raven’s Mark trilogy, and Galharrow has entrenched himself as one of the most engaging characters I’ll have come across in my years of reading fantasy. McDonald’s rich prose mixed with a heaping dose of grimdark makes this a perfect series for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Anna Smith Spark, and Michael R. Fletcher.

While I came into Crowfall a little hesitant after not falling head over heels for Ravencry, I am glad I read them back to back to give myself a little more perspective. Ravencry came down with “second book of a trilogy” syndrome and just felt like, for the most part, filler and build-up for Book 3. Now look, this happens with most series out there, so no direct issue with the author for having done so. It just didn’t pack the wallop that Blackwing gave with the right-hook, but it was satisfying enough that I had to finish out the series.

What makes this trilogy stand out from others amongst the grimdark genre are the characters, but not just the characters themselves; their heart and sense of hope give life and exquisite light to what is otherwise one of the darkest tales out to date. Galharrow always puts others before himself and is consistently giving second chances. Though his body is bruised and battered from consistent brutality, his mind corrupted from time spent in the Misery, he doesn’t sit back and let his companions do his fighting for him. For heaven’s sake, a character that Galharrow has deemed an enemy and blew the face off of has been taken in as an adopted son. Who the heck does that? On top of that, in the face of doom and failure, he never once gives up. He picks himself up by the bootstraps, reloads his weapons, and charges head-on. Brilliant.

I cannot give the author enough credit for how poetic his writing is. Much like Lawrence, McDonald’s prose is some of the most beautiful and elegant in fantasy today. Words just leak from the pages like a fine, full-bodied red wine and you are left to lap up drips that puddle onto the floor. The words need to be savored and pored over for extended periods of time. Think of it like Jim Beam Devil’s Cut; that which is extracted from the cask itself, the finest of its kind.

Overall, Crowfall was a fantastic finale to the Raven’s Mark series, especially the last couple of chapters as I’m pretty sure I teared up a bit. I’m excited to see what McDonald comes out with next and I can recommend this one to any grimdark fan out there.

It has been a case study in character development for me to read The Raven’s Mark series, by Ed McDonald. Here we are at Crowfall, the final book in the trilogy, and we finally have a protagonist I can get behind. I really wanted to love both of the first two books in this series, but a boring protagonist slowed me down. Our leading man, Ryhalt, was like a piece of coal sitting in the center of a beautiful crown in book one, dragging down the worldbuilding and plot noticeably. In book two, there were some signs that a beautiful gem might lay underneath if we just gave him a bath. In book three, Ryhalt finally feels like a shining diamond that improves, rather than detracts from, the beauty of Crowfall.

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of this grimdark epic, it roughly goes as follows. The Raven’s Mark tells the story of a land with two sets of gods: The Deep Kings and the Nameless. The Deep Kings want to consume everything around them and remake it in their image. The Nameless want to avoid death, so they consume everything around them in the name of murdering The Deep Kings – but aren’t as effective as they want to be. When faced with two sides of the same “die horribly” coin, the general populace of the world throws in with The Nameless as they stand a single step higher on a morality ladder that is descending straight into hell. Some of these people sign on as captains to The Nameless in order to better be able to fight. One of these individuals is Ryhalt, captain to The Nameless named Crowfoot (yes I see the irony). Our story follows Ryhalt as he tries to stop the world from ending repeatedly. Oh, and the series heavily features a magical wasteland called “The Misery” that is like a magical Chernobyl that is both sentient and malicious.

McDonald has a real talent for worldbuilding and plot. His universe is a horrible place to live, with most people living hard lives that often result in brutal deaths. However, there is a clear undercurrent of hope and struggle that runs through all three books that keep you coming back. His gods and villains are capital C ‘Cool’ and their machinations are weird, imaginative, horrifying, and engrossing to read about. As mentioned above, the real Achilles heel for me in the series has been Ryhalt. Despite being Crowfoot’s captain, Ryhalt always seemed out of his class when it came to the villains he struggled against. In the first book, it could definitely feel like the only element he was bringing to the table was ‘plot armor’ and it would pull me out of the story. This issue was partially alleviated in book two but is straight up destroyed in Crowfall.

Without giving too much away, Crowfall’s plot revolves around a bar-none-battle-royale for the world. The Deep Kings, the Nameless, and some independent agents have all spent the last of their power to compete for a magical McGuffin that will place one person at the top of the food chain. The action, subterfuge, and climaxes are edge-of-your-seat captivating, and Ryhalt finally feels like he is bringing the appropriate amount of thunder. I really enjoyed this book. It has all of the strengths of the previous two: epic plot, creative magic, love-to-hate villains, and a world dripping in atmosphere and lore that I didn’t feel ready to leave. But, it has also turned its principal weakness into another ace in the hole: Ryhalt is finally awesome.

Recommending grimdark series can be hard, as they are not to everyone’s taste. However, after reading Crowfall I can honestly say that I think almost all fantasy readers should enjoy The Raven’s Mark if they follow it through all the way. It has flaws, but the end result is a diamond that shines brightly in the fantasy landscape and Crowfall is one of the best series conclusions I have read in a while. Ed McDonald should be lauded for what he has created and I look forward to seeing where his creative imagination takes us next.

Rating: Crowfall – 9.5/10

Crowfall is the conclusion to Ed McDonald’s “Raven’s Mark” series. I’ve been a big fan of the series since the get-go. There’s something about the hard-bitten cynicism of (most of) the characters, the haut-feudal world run by gangs of squabbling, unknowable gods, and the twisted, broken border between them which makes for a compelling read. That compulsion is, of course, helped along by the well observed and convincing characterisation.

At the centre of the series stands Galharrow, a captain of the Blackwing, a special-circumstances group thrown together by one of the horrifying Nameless, the sorcerous Powers that rule his part of the world. The Blackwing do all sorts of dirty jobs for their master, usually involving fighting against the encroachments of the Deep Kings, an entirely different, even more awful group of sorcerous horrors. Galharrow has always been hard-bitten and lethal, a person struggling under a cloud of internalised guilt and rage, whilst having enough self-awareness of his own flaws to keep moving forward. This Galharrow, however, is something new. Exposed to the influence of The Misery, the liminal land twisted by magical weaponry, Galharrow is becoming less and less human, seeming to be deliberately walking down the path ending in monstrosity and madness.

At the same time, his voice remains familiar on the page – acerbic, flensingly unforgiving, pragmatic, occasionally brutal. There’s a construction here of a person struggling to do what they believe is right, fighting against themselves as much as anyone else.

In this struggle – and the others throughout the text, Galharrow is aided by a wonderfully drawn cast. There’s the Nameless, whose otherworldly visits tend to end in an explosive demise. There’s those of Galharrow’s friends who remain – most of them in some way broken or twisted by the events of the past. And then there’s the enemies. Oh my, so many enemies. If you’re coming to Crowfall, you probably already know about the Deep Kings, the ancient monstrosities that want to take the already unpleasant world our cast lives in and make it worse – replacing individuality with a commonality of thought and purpose in every individual, that purpose being service and worship of those Kings. They’re unknowable and malevolent, and the fusion of the scale of their thoughts and designs with a very personal pettiness is done with pitch perfect precision.

They’re joined by a whole host of new awfulness, though, as horrors crawl out of the Misery which will make your skin crawl. The Misery itself is as artfully drawn as ever – a wasteland of constantly shifting norms, populated with creatures which tend to be, tactfully, less than benign. The ever-changing ground of the Misery is shaped by some truly psychedelic prose, and the mental and physical pressure it exerts on those within it is often felt by the reader as well. The Misery is a weird, terrible place, where weird, horrible things happen. But for all that, it feels like a living place, not just words on a page. Admittedly, it’s not somewhere you’d want to go on holiday (or ever, really), but it’s vividly described, even if the pictures it will paint in your mind are ones you’d rather not have seen in the first place.

And outside the Misery, the world continues. The soaring heights of the city of Valengrad still stand tall. At the same time, strange rains are falling, and beneath them the streets feel narrower, darker, more lethal than they did before. And it wasn’t exactly a high bar to start with. But in the slow-dripping desperation of Valengrad is wrapped the sensation of implacability, the sense of endings. As the Deep Kings once more look to the Misery, searching for ways to break through and end their Nameless rivals, with everyone else caught in the middle, it’s difficult to see the existing system as sustainable, even as those within it struggle to maintain it, struggle to declare its normality, struggle to survive. There’s a wonderful feeling of tension wired through the pages, each one carrying the feel of an indrawn breath as the ice beneath your feet begins to crack. Each page you’re listening for the creak a little more, and getting a little closer to the end. But there’s no safety there, no. This is a story which builds and builds and builds on the foundations laid by its predecessors, but isn’t afraid to tear down what it’s built, one brick at a time, to bring about an ending which feels right, feels true, and packs a serious emotional punch.

I won’t get into the plot, for fear of spoilers, but I will say this: this is the ending to a series filled with blood, grime and horror. It’s the end of a series of people facing up to darkness, in others and in themselves. It’s the end of a series where the heroes are people doing their jobs, and willing to do terrible things. It’s the end of a series which was never afraid to show emotional depth, or how easy it is to hide those emotions away. It’s the end of a series which has, in the past, blown up entire regions, laced in horror and washed down in gore. This is the climax of a series which has given us some genuinely impressive endings.

It. Does. Not. Disappoint.

Crowfall is, in sum, a wonderful end to a sequence that can be regarded as modern classics. If you’re wondering if it’s worth reading, then the answer is simple: Yes.

Ravencry ends with Saravor thwarted, Nenn slain, and Ryhalt staring out over the Misery. Crowfall opens with Galharrow hunting drudge. The Deep Kings (shockingly) didn’t abandon their plans to overthrow the Range following Saravor’s defeat atop the Valengrad spire. They had since evolved a new breed of servants; drudge that are blue in pallor and cast, noseless, featureless, they retain very little of their former humanity. He has recently come across quite a few of their number and left their bodies broken in the wasteland.

Since the events of Ravencry, Galharrow has made a home for himself in the Misery, leaving his old life behind. In return, the Misery has grown within him, changed him. In many ways, he is no longer the man he once was. And, alike the drudge, he seems to retain little of his former humanity. But a trip back to the Range proves that he still is—while reminding Ryhalt of the life he left behind him.

For not only the Deep Kings have been restless since the Crowfall—a “sorcerous cataclysm” that had occurred three years prior, very reminiscent of the strike that once created the Misery itself—the Nameless are moving as well. And events have somehow become even more dire.

But something more moves in the dark. Something the likes of which Galharrow has never seen, and it will take all his strength and cunning to deal with this new threat, while not sacrificing the last shred of his humanity in the process.

It’s humanity’s last stand—an epic conclusion to an epic series.

Crowfall really is epic, and brilliant.

What starts with a changed Galharrow kicking about the wasteland, soon returns to the Range itself, in a scenic tour around humanity’s last bastion of the continent. Old friends, old enemies join the fray, which is peppered with gods and mortals both, each with their own agenda. Crowfall incorporates much of the past two adventures with fresh content: places, people, monsters, things. It’s a pleasant mix of past and present, without leaning too heavily on either.

Galharrow’s personal story is a bit of a quagmire of emotion. It’s a bit of a convoluted mess—quite like real life, in fact. I guess that’s why McDonald didn’t like the term ‘Grimdark’ applied to his work and instead coined the term ‘Grimheart’ for it. Much of the book—inhuman monsters and immensely powerful magic and gods aside—explores a very real world, with very real emotion. Ryhalt’s passage through the story is but one of many, something the book does rather well at relating. That McDonald managed to pull this off is impressive, especially when writing with a 1st person POV. And yet, at times Galharrow’s story sometimes interferes with the mood of the overarching plot. Its feeling. It’s not that his journey is at odds with the plot, it’s just that occasionally one might distract from the other. I found it a bit of a stutter at the time, but no more. Crowfall races along quite nicely once it gets going, with only this slight impediment to the pace.

There’s a real sense of desperation in the story, one that’s only built upon by the past desperations of the previous two books. I really enjoyed the book, the story it told, the lasting mood that it imparts. Galharrow takes some surprising steps—some that may seem contradictory, ablative, yet rarely out of character—to achieve his ends. It all feels very human, raw and emotional, to an extent I didn’t expect. Blackwing was a great book, Ravencry almost as good—but Crowfall was an experience for me, a journey I won’t soon forget. Now, everyone will have their own reaction to the story, but really, if you enjoyed the first two, you’ll enjoy the third.

Crowfall is much more than the end of a series, it’s the creation of something new. McDonald has expressed a desire to return to the world—and while Galharrow’s own story seems pretty much wrapped up by the end of the book—the sheer amount of half-rendered lore and untold stories of war, toil, and survival certainly give him a multitude of places, and times, to begin anew.

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2019/06/25/book-review-crowfall-by-ed-mcdonald/

The one thing that draws me to this series is the way the author has built this amazingly rustic fantasy world. It almost feels like an old western at times, but the fantasy elements that weave through the story give you a sense of the magic that holds the story together.

Our main character is back, aging, but has spent so much time in the Misery that his body has changed. He can heal faster than a normal person. The problem is, everyone wants him dead. The good and the bad. To make things worse, there is a war coming and Galharrow has an important part to play. Will he survive, or will he be struck down by anyone of the deadly things that pursue him?

The below 5-star review was posted to Every Day Should Be Tuesday on 6/18/19. The review will be posted to Amazon and Goodreads on the US publication day.

Ed McDonald does something remarkable with Crowfall. Crowfall is the third (and presumably final) book in his stellar Raven’s Mark series. Third books—especially third books that close a series—follow a certain pattern. The first book sets up the world; the second book in particular sets up the story for the third book. That is certainly true here. But McDonald places a major event—the titular Crowfall—in the six year gap between the events of Ravencry and Crowfall. Doing so helps him sneak a staggering amount of worldbuilding into a third book. It is both novel and enormously successful. Book 3 includes everything that makes the first two books great, enhances book 2 with some additional explanation of what happened there, and adds new, wonderful stuff all its own. The Raven’s Mark series is absolutely now one of my favorite series.

If you haven’t read book 1, Blackwing, do so as soon as possible. Well, read my review first, but then read it asap. For those of you who have read books 1 and 2, read on for my lightly spoilery review of book 3.

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Six years have passed since the events of Ravencry. It has not been an uneventful six years. During that six years came the Crowfall, when Crowfoot tore the sky apart afresh in another attempt to stymie the Deep Kings.

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It had begun as a day like any other, and then—madness. For a day and a night, nothing made sense. Colours flickered and blended together. Cold water boiled away into nothing, hot water froze into ice. Birds fell from the sky, trees burst into bloom before withering to dry, empty husks. There was no reason behind it. The effects were inconsistent even between one footstep and another.
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When it was all over, things did not go back to normal. Geese are now fanged and carnivorous. Apples and pumpkins are no longer edible, and corn grows black on the stalk. Worst of all, every eleven days, without fail, the black rains come. Get caught out in the rain and it will burn your skin. And worse. The rain drives men mad.

For six years Galharrow has soaked up the poison and magic of the Misery, becoming the Misery’s Son, hunted by his enemies, feared by his allies. He is “stronger and faster than a man of half [his] years” and able to survive months where no natural thing should survive more than days. It has turned his nails black and his skin copper and made his eyes glow.

Acradius now styles himself the Deep Emperor and wields a portion of the might of The Sleeper. The other Deep Kings subjugated, he is coming for the weakened Nameless.

Yeah, it has been an eventful six years.

That is a lot of exposition, and a lot of previously-happened pulled into a present narrative. In the hands of a less skilled storyteller it could have really backfired. But McDonald shows great craft in weaving it in, giving it to us in drips and drabs, and it really, really works.

On the Range, things are never truly quiet. There are only lulls before the next storm. We have seen two of those “storms.” The Crowfall was another. You can bet a fourth is coming.

One catalyst is Acradius. Another is a triple eclipse—something that occurs only once every nine hundred and eighty-two years. In a world where the moons power magic that is a very big deal. And, of course, Crowfoot has a plan. It involves the heart of an ice fiend, “a primeval, ancient thing of immeasurable power, a beast from a forgotten world.” A heart that is both a thing of great power itself and capable of absorbing a truly immense amount of magic.

But the Nameless are desperate, and desperate gods do even more desperate things than desperate men. The Lady of the Waves and Shallowgrave were absent in the first two books but play an active role here.

I described the first two books at grimdark with hope, and that description holds for book 3. It is a crapsack world. The Nameless are not the friendliest of allies or most benevolent of patrons. Galharrow is a hard man made only harder by the Misery. His past (which we learn more about) is dark. But Galharrow always a way to fight for what is right, and McDonald always gives us some glimmer of hope in the midst of all of the misery.

Whatever else, McDonald can always write a few good lines:
“In all the blades you’ve swung and bones you’ve cracked, all the arrows and the cannon fire and the disease and the gangrene, all the Spinners and Engines and Deep Kings, you ever know death to take those that deserve it first?”

“I ducked down, reached back, and snagged the whisky bottle. Still had a pistol left, and so long as you have whisky and a gun, how bad can your luck be?”

“The commanders wouldn’t take kindly to a massacre taking place so near their fortresses, or to their being soldiers amongst the dead. Not good soldiers, but soldiers nonetheless, and pointing out that it was only a small massacre was a poor defence. Degrees of scale don’t seem to matter much where a massacre is concerned.”

5 of 5 Stars.

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

"Another Heart of the Void? The sky is shattered, the rain sends men mad. Even the geese are trying to eat us. What the fuck do we have to gain by unleashing that kind of power again?"

I received an advanced reading copy of Crowfall in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Ed McDonald and Ace Books for the opportunity. May contain spoilers for Ravencry.

Crowfall is an engaging and thrilling final chapter to an excellent dark fantasy trilogy. I have seen the Raven's Mark series referred to as Grimheart. I thought that tag was a joke initially but the more I have thought about it the more fitting the label actually seems. However chaotic, gruesome, or terrible things may seem in this world there are always underlining currents of hope and love.

This narrative is set six years after the conclusion of Ravencry when Shavada was blasted from the grandspire's roof and the city was saved. We see a very different Ryhalt Galharrow. Since that event, the Blackwing Captain has been residing in isolation in the Misery. Eating the monstrosities that lurk within the land, conversing with the ghosts that haunt it, and every night returning to the Always House, a comfortable country cottage, seemingly unaffected by the magic of the Misery except that it resets once a day. The reason for Galharrow's need to be alone and in the Misery of all places is unclear but the Misery has changed him and become a part of him. He's become an expert navigator and converses with the Misery frequently. He is even referred to as the 'son of the Misery.' Although he's been living as a hermit it seems everybody wants Galharrow eradicated, from the Nameless to the men of the Citadel. If that wasn't bad enough, the Deep Kings now have an Emperor and are looking to march on the living with their Drudge army. Galharrow knows he has an important part to play in the upcoming war.

I've always enjoyed following Galharrow's first-person perspective. He's such a likable character throughout the series although he really shouldn't be. In Ravencry he was traipsing around the fringes of madness however for parts of Crowfall he is as good as insane. It's written and presented in expert fashion and as a reader, I tried to analyse reality and exactly what was going on in Galharrow's mind.

The characters that have been crafted by McDonald are brilliant and jump off the page here. Series mainstays such as the aging navigator Tnota and no-nosed violence adoring Major Nenn (even though she's dead) are as important as ever in Crowfall. Joining these and other players such as Dantry, Maldon, and Valiya are new and influential characters such as sharp-eyed shooter North and marble guardian, First.

I'm not sure what the technical phrasing is but the way McDonald wrote led me to create amazing visuals of all the places frequented and portraits of all the characters in my mind. I was so engaged that I almost felt that I was there alongside Galharrow throughout his adventures and struggles. I was fully invested in him and the narrative as a whole.

I won't divulge too much information about what takes place in Crowfall other than that there are so many standout moments and stunning set-pieces. As the conclusion to one of my favourite recent fantasy series, I was not disappointed by any aspect. In a few years time when fans of dark fantasy think of standout characters in the genre, Galharrow is a name that will be uttered alongside Jorg, Geralt, and Locke Lamora. The finale was epic, lasted for about twenty percent of the novel and often left me breathless with the battles, showdowns, twists, awesome reveals, and betrayals. Essentially it had everything I required on my epic fantasy bingo card. Blackwing remains one of my favourite ever books. The following two books in the series never quite reached the lofty heights but are still pretty damn awesome. This is a series that needs to be read by all dark fantasy and grimdark fans.

Everything is coming to a head in this final volume of The Raven's Mark series. That said, I'll try my level best not to spoil anything from the first two books for those of you who haven't read them.

But, I mean for those of you who haven't read them... go... go do that thing. :D

Things between the godlike Nameless and their nemeses, the also-rather-godlike Deep Kings are coming right to a head, and where 90 years earlier, Crowfoot detonated a weapon that created the pestilent land of the Misery, he plans to do it again, and Ryhalt Galharrow, Blackwing captain, Misery resident, seer of ghosts, and generally not bad dude... is set to lead an army through the Misery to its core to hopefully end this thing once and for all.

This was a brilliant conclusion to the series. Very fast-paced and full of twists and turns. It's certainly a dark story, in a world that is often quite grim, but it's not totally devoid of light. Galharrow, for all of his faults, is actually not a bad guy, and he does what he can to help his friends. He does what is in their best interests from his point of view at any rate, which isn't always what they want, but sometimes what they need. Or what he needs.

This story is told from the POV of Galharrow, as the last two were, and it's interesting to see this world from his point of view, especially considering how much he has changed over the course of this series, which has spanned more than an in-world decade overall. Galharrow is, just by the circumstances of his life, much, much different than he was in the first novel, but he hasn't lost that sort of snarky charm that has made him so easy for me to cheer for throughout.

This volume, just like its two predecessors, was full of really great quotes. I have many, many highlights of just... well, deep thoughts with Ryhalt Galharrow, I guess. Thoughts on love, and loss, memory and guilt, time and aging.

"Time will numb you to anything. There is nothing that a determined human being cannot come to cope with in time. It doesn't mean that the pain of the loss is gone, or that it's embers cease to burn, deep in your core. It just changes. It changes from the incapacitating agony of a gut punch to the solid, deep aching of a broken bone. It becomes familiar. You carry it with you, accepted, never to leave."

This was a fantastically written and well plotted out conclusion to The Raven's Mark series. I had a fairly good idea by about the 3/4 mark of the book what was actually going to go down to finish up the story, but I wasn't quite sure how it was going to come about, and so the book had me on the metaphorical edge of my seat for a lot of the end. It was a little predictable in that, and there was definitely a dash of deus ex machina, if I'm being honest, but.... I find that I didn't really mind so much. It was entertaining to me, and that's what counts to me. :)

So, all told, I really liked this final installment. It wrapped up Galharrow's story quite well while leaving the world open for further exploration. Here's hoping that it gets explored! I definitely hope to read more from Ed McDonald in the future. 4.5/5 stars!~

**A full review for this book will be added and cross-posted closer to the release date at the end of July/beginning of August.**

The Raven's Mark series by Ed McDonald has been an intense, gripping, and wholly unique story that continues to hit the mark with the third installment, Crowfall. The setting continues to be one of the most compelling aspects of this book, and the characters also continue to bring everything to life. Crowfall is a fantastic addition and I can easily say that fans of the trilogy will be fully satisfied!

Crowfall delivers.

McDonald manages to work a substantial amount of worldbuilding into his third book so that a number of the history questions I had were answered. Not all of them. This world feels ancient, and she hides her secrets well. I hope to learn more about her someday.

McDonald's writing (in Ryhalt's voice) continues strong throughout, and the philosophical journey the reader takes with Ryhalt over the series is impressive. From cranky man with a deathwish to cranky man with a...lifewish? That's a thing, right? There is more than enough to convey the story without ever feeling bogged down while painting a grim portrait girded with rays of hope. It's a large reason I'll continue coming back to these books in the future. Even when everything seems lost, grim and dark, you believe in Ryhalt. You want him to succeed. He want him to earn his ending.

Spoiler: He does.

Crowfall is a stunning conclusion to the Raven's Mark trilogy, and for my money the best of the three. McDonald never lets misery leech all of the hope from his audience, and the result is a story that is visceral while also philosophical, unique in setting, and bold in presentation. McDonald never lets his reader sink deeper than his protagonist, and he is always ready to offer a hand through the supporting cast.

When facing duress for long periods of time, sanity can be fleeting. It’s no stretch of the imagination to see how prisoners, hostages, or fugitives can be driven toward poor decision-making when lives are at stake. If the stakes are raised to apocalyptic levels, then any form of predictive behavior becomes unreliable. Enter: Ryhalt Galharrow. Savior of Valengrad. Captain on the Blackwings. Desolate madman. Ed McDonald’s previous novel Ravencry concluded with Ryhalt leaving Valengrad to go live in the Misery for reasons unknown. Crowfall picks up six years later. Six long years living in madness, constantly poisoning your body and mind. But what is it all for? And is it worth it in the end?

Galharrow is still reeling from losing his love Ezabeth to the phos light. He has shunned himself from civilization, only visiting the Range to re-up his meager supplies. He subsists on consuming the raw flesh of Misery creatures, which also gives him the ability to navigate without needing the moons to point his way. Ryhalt begins to become one with the Misery, tapping into its vast, horrific powers but losing his sanity each day. Ghosts of his past visit him daily, and the line between reality and madness starts to blur into non-existence.

Why has Ryhalt chosen this path? This is one of the great mysteries of the story, and we begin to piece together parts of his ultimate plan as some of his co-conspirators come under threat. This mystery works both for and against the story. Not knowing why Ryhalt is doing what he’s doing is enticing, but it also becomes frustrating at times because we don’t understand his motivations for most of his decisions. I enjoyed how McDonald kept forcing the reader to question Ryhalt’s actions, as he is clearly being driven insane. Are there enough shreds of Ryhalt’s morality left to achieve his goals, or will he lose himself entirely to the Misery?

New characters and new locations help separate Crowfall from its predecessors, and McDonald takes full advantage of his new cast and environments. Themes of treachery, regret, and sacrifice are leaned on heavily, and it culminates into an emotional final act.

However.

The end of the story did not sit well with me. Some of the decisions made by the main cast seemed incredibly shortsighted and out of character. Some big revelations left me scratching my head, and there was an explicit Deus Ex Machina that attempted to wrap up the story but didn’t quite land with me. It was difficult not to let the ending affect how I felt about the rest of the book, which was largely entertaining, fast-paced, and original. But I’m still hung up on why certain plans were made, as it felt like a wild deviation from everything up to this point.

Ryhalt is a stubborn fool, but he tries to do the right thing… usually. Getting a first-person perspective of him slowly descending into madness is an appealing hook that I quite enjoyed. Although I didn’t agree with some of the content decisions made at the end of the story, Ryhalt’s journey is still well worth taking. McDonald’s world of elder gods, torn reality, and light magic is dark fantasy at its finest. I hope to return to the Misery again someday, and I’ll be sure to pack my own lunch.

7.5 / 10