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The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

14 reviews

adelita18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Each year, my husband and I each pick a book we've read and enjoyed and swap with each other. I love this arrangement because we both have very different tastes in books and it helps us both grow outside our literary comfort zones and sparks some wonderful discussions. "The Raven Tower" was a book my husband gave me to read for 2024. I was shocked at how much I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed Ann Leckie's narrative style and writing. This book is profound.

I love the two main characters - Eolo and Strength and Patience of the Hills. Both are extremely introspective, thoughtful, reflective, non-reactionary characters. They observe. They wait. They act prudently. They are the calm in the storms around them.
The narrative style was a bit hard for me to grasp at first and buy into but once the plot really began to move and Ms. Leckie began to flesh out the world she created, I found that I loved the narration by Strength and Patience.
Additionally, I loved the motifs and themes throughout the book - the power of words - especially the spoken word, the value of reflection versus reaction, the value of patience, the nature of being and being who you are.

"The Raven Tower" is exceedingly rich in detail and the layered language, I feel like this is a book I can return to often and still glean new information and insights. The audiobook narration by Adjoa Andoh was spectacular!

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hanz's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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lucystolethesky's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bookishlucy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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secondhandbookshelves's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A very slow burn. Things didn't really get moving until 80% of the way through - and at first flipping between the narrator and "you" was very disconcerting.
Once I got the hang of how it was written.... I still struggled. The entire book is backstory & build up to book two.
There are many gods in this land, typically they focus on a specific thing (weapons, food, weather, etc) but others are more broad (the Forest protects the town from sickness)
This story follows Strength & Patience of the Hill, who is a rock god & her story over time.

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mpbookreviews's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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sequelmage's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The narration of this book is so interesting. It’s told entirely from the perspective of a god as they either relay stories that they’ve heard or events that they have directly observed. Additionally, they are explaining these events to one of the characters in the book.

Very unique and quite interesting. A very enjoyable read

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rowancaskey's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I absolutely adore The Raven Tower. Like all good novels written in the second-person point of view, the disparity between the "you" and the "I", the disparity between "you think this" and "I believe you think this", is excellently utilized; in fact, it is not just a consequence of the pronouns to use, but a pointed feature of the narrative.

I don't imagine I have much insight into the specifics of why this book worked for me beyond that, outside of a single spoiler which I will mention below. I enjoy Shakespeare, dark fantasy, trans characters, and grim stories-- a dark fantasy retelling of Hamlet was likely always going to end up being near and dear to my heart.

It delights me that, without dwelling on Eolo's transness (not that you would have caught me complaining if we did) and without the grace of knowing his thoughts during key scenes, Eolo's relationship with gender is given an unexpected nuance from the very first scene: Mawat good-naturedly attempts to offer Eolo what amounts to magical instant gender-affirming surgery, which Eolo declines. I firmly believe that this moment, this first perception of Eolo, is what saves him when Patience brings down the tower in the final pages. If it's not obvious from my tone, I found this bookend extremely compelling and a wonderful take on the character.

On a much shorter note, I particularly enjoyed the fast ramp-up of drama at the end, and the plummeting realization that despite Patience seeming truly unconditionally positive towards Eolo, Eolo is much more afraid of Patience than we, the reader, could have intuited before the final act.

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szuum's review

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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