Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Raven Tower

I read this because it's based on Hamlet but I almost feel like it could have contained less Hamlet. The strongest aspects are the mysterious 2nd person POV and the flashbacks to the time of gods in the North. I feel like the original pitch was Hamlet and as it developed it could have been cut more instead of hitting beats for the sake of hitting them. I did really like Eolo and The Strength and Patience of the Hill. I feel like Eolo and Mawat and Eolo and Tikaz's relationships could have developed more. The Hamlet cast felt a little flat, relying on what we know about them instead of who they are in this story. The Gods and mythollogy was so interesting and I loved the world building. The ending was rushed. I kind of wanted to see what would happen after.

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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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quirkykayleetam's review

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

This is an extremely cool book for an extremely niche audience. Do you love Shakespeare, specifically Hamlet? Do you love creative forms of storytelling? Do you love fantasy books that involve epic world building? If you said yes to ALL those questions, then you will love this book. If not, stay away. Why? Because The Raven Tower is a retelling of Hamlet set in a fantasy world and told through both first and second person point of view SIMULTANEOUSLY in which "you" are a transgender version of Horatio being watched over by a god who is also a rock. I loved it! It got me out of a three week reading slump and falls into the category of books written by people whose favorite Shakespearean character is obviously also Horatio, but it is not for everyone.

This is a slow-build of a book as the storyteller reveals the world building and their place in it gradually until everything slots into place at the very last second. It envisions Ophelia as an incredibly implacable badass who both Hamlet and Horatio are at least a little bit in love with and in awe of while turning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into interchangeable cronies devoid of any and all of the humor from the original play. Unlike The King of Infinite Space, the novel does not reword or rework any of Hamlet's original soliloquies or speeches, instead commenting on the scope of the play and how personal the action is to its characters. While it may not have added anything profoundly new to conversations about Hamlet (which it is hard to do these days), I nevertheless found it engaging and engrossing. Both the novel's last line and its meditation on the connection between living and caring will stick with me for a very long time.

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laurareads87's review

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

Having previously read and loved Leckie's science fiction, I was happy to pick up her fantasy novel The Raven Tower and thoroughly enjoyed it. The Raven Tower contains so much of what I've really loved in Leckie's other work -- skillful and innovative multi-POV storytelling, compelling worldbuilding that feels unlike anything I've ever read before, and power politics on a grand scale. The religious/political intrigue really worked for me. I feel like Leckie's done something quite interesting here with time scale -- with the story spanning a few different time periods, I feel like Leckie's really effectively incorporated the divergences in experiences of time between the human character and the god characters (who vary in lifespan but who are far far more long-lived than humans). I will note that much of this book is told in second person, which isn't my favourite (and I know some readers really don't enjoy) but in this book, for me, it worked: it is a choice that has a clear reason behind it in the context of the book itself which makes complete sense to me. Definitely recommend.

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lipstickitotheman's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The final quarter of the book was incredible. Dare I say brilliant writing? The setup was done perfectly in the first 3/4 for it, but I found that space often quite boring. The world setup is cool as hell, and I really loved that part. Eolo is cool, I liked him. I confess to cheering a little when Myriad returned in the last pages, and when TSAPOTH our POV character said their last line--tear it down!

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