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A review by aksmith92
Master of Crows by Grace Draven
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I had high hopes, but this did not meet my expectations. It's a beautiful cover, though!
The Setup: Silhara is a mage swarmed with magic but exiled from Conclave, a group of those who are mages or possess "The Gift." He's known as the Master of Crows, hence this title, yet I'm still quite confused about how crows have to do with anything. Many people fear him; if he goes out and about, someone will inevitably get punched in the face. He's a mean, aloof, MASCULINE man who wants to stay in his home in Neith and grow his dang oranges! However, underneath the hard exterior, Silhara also has a super secret: he's being possessed by the god Corruption, who wants to take over Silhara and make him a living, breathing god.
We also have Martise, a VERY plain and dull woman (I say that because the author says that one million times) who, unfortunately, was sold to slavery at a young age by her mother. She's living in Asher and is enslaved to Cumbria, one of Conclave's officials. Cumbria and the Conclave are counting on her to be a spy and to go to Neith, where Silhara lives, to gather up any information she can on him so that the Conclave can determine if he is a threat to the group. If she succeeds, she will be free from her enslavement. In addition, Silhara wants someone from Conclave there to help him defeat Corruption, even though no one knows he's lingering in Silhara's mind. Martise is the perfect person to do that since she's brilliant and can read many languages.
So, Silhara's and Martise's paths cross in Neith, where Silhara is undoubtedly cruel, and somehow Martise finds it cute— and the two work together on beating Corruption AND harvesting oranges (adorable!). We see a relationship built between the two but have hard choices to make when push comes to shove, and specific actions must be completed to save the world from Corruption.
What I liked: The book's concept and world-building intrigued me, especially considering it was published in 2009. The Conclave and the god Corruption were fascinating elements. However, while the initial plot building was intriguing, the overall delivery fell short, leaving me with more questions than answers.
I enjoyed Gurn, Silhara's non-speaking servant, who obviously cared about the people around him. He was a gem who deserved much more "screen" time.
Lastly, while I note some of my grievances in the section below, overall, the prose was pretty well done. Draven's use of words and sentence structure made sense, but it fell short when it came to world-building and plot development.
What I Didn't Like: Most of this - ugh! As mentioned above, I found the world-building to fall flat. The magical system had minimal depth; terms were thrown out left and right with little explanation. Draven was trying to build as she went along, which can be acceptable in some books, but I don't think it worked here.
Most of the cast, outside the main characters and Gurn, consisted of caricatures or cartoonish characters with minimal development and layers. Overall, I also didn't enjoy Martise or Silhara at all. Martise seemed a little lost in everything she did, and Silhara was rude. I was utterly uninterested in their relationship and their individual characters. I will give the author some grace (ha!) here and say that this was written in 2009—it's one of the OGs of this dark male character who was a jerk and snippy. However, it didn't work. Martise also had one job there - getting information from Silhara to bring to Conclave so she could be free. The girl doesn't do that; instead, she becomes almost another servant in Silhara's house and sings poorly. Overall, I was simply disappointed.
The sub-plots also did not connect. Initially, there was some information about crows, but they had nothing to do with the plot. Then, there were the oranges that I kept referencing. Silhara's pride and joy was his orange grove - a place he went every day to harvest and care for the oranges. He refused to use magic on the oranges, so everything was done by hand. The oranges were his complete personality. In theory, this was refreshing, but it barely connected with anything in the plot. Draven was trying to use it as a personality trait for Silhara, and while that's fine in theory, it was poorly executed.
Lastly, the pacing was just off. This was a relatively short fantasy book, but it felt long. I'm still determining if it was the will-they-won't-they romance or if I was just lost in the world-building sauce (or lack of it). Overall, it didn't work for me.
Since this is a spoiler, I will put it last and with the spoiler indicator:I HATE the trope when the female main character loses her power to save the male main character or the world or whatever. It was definitely the time—people ate it up in 2009—but I am over it and hate to see it in my literature. Pass!
The Setup: Silhara is a mage swarmed with magic but exiled from Conclave, a group of those who are mages or possess "The Gift." He's known as the Master of Crows, hence this title, yet I'm still quite confused about how crows have to do with anything. Many people fear him; if he goes out and about, someone will inevitably get punched in the face. He's a mean, aloof, MASCULINE man who wants to stay in his home in Neith and grow his dang oranges! However, underneath the hard exterior, Silhara also has a super secret: he's being possessed by the god Corruption, who wants to take over Silhara and make him a living, breathing god.
We also have Martise, a VERY plain and dull woman (I say that because the author says that one million times) who, unfortunately, was sold to slavery at a young age by her mother. She's living in Asher and is enslaved to Cumbria, one of Conclave's officials. Cumbria and the Conclave are counting on her to be a spy and to go to Neith, where Silhara lives, to gather up any information she can on him so that the Conclave can determine if he is a threat to the group. If she succeeds, she will be free from her enslavement. In addition, Silhara wants someone from Conclave there to help him defeat Corruption, even though no one knows he's lingering in Silhara's mind. Martise is the perfect person to do that since she's brilliant and can read many languages.
So, Silhara's and Martise's paths cross in Neith, where Silhara is undoubtedly cruel, and somehow Martise finds it cute— and the two work together on beating Corruption AND harvesting oranges (adorable!). We see a relationship built between the two but have hard choices to make when push comes to shove, and specific actions must be completed to save the world from Corruption.
What I liked: The book's concept and world-building intrigued me, especially considering it was published in 2009. The Conclave and the god Corruption were fascinating elements. However, while the initial plot building was intriguing, the overall delivery fell short, leaving me with more questions than answers.
I enjoyed Gurn, Silhara's non-speaking servant, who obviously cared about the people around him. He was a gem who deserved much more "screen" time.
Lastly, while I note some of my grievances in the section below, overall, the prose was pretty well done. Draven's use of words and sentence structure made sense, but it fell short when it came to world-building and plot development.
What I Didn't Like: Most of this - ugh! As mentioned above, I found the world-building to fall flat. The magical system had minimal depth; terms were thrown out left and right with little explanation. Draven was trying to build as she went along, which can be acceptable in some books, but I don't think it worked here.
Most of the cast, outside the main characters and Gurn, consisted of caricatures or cartoonish characters with minimal development and layers. Overall, I also didn't enjoy Martise or Silhara at all. Martise seemed a little lost in everything she did, and Silhara was rude. I was utterly uninterested in their relationship and their individual characters. I will give the author some grace (ha!) here and say that this was written in 2009—it's one of the OGs of this dark male character who was a jerk and snippy. However, it didn't work. Martise also had one job there - getting information from Silhara to bring to Conclave so she could be free. The girl doesn't do that; instead, she becomes almost another servant in Silhara's house and sings poorly. Overall, I was simply disappointed.
The sub-plots also did not connect. Initially, there was some information about crows, but they had nothing to do with the plot. Then, there were the oranges that I kept referencing. Silhara's pride and joy was his orange grove - a place he went every day to harvest and care for the oranges. He refused to use magic on the oranges, so everything was done by hand. The oranges were his complete personality. In theory, this was refreshing, but it barely connected with anything in the plot. Draven was trying to use it as a personality trait for Silhara, and while that's fine in theory, it was poorly executed.
Lastly, the pacing was just off. This was a relatively short fantasy book, but it felt long. I'm still determining if it was the will-they-won't-they romance or if I was just lost in the world-building sauce (or lack of it). Overall, it didn't work for me.
Since this is a spoiler, I will put it last and with the spoiler indicator:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment
They don't call it alcohol, it's like Dragon Fire or something but it's the same thing and they have it a lot.
Suicide attempt is basically trying to save the world type suicide.