The Raven Scholar

Fantastic adult high fantasy with many twists and turns

Johanna am 12.06.2025
Bewertungsnummer: 2514264
Bewertet: Buch (Gebundene Ausgabe)

Dare I say this was... Magnificent? ‍⬛ What a wild ride this book was, in all the best ways! After struggling with the first few chapters, I started to really get into it when the main action starts, and haven't stopped thinking about it since. This is what epic adult fantasy should be like, characters with interesting backstories, simple wants and needs and quite some life experience to inform their choices and a detailed world-building which is consistent and interesting. In this case I found it very unique with its guardians and their roles, a kind of caste system but it's not mandatory and so much potential for future books! And the plot...! I'm usually someone who isn't easily surprised as I tend to foresee things, but in this case I might have had vague ideas of what was to come, but never to the full extent, so that all the twists and turns kept me on my toes. I think what I liked best about the book was how most, if not all characters, were multi-facetted. All of them had good and bad sides, compassion, love, anger, irrationality, flaws and talents. They made me feel things, so many things, and that's what I love in a good book! Neema was wonderful, and I liked that she is a poc and autistic-coded. Cain is so funny and at the same time so sweet when he wants to. And even the (conceived?) baddies had sides to them that gave them complexity, which was amazing. Nothing was ever only black and white, people had reasons for their motivations, founded in their experiences and backstories and histories. This was definitely one of my highlights so far this year, can't wait to read book two once it comes out! If you're considering reading it, do yourselves a favour and listen to the audiobook narrated by Daphne Kouma. She did an amazing job!!! So many different voices and layered emotions and accents. It was I'm so happy the book lived up to my expectations! Thanks to netgalley and hodder & stoughton for the alc!