The Raven Tower

By: Ann Leckie

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh

Listen. A god is speaking.

My voice echoes through the stone of your master's castle. This castle where he finds his uncle on his father's throne. You want to help him. You cannot.

You are the only one who can hear me.

You will change the world.

A triumph of the imagination, The Raven Tower is the first fantasy novel by Ann Leckie, New York Times best-selling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.

©2019 Ann Leckie (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK

Interesting and different, but with flaws.

The Raven Tower starts off very strongly, with the first six hours being fun and interesting to follow as we learn more of the world and its inhabitants (god and mortal alike). The second half begins to falter however, feeling a bit messy and without any real direction. The ending is a bit lackluster with no payoff due to little emotional investment. I suspect it was meant as a twist, perhaps, but I just feel indifferent.

The Good Bits:
- I liked the way it was written (one character being addressed by the other)
- The writing is neat, can't quite put my finger on it. Keeps things interesting and fresh... to begin with, at least!
- The setting and world is fascinating!
- The narrator's african voiced are really nice, and I wish there was more who got that treatment.

The Questionable Bits:
- The narrator is hit or miss for me, with a 20 / 80 rate. The Stone God has a good voice, as does... whatever her name was with the african voice. Those were fitting. I find the protagonists voice grating (If I have to hear another anguished "MY LORD!" again I'll go nuts), and I found her redneck accent out of place, while the scandinavian accent was really really annoying. She fails to convey the masculine characters with conviction, but then again I didn't expect her to suddenly go deep and growly so it gets a pass.
- The Stone God's journey is interesting to follow. Surprisingly, I cared very little for the plot around the throne and all the spectacle there. The characters felt thin, not very fleshed out, and Mauat (?) was just overall fairly unlikeable, while Eiolo (?) was just... there, I guess? She got a surprising amount of respect for being seen as a servant/page, and was seldom challenged in any meaningful way.
- The story kind of... goes nowhere for a while. Or I should say, it begs bogged down. Or maybe it's quick? It's hard to tell- events do happen, but at that point I don't really care about the outcomes of the characters very much so it just passes in a blur. The ending comes, and it's kind of abrupt, and it's a bit ominous/dark, but I don't really feel much from it. Just goes "Uh-huh?" and then it ends abruptly.

Final thoughts:

I'd still recommend this book because I enjoy Leckies writing ,and it's a solid, relatively easy read. It had some fun ideas and concepts (such as Gods having to be careful about what they say, lest they make it TRUE, or die trying). The performance, however, leaves a lot to be desired and I think the tone of the work would work a lot better if the reader themselves got to imagine the voices.

Solid 3/5, nothing amazing but it ain't half bad actually. Just wish the characters were a bit... more, and I'd kick it up to a 4/5 for sure.