Blood of Ravens by Jen McIntosh

The blurb:

It’s been a hundred years since the Shade King orchestrated the Fall of the Graced; a century since he tipped the balance in his favour and brought those magically gifted warriors to their knees. But now a new power is rising and even the faintest ember, buried amongst ash and ruin, can reignite the flames of war.

Renila remembers nothing of her life before the birth of her son, save the old stories she knows by heart. But when a stranger arrives at the castle she calls home, her past begins to resurface – and with it, her power.

Enslaved by his master’s dark magic, the Shade King’s general, Alexan, has been dispatched to hunt down the King’s daughter – and either return her to her father, or kill her. His history with the Princess makes him well suited to the task, but it may also be his undoing.

Keriath, bastard daughter of the Shade King, has been hunted her entire life and, since she was old enough to wield the power in her veins, has dedicated herself to destroying the monster who claims to have sired her. But the events of a single night may change her fate forever.

The twins, Lucan and Suriya, are plagued by nightmares – by visions of myth and monsters – for which their mysterious yet domineering mother blames Renila and her stories. But there is something she is not telling them, and they are determined to find out what.

The review:

Blood of Ravens was one of the books from my batch that I was really excited to dive into. Coincidentally, I had accepted a review request from the author shortly before this year’s SPFBO competition started. When the book was then allocated into the Inn’s batch, it seemed a perfect opportunity to kill two birds (or ravens, I guess) with one stone.

However, that wasn’t to say that this would be getting any preferential treatment. For all of my SPFBO books, I read to around the 20% mark before deciding on any early cuts, and then read the rest to their conclusions. Thankfully, the opening few chapters of Blood of Ravens worked for me. Despite feeling like some sections of prose tripped over themselves a little bit (or were maybe a touch melodramatic), I could feel myself becoming invested. While many of the plot-threads felt very familiar, it seemed like significant imagination had gone into building the world.

As has been something of a theme in my batch this year, this is another book that unabashedly delights in pulling popular tropes from the past of the fantasy genre. We have long-lost heirs, twins with a magical “connection”, and a race of dark, evil, (and sometimes sexy) vampire-like people. Plus a whole lot more. This is a fairly trope-heavy book, for sure, but that can often be a good thing, and I was excited to see how the story would unfold.

Blood of Ravens features several POV characters, most of which are introduced in the blurb. I can’t decide whether Renila’s chapters or the twins’ were my favourites, but I preferred them to the rest by quite a distance — mostly due to a bit of classical fantasy charm, which I’m always a sucker for. Both parties live in the grounds of a castle that is magically hidden from the outside world, and I found the gradual reveal of why they are hidden to be very interesting. Renila has a “lost memories” subplot going on, which… yeah, you could argue is overdone these days, but it’s an effective technique for introducing a reader to a character’s past, and it really gives those revelations some weight.

As for the other POVs though… this ties in to one of my biggest frustrations with the book. I didn’t ever feel like I fully grasped what it was trying to be or what it was trying to do. For a lot of the opening 15%, Blood of Ravens feels like the kind of adult fantasy that you wouldn’t mind reading to your kid. But then it gets a bit… grimdark. Only for a few of the characters, for the most part, though this changes nearer the end.

Those youthful, classical fantasy chapters are contrasted with scenes of torture and mentions of rape and child murder. While I’ve seen books in the past that purposefully opt for this kind of juxtaposition… for me, this didn’t work. It fell into the realm of tonal discordance — like I was reading two separate books, which made it hard to get a grasp on either. I eventually fell into some kind of rhythm with my preferred POV characters, but my investment in the rest was limited.

There are aspects here that the right readers will love. Alexan’s chapters, for example, feature a kind of (small r) vampire romance and conflict that has sold ridiculously well in the past. He knows he’s evil, he knows he’s bad for her, and he’s all-too-aware that he has to answer to his master in the end. But he still wants her. And, frustratingly, he thinks that she might want him back. I don’t have whatever gene would allow me to appreciate sex scenes, but there are some kinky scenes here with, um… intimate biting. If that’s your thing.

Unfortunately, I won’t be selecting Blood of Ravens as my semi-finalist for this year’s SPFBO. But if you like what you’ve heard here and don’t think my personal frustrations would bother you too much, I’d encourage you to check it out.

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