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celiapowell's review against another edition
3.0
I haven't read any of Kate Forsyth's long running Witches of Eileanan series, and this trilogy of books is set sometime after the events in that series. It doesn't really hinder a new reader, but there's clearly a lot of backstory and history for some of the characters which is brushed over (or awkwardly articulated in little mental monologues).
In The Tower of Ravens, a half-satyricorn (kind of... horned fairies?) girl, called Rhiannon, who escapes her herd, on a winged horse, and discovers the world of humans. And then she goes on a road trip with a whole lot of young witches on their way to an academy (including a guy called Lewen, who falls in love with her), and then they end up in a haunted castle for a fair bit of the rest of the book. And there's Rhiannon's dark past which she has to hide from everyone. There's almost too many plot elements going on here at times. And the Irish/Scots/whatever dialect that everyone speaks in drove me a little bit insane. There's nothing I hate more than fantasy books where everyone speaks in dialect. Ye ken? Argh.
However, it's pretty fast paced and enjoyable, although it ends very abruptly - if you're into the story, you'll want the second book at hand to start right away.
In The Tower of Ravens, a half-satyricorn (kind of... horned fairies?) girl, called Rhiannon, who escapes her herd, on a winged horse, and discovers the world of humans. And then she goes on a road trip with a whole lot of young witches on their way to an academy (including a guy called Lewen, who falls in love with her), and then they end up in a haunted castle for a fair bit of the rest of the book. And there's Rhiannon's dark past which she has to hide from everyone. There's almost too many plot elements going on here at times. And the Irish/Scots/whatever dialect that everyone speaks in drove me a little bit insane. There's nothing I hate more than fantasy books where everyone speaks in dialect. Ye ken? Argh.
However, it's pretty fast paced and enjoyable, although it ends very abruptly - if you're into the story, you'll want the second book at hand to start right away.
sassafras_kate's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
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? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Grief, and Alcohol
sam_skogrand's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book honestly took me by surprise. I expected a lighthearted, cliche fantasy. So to discover a dark, desperate situation that wonderfully blended ingenuity and survival that goes careening into the lives of kind, but pragmatic people was enthralling. The story of Rhiannon is both bitterly unfortunate and brutal, as well as full of promise and spirit. Lewen is strong, kind, and steady (the kind of soul Rhiannon needs to guide her into the concepts of trust, love, and truth). Their developing relationship is critical, youthfully driven, and beautiful.
The two of them, along with a few traveling companions, must journey across the harsh land toward the capital. The journey is anything but easy though. Danger and unnatural horrors await them and ultimately threaten their very lives. The book had me smiling at tender or humorous human moments, had my heart pounding at times of tension, and anticipating, yet dreading, the inevitable truth. This book was such a brilliant break from the fantasy I've become accustomed to and I truly look forward to reading the second book.
The two of them, along with a few traveling companions, must journey across the harsh land toward the capital. The journey is anything but easy though. Danger and unnatural horrors await them and ultimately threaten their very lives. The book had me smiling at tender or humorous human moments, had my heart pounding at times of tension, and anticipating, yet dreading, the inevitable truth. This book was such a brilliant break from the fantasy I've become accustomed to and I truly look forward to reading the second book.
mjwerts's review against another edition
4.0
After sitting on my shelf for many years, I finally got around to reading this book and am annoyed with myself for waiting so long, as the rest of the trilogy is no longer a quick bookstore or library trip away. While many of the plots twists and turns weren't entirely novel storytelling, I enjoyed the characters immensely and found myself so immersed in the language that I started thinking in "dinnas" and "kens" long before I finished. A very enjoyable read.
ssweetrose's review against another edition
4.0
So thoughts from the hazy island of two in the morning.
A beautiful raven winged horse with a raven haired rider trying to escape than break into a Raven encircled tower... So yes there are a lot of ravens, bird, and nature motifs as a whole in this wonderful Scottish inspired high fantasy. Interesting world building, magically atmospheric forest and dreadful castles, amusing fanged pixies, characters you' l love to hate, a fierce, strong female lead, and a monkey! what's not to love?
***4.25 starts***
A beautiful raven winged horse with a raven haired rider trying to escape than break into a Raven encircled tower... So yes there are a lot of ravens, bird, and nature motifs as a whole in this wonderful Scottish inspired high fantasy. Interesting world building, magically atmospheric forest and dreadful castles, amusing fanged pixies, characters you' l love to hate, a fierce, strong female lead, and a monkey! what's not to love?
***4.25 starts***
paradoxically's review against another edition
2.0
Ughhhhh.
Now I vaguely remember disliking this book when I first read it. Figures.
The Tower of Ravens does not get much better on the reread (the first one being yeeaarrrsss ago when it first came out). I found myself growing massively irritated by pretty much all of the characters and the plot, not to mention the romance that made me want to bash my head against something.
So let's tackle this in order. First the characters. You have Rhiannon, who has tamed a winged horse (through magic, essentially), and at first you're all "Yay! Pretty flying horse and girl bond!". But not... really. The horse was more of a tool and while there were a few scenes between the both that made me smile, mostly it was a horse and a girl who kept clutching at the horse and saying "Mine" a lot.
A lot of the characters were uniformly dull, and while there are glimpses of depth in some, in others it's just the same old. Edithe, for example, was just spiteful and a giant brat the entire time. Lewen was... well, I'll get back to Lewen. In fact, I just about despised most of the other characters. I their actions maddening and hated what I viewed as hypocrisy. It's like the author was trying to say how good some of these characters are, how noble and how what-the-hell-ever, but mostly I found sanctimonious idiots who I wanted Rhiannon to ride away from forever.
I do admit to somewhat liking Rhiannon though. She's a wild little thing who's quick to learn and fairly clever. I'm a sucker for this. She's also impossibly beautiful, which, sure, I can sort of get behind, except it's to the point where I feel almost embarrassed for her, that she's so obviously lovely and that's why the girls are jealous and that's why the boys are smitten. It's just so typical she-is-beautiful-and-here-are-her-troubles-because-of-it. Also, I have no idea why she is described milk-white when she has been running around in the outdoors for her entire life.
Moving on! The plot. As in, how to bore me while simultaneously annoy me. You have this cast of characters that are journeying to some destination, in the meantime they get waylaid by the walking dead and an area who's population of young boys have gone missing/dead. You'd think this would be massively exciting except it's mostly dreary and wet. I felt like a dreary raincloud just reading the book. Like a lot of high fantasy there's a lot of traveling from place to place. This is most of the book. But while other fantasies can pull it off and make me feel interested, this one just sort of floundered for me. I could feel how rich the world the author is weaving, but it was looking at a pretty painting and feeling nothing.
Also, it's always immensely frustrating when the main character knows something, but the other characters don't believer her/think she's lying/think she's mistaken, so on so forth. Never fails to make me want to shake these other characters and maybe pitch them off a very tall roof somewhere. Never mind that it makes (some, I guess) sense that they'd do so, but at least give the girl some chance to speak! You sanctimonious idiots.
You can probably tell how much the other characters frustrated me.
Now the romance. Oh, that romance. I wanted some long, drawn out affair where Rhiannon and Lewen got to know each other and admired each other and then got drawn in together, and you get that a little bit. Except I'm fully convinced that the only reason why Lewen likes Rhiannon is because she's beautiful, because it's not like the boy can ever stop thinking of how beautiful Rhiannon is. That's what made the entire thing fall apart for me, that I could not help but keep thinking that if Rhiannon wasn't as beautiful as she was then Lewen wouldn't like her nearly as much. And that is such a shame because Rhiannon's a little spitfire and mostly I end up thinking how dare Lewen not like her for more than her looks, when I can sort of understand that the author isn't going that way at all, or doesn't intend to, but nope. Not convinced. And Lewen doesn't have much presence for me other than the guy who likes Rhiannon a lot, so mostly he's a giant flop.
The book is also written in several different POVs, which isn't my favorite thing. It's also written so that everyone speaks in an accent and while that can help someone get immersed in a book, mostly it just threw me out of it. Overall, I just found myself steadily disliking the book more and more. I found the best of it to be the beginning, the middle was lackluster, and the end made me more frustrated than anything else. If I didn't like Rhiannon I may have given this book a one. As it is, 2 stars.
Now I vaguely remember disliking this book when I first read it. Figures.
The Tower of Ravens does not get much better on the reread (the first one being yeeaarrrsss ago when it first came out). I found myself growing massively irritated by pretty much all of the characters and the plot, not to mention the romance that made me want to bash my head against something.
So let's tackle this in order. First the characters. You have Rhiannon, who has tamed a winged horse (through magic, essentially), and at first you're all "Yay! Pretty flying horse and girl bond!". But not... really. The horse was more of a tool and while there were a few scenes between the both that made me smile, mostly it was a horse and a girl who kept clutching at the horse and saying "Mine" a lot.
A lot of the characters were uniformly dull, and while there are glimpses of depth in some, in others it's just the same old. Edithe, for example, was just spiteful and a giant brat the entire time. Lewen was... well, I'll get back to Lewen. In fact, I just about despised most of the other characters. I their actions maddening and hated what I viewed as hypocrisy. It's like the author was trying to say how good some of these characters are, how noble and how what-the-hell-ever, but mostly I found sanctimonious idiots who I wanted Rhiannon to ride away from forever.
I do admit to somewhat liking Rhiannon though. She's a wild little thing who's quick to learn and fairly clever. I'm a sucker for this. She's also impossibly beautiful, which, sure, I can sort of get behind, except it's to the point where I feel almost embarrassed for her, that she's so obviously lovely and that's why the girls are jealous and that's why the boys are smitten. It's just so typical she-is-beautiful-and-here-are-her-troubles-because-of-it. Also, I have no idea why she is described milk-white when she has been running around in the outdoors for her entire life.
Moving on! The plot. As in, how to bore me while simultaneously annoy me. You have this cast of characters that are journeying to some destination, in the meantime they get waylaid by the walking dead and an area who's population of young boys have gone missing/dead. You'd think this would be massively exciting except it's mostly dreary and wet. I felt like a dreary raincloud just reading the book. Like a lot of high fantasy there's a lot of traveling from place to place. This is most of the book. But while other fantasies can pull it off and make me feel interested, this one just sort of floundered for me. I could feel how rich the world the author is weaving, but it was looking at a pretty painting and feeling nothing.
Also, it's always immensely frustrating when the main character knows something, but the other characters don't believer her/think she's lying/think she's mistaken, so on so forth. Never fails to make me want to shake these other characters and maybe pitch them off a very tall roof somewhere. Never mind that it makes (some, I guess) sense that they'd do so, but at least give the girl some chance to speak! You sanctimonious idiots.
You can probably tell how much the other characters frustrated me.
Now the romance. Oh, that romance. I wanted some long, drawn out affair where Rhiannon and Lewen got to know each other and admired each other and then got drawn in together, and you get that a little bit. Except I'm fully convinced that the only reason why Lewen likes Rhiannon is because she's beautiful, because it's not like the boy can ever stop thinking of how beautiful Rhiannon is. That's what made the entire thing fall apart for me, that I could not help but keep thinking that if Rhiannon wasn't as beautiful as she was then Lewen wouldn't like her nearly as much. And that is such a shame because Rhiannon's a little spitfire and mostly I end up thinking how dare Lewen not like her for more than her looks, when I can sort of understand that the author isn't going that way at all, or doesn't intend to, but nope. Not convinced. And Lewen doesn't have much presence for me other than the guy who likes Rhiannon a lot, so mostly he's a giant flop.
The book is also written in several different POVs, which isn't my favorite thing. It's also written so that everyone speaks in an accent and while that can help someone get immersed in a book, mostly it just threw me out of it. Overall, I just found myself steadily disliking the book more and more. I found the best of it to be the beginning, the middle was lackluster, and the end made me more frustrated than anything else. If I didn't like Rhiannon I may have given this book a one. As it is, 2 stars.
anna_hepworth's review
I'm just not engaging with this. I can see that something interesting fantasy wise is being done, and I've met two main characters, and I couldn't care less. I suspect I'm not in the right head space for it, and some time later will have another go. But I'm reading a library ebook, and there is another person waiting for it, so rather than hold on and hope I'll get the energy, I'm returning it instead.
therearenobadbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0