Customer Reviews

Raven's Strike (The Raven Duology, Book 2)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Raven's Strike" starts where "Raven's Shadow" left off. The family is traveling home, worrying about the damage dad (Tier) took while imprisoned. The escaped ringleader will likely seek vengence on them, so they also worry that the daughter (left with relatives) will be attacked. Upon reaching their farm, the family discovers that Tier is suffering severe magical damage and will shortly die without help. While deciding what to do, Phoran (their king) shows up incognito, in desparate need of help. Roughly speaking, this book enumerates the continuing adventures of the same people who appeared in the first book.

The first half is wonderfully written and highly entertaining -- nothing new, but fun nonetheless. The second half of the book was a disapointment. The second half relied too much on gods and powerful allies and too little on wit -- what I've liked best about Briggs' other books is how the characters make clever use of their assets to defeat foes. Briggs reveals new information that in essence changes everything we know of magic & Travelers & the Shadowed. I my opinion, these events & all did not fit well with the mood and setting of the previous book. To be fair, the other reviewers enjoyed these revelations.

If you enjoyed Brigg's previous book, you'll get your money's worth. Lively entertainment, fast paced and enjoyable, well suited to pass a lazy afternoon or long airplane ride.

Patricia Briggs ends her latest duology spectacularly, with all that you expect to see from her. Mysteries posed in the first book are finally getting some attention, and Seraph also must deal with the dangers her family has been put in.

As usual, Briggs puts in a lot of wit and charm in this book, mkaing her characters even more endearing. If you were worried that the romance was going to get to sappy in this book, have no fear- although the love is there, its far from nauseating. The story is adeptly paced, keeping you reading from beginning to end.

If you read "Raven's Shadow" a while ago, I recommend rereading it before you pick this up, just to save any early confusion (you don't have to, but it'll take a while to remember everything). If you haven't read this series, or even any of Briggs' books, I highly recommend all of her books. She never seems to disappoint.

Raven's Strike is the second in a series, it can stand alone, but is better if you read Raven's Shadow first.

Seraph is a Raven Mage, a Traveler, in the previous book she was saved by Tier, a soldier, who somehow bares the Order of Owl. There are 6 Orders and Tier is the only one she knows of who is not a traveler. The Travelers were sent out from an ancient city to face the shadows in the world. There were 544 clans of Travelers, but tokens from 224 have made their way to Seraph. Therefore these clans are no more.

In some unknown and unexplained way all of Seraph and Tier's children are Ordered. Jes is Eagle or Guardian, Lehr is Hunter, Rinnie is Cormorant or Weather-witch. It is almost impossible for so many orders to be born in one family. Seraph is the last of her clan.

Now a shadowed One walks the earth and somehow she and her family and friends must overcome something that has only been defeated once, and that by the most massive human army ever seen.

Wonderful story, better than RAven's Shadow and that is an awesome book too. If you like fantasy and romance and magic this one is for you.

Raven's Strike is a brilliant sequel to Raven's Shadow. It has Brigg's usual touches, and no one element overpowers another. Everything is very balanced, between plot, characters, and setting. It holds your interest for hours at a time yet you don't forget it in a week...

I give it 4.5 stars because the ending was rushed. Way too rushed. You are deep into the story, then suddenly it's BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG and it's over. I felt that the ending definitely could have been expanded to allow for a less drastic pace.

I also would have enjoyed this more if I had reread Raven's Shadow before hand. Many of the times I was lost, wondering who was who again, and why they had to do this and what was that.

Nevertheless, this was still an awesome book and a worthy sequel without a doubt. The Raven duo is original and fresh, compelling and engaging. You never want to put them done, because the characters are incredible and everything they do and say is vivid in your mind.

I recommend this book and its sequel to any lover of fantasy, male or female, young or old. It's a wonderful addition to any fantasy collection, without a doubt.

I liked it. It took me some time to get aquainted with the story line, since it had been some time since I read the first in the series. I ended up spending most of my time trying to remember who was who. I couldn't even remember if the emperor was old or young or in-between until Seraph made a comment about him being only a few years older than Jes.

I still liked it, though. Some readers complained about it be repetitious, but if it wasn't somewhat so, I would never have remembered enough of the first to enjoy this second. It's definitely not a stand alone book.

The story continues were the first left off. You get to see the budding romance between Jes and Hennea. And a friendship develop between the emperor, Phoran, and little Rinnie. (It makes me think that Rinnie might be the future queen in some later book--once she's old enough.) There is still alot of guessing going on. For example, what is Hennea hiding? Who is the shadowed? Enough to keep you reasing through the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Loved the book! I really wish there was more in the series. Patricia Briggs is a fantastic author! This is a very different series compared to the Mercy Thompson series, which shows her range as an author. Do not go into this expecting the same style, it is not the same but I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy and magic.

I picked up Raven's Strike based on the strength of the reviews for the prequel. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I will read nearly anything in the speculative fiction realm, and I did finish the book over the course of several months.

A few positive items first. Briggs has a good feel for pacing dialog, and she did a great job with the verbal interactions in the book. Briggs does a good job with descriptions of landscapes and the use of multiple senses in her descriptions.

Now on to the main plot ...

[Spoilers]

The premise of the book is interesting. Long ago there were two primal gods, the Weaver (creator) and the Stalker (destroyer). The Stalker fell in love with a mortal, and, when the mortal died, the Stalker took actions that would have destroyed the world, but the Weaver cast a spell that separated the two primal gods from intervening directly in the world. Instead a group of six lesser gods was placed in the world to draw off and balance the energy of the Weaver and Stalker.

All was well until a proud mage disrupted the balance. The goddess of magic, the Raven, was worshipped in the great city of the land. One day a powerful mage elected to strip the powers from the god of war to make his son a great warrior. In completing the ritual, the god of war was slain. This allowed the Stalker's destructive powers to be unleashed into the land and threaten the world's existence. The wizards collectively with the Raven's help sacrificed the city and the gods to put the veil back in place between the primal gods and the created world.

The problem was that the newly created balance was unstable. A clever wizard could reach through the veil and tap into the Stalker's energy. This being the power of destruction, it caused death and chaos to follow in the wake of the newly elevated wizard. Wizard's that used these procedures were called Shadowed.

The book revolves around the quest to find out the information described above and to find a way to defeat a powerful shadowed mage. Of course, the group is successful.

There are a number of lesser plots in the books. One of the involves figuring out why one of the character comes off as ancient, but appears young. (Yes, it is the obvious answer.) Another challenge is trying to figure out how the shadowed has drawn the power of the clans (the god given powers) away from some of the Travelers (what the mages are called) into gems (this one kind of sputters out at the end). While you have the fantasy explanation for what happened, it really is not a solution at all. And, there are others.

The main action in this book occurs almost entirely in the last 25 pages of a several hundred page book and could have done with some excitement earlier in the book.

While I appreciated the interesting idea of a purposely layered cosmology, I found the execution to be a bit uneven. Sometimes abilities worked, and sometimes they did not. Rather than feeling like this randomness was a part of the story, you feel that it is forced. The main antagonist should have been found out early on. The emperor should not have been able to break the spell holding him. (But, I did appreciate the D&D reference!) If the Weaver could not have helped at the end then how did he help out earlier in the book. If the Stalker is the destroyer then why did he not just let his pawn destroy the world. Etc.

If you enjoyed the first book then you will probably enjoy the last fifty pages of this book, but I do not recommend the first several hundred.

Patricia Briggs is very talented. If you take the Raven Dualogly for what it is, a very good Fantasy series, you will enjoy the series quite a bit. I wouldn't pick this book up without having read the first book..you could.. but why would you want to be left out of the depth of the story.

The series is not groundbreaking, the magic system does get a little incosistant at times, and the ending could be paced a little longer. But with that being said, it is really a great tale and well worth the buy. I walk away from every one of Patricia's novels satisfied and laughing to myself about ever listening to critics who whine that the story is not totally new. Come on.. its fantasy.. lighten up.

Sure this isn't quite Mercy Thompson feel but I had a hard time putting it down. Its a great duology and was very good read. Plot rich and funny in the right places, serious in where it should be. Only odd thing is the book covers are differnt, not that it changes the story or anything but I wish Amazon would keep upto date with products.

I love the books that Patricia Briggs writes and can't wait for her new books but just an FYI some of these books are older and so the covers have been up dated.