“We are here, exactly where we should be, at exactly the right moment, because we are the Raven, and we are magnificent.”
As the longest of the Hugo-nominated novels, I gave myself an extra week to get through all 643 pages of The Raven Scholar. I shouldn’t have worried, because I finished the whole thing in less than a week. Probably could have happily read it in a few days if I’d skipped distractions like “work” and “sleep”. I absolutely fell into Antonia Hodgson’s fantasy epic and didn’t ever want to leave; I had several instances of “I really should go to bed…maybe one more chapter.”
The novel hooked me right from the start, with a fateful visit to a throne room and an out-of-nowhere act of betrayal so ruthless that the effects echo through the entire book. It’s a whole new level of startling, and it instantly changed my attitude from “I wonder what’s going to happen next” to “AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?” And that act of betrayal is only the start of the plots and intrigue that happens when seven aspirants to the throne and one wildcard – one representative from each of seven Great Guardians, and then there’s the Visitor – compete to see who will succeed the Emperor when his twenty-four year term comes to an end.
One of the many things that makes this book so endlessly fascinating is how Hodgson switches viewpoints. Sometimes it’s for a chapter, sometimes it’s a brief moment from one paragraph to the next, but I never got bored, and I never had trouble figuring out whose mind we were getting a glimpse of. Everyone has their own goals, their own loyalties, and their own reasons for why what they’re doing now is the most important thing for the entire empire. If there’s a main character among all of these people jockeying for power and/or survival, it’s Neema Kraa. Dedicated Raven scholar, best calligrapher on the Imperial Island, Neema makes a choice early on to obey a horrible order. It forever puts her name on an act of brutality, and it ruins her relationship with her childhood friend/lover/it’s complicated Cain Ballari. But it also puts her in the emperor’s good graces, secures her a place on the Imperial Island, and solidifies her position as High Scholar…
…and she still has to deal with a complete lack of friendship or even respect at the court. Part of it is that she’s not from one of the wealthier families, part of it is that she annoyed fellow Raven scholar and high-status mean-girl Gaida. Mostly it’s because Neema likes scholarship more than she likes most people, and she has a compulsive habit of correcting people, all the time. She can’t help it, she knows she shouldn’t be doing it, but whether she’s speaking to a fellow scholar or a Lord, if you call a weapon a pike and Neema knows it’s actually a spontoon then by the Eight she will tell you it’s a spontoon.
The Eight, by the way, are the Guardians. Gods, elemental powers, persistent mythology (if you’re asking Neema): Hound, Raven, Tiger, Ox, Fox, Bear, Monkey, and Dragon. Every citizen of the empire has the chance to join the monastery of the Guardian of their choice, provided they can meet the entrance requirements. (For example, Tiger accepts the children of the wealthiest families, Dragon sends out emissaries to collect the Dragon-marked children, and Fox accepts anyone who can break into the monastery.) The Imperial Island has a separate palace for each Guardian, and each has their own way of supporting the emperor. Most importantly, every prayer to the Guardians – either singly or as a whole – is followed by the automatic response “…and remain hidden”, because the next time the Guardians appear together in this world, they’ll be coming to wipe out everything. Everywhere.
Brother, Sister – listen to me,
The Eight will Return in blood and fire.
Another thing that made this book so hard to put down was that it didn’t feel like Hodgson was describing things so much as letting the reader discover them. For the entire book it’s one revelation after another. So much delicious detail: clothes, jewelry, religion, artwork, histories. The aesthetics made me think more than once of the Arcane series, with less clockwork, a little more medieval flair, and maybe a dash of Rivendell (speaking of Arcane, the way Hodgson described Neema definitely brought Mel Medarda to mind). We see what the immaculate grounds of the Tiger palace look like. We find out why an invitation to the Dragon palace is so sought after, but if you want to actually have fun then you need to go to the party at the Ox palace. The contenders to the throne have to pass their trials at each Guardian palace, and the trials are different based on which group is running the trial and which contender is taking it. (I have at least two notes about specific trials that just read “freaking clever“.)
And it’s not just the viewpoints that keeps switching, the book also keeps shifting into different kinds of story. Sometimes it’s court intrigue, a competition for the throne, and a king who’s ruled peacefully for twenty-four years so of course he’d never think of trying to manipulate the contest behind the scenes. Then suddenly it’s a murder mystery, with Neema dragged in to investigate and prove her own innocence on top of everything else she has to coordinate on the island. There’s also the looming presence of the Guardians, from childhood folk tales to the truly stunning body count when one sect or another does things “in the usual way”. And we can’t forget romance. Raven Scholar Neema and Fox Contender Cain Ballari haven’t spoken in eight years but there’s way too much history between them to just pretend that there isn’t.
Allegiances are formed and then crumble. Neema spends a good part of the story being absolutely despised by at least a half dozen characters, some of whom she’d started to bond with a chapter earlier. You’ll spend most of the book feeling one way about a person, or an event, only to have some new bit of information dropped in that alters that for the better, or much much worse. And I absolutely loved the tone of Hodgson’s writing for all of this. Neema dryly narrating her own isolation, or her defiance. Neema’s newest assistant being the textbook definition of “eager”. Members of the Fox faction having a smart-aleck retort for every occasion. And you’ll quickly realize that the narrator of the book has an agenda as well. Even magical artifacts have an attitude here, and Neema is on the receiving end of a lot of it.
I can advise you.
“That’s it?”
THAT’S IT?
“Sorry, I’m not being rude but – ”
YOU ARE BEING VERY RUDE, NEEMA.
“It’s just that – ”
NEVER HAVE I BEEN SO INSULTED.
This is a richly satisfying fantasy, and as you can tell from the title, this is only the first book in what I hope is a nice long series. Book 2 won’t be out until 2027, but fortunately Book 1 didn’t quite end on a cliffhanger. Just on a moment where everyone realizes that every bit of information I mentioned above? Is all going to change.