Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) by Anthony Ryan

Sep 05, 2014 Robin (Bridge Four) rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantastic-fantasy, o-captain-my-captain, super-sidekicks, kick-ass-heroines, awesome-audio

After pondering this off and on for the last few weeks I've settled on 2.5 stars because I'm still mad about a few things all of which are in the spoiler section of this review at the bottom.

Non Spoiler Sum Up of Feelings:

Pros

✔ - Ally’s story explained
✔ - Weaver’s character development was pretty awesome
✔ - Reva is still a Bad Ass
✔ - I loved hating ‘The Woman’ she is still fantastic in her bat-shit-craziness.
✔ - Frentis...I will have a soft spot for him always. His PoV was probably the best ...more

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May 24, 2019 Petrik rated it did not like it

1.5/5 stars

I’m in utter disbelief, I can’t believe this…

Queen of Fire is the third and last book in Anthony Ryan’s Raven's Shadow trilogy that began with the incredible Blood Song. By now, if you’ve heard about this trilogy, you’ll most likely have heard from several readers that the series didn’t end as good as the first book. I, unfortunately, have to agree with them completely. Anthony Ryan himself is great as an author and person, it seriously pains me to give this or any of his book a low r ...more

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Jul 10, 2015 Norman rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, re-read

There is no other way to say this other than this book broke my heart. I have been disappointed before, but when I read the final page of Queen of Fire, I wanted to literally cry and I don’t mean that in a good way. I understand that endings are hard, especially in fantasy, but with Blood Song, the first book in this trilogy, Anthony Ryan created something special and although the second book in the series Tower Lord was a slight misstep , I still enjoyed it, but to say that Queen of Fire disapp There is no other way to say this other than this book broke my heart. I have been disappointed before, but when I read the final page of Queen of Fire, I wanted to literally cry and I don’t mean that in a good way. I understand that endings are hard, especially in fantasy, but with Blood Song, the first book in this trilogy, Anthony Ryan created something special and although the second book in the series Tower Lord was a slight misstep , I still enjoyed it, but to say that Queen of Fire disappointed me would be the understatement of the year.

For the uninitiated, Queen of Fire picks up right after the ending of The Tower Lord. The United Realm has been invaded by the Empire of Volar, a sadistically evil nation who outwardly practices slavery and appeals to the worse base of human nature and cruelty. You think something is barbaric and cruel and dehumanizing, well the Volarians feel that is just the way of doing business. Not only are they evil, but they are ruled in the background by a dark and mysteriously powerful being termed the Ally who pulls the strings of the ruling council while also granting said members near immortality, mysterious abilities and wealth beyond their wildest dreams. At the start of our novel, the people of the United Realm have just crushed a large Volarian army at Alltor, the capital city for one of the provinces of the realm and are now making plans to remove the Volarians from their capital city Varinshold and the remainder of the realm while taking the fight to Volaria itself in order to ensure that the Volarians stay gone forever.

The strength of the first book of this series, Blood Song lied in the characterization of the characters. Every character in that book felt unique, believable, and tangible and they spoke with their own voice. The characters all felt real and they grew organically into full-fledged human beings in their own right. The biggest example of this was Nortah, a character who was simply a jerk at the beginning of the Blood Song, but through the trials of the story transforms into one of the better characters of the series. If at the start of Blood Song, you would have told me that Nortah would become one of my favorite characters in the series and I would have never believed you. Fast Forward and contrast that with Queen of Fire, and there is almost no characterization between hardly any of the characters. Honestly, this phenomena is not entirely unique, as characterization died in this series with Tower Lord, but I digress. In Queen of Fire, every character speaks with almost the same voice and little is given to motivate their actions or why a character is doing anything. This is a problem, because there are A LOT of characters in this book, a lot of side characters as well as POV characters, and while not all the POV characters held my attention, the complete lack of character among any of the side characters made all of them readily forgettable and caused none of them to stand out. This in turn creates a scenario where you simply don’t care about any of the characters in the story, except maybe the main characters which leads to a case where an epic cast feels almost like cannon fodder or an afterthought. In this book, it felt like the characterization took a back page so that the author could focus more on his world building. That being said, I would highly advise that you reread Tower Lord before you pick up this book, as you will need a cheat sheet of sorts to keep track of who is who as you read the novel. This could have been alleviated somewhat if ever character felt unique, but among the minor characters you will have to work hard to keep track of who is who so you don’t feel lost.

Vaelin Al Sorna, ostensibly the main character or the hero of the series, will go down as one of my favorite fantasy characters to ever grace the written page. However, his treatment in this novel is nothing short of a disaster. To put it mildly, Vaelin in the first two novels was a man that you did not want to cross, he was arguably the best swordsman alive and his Blood Song gave him nigh omniscient. In Queen of Fire, that is pretty much all gone, as he has lost his blood song, which would not be so bad, however, he has lost a lot of his ability to fight. Even though he regains both his confidence and his skills early in the novel, in my opinion the damage had already been done to the character and for me personally he lost a lot of his appeal, as his confidence and sure nature as well as his martial ability was what made him appealing to me in the first place.

Add to the fact that his POV chapters on the ice, were tedious to the extreme, incorporating a lot of walking, a lot of mysterious and foreboding innuendo all seemingly building up to a massive crescendo but in the end all being revealed in a gratuitous information dump. In retrospect, it was all a waste of time. However, the biggest sin of this trek was that while the rest of the United Realm was invading Volaria, ostensibly your main character is as far away as he can be from the action. At least in the Tower Lord, Vaelin, got a scene at the end where he was able to effectively break and end the siege of Alltor, but here he shows up at the end after all the fighting is said and done, he pulls another POV character aside, gives an info dump and then kills the main baddie in a totally pedestrian and utterly forgettable manner. It was extremely disappointing to say the least.

That brings me two the villains in this novel. To label them mustache twirling villains would be an insult to the mustache twirling villains association of America. There is absolutely no sophistication to the villains in this book and even when they commit heinous actions it doesn’t come across as evil but as crazy or just simply incompetent. The Volarians are just evil with no redeeming qualities, and the two main baddies offer no sense of menace throughout the entire novel. Eleverah was interesting the in the Tower Lord, and the Ally was that all powerful force behind the throne of the most powerful nation on the planet, however circling back to the lack of characterization argument, both of these characters are relegated to cartoon villainy in this novel. Eleverah was showing signs of growth in the last book, but all that is thrown away here, as she is just sadistic, cruel, petty and in the most damning quality for a villain proved, she proved to be utterly incompetent. One could argue and the author does imply that she is patently insane, but still insane villains can often be unconventional, unpredictable and dangerous, of which Eleverah was none. It was so bad, that at the end, I found myself wondering, ok, maybe she is crazy like a fox and there is some great stratagem that she has cooked up that will make this final showdown great at the end. Nope, sorry, didn’t happen. Also the Ally, while his origins were cool, his motives were weak, and a lot of time was spent building up him as this great tool of death and destruction and then when you find out why he is so evil, you are like, really? That’s it? That’s all you got? *Sigh. Also, to be the big baddie in the series, he went out in the worst manner you can take out the main evil guy, it was fairly bad.

Ahh, Volaria. Paper tigers of the world should stand up and take note, as this is how you create a paper tiger. The empire of Alpira, the nation invaded by our heroes in the first novel has been fighting Volaria for centuries, and Alpira wiped the floor with our heroes in the first novel. However, in this book, Volaria went down like a good old fashioned house of cards. The Empress Eleverah, pulled a trick here or there, but it never felt like the Realm was ever in any serious danger of losing even without the great Vaelin Al Sorna in the forefront. There was some talk with Frentis’s POV that, yeah invading these guys may not be a good idea, we will probably all die, but the Volarians never mounted a serious defense. The explanation given in the novel was that they essentially used up all of their best troops trying to invade the United Realm, and slave revolts where stripping their ability to field a decent army but this really was an anti-climactic way to set up a final war. This was utterly disappointing and robbed the novel of any tension or sense of danger in the novel. I never thought one of our heroes would die, even given the dour circumstances they were in, because the Volarians proved utterly incompetent to stop them.

The list of disappointments could go on and on, Brother Caenis once again gets short treatment, although his character does get an interesting turn. Sherin does not show up yet again, which I found puzzling.

There is some good in the novel however. Blood Song, and ostensibly the entire series could be a referendum on war and what it does to the powerless and those who fight it. That theme is carried on here throughout the novel as Ryan does a great job showing the visceral effects of the Volarian invasion on the United Realm while also showing the cost that liberation from said Volarians has on the Vox Populli, as well as the liberators. The book also raises the question of when in the process of revenge do you become as bad as the people you are reaping your vengeance upon? Does your cause remain righteous even when it causes you to do unrighteous things? The book also shows how the strong the idea of vengeance and even religious fervor can be whipped up by leaders to get a reluctant populace to stand up and fight a war even when their children may starve throughout the winter given the devastation of their homes. The psychological effect of killing is also shown rather well in the novel which was a nice touch. The battles of the novel are also extremely well written, as Ryan has a great idea how to write epic battle scenes whether they be on land or on sea. It also floats some interesting ideas about the origin of the religions throughout the nations in the novel but none of these ideas are really expounded upon. The novel does answer all the lingering questions in the series, but as I outlined above not everything is answered satisfactorily. The novel also does leave open the possibility of more stories to be shared in this world, which I also found intriguing.

Overall though, this book was a supreme disappointment. Though extremely well written, I found parts of it tedious to read through, the characterization was rather poor and the villains were laughable with their worse crime being that they proved to be nonthreatening. I loved Blood Song, and in fact consider that novel one of my favorite books of all time, but Queen of Fire book broke my heart in the worst possible manner, in the end betraying all that I found dear about Blood Song. Excuse me while I go somewhere and cry some more.
...more

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Jul 28, 2014 Mike (the Paladin) rated it did not like it

Shelves: fantasy, epic-fantasy

***I reviewed this book some time ago. I simply found a typo and corrected it.***

What can I say here? The rating speaks for itself.

I don't know what happened here. The first book in this series is probably one of the best fantasy works I've ever read. Well crafted and even enthralling. I had trouble putting it down, I sat up late reading. I've read it more than once. The second book was simply good. I still rated it 5 stars though it wasn't as good as the first.

Now we have the third. For some r ***I reviewed this book some time ago. I simply found a typo and corrected it.***

What can I say here? The rating speaks for itself.

I don't know what happened here. The first book in this series is probably one of the best fantasy works I've ever read. Well crafted and even enthralling. I had trouble putting it down, I sat up late reading. I've read it more than once. The second book was simply good. I still rated it 5 stars though it wasn't as good as the first.

Now we have the third. For some reason Mr. Ryan seems to have simply let the story run on in different directions with little control of what's actually there. the view points bounce around from one to another with the story losing all direction at times, plot strings flailing out in all directions with very little relation (at times) to the original plot line(s). Where I had trouble putting the first book down this one I had to make myself go back to...and even finish. On multiple occasions I simply wanted to put it down and move on to something else.

Vaelin our "erstwhile" protagonist vacillates in character from what he has been established to be but then never settles down to an actually "new" character. I use the word erstwhile as he is now "mostly" just one of several points of view. The Enemy (or The Ally depending on where you are in the story) was in the end of the first novel the center of Vaelin's quest (so to speak). That focus has gone by the wayside. We do finally get back to it but oh the side roads, diatribes, wandering conversations, speeches, info dumps etc.

I am sorry. I don't like to give reviews this negative, especially on books by writers I know can be excellent story tellers. Thus my statement "I don't know what happened". I tend to wonder if maybe the story lines were all just so important to Mr. Ryan that he couldn't let anything be left out. Maybe he just wanted the story to go to a certain place and found he had to bend things and drag them out to get there. I have no idea how the book was edited. Could it have been saved (or if you don't "feel" it needs saving, "made better") by a more thorough editor? Again I don't know.

I know this is a subjective review and reflects my own reaction to and view of the book. If you disagree and like or even love the book I'm happy for you. I can not recommend it.

I'm sure one reason I am so disappointed in this novel is that I loved the first. That book Blood Song is still one of the best beginnings of an epic fantasy I've ever read. Happily this book does not ruin that one. It does however (in my humble opinion) fail to fulfill the promise made there.

With a heavy heart I can not recommend this novel. ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Lonleypurplecat rated it it was ok

Shelves: dissapointing, i-want-this-book-now

Is it normal to desperately want to read this book even though I just finished reading Blood Song 5 minutes ago and I haven't even read the second book yet?

Just finished Tower Lord and I want this book I want this book I want this book now. Stupid cliffhanger.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 26, 2015 Ma-juh rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Arguably one of the worst endings to a series that had SO much potential.

If anybody loved Blood Song as much as I did, just go ahead and burn Tower Lord and Queen of Fire. They will not be concerning your love for that protagonist.

No instead Vaelin is forcibly set into the Man-Who-Cannot-Die and the Mary Sue trope of being invincible and almighty and also, the big kicker:

Staying away from the plot for 90% of the book as you travel through once again:

Pointless Forests
Pointless Ice
Pointless fuckin ...more

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Mar 06, 2018 Mayim de Vries rated it did not like it

Shelves: avoid-lifes-too-short-for-bad-books

It is more productive to open an empty fridge than this novel.

(I might pen a ~~review~~ warning for gullible readers in the future but frankly speaking, I don't think this book merits it.)
_______
Also in the series:

1. Blood Song ★★★★☆
2. Tower Lord ★★☆☆☆ ...more

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Feb 01, 2015 Petros Triantafyllou rated it liked it

The Queen of Fire was a nice book, bringing Vaelin's Saga to an end and closing all the open threads, but unfortunately it was not what i had anticipated.

"He recalled those brief years when his song had fallen silent, his refusal to heed it leaving him bereft, without guidance. It had been hard to be so rudderless in a sea of chaos and war. This, however, was much worse, because now there was the chill, the bone-deep cold that had seeped into him in the Ally’s domain and lingered on here in thi ...more

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Oct 24, 2014 Gavin rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Queen of Fire is the conclusion to Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow trilogy. The first two books in the series Blood Song and Tower Lord were exceptional books. They had everything a reader of epic fantasy could desire. Action, mystery, romance, intrigue, and plenty of surprises. The world building was good, the plot complex, and the various characters were full of depth and personality. This series finale did not quite match those books in terms of overall quality. A lot of the same building block ...more

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Sep 24, 2014 Rob rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, not-a-bookclub-club, own, read-2015, fantasy, author-male, sff-audio, epic-fantasy

Executive Summary: A somewhat enjoyable end to the series, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the last two books. 3.5 stars.

Audio book: Much like the last 2 books, I enjoy Steven Brand as a narrator, save for the fact that he's so QUIET. Thankfully my audiobook app lets me increase the volume, or it would be incredibly frustrating. I wonder if the publishers listens to the book with noise canceling headphones only or something, or if even that would be sufficient.

If you've done the pr ...more

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Jun 18, 2015 Faye, la Patata is currently reading it

I give y'all permission to be jealous. ;) ...more

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Sep 11, 2014 Conor rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

The pace was sluggish and uneven for stretches of this book (Reva being the main, but far from the only, reason for this) but the exciting finale tied everything together and made it worthwhile. Overall this was a strong ending to a really enjoyable series that answered most of the mysteries that were set up over the previous books and provided closure for the characters we've come to care about (at least those that survived, Ryan was surprisingly and sometimes detrimentally ruthless in places) The pace was sluggish and uneven for stretches of this book (Reva being the main, but far from the only, reason for this) but the exciting finale tied everything together and made it worthwhile. Overall this was a strong ending to a really enjoyable series that answered most of the mysteries that were set up over the previous books and provided closure for the characters we've come to care about (at least those that survived, Ryan was surprisingly and sometimes detrimentally ruthless in places) while leaving enough to room to write more installments in this universe in the future.

This book continued with the same structure as the previous book with 4 main POV characters (plus one surprise additional character) with interludes outside of chronological order provided by the scholar Verniers. While I was initially skeptical about the inclusion of Alucius as a POV character he quickly earned my trust with his humorous observations and interesting perspective. (view spoiler)

Ryan made the interesting decision of having the series main character and the sole POV character from book 1 not appear for much of the early part of the book. This was probably a large part of the reason why the opening sections dragged somewhat. Vaelin's first parts were initially underwhelming but by the middle of the book (with the beginning of his awesome journey) his parts began to steal the show. The journey was filled with intriguing mysteries and epic encounters and while his loss of his powers stripped him of the sense of danger and mystery he had in book 2 it also kept him from going Leroy Jenkins as he did in the last book. (view spoiler)

Lyrna's section were also really enjoyable. Her ruthlessness and desire for revenge separated her from the heroic princess trope that she seemed in danger of falling into in the last book. However while I enjoyed her personal interactions and political intrigues I found a lot of the military stuff (normally by far and away my favourite storylines in fantasy) to be pretty weak. Ryan showed no desire to accurately represent how medieval warfare worked and as a card carrying history nerd this annoyed me greatly. I would have been able to shrug off a few mistakes but it seemed as if armies of several hundred thousand soldiers were being raised every few pages, which greatly undermined my immersion in the world. This was compounded by Alornis' using her skills as an artist to somehow develop a doomsday machine that none of the thousand year old bad guys were capable of matching because sketches. The one plus side of the military campaigns was that most of the engagements were filled with cool tactical reversals on both sides. These twists and turns also succeeded in making the villains (especially the Empress)more respectable due to being legitimate threats to the heroes rather than the ineffective morons fantasy villains often are.

Frentis' sections were also really engaging pretty much throughout. There was none of the BS magical puppetry that ruined his parts in the first half of the last book and instead we got badassery throughout. The constant campaigns of bloody guerilla warfare, Frentis' well-written love-hate relationship with the evil empress who plagued his dreams and the presence of some really cool secondary characters (Illian who despite being a cringe-inducing noblewoman turned badass warrior cliche still managed to be really likeable and interesting, Draker the street thug turned soldier and Lekran the bloodthirsty barbarian warrior).

Reva's plotline was imo by far and away the weak link in this book. I honestly can't remember much of what she did for about 90% of it. It seems that Ryan wrote her into the series as a main character in order to fulfil a big role in book 2 (see my review of that book for my beef with her there) without having any plan for her here. The only interesting involvement that she had was her claim to be a prophetess of her people's god in order to drum up support for an invasion. This was an extremely complex moral quandary that could have been explored in a really intriguing way. Unfortunately Reva just did it without much consideration then spent the rest of the book thinking about how shitty a thing it was to do... without bothering to try to remedy the situation of course. Her sections only became interesting towards the end, where she had some cool action sections and her scenes with the Empress were awesome (mostly due to the on-page charisma of the empress rather than Reva's predictable blandness). Earlier on in the book I rather like her interactions with her lover/advisor and the little girl they adopted but these were never given much screen time unfortunately.

Despite the uneven pacing I found this to be a worthy and enjoyable end to a really good series. Ryan managed to write an interesting story on it's own merits with plenty of cool plotlines and character development while also wrapping up this trilogy nicely, both delivering closure about the characters we've come to care about and leaving room for more stories in this world. ...more

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Jul 12, 2014 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it really liked it

Shelves: review-copy, epic, magic, fantasy, war

3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/07/26/b...

This highly anticipated novel is the final volume of Anthony Ryan’s epic Raven’s Shadow trilogy, so be aware this review may contain spoilers for the first two books of the series if you have not caught up yet. It would be impossible to talk about Queen of Fire without at least referencing some of the events in the previous book, and not just because it picks up directly where Tower Lord left off (and follows in the same 3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/07/26/b...

This highly anticipated novel is the final volume of Anthony Ryan’s epic Raven’s Shadow trilogy, so be aware this review may contain spoilers for the first two books of the series if you have not caught up yet. It would be impossible to talk about Queen of Fire without at least referencing some of the events in the previous book, and not just because it picks up directly where Tower Lord left off (and follows in the same vein). The truth is, so much of what stood out were the characters and their growth over the course of the trilogy; to praise (and critique) this book I would have to give the nod to Blood Song and Tower Lord as well.

We learn at the beginning of Queen of Fire that Queen Lyrna, who was brutally attacked and burned at the end of Tower Lord has been healed by the very same forces she used to mistrust, and now seeks to ally with them to meet the invading Volarian army head on. She is determined to fight for the independence of the Unified Realm, but to do so she must first raise an army. Meanwhile, the Tower Lord Vaelin Al Sorna, now also called Battle Lord of the Realm, is taking it upon himself to confront the mysterious Ally and an enemy who must be defeated if the Queen’s efforts are to have a chance. On the way, Vaelin rallies other factions to their side, their support invaluable now that the power of his bloodsong seems to have abandoned him.

Other prominent characters include Frentis, whose traumatizing plight in the last novel made me wonder how he would come back from the consequences of his actions, even though so many of them were not his own while his mind was being controlled. Reva also starts her climb to the top by demonstrating her strength and incredible battle prowess. And finally, an unexpected perspective comes in the form of Alucius Al Hestian who adds tension to the overall arc by having to make some very difficult decisions.

First, the good: Like I said, this is a fitting end for a lot of characters who joined in for this epic journey. Characters like Lyrna, Frentis and Reva have all seen tremendous development since they made their respective appearances, and each had their personal obstacles to overcome. It fills me with much satisfaction to see everything come together in this concluding volume.

I also liked the many new places Anthony Ryan took us in Queen of Fire, as well as the fascinating new people we get to meet. The wolf people were especially great, since I always find it a treat to read about fictional cultures inspired by shamanistic traditions. There were also some amazing moments of characters doing battle on the high seas, which wasn’t a surprise given my fondness for maritime fantasy. In addition, there was the minor element of invention and the enthusiasm of a particular character for tinkering, creating new and improved machines of war – this I loved, even if it did only make up a relatively small part of the story. This is a huge tome of a novel after all, and there is a lot packed in it, much of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

There were some stumbling blocks, however. The first is that the story is admittedly on the slow side to take off, with a significant portion of “critical” scenes happening in the second half of the novel. That means I felt that the first 300 or so pages were mostly given to establishing the basis for the finale at the end, which is a bit much (it’s such a lengthy book, after all). Fortunately, the pacing improves by leaps and bounds after the story finds its stride.

I also think that those who were disappointed with certain aspects of Tower Lord might experience the same snags in Queen of Fire. The two books are stylistically similar, both featuring multiple POVs and readers who had wanted more Vaelin in book two will probably not see a marked change here. Vaelin Al Sorna, who won me over in Blood Song, does not really feel like the main protagonist to me anymore, but I find myself okay with that because he is still an important presence. I’m actually regretting more the fact that folks like Caenis and Nortah didn’t show up as much. Clearly, the story’s scope has become much bigger (a good thing) so the result is plenty of other characters sharing the pages with him now that I’ve come to connect with.

But basically, if you were expecting Vaelin to dominate his share of screentime in this book again, I’m afraid you just won’t get that. I do understand the sentiment, though. Speaking for myself, Blood Song still remains my favorite of the trilogy, because it was such a detailed exploration into Vaelin’s character. Of course, it certainly helped that I’m such a huge fan of the warrior school trope chronicling a boy’s rise to become the greatest fighter the world has ever known, complete with a relentless training regime and harsh instructors.

But while Queen of Fire didn’t quite reach the heights that Blood Song or even Tower Lord did for me, it’s nevertheless a good book with undeniably awesome conclusion. I would recommend the series as a whole and if you’ve been following along with the trilogy as the books come out, this is an ending you probably wouldn’t want to miss. ...more

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Nov 24, 2014 Mark rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf

I'm calling this one. Date of death: July 22, 2015 @ 12:29 am.
I'm distraught over this book. I'm hurt, genuinely hurt. Before I read BLOOD SONG, I strictly read historical fiction. Well, I've been reading A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, but who isn't? But BLOOD SONG was a game changer for me. It put a love and a thirst for fantasy that will never be satiated. After I read it I loved it so much that I started looking for similar fantasy books and have devoured a great many. BLOOD SONG sparked a passion ...more

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Nov 18, 2016 Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller rated it liked it · review of another edition

Trilogy Review: [3.5 stars for Queen of Fire] I thoroughly enjoyed the Raven’s Shadow Trilogy, especially the first book, Blood Song. It was easily a 5 star read and one of the best fantasies I’ve read since Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. It focused on one character – Vaelin, and his coming of age story. Taking place in the school (one of my favorite settings) it offered a combative learning environment that honestly reminded me of Harry Potter adventures meets the medieval, gritty reality of Trilogy Review: [3.5 stars for Queen of Fire] I thoroughly enjoyed the Raven’s Shadow Trilogy, especially the first book, Blood Song. It was easily a 5 star read and one of the best fantasies I’ve read since Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. It focused on one character – Vaelin, and his coming of age story. Taking place in the school (one of my favorite settings) it offered a combative learning environment that honestly reminded me of Harry Potter adventures meets the medieval, gritty reality of Game of Thrones. The camaraderie that Vaelin formed with his fellow “brothers” was an excellent dynamic, one which I wish had carried through the rest of the trilogy.

After finishing the first book (and fangirling about it for a few days) I quickly became aware that people weren’t loving the second and third books nearly as much. I have a few theories as to why. The sequels are very different from the first one. What an author puts forth in initially is usually a promise to the reader of what’s to come and readers expect at least a bit of consistency of storytelling (which Ryan failed to deliver because his tale took off in a completely different direction).

His story also went from a single point of view to multiple, bouncing around in a very Game of Thrones manner. I actually liked the different perspectives, each one adding a missing piece to the puzzle and written as well as Vaelin. Ironically, though, the passages involving Vaelin, the initial hero of the saga, became the least interesting… odd, right? This overall story arc remained the same, but everything built up in the first book got swept under the rug in favor of these other storylines.

While I understand how this could lead to a lot of disappointment, I admit I enjoyed Tower Lord (book 2) almost as much is the first book. Heck, I even liked about 80% of Queen of Fire (book 3) save one chunk near the end where I was incredibly bored and found it difficult to get through… once I did though, I liked the ending.

Overall, even though my personal experience with the series differs from the majority, I still think the consensus is that Blood Song is worth reading even if you don’t plan to continue on.

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.com ...more

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Oct 23, 2015 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015

"Raven's Shadow" books for me:

Blood Song - 4,5 stars - excellent debut from a new author, interesting worldbuilding, great lead character, some minor issues with using fantasy tropes (magic school, chosen one, warring kingdoms, secret societies)

Tower Lord - 4 stars - solid sequel, major expansion of worldbuilding, filled with action, less engaging characters and feels like trying to hold too many balls up in the air at the same time.

Queen of Fire - 3,5 stars - good, action packed like its
"Raven's Shadow" books for me:

Blood Song - 4,5 stars - excellent debut from a new author, interesting worldbuilding, great lead character, some minor issues with using fantasy tropes (magic school, chosen one, warring kingdoms, secret societies)

Tower Lord - 4 stars - solid sequel, major expansion of worldbuilding, filled with action, less engaging characters and feels like trying to hold too many balls up in the air at the same time.

Queen of Fire - 3,5 stars - good, action packed like its predecessors, ties up all the loose ends, but it feels rushed, like three novels worth of material packed into one. Also feels less original than the debut, more like a generic dark fantasy with a fellowship on a quest to bring down an evil overlord.

That would make it about four stars for the whole series, but math is not really my strong point, especially when it comes down to weighting the pro and cons of epic fantasy. I personally rate Anthony Ryan above Brandon Sanderson or Brent Weeks, for example, but I believe the promise of the debut novel was not realized in its full potential by the end of the story. Part of the problem may still be personal, as I had problems keeping track of who is who in the novel, despite the helpful list at the back. This confusion became particularly annoying when one of these numerous side characters met with an untimely death and I was supposed to be deeply moved by his or her loss. I believe they were underdeveloped for the emotional demands made on the reader. Another personal peeve was the interest I had in the lead from the first book, the Tower Lord Vaelin al Sorna, who started to take a step back from the action already in book two, and who is more like a figurehead in this last installment. Other characters share the lion's share of the action, in particular Queen Lyrna, Reva Munstor and Frentis, but even their storylines are diluted and rushed by the need to establish and follow up on the rest of the cast. As I already mentioned in the intro, maybe a couple of more books would have achieved a better balance between the worldbuilding, the action and the character development.

I say this mostly because I really liked the potential of the multiracial society, with the shamans in the Icy North bonding with wild animals, with the Elf like Eorhil forest dwellers talented, with the pirate / commercial ships of the Meldeneans, with the tribal / matriarchal Lonaks in their mountain fastnesses, even with the three competing empires on the world stage. The rich and diverse history of the world and the intriguing religious systems are also highlights of the series for me, translated in a mix of martial and magical competences for the heroes. Less accomplished are some of the adversaries, with the ever increasing talents of the Volarian slave soldiers stretching the suspension of disbelief to breaking point. I had to concentrate and look at the glossary to make out the differences between Kuritai, Varitai and all the other 'tai's Vaelin and friends fought against. The ultimate adversary is mysterious and powerful in its talent to control the minds of his minions from beyond the veil of death, but (view spoiler)

I don't have any quotes saved from the book, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the way Ryan writes. It's more of a case of being too focused on following the plot and keeping track of the names of the cast to concentrate too much on style. The author is still pretty close to the top of my list of new fantasy talents to watch out for in the next years.
...more

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May 05, 2015 Mihir rated it really liked it

OVERALL RATING = 4.5 (edited my star rating to reflect that.)

Full review over at Fantasy Book Critic

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I’ve been waiting to read this book since I first finished Blood Song in 2012. There was a line in the book about a Queen Of Fire and of the Darkblade that was to serve her. When I learnt that the trilogy ending volume would be titled the same, I was extremely excited. As an Anthony Ryan fan, we have been waiting to what happens to Vaelin Al Sorna and the other characters from ...more

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Jun 29, 2015 Kaora rated it liked it

This review DOES contain spoilers for previous books in the series! You have been WARNED!

Queen of Fire is the ending to the trilogy Raven's Shadow, a fantasy series that I felt wasn't groundbreaking but I enjoyed nonetheless. Queen Lyrna is bringing the fight to Volarian soil in order to end the war once and for all. The book is not focused on Vaelin as the first book, but instead follows the same format as book two, jumping between main characters. With book two I found some characters that I t ...more

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May 02, 2015 David Sven rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, audiobooks

I wish I'd waited for this book to be nearly out before starting the series. I suspect I may have enjoyed it more if I listened to the series back to back.

I was going to reread the first two books first - and then realised, I would have loved book one all over again - but I couldn't bring myself to read book 2 again. I enjoyed book 2 first time around but I doubt I would have enjoyed it twice round.

So I started this having lost connection with the main story and never quite reconnecting emotiona ...more

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Sep 19, 2014 Athena Shardbearer marked it as to-read

Shelves: not-out-yet-but-want, fantasy, epic, nextbooktoread

Who do I have to kill to get this one?????

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Sep 07, 2014 Armina is currently reading it

Shelves: great-expectations, audio, buddy-reads, fantasy

Buddy read with Desinka , Gavin , Dan 2.0 and Chant

July 28, 2015

Pre-read thoughts

I already know a lot about this book. That's the curse(or the blessing?) of starting a highly anticipated book not on its release date but 3 weeks later .... . I have stumbled upon friend's reviews/updates(some good, some disappointing) and that's probably better because I have adjusted my high expectations to ....well ....I'm not sure. I still hope to love this book.

Despite the fact that I know somethin ...more

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Jun 21, 2015 Milda Page Runner rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, dark-fantasy, military-fantasy

3 stars
It wasn't as bad as I expected from low ratings and reviews. That said it is still the weakest book in the trilogy imho. It keeps the same structure as Tower Lord with multiple Povs and suffers similar issues.

Vaelin's story takes a backstage again and readers who hoped to see more of him are likely to be disappointed. My main issue was emotional disconnection. Our main character finds love but it's presented in such an off-handed manner I found it hard to care or be happy for him. It hap 3 stars
It wasn't as bad as I expected from low ratings and reviews. That said it is still the weakest book in the trilogy imho. It keeps the same structure as Tower Lord with multiple Povs and suffers similar issues.

Vaelin's story takes a backstage again and readers who hoped to see more of him are likely to be disappointed. My main issue was emotional disconnection. Our main character finds love but it's presented in such an off-handed manner I found it hard to care or be happy for him. It happens without any preamble not once even mentioned he felt any attraction to the woman. How the reader supposed to emotionally connect with the character when we don't even know how he feels?

I was also somewhat disappointed with how Lyrna was presented in this book. Tower Lord made me understand and care for her character - even like her, whilst here she seems again colder and more distant, some of her decision not entirely justified and some thoughts uncharacteristically bloodthirsty.

Frentis storyline is the most interesting and offers the most action and excitement with Reva being in the second place. I believe these two were the driving characters in QoF.

Book takes time to pick up the pace, there are some rather slow chapters in the beginning: Reva gathering troops, Vaelin travelling, Lyrna preparing army for war. I felt between 40% and 80% was the most enjoyable part of the book that offered good balance of action and intrigue.
Last 20% was a bit too gruesome and bloody for me. I like grim-darks but they tend to have more humour mixed in to balance out the darkness.

Ally's story and end of war got rounded up well, Gifted explained and Weaver's story developed nicely. But not one of the mc found happiness, and they all (view spoiler) I was hoping for a happier ending at least for a few of them. Not something I would expect from epic fantasy - ending felt unnecessary grim.

In spite of some drawbacks it was an interesting enough read. I think if you enjoyed Tower Lord and want a closure - you are likely to appreciate it. Trilogy doesn't finish with the Bang I was hoping for, nevertheless QoF gives story an ending.
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Nov 11, 2014 Eon ♒Windrunner♒ rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 02, 2020 Mike (the Paladin) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: epic-fantasy, fantasy

***I reviewed this book some time ago. I simply found a typo and corrected it.***

What can I say here? The rating speaks for itself.

I don't know what happened here. The first book in this series is probably one of the best fantasy works I've ever read. Well crafted and even enthralling. I had trouble putting it down, I sat up late reading. I've read it more than once. The second book was simply good. I still rated it 5 stars though it wasn't as good as the first.

Now we have the third. For some r ***I reviewed this book some time ago. I simply found a typo and corrected it.***

What can I say here? The rating speaks for itself.

I don't know what happened here. The first book in this series is probably one of the best fantasy works I've ever read. Well crafted and even enthralling. I had trouble putting it down, I sat up late reading. I've read it more than once. The second book was simply good. I still rated it 5 stars though it wasn't as good as the first.

Now we have the third. For some reason Mr. Ryan seems to have simply let the story run on in different directions with little control of what's actually there. the view points bounce around from one to another with the story losing all direction at times, plot strings flailing out in all directions with very little relation (at times) to the original plot line(s). Where I had trouble putting the first book down this one I had to make myself go back to...and even finish. On multiple occasions I simply wanted to put it down and move on to something else.

Vaelin our "erstwhile" protagonist vacillates in character from what he has been established to be but then never settles down to an actually "new" character. I use the word erstwhile as he is now "mostly" just one of several points of view. The Enemy (or The Ally depending on where you are in the story) was in the end of the first novel the center of Vaelin's quest (so to speak). That focus has gone by the wayside. We do finally get back to it but oh the side roads, diatribes, wandering conversations, speeches, info dumps etc.

I am sorry. I don't like to give reviews this negative, especially on books by writers I know can be excellent story tellers. Thus my statement "I don't know what happened". I tend to wonder if maybe the story lines were all just so important to Mr. Ryan that he couldn't let anything be left out. Maybe he just wanted the story to go to a certain place and found he had to bend things and drag them out to get there. I have no idea how the book was edited. Could it have been saved (or if you don't "feel" it needs saving, "made better") by a more thorough editor? Again I don't know.

I know this is a subjective review and reflects my own reaction to and view of the book. If you disagree and like or even love the book I'm happy for you. I can not recommend it.

I'm sure one reason I am so disappointed in this novel is that I loved the first. That book Blood Song is still one of the best beginnings of an epic fantasy I've ever read. Happily this book does not ruin that one. It does however (in my humble opinion) fail to fulfill the promise made there.

With a heavy heart I can not recommend this novel. ...more

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Aug 30, 2014 Alexa rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

3 stars?

3.5 stars...

3 stars?

I'm still not sure about the rating of this book...

Let me explain:

It is a good book.

It's a consistent book!

It's the book I think should have been written...

It's just not the book I wanted.

Around 25% I found myself being annoyed with the amount of characters being introduced or characters I had to remember (please note that I re-read Tower Lord the week before reading this, so I SHOULD have remembered)

Around 50% I found myself skipping some of the battle parts ...more

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May 15, 2015 TS Chan rated it it was ok

Shelves: dr-reading-challenge

I did see a few disappointed comments surfacing on Goodreads throughout my reading of this book but I tried to keep an open mind. But alas, this was indeed a disappointment to the Raven's Shadow series.

Anti-climactic doesn't even begin to describe how I felt at the end of the trilogy. It was literally a drag trying to finish this - almost every POV felt boring or too drawn out. Oddly enough, my favourite POV was Vernier's! Vaelin was a shadow of the character we've met in Blood Song and that wa ...more

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Sep 22, 2015 Freakout rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Epic!!! awesome conclusion to the whole trilogy

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May 20, 2022 John McDermott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: camelot-its-only-a-model

An excellent conclusion to what ,for me, has been a fantastic trilogy. I know some readers didn't like the fact that the focus was away from Vaelin in this book but I have to say that I liked the attention was on some of the other characters, especially Frentis. Great world building, fantastic characters and big set piece action sequences ,this was epic fantasy at its best. ...more

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Dec 04, 2013 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good tidy ending, well written, lots of jumping around from character to character.

Not as good as the first 2 books in this series.

Looking forward to more from this author.

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Jul 04, 2015 Dejvo rated it liked it

I don't even know how to describe how I feel about this book. I bought it on the day it came out, so I was quite enthusiastic about this. First book was great, second was very good and this? This is just mediocre.

Rushed. That's how it feels, from one battle to another battle and so on. I missed the parts of character growth from first two books. I found myself skipping chapters and in the end I was probably reading only Vaelin's parts as those were at least a bit interesting. I was underwhelmed ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Fantasy Buddy Reads: Queen of Fire [Mar 7, 2018]	45	61	Mar 09, 2018 01:42AM
Goodreads Librari...: Request to add edition of Queen of Fire	4	19	Dec 17, 2017 11:34AM
Fantasy Book Club...: * Queen of Fire-Tower Lord #3	9	73	Jan 26, 2016 06:31AM
The Not a Book Cl...: QoF: Part 5 (Full Spoilers)	32	142	Jul 23, 2015 06:59PM
The Not a Book Cl...: QoF: Part 4	12	29	Jul 22, 2015 01:18PM
The Not a Book Cl...: QoF: Part 3	5	22	Jul 19, 2015 05:42PM

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Queen of Fire

(Raven's Shadow #3)

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