"The Raven Tower" First Impressions *No Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Come talk about your initial, general impressions!

Please save all discussion of particulars, details from the story, character choices, plot questions, etc. for the full spoiler thread.

Content warnings for those who want them: (view spoiler)[ transphobia, suicide (from TWDB) (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Say you're an author, and you want your readers to experience your next book as if they were there; you really want them to connect to the words. You could write in the second person!

I first saw you when you rode out of the forest, past the cluster of tall, bulge-eyed offering stakes that mark the edges of the forest, your horse at a walk. You rode beside Mawat, himself a familiar sight to me: tall, broad-shouldered, long hair in dozens of braids...

The danger though, is that some of your readers might find it wearing. Put yourself in the place of the reader: You open your book with delight, feeling the anticipation. New world, new story, new life to live through someone else's eyes.... Birds! Fantasy about birds! Words take flight! Then a swift feeling of falling, paging ahead, distress when you realize it's going to be more effort than you thought, mental strain instead of mental release. The bird is plummeting! Noooo!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

when it serves a purpose, i find second person intriguing

[Ruth]

Allison wrote: "when it serves a purpose, i find second person intriguing"

I found the use of second person here really intriguing. Second person is definitely an expert-level technique which can be annoying in the wrong hands, but Ann Leckie is an expert.

Is anyone else reading the audiobook narrated by Adjoa Andoh? I think she does a great job of narration.

[Bonnie]

People doing the audiobook are missing the nice little raven silhouettes separating subsections of the book. About four or five different ones.

I could not relax not knowing who You and I were, so I went looking through GR reviews to find out.

At 10% now.

[Marie]

28%
I think I never read anything in 2nd person but I am fine with it. Getting used to it. And I think there is/will be good reason for it.

Still don't really know where this is going but I especially enjoy the way gods work/are depicted in this book. Want to see more of that. Can't really say how I feel about the story itself yet.

[Ann]

This book was available at the library so I was able to start it a few day as before May 1, I'm about 100 pages in (I get to see the birds!) The second person narration is different but I'm good with it so far. I like the main character and I'm interested to learn more about them.

[Gavin]

I read Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky and, surprisingly, I found it easy to get used to 2nd person narrative.

[D]

I'm the odd one out. I didn't get on with the second person writing and found it repeatedly thrust me out of the story. I gave up after 30 pages. I couldn't tell you what was going on at the time.

[Chris]

I'm only a handful of pages in. The 2nd person narrative seems interesting enough so far, but the information is dense enough that I think I really need to find time to sit down and just read, and lately my reading time has been bits and pieces of time here and there, and I don't think I can read this book like that.

[Beth]

I couldn't finish this with my library checkout last month... just got it back and finished, but I'm starting again because I think I missed a lot of stuff, partly because of the long wait to get it back. I enjoyed it, though, so I don't think I'll mind rereading.

[Paul]

Can't get on with the 2nd person. Actually it's not so much that, it's that there is a 1st person as well. Who is telling me this stuff? Makes me feel like the "you" has no agency.

I think the author might be being too clever for me.

I've not read a 2nd person story to completion yet but will give this more time. I like things more straightforward.

[Lana]

I bought the audiobook ages ago, and every time I started it, I gave up before even getting to the second chapter. I’m determined to get through it this time, but I think I might need to order the paper book. The narrator on the audiobooks goes a bit overboard with the farmer accents.

[James]

The 2nd person is taking me a bit to get used to, but I think I like it overall. I do hope though it also serves the story in some way and isn't just used to be different.

I also enjoyed the 1st person section I've read.

10% through and excited to read more.

[CBRetriever]

the 1st person sections are OK, the 2n person was difficult to get into, especially figuring out who you was referring to...

[J.W.]

I am trying to listen to the audiobook but this is a major example of a huge problem I have with some audiobooks--the reader intentionally is -extremely- quiet at times. I get that characters are whispering or have different tones or whatever, but for the sake of the listener, I feel like they should balance the sound to have the volume at a pretty steady level. With this book I either have to turn the volume off the charts all the way up to hear some of the lines or just hope I can pick up enough words here and there to get the general idea of what's being said. It's very, very frustrating.

I truly don't get this from major publishers, and it happens not infrequently. Do they think no one listens to the books while driving or doing things? It's like they think I'm just listening to the book while lying in a perfectly quiet room using noise canceling headphones.

Sorry about the rant, but I find this profoundly frustrating because the reader is clearly talented (I think the same one from the Ancillary Justice books?) and the book is intriguing, but I think I'm gonna need to grab a hard copy from the library to actually get through it.

[Chris]

I picked this up after finishing the sci-fi read and am about 20% through. I just have no time for anything lately with the end of the school year coming up, but so far I've found it all fascinating. Love the world lore, and how it ties to the story.

The second person hasn't bothered me at all. It almost feels like it's just reading a tale being told in the form of a letter to an old friend.

[Kaia]

I am reading this for the first time for the group re-reads. I love Ann Leckie, but I’ve only read her science fiction. It took me a bit to get used to the second person narration parts, but I am well and truly into it now and enjoying it (about 100 pages in). I especially like the world-building sections and the narrator’s reflections. I’m glad I chose the paper book for this one because the visual “raven” breaks between sections have been helpful (though I do really like the audiobook narrator).

[Cheryl L]

Kaia wrote: "I am reading this for the first time for the group re-reads. I love Ann Leckie, but I’ve only read her science fiction. It took me a bit to get used to the second person narration parts, but I am w..."

I've also only read Leckie's scifi and didn't even know she wrote fantasy. I'm listening to The Raven Tower and am enjoying it so far. Agreed that the second person narration takes a bit of getting used to.