ACTUAL RATING: 3.75/5



“And Grandfather Crow said to First Woman, tell me your stories so that I might know who you are and what you value. If your stories are of the glory of war, I will know you value power. If your stories are of kinship, I know you value relationship. If your stories are of many children, I know you value legacy. But if your stories are of adaptation and survival, of long memory and revenge, then I will know you are a Crow like me.”

This book was the monthly pick of The Fantasy Guild Book Club.

It's been long years since the bloody Night of Knives took place in Tova, a tragic event that led to the slaughter of hundreds of people from the Crow Clan. Despite the passage of time, crows never let go of the grudge against those who wronged them, and a man called Serapio, son of a woman who is vehement on revenge, becomes a vassal of the Crow God and is set to return to Tova on the day of the solstice to unleash the wrath of the crow deity on the organization responsible for that bloody massacre. Thus begins this story set in a very rich world inspired by the Pre-Columbian Americas, giving this book a unique feel not easily found in other works.

This story was really easy to get into, since the writing here flowed so smoothly. Rebecca Roanhorse is definitely a great writer, and the way she weaves her words together sucks the reader in and makes them want to keep flipping the pages. The writing is a perfect blend of concrete and literal which makes the world tangible and feel real, and abstract and philosophical which shows the reader the bigger picture and the moral of the story, giving a bird's eye view of certain concepts like vengeance, pride and honour that shape the pillars of the character's choices in the story. Rebecca Roanhorse doesn't drown us in too many unnecessary details and keeps the plot moving, all the while managing to make the world feel rich and real, which is a breath of fresh air I always appreciate.



The world building was done pretty well here too, and I easily visualized the misty elevated districts of Tova, the dark and shadowy lower districts of town and the turbulent waters of the sea. This book has a lot of Native American lore woven into it and given nice twists by the author, from the smallest details like cacao being used as a currency to the richly coloured Native American inspired traditional dresses and the animal symbolism. LGBTQA+ representation was also present and an aspect I really enjoyed here, especially the presence of different genders, which also accurately reflect on Native history where genders outside the binary did exist and had social representation. This is the first book I read which makes use of non-binary pronouns, and I was pleasantly surprised.



Characterization wise, I was mainly very intrigued by Xiala and Serapio. Xiala's backstory as a Teek was nicely written, and I enjoyed the similarities between Sirens and Teek culture. Serapio's quiet, self contained, yet enormous strength was nicely written as well. Their dynamic was enjoyable to read, since Xiala's outgoing and expressive personality is the Yang to Serapio's calm, self-contained and receptive Yin. I wasn't very impressed by Naranpa, who didn't really display any qualities that justify her occupying the powerful position of a Sun Priest, and Okoa didn't feel like he had his own unique voice, and I found his POV to be quite irrelevant for the majority of the book.

A non-POV character I was intrigued by was Iktan, since xe was shrouded in mystery and xir dynamic with Naranpa was honestly the one of the only few aspects which made her POV interesting to me.

Issues I had with this book:

I will first be mentioning the issues I had with this book in a general sense before giving some specific (spoiler-filled) examples.

Firstly, although we had 4 POV's, I was mainly truly invested in 2, Xiala and Serapio. Naranpa's characterization was mostly a "telling instead of showing" situation, which I'm not really a fan of. She's supposed to be a character who occupies a high position, given to her despite her lineage not being appropriate, due to some quality she possesses that makes her right for the job. However, I have failed to see this in her, since she seems to be pretty average at best, not possessing any outstanding traits that make her suitable for the high post she occupies. On the contrary, she spent most of the book being outsmarted and bested by others, and failed to assertively establish her authority for most of the time, which I found to be irritating, since I would expect more bite from a character who has "rightly earned" the highest position in an institution. Another quite useless POV in my opinion was Okoa, since his character barely did anything throughout this book. I kept expecting something to happen with him, but he just felt like an observer, looking at events going on and describing them to the reader.

This brings me to another problem I had; to me, this book didn't feel very self-contained. Even if the story is meant to be a trilogy, I personally prefer for each book to have elements that give the book a sense of completeness. Specifically, I don't enjoy characters being introduced and having their own POV's if there isn't enough depth and good plot given to them, with the sole justification that they will play a more crucial role in the next books in the series. This is the impression I got from Okoa as a character, since I think he will play a larger role in the second installment of this series.

There were certain unrealistic elements to the plot as well, specifically one instance where two characters who had a very troubled fallout for more than a decade, yet somehow reconcile in one chapter. Additionally, a trope I'm not a fan of was used in the book, which is too much of a plot convenience to my liking, unless done very convincingly and with high stakes. Another plot convenience was also present. I will mention these specifically at the end of this section.

The final issue I will be mentioning is the problem I had with the climax/ending of the book. Although the story progression was pretty good and easy to read, I felt that the climax was a letdown. We were promised something big, and the whole book is spent anticipating that big event that was going to take place at the end, but once it did take place, I was left thinking "oh, was that it?". Don't get me wrong, the event itself was pretty huge, but the writing didn't succeed in making it the intense experience it was supposed to be, at least in my opinion. The author could have poured some more emotion and soul into it.

The ending itself was very abrupt and sudden, and it didn't really end in a way that made me crave to instantly read the second book. I was even surprised that it was really the ending, and once I turned the page and saw the acknowledgments, I was left shocked. There was no satisfying build up to reach the conclusion and it felt like the book I read simply had the last chapter(s) missing.

Examples of some elements I disliked:

Spoiler

- Naranpa mentions the fact that her brother Denaochi is "dead to her", which has the reader assume that he has done something terrible. However, when her position is usurped, she runs to him for help, and once she finds him, we realize he went through traumatizing events, including having his brother and mother die, and being sexually assaulted while having to work in pleasure houses. He resents his sister for leaving and never looking back, and has become the leader of an underground organization, which doesn't seem to me as something justifying why Naranpa considers her brother "dead to her". Regardless, we clearly see how broken their relationship is, and expect it to take a lot of time to mend, if possible at all. However, this issue gets resolved in one chapter, and he quickly offers his aid and concern to her, even asking his witch to help her. This story line felt too easily resolved, and as a big plot convenience.

- Linked to this was the process of Naranpa being able to see her brother in the first place. She had to play her way through a gambling game to gain her brother's attention, and knowing she hasn't played this particular game in decades, one would expect her to not so easily beat a professional who's experienced in the game and does this quite regularly. However, she manages to beat him since the game is supposedly based on luck, and luck happened to have favoured her that one time. Perhaps it's believable, but it also felt like a convenience.

- When Naranpa throws herself off the bridge and eventually dies, Denaochi's witch Zataya comes and begins a resurrection spell on her. We don't see her actually coming back to life, and Zataya herself isn't sure it will work, but it is highly likely that she will be resurrected. I personally don't like the resurrection trope being used this way, and if she is indeed resurrected, I hope this has repercussions on her character in the second book... If a resurrection spell is so easy, what stops other characters from being resurrected? Is it solely the fact that you need a witch who happens to know this magical process that comes from the south and isn't well known? But if such spells are effective, I'm sure knowledge of them should have spread wide enough already... (Even though Serapio also evaded death when he was supposed to die, I think there might be a valid justification for the crows to sacrifice themselves to save him, since he didn't end up killing the real Sun Priest).

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this book was pretty good, with a nice writing style that keeps the reader wanting to turn the pages and a rich and unique world. I had a lot of fun reading this.. Some plot choices the author made were not to my liking, and the climax and the end of the book somewhat compromised my enjoyment of it, though I still liked it in general. I will be giving this a 3.75 stars, since it is pretty good and to me, at the upper end of the 3-star category but not quite getting to 4 stars because of the issues I mentioned.


A lot of research went into this book and the information from Native American culture was used nicely.

I will be reading the second installment when it comes out, and I do recommend fantasy lovers to give this book a try!

“I am the only storm that matters now, and there is no shelter from what I bring.”