Friday, June 7, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater




The Raven King is the final book* in Maggie Stiefvater's "The Raven Cycle," concluding the series that began with The Raven Boys.  I've devoured this series, finishing the first three books over the last month and a half, as the characters and setting have been nearly impossible for me to resist.  Still, while each book has had a somewhat satisfying ending (well, book 2 and 3 more than the first one), the cycle has been plotting a long-term plot arc since the beginning, and with this book it clearly is coming to roost.  So how well this book executes the resolution of the hanging plot threads not only promised to color my reaction to this book,but the entire series.

*A new trilogy in this same universe, focused upon Ronan, is coming later this year but that will essentially be starting a new story even if featuring some of the same characters/setting.

Fortunately, The Raven King does not disappoint.  The relationships the series has been building finally blossom into full bloom, the issues involving Glendower, the Leyline, Cabeswater, Ronan, and Gansey's death sentence are resolved in really well done and often surprising ways, and overall the book and series ends in an incredibly satisfying fashion. I went into this series with a little apprehension but after The Raven King, I'm really happy I made the commitment as these wonderful characters were well worth my time.

Note: For obvious reasons, spoilers for the first three books are inevitable in the review below, so you have been warned.

Note 2: I read this book as an audiobook, as with the rest of the series, so if I misspell any names, that's why.  Still, the audiobook reader is one of the better ones I've listened to so I recommend the book in that format.

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
Something is wrong with Cabeswater and the Leyline.  A demon, unleashed by the greedy Piper Greenmantle and Neeve, is now present in Henrietta and is determined to unmake everything good Blue and her Raven Boys have found and done.  And while Piper may call down even more dangerous individuals upon Henrietta and the Boys, it is that evil which threatens to end everything as the group knows it.

In the midst of all of this, the boys and Blue will finally be forced to confront what they each mean to each other - as family.....and as more.  But the demon will not allow them much time to breathe and enjoy these new understandings, and it becomes clear that the group will finally soon be forced to finish their quest - to find the sleeping King Glendower and obtain his favor.

But it may require a sacrifice to complete their quest....a sacrifice foretold by Blue's vision earlier in the year, which could possibly tear apart the boys....forever.
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The Raven Cycle began with a pair of prophecies:  Gansey will die by the end of the year and Blue's kiss will kill her true love.  It has spent 3 books building up to those events, along with the discovery of Glendower.  It has further spent three books developing the relationships between its protagonists, whether that be platonic - or romantic.  And this is the book where all of that build up pays off.

And what a payoff.  The relationships between Gansey and Blue, Ronan and Adam bloom into full force in tremendous fashion, with the book finally ending the characters' practice of keeping their feelings for each other secret from one another.  I often talk about how fiction often requires moments for characters to breathe and develop and show who they truly are, and The Raven King has a truly tremendous such moment about 60% of the way through.  I'm not going into the specifics of why I love each character here, because well, I've done that in all of my other reviews, and if you've come this far into the series, you're already aware of how great each one of these characters is, and The Raven King only develops them further in truly fantastic ways.  I love them all so much.

More specifically to this book is how it manages to keep the story moving, tying up all of the loose ends, often in rather surprising ways.  To say how things are surprising, or which ones are surprising would be a spoiler, but suffice to say that everything that has been foretold happens, but only some of what has been prophesied happens as you would expect, and yet it all works in the end - with the ending being particularly satisfying.  I guess I'll add here that one really minor character introduced in the third book becomes a major character here, and he works really well as an addition to the cast.

If there's a negative with this book, it's that the book tries to hype up a set of potential new antagonists, only for them to turn out to be nothing compared to the ones we already have and have to deal with.  I kind of wonder if all the time spent developing them could've been cut for further scenes of some of the adults at 300 Fox Way and whether that might've improved things a bit.  But this is a minor complaint really, and other than it, I had practically no problems with the book.  If you've enjoyed the first three books in this series, you'll definitely be satisfied by this conclusion.  And if somehow you haven't read the first three books and were wondering if this series is worth your time, yeah it is.
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