Lucas Blogs About The Raven Tower

What knockers!

Ann Leckie is one of my favorite science fiction writers. Back in 2013, I picked up her debut novel, Ancillary Justice, and was unsurprised to see it sweep the major science fiction awards the next year. I mean, how could it not? A sci-fi revenge drama about a starship tracking down an evil galactic emperor for ordering her to kill her favorite officer? And one that vividly describes multiple cultures and the complex ways in which they interact? And that includes compelling side characters who undergo personal growth? I'm gushing, aren't I? Get used to it. Anyway, I devoured the subsequent books in the trilogy, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, and the stand-alone follow up, Provenance, set in a different corner of the galaxy, but still dealing with some of the fallout of the Imperial Radch trilogy. That said, as much as I like the universe Leckie created in those books, I was interested to see what she would do in a fantasy setting. That's where The Raven Tower comes in.

So, let's start with an elevator pitch for the book's central conceit: Hamlet from Horatio's perspective as told by God. This is a gross oversimplification, but we'll start from there. The novel is narrated by a deity we later learn is called the Strength and Patience of the Hill to Eolo, the aide-de-camp of Mawat who is returning to the city state of Vastia (capital of a larger empire in Iraden) after a military campaign. They discover, upon their return, that something is rotten. The Raven has died and Mawat's father has disappeared. This is a problem. You see, the Raven is the patron deity of Vastia, and while the god hasn't actually died, the bird who acts as his avatar has. When that happens the Raven's Lease (who happens to be Mawat's father) is supposed to commit suicide to fulfill the city's pact with the Raven. However, instead of doing that, Mawat's father appears to have fled, and Mawat's uncle, Hibal, has taken his place as the new Raven's Lease while they wait for the egg of the next avatar to hatch. As you can imagine, this has happened at the worst possible time, since Mawat's military campaign is going okay, but not great, and some suspicious travelers from Xulah are trying to gain access to the strait between Vastai and Ard Vusktia. Of course Mawat handles this in the most mature manner possible: by staging a public shame display while Eolo does all the hard work of getting to the bottom of the Lease's disappearance. Meanwhile, the reader is beginning to suspect that something is up with the Raven Tower itself, because it's pretty clear that the Raven isn't the only god there, and where else could the Strength and Patience of the Hill (henceforth SaPotH) be narrating from?

At first, I was a little put off by the book because it's written in the second person pov. And I couldn't help but think, "No I didn't," whenever SaPotH described what Eolo was doing. Eventually I was won over by SaPotH's conversational tone. It was more like listening in on a story than being told what I had done. There's also the fact that the events in the present are broken up by SaPotH's description of their life story, from the time of the trilobites to roughly the Iron Age (hmm, well, it's clearly not on Earth, or at least, not ours, but you get the idea). This is where the reader comes to understand the nature of divinity in the book's world. See, the gods' power rests in their ability to manifest their will into reality (usually) through the use of language. A god speaks and reality reshapes itself to reflect their words. The danger in this (to the god) is that if the god tries to alter reality too drastically, the attempt will drain their power and result in their death.

This is an interesting way of getting around the question of SaPotH's reliability as a narrator. If they say something, either it is true or their statement makes it true. It also leads to SaPotH qualifying statements with phrases like "I've heard" or "I believe" or even "Here's a story I heard." This contributes to chatty tone which makes the second person narration a bit easier to accept, and also makes the reader feel like SaPotH's confidante. We learn about the nomad tribes that worshipped them, their relationship with other regional gods like the Myriad, which manifests as both a meteorite and a cloud of mosquitoes, and eventually, the conflict between the gods of the North and the gods of Iraden, which came to a head at the strait between Ard Vusktia and Vastia.

If SaPotH comes across as a bit of a gossip, Eolo is more guarded. This is partly because he was born a girl and lives as a man, something that is not widely accepted in Iraden. Obviously, the reader can identify him as transgender, but the characters don't have a word for it; though Eolo's love interest (and Mawat's childhood friend) Tikaz does mention a relative in Ard Vusktia who lives as gender other than the one they were assigned at birth (Ard Vusktia is definitely the less uptight of the two cities where most of the action takes place). In any case, Eolo's caginess works well with with his story investigating the Raven's Lease's disappearance. He's sort of an Iron Age hard-boiled detective, taking and giving hard knocks and getting in over his head as he uncovers something that maybe would have been better left hidden (there are also some slightly Lovecraftian horror elements to his discovery).

So, I've already talked about this a little, but one of Ann Leckie's greatest strengths as a speculative fiction writer is her ability to use small, specific details for effective world-building. Whether it's SaPotH's use of rune-casting to communicate with humans or the fact that twins are taboo in Iraden, Leckie seems to have an instinct for just how much information is necessary to make a culture feel specific without overwhelming the reader with info-dumps. And it doesn't hurt to have a narrator, like SaPotH, who is always eager to pass along a story they've heard.

Well, I think that's everything I've got to say about The Raven Tower. Well, no, there's one more thing. It's refreshing to pick up a fantasy novel that isn't interested in starting a series. While I would love to see Leckie write more stories in this world, there is something to be said for starting and completing a story in a single book. So yeah, I recommend this book, especially if you've got too much on your plate to think about starting a longer book series (that said, you should really pick up the Earthsea books, they're worth the time).

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, Orbit Books hardcover edition, February 2019, 407 pages, pairs well with sugar and protein manifested through godly power

Links:

Here's the author's website, if you're into that kinda thing.

Here's the author's tumblr, if you're into that kinda thing.

I would be remiss if I didn't remind you of this badass short story Leckie wrote about a velociraptor Mars expedition.

P.S. - Congrats to the USWNT on their Women's World Cup win!