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The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede
Review by Kelanin
Sometimes, a book comes along that is a breath of fresh air. The Raven Ring was just that for me. After slogging through The Dragonbone Chair and Tad Williams' suffocating prose and plodding main character, Patricia Wrede's always light and fast-paced writing was a wonderful and refresshing change.
The Raven Ring is the 5th novel set in Wrede's (that's pronounced
REEdee if you are wondering) Lyra world. The books of the series are each
stand-alone and can be read pretty much in any order. The Raven Ring would be
2nd in the chronology despite being the last written.
The Story: Eleret receives news that her mother has died while serving in the Imperial Army. The proud Cilhar warrior Eleret travels from her mountain home to the city to retrieve her mother's gear. This simple task turns out to be anything but! Not only are there suspicions about how her mother died, but someone wants her mother's personal effects and is willing to kill to get them!
The story is very enjoyable and fast paced. The Lyra setting is almost incidental to the tale itself. Eleret is an interesting and engaging protagonist and her key supporting characters such as Lord Daner the swordsman/mage and Karvonen the irrepressable thief are excellent and memorable. There is some great humour and clever dialogue that made me smile more than once.
I'd give the book 4 out of 5 Amulets.
---Kel!
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