Tower Lord

The Raven's Shadow books are first and foremost simply entertaining. Anthony Ryan has a strong and engaging voice that makes these books eminently readable. The key draw for me are the characters - they are all richly developed and fun and engaging to read. Whilst Vaelin is a bit of a super character, the others are all nicely flawed and limited. Even Vaelin, despite his apparent immense abilities, still finds himself frequently in the wrong place, so there is definitely a sense of risk carried through the book.

As I said in my Blood Song review, these books are not innovative or boundary breaking, but they are extremely well written. I would rather take a well written and enjoyable book over a truly innovative one. Hard to put down and a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy!