Here are 25 books that The Raven Scholar fans have personally recommended if you like
The Raven Scholar.
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_____________________________ Beware the evil in the woods...
In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.
But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .
Bloodie Bones introduces Bow Street Runner, Dan Foster. From a homeless street urchin to a rising law officer, Dan has fought his way off the streets of London using his wits and his fists.
In 1796, Dan is sent to Barcombe in Somerset to investigate the murder of Lord Oldfield’s…
I decided to treat myself to re-reading one of the best Sci-fi books I had ever read. Many years had passed. So much so that I had only a vague recollection that the book was excellent. A thought process interceded, "The Odyssey" was released as a film and so I thought to renew my aquaintance with Homers epic poem. I then thought of "Illium" Dan Simmons scifi take on the Trojan war which in turn led me to remember how good "Hyperion" was. I viewed the novel with both trepidation and exceitment; I was much younger when I first read the novel, was I now jaded and would not enjoy it? Was it not all that I remembered it to be? My worries were foolish, the novel and it's sequel (The Fall of Hyperion) were all that I had remembered. One of the greatest works of speculative fiction ever produced.…
A fine book. Set in alternate reality modern(ish) times with TVs, aircraft etc but with the power in the hands of clans that have personal combat magics that make them the dominant force in the setting.
Constantly engaging with a great portrait of "crime family" dynamics in a non-western setting. Shades of The Godfather and other Mafia tales, but also very much its own thing.
The jade-based magic system is both simple and interesting.
I wasn't particularly moved on an emotional level but the story with exciting, entertaining, and had lots of fascinating detail both on the small scale (street fights, family arguments, training school scenes) and the large (nations vying for power, government vs clan interactions etc). And the story has great potential to expand.
This will have to be a brief review - finished the book while sitting up all night with my daughter…
'An epic drama reminiscent of the best classic Hong Kong gangster films but set in a fantasy metropolis so gritty and well-imagined that you'll forget you're reading a book' KEN LIU
'Gripping!' ANN LECKIE, author of Ancillary Justice and The Raven Tower
'Lee's astute worldbuilding raises the stakes for her vivid and tautly-described action scenes' SCOTT LYNCH, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora
*****Shortlisted for the Nebula Awards, the Locus Awards, the Aurora Awards, the Sunburst Awards and an Amazon.com Best Book of the Month*****
Bloodie Bones introduces Bow Street Runner, Dan Foster. From a homeless street urchin to a rising law officer, Dan has fought his way off the streets of London using his wits and his fists.
In 1796, Dan is sent to Barcombe in Somerset to investigate the murder of Lord Oldfield’s…
Strong and complex heroines, a beautiful homage to and blend of European fairytales, lovely flowing writing, believable enemies-to-lovers storyline progression, the way how all the POVs and plotlines came together in a compact and satisfying whole.
Following her award-winning novel Uprooted, Naomi Novik has once again been influenced by classic folktales. Taking Rumpelstiltskin as her starting point, Spinning Silver is rich, original and a joy to read.
Will dark magic claim their home? Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father's too kind-hearted to collect his debts. They face poverty, until Miryem hardens her own heart and takes up his work in their village. Her success creates rumours she can turn silver into gold, which attract the fairy king of winter himself. He sets her an impossible challenge - and if she fails,…
Megan is a long-time resident of queer fantasy romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She has been doing so for nearly twenty years, and hopes to do it at least another twenty. She is asexual, biromantic, and married to a wonderful woman. When she’s not busy writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies and play video games.
Another great book rife with tension and terror, about a team who go in search of what killed their friends and loved ones, a nightmare recorded on video but hard to believe, a terror buried in the depths of the Marianas Trench. I love this fascinating take on mermaids, how the book keeps you on tenterhooks the whole time, waiting to see what will happen, who is next, and what sort of monsters we haven't even seen yet.
Exceptional, despite the oodles of death. Think Maze Runner meets Ready Player One meets Hunger Games, with a dash of Highlander. Loved the characters. Loved the morals. Loved the Running Man moments. And the aliens. ALL THE ALIENS. I stayed up far too late trying to finish it, then stayed in bed the rest of the morning finishing it. After reading this I binged the rest of the series, and I’m waiting impatiently for book #9!
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and…
Growing up in theatre, I was completely immersed in plays, which tend to be deep dives of the human psyche, and I latched on to those examinations like a dog with a bone. I’ve always loved the complexities of the human mind, specifically how we so desperately want to believe that anything beautiful, expensive, or exclusive must mean that the person, place, or thing is of more value. But if we pull back the curtain, and really take a raw look, we see that nothing is exempt from smudges of ugliness. It’s the ugliness, especially in regard to human character, that I find most fascinating.
I started acting on stage at age five and have continued working in theater since, ultimately becoming a playwright. So, the theatre kid in me ate this book up! Much like The Secret History, the setting of If We Were Villians absolutely sucked me in and did not once let me go. I found it a perfect example of beautiful young adults living a dreamlike experience at school, all the while being horrible human beings.
It was the first book in years that I found myself making excuses to go hide in isolation so I could continue reading. In my opinion, M.L. Rio did a spectacular job of making extremely oddball characters, who speak in Shakespearian clips and have blinding tunnel vision view of their art, into people who seemed eerily real. This book is definitely going in my “to be read again” pile.
Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends - a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened ten years ago. As a young actor studying Shakespeare at an elite arts conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same roles onstage and off - villain, hero, tyrant, temptress - though Oliver felt doomed to always be a secondary…
This book reminded me why science fiction was my first literary love. It explores the inherent weaknesses of political systems built on greed, set in a unique world that draws from the Roman Empire. Its greatest strength, though, lies in its characters and their fight against impossible odds as they rise toward power and try to disrupt the system from within.
At the elite Catenan Academy, where students are prepared as the future leaders of the Hierarchy empire, the curriculum reveals a layered set of mysteries which turn murderous in this new fantasy by bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.
Vis, the adopted son of Magnus Quintus Ulcisor, a prominent senator within the Hierarchy, is trained to enter the famed Catenan Academy to help Ulciscor learn what the hidden agenda is of the remote island academy. Secretly, he also wants Vis to discover what happed to his brother who died at the academy. He's sure the current Principalis of…
This book is unique in the realm of fantasy, and it dragged me in from the first few pages. The story is built and revealed slowly, always leaving you wanting to read more to find out more about this new world.
The setting and magic are different from anything I've ever read, with heavy influences from Egypt and the surrounding areas, something that has always been a great weakness for me. The visuals were stunning, I have rarely seen a story from a page so clearly in my head. Between the absolutely beautiful artwork and the fast-paced twisting plot, to the brilliant finale, I was enthralled the whole way through and eagerly awaited the next installment. I very rarely begin a series when I know there will be more, but in this case, I just couldn't wait.
As with a lot of books this year, I was drawn in by…
In a world of forbidden magic and cunning royals, a fugitive queen bargains with her kingdom's greatest enemy and is soon embroiled in a deadly game that could resurrect her scorched kingdom, or leave it in ashes forever. A stunning enemies-to-lovers fantasy debut, perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and The Jasmine Throne.
At ten years old, the Heir of Jasad flees a massacre that takes her entire family.
At fifteen, she buries her first body.
At twenty, the clock is ticking on Sylvia's third attempt at home. Nizahl's armies have laid waste to Jasad and banned magic across the…