Sharp Words

7 out of 10  

Jack of Ravens is the seventh novel in a sequence by Mark Chadbourn, preceded by a pair of trilogies: The Age of Misrule and The Dark Age.  My partner picked up one of the first trilogy from the library a few years back; we were both immediately hooked and now own the first six books (and will be buying the rest).

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to review this novel without giving away some of what’s happened in the previous books, so beware of spoilers.  I’d also recommend not reading it unless a) you haven’t read any of the previous books (in which case you might be confused, but not too badly) or b) have read the second trilogy more recently than the first.  I made the mistake of re-reading The Age of Misrule but not The Dark Age immediately before reading Jack of Ravens for the first time, and without a good memory of what happens in the final book of The Dark Age, I spent much of this novel wondering why certain things didn’t fit with my memories of The Age of Misrule.

Although I did enjoy this novel and thought it fitted well into the series, at times it just felt like a lot of expositional material for the purpose of plot advancement, rather than actual events. Previous books showed a lot more of how the characters changed according to what happened to them; although Church doesn’t really change much (nor does he need to), other characters do, and it’s not really shown how or why. I think the overall feeling that the book gave me was ‘tell, not show’, when good writing should ideally be the other way around. Still, it was all necessary stuff in order for the series to move on, and there were some interesting moments that felt things were being set up for future plot points.

To recap the previous trilogies: in The Age of Misrule, the world changes. It’s out with technology and in with magic as Otherworld starts to bisect with our world, and the old Celtic spirits/gods come back and the Blue Fire (the spirit of everything, more or less) comes to life once more. It’s a straight fight between the Tuatha de Danann and the Formorii with humans caught in the middle. Five champions - the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons: Jack Churchill (Church), Ryan Veitch, Ruth, Laura and Shavi - come together and are caught up in the fight against evil, with the assistance of Tom - an old hippie who turns out to be True Thomas, a legendary figure who was lived for years in Otherworld.
At the end of this trilogy, the good guys win but not after terrible sacrifice from the Five; Church is forced to kill Ryan, and then ends up back in history more than 2,000 years just as a previous battle between the Tuatha de Danann and the Formorii is taking place.

In The Dark Age, it’s no longer just the good gods against the evil ones; it’s now Otherworld + humans - all of Existence - against the Void which is coming. A new Five appears but things don’t go as hoped for anyone, and choices are made which mean that the Void manages to subvert Existence, so it’s as if The Age of Misrule had never happened. Church is still back in time and the remaining Brothers and Sisters of Dragons from both sets of Five are living humdrum lives but with a sense that something isn’t quite right.

And so we come to Jack of Ravens. We’re immediately plunged back over 2,000 years to Celtic Cornwall, where Church finds himself in a small village, with a black spider embedded in him which is slowly killing him. (Luckily, being an archaelogist, he can at least make sense of the language!) From people he meets, the first Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are brought together - only to be killed (except for Church) in strange circumstances. Church finds himself in Otherworld under the power of Niamh, queen of one of the twenty courts and in the company of a strange man named the Mocker. That’s where he stays, more or less, for the next 2,000 years with occasional trips out, during which we meet other Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, as well as Tom (who can see glimpses of the future). He also finds out that not only has Ryan Veitch been brought back from the dead (with a huge grudge), but he’s working for the Void, has corrupted the original Brothers and Sisters who he had killed so that they too now serve the Void, and they are killing any new Brothers and Sisters they can find…

All in all, it looks pretty bleak for our heroes, what with the evil Libertarian and the Army of Ten Billion Spiders moving into everything, working through history to set up the world they brought into being at the end of The Dark Age. Shavi, Laura and Ruth are all stalked by a man named Rourke who tries to prevent power and knowledge from awakening in them again, but fails; Church watches this happening as he moves through time, trying to make tiny changes which will lead to a better outcome when he finally reaches his own time.

The stories of the conflict between the Void and those who fight for Existence is intriguing; it feels like a ‘wheels within wheels’ sort of plot, and there’s quite a lot of philosophical mutterings to go with it (particularly about Gnosticism). There are some good new characters - my favourite was Jezry the Mocker - and some great use of myths and historical events such as the disappearances at Roanoke Island back in the 16th century and a lovely sequence set in the 60s. I suppose a lot does happen - it just doesn’t feel like it’s happening, if that makes sense, which is why Jack of Ravens only got a 7/10 from me.  But it’s definitely worth reading if you’ve been following the series so far!

The Age of Misrule: World’s End, Darkest Hour and Always Forever
The Dark Age: The Devil in Green, The Queen of Sinister and The Hounds of Avalon