Getting closer to the bottom of my reading pile for this year!! Today, I’m reviewing The Raven’s Revenge by K. J. Wagner.
A dead man tells a single tale. A drowned man tells none.
A bloody civil war has left elves as the inferior race in the country of Curliffe. Hot-tempered elf Slate Raven takes to piracy in rebellion against the new norm, his sister Cal beside him on board their ship, The Raven’s Revenge. While rescuing their youngest sister from slavery, Slate and Cal hear of an ancient treasure. Rumoured to be magical, it’s the perfect prize to win for elfkind—if they can reach it first.
The adventure quickly proves to be more than they bargained for as they sail into unfamiliar waters. Slate pushes forward nonetheless, forcing his crew to their breaking point. But as dangers rise and tensions are strained, Slate finds himself forced to choose between his own goals and the safety of those he cares for most: his sisters.
The Raven’s Revenge is the story of Slate Raven and his sisters, Cal and Tinta. This is a world where a horrible civil war have left elves as mostly slaves. Some of them have escaped slavery to go onto do other things. In Slate’s case, he is a pirate. One of the only elf pirate captains, with a crew entirely of elves, with his own ship: The Raven’s Revenge.
His most important goal is to free his youngest sister, the last of his family enslaved, and along the way they learn of an ancient treasure, which if found, could change the fate of all elves in the world… but the journey will be hard… possibly harder than they can manage.
I liked The Raven’s Revenge. I enjoy a good pirate story. I had a couple of complaints along the way, but I did read this book mostly in one sitting. It’s a very fast paced read. Slate is (of course) a pirate, and while he cares deeply for his sisters, he can be brutal with a lot of others, especially anyone who is not an elf. He’ll kill people if necessary, and sometimes if not quite necessary. He will constantly try and justify everything he does, which got a tad annoying at times (and honestly, it mostly depends on what he is doing), and I thought his redemption arc, so to speak, was a little bit much, but all told, I did enjoy this read.
Cal and Tinta, who we also see points of view from, seem to balance out Slate. Cal is Slate’s First Mate (and eldest sister) and she seems to be largely the most responsible of the family. While she is also a pirate, she seems to take on most of the responsibility of the day to day operations of the ship and its crew. Tinta is the youngest sibling, and while she is a servant, she isn’t a slave like Slate and Cal think she is, and her and the master of the house’s (human…ish) son have a burgeoning relationship (that Slate reacts how Slate does about). I liked Tinta!
This book had an interesting world, with an interesting representation of elves, but also of dwarves. We mostly meet elves who are pirates, who act… well… like pirates. It gives an interesting antithetical view from the traditional sort of elves that one sees in fantasy, who are often depicted as graceful and soft-spoken. Dwarves especially are interesting in this book because they have…. wings? Odd for a race that is almost always depicted as living almost exclusively underground. These dwarves keep a naming convention where all of their surnames are metal, or gemstones (the elves all have animals or birds). I imagined the dwarves as somewhat looking like a gargoyle (okay, okay, a *grotesque* if it doesn’t spout water, before someone corrects me >.>).
All told, I had 8/10 stars of a good time with The Raven’s Revenge. I would recommend it to people who like a pirate story, and who like fantasy tropes that have been shaken up a little bit.
superstardrifter 
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