Review of "The Tower of Ravens" for Romance Review Web

"The Tower of Ravens" was reviewed by Jane Bowers for Romance Review Web. A copy of the review is listed here with kind permission of the reviewer, Jane Bowers, and Romance Review Web.

Females outnumber males among the Satyricorn, so it's not unusual for children to be fathered by captured males of other races. One-Horn's daughter is such a one, but in her case, she lacks the desirable traits of her mother's people. She has human feet instead of hooves, no tail, only two breasts, and worst of all, not a horn on her head. If the herd learns her menses have begun with no sign of a horn, they will kill her. Her only hope of escape is to capture and mount one of the wild flying horses she discovered nearby. One-Horn's daughter manages to throw herself onto the back of a beautiful black mare. The mare rears and bucks, but the girl has tied herself on, and eventually the horse takes flight and the two soar away.

On a last walk before returning to his studies at the Tower of Two Moons on the morrow, apprentice witch Lewen, son of Niall and Lilanthe, happens upon an unconscious rider bound to an exhausted horse. At first he thinks the rider is one of the king's Yoemen of the Guards, but soon realizes he's a she in Yoeman's clothes. Lewen manages to take both rider and winged horse home where his family can care for them. And a chancy task that turns out to be.

In spite of One-Horn's daughter's lithe grace and beauty -- once she's cleaned up -- she has the manners and temper of a wild beast and only rudiments of human speech. The mountain Satyricorn are brutish and dangerous, and the girl has had to be quick, strong, and clever to stay alive. Lewen and his parents manage to disarm her and tame her slightly. When they see how quickly the winged horse obeys the girl's unspoken commands, Lewen's parents decide she should travel with the group of apprentices coming for Lewen to try for a scholarship in witchcraft. After discovering the girl has no proper name, they bestow one upon her: Rhiannon, after the girl in a story who "rides so swiftly none can catch her."

A varied group of apprentices sets off on the journey under the care of Nina, a sorceress, and her husband Iven, a traveling minstrel. On their journey, they'll meet danger and evil, not least of them the walking dead. Rhiannon will learn many lessons, for she, who has known only anger and fear, will see love and sorrow, joy and tenderness for the first time in her life. However, there will also be consequences stemming from a desperate act committed by Rhiannon before she left the herd. She's an unusual heroine, ignorant and ruthless, yet even in the beginning she shows signs of a nascent conscience, though how it hasn't been completely eradicated by her cruel upbringing is near miraculous. Even so, Rhiannon has a ways to go before she's redeemed. She makes a good start in this first novel with an act of true heroism. Lewen, on the other hand, was lucky to grow up with good and loving parents and has become a kind and honorable young man just learning his witchcraft. The two make an unlikely pair, but whenever did love know logic? Their story will be continued in the next volume.

THE TOWER OF RAVENS is the first of a new trilogy by Australian author Kate Forsyth; it follows her previous books in The Witches of Eileanan series, which take place after a group of Scottish witches fled persecution in the sixteenth-century. They settled a new land -- with great difficulty -- inhabited by a myriad of beings, fae creatures of all sorts.

While THE TOWER OF RAVENS focuses on Lewen and Rhiannon and the other apprentices, Nina and Iven from the earlier series play important parts, as does Eileanan itself. Ms. Forsyth has created an elaborate and fascinating land with a history of battles between good and evil and peopled it with original beings with a Celtic flavor. Magic permeates this world.

I don't hesitate to recommend this exciting, well-written novel to fantasy lovers; however, the enjoyment would be greatly enhanced by reading The Witches of Eileanan series first. But if that's too ambitious for the moment, don't worry. There's a nine-page glossary in the back of THE TOWER OF RAVENS that explains terms and names for newcomers to Eileanan.

Jane Bowers.