Daughter of Crows

When it was announced that Mark Lawrence's newest trilogy would be a return to the grimdark subgenre, I was really happy. The Broken Empire series unleashed the author on an unsuspecting world, but each new sequence saw Lawrence edge further away from his grimdark roots. Daughter of Crows is indeed darker than his past few books, yet it's not grimdark the way Prince of Thorns and its sequels originally were. In style and tone, it's more akin to the Book of the Ancestor trilogy.

In many ways, I felt that it was a return to form for Lawrence, whose Library trilogy never quite managed to grab me the way all of his other works did. Daughter of Crows marks the auspicious beginning of what could be another memorable series.

Here's the blurb:

The survivor of a brutal academy must exhume her own past in the first book in a new series from the international bestselling author of the Library Trilogy and the Broken Empire series.

Set a thief to catch a thief. Set a monster to punish monsters.

The Academy of Kindness exists to create agents of retribution, cast in the image of the Furies—known as the kindly ones—against whom even the gods hesitate to stand. Each year a hundred girls are sold to the Academy. Ten years later only three will emerge.

The Academy’s halls run with blood. The few that survive its decade-long nightmare have been forged on the sands of the Wound Garden. They have learned ancient secrets amid the necrotic fumes of the Bone Garden. They leave its gates as avatars of vengeance, bound to uphold the oldest of laws.

Only the most desperate would sell their child to the Kindnesses. But Rue … she sold herself. And now, a lifetime later, a long and bloody lifetime later, just as she has discovered peace, war has been brought to an old woman’s doorstep.

That was a mistake.

Mark Lawrence finally spilled the beans in The Girl and the Mountain by revealing that all of his series were related. Then came The Girl and the Moon, which felt like the culmination of Lawrence's entire body of work. Though it didn't provide all the answers we were looking for and it did raise its fair share of new questions, that novel was the one work that tied the Broken Empire, The Red Queen's War, the Book of the Ancestor, the Impossible Times, and the Book of the Ice series together. Though supposedly unrelated, it's evident that the Library trilogy also takes place in the same universe. Trouble is, the way the author set up his universe, both in time and space, everything he'll write from now on could well be related to the rest of his past series. Or not. So is Daughter of Crows linked to the other series in any way? It appears that this new trilogy takes place on the world of Abeth, but eons following the Book of the Ice trilogy. Having said that, this could just be an Easter egg and I could be completely wrong.

As is usually his wont, especially in the first volume of a new series, Mark Lawrence keeps his cards close to his chest as far as the worldbuilding is concerned. Damn him, for the back story for this one seems to be quite fascinating! Or the middle story, to be exact. We do get a good chunk of the back story via the Academy of Kindness timeline. And though only a fraction of Rue's storyline taking place in the present is explored, it's what happened in between the old woman's girlhood and her retirement as a Kindness that is the missing link. And that's what I'm dying to find out! Some might think that the Academy of Kindness is somewhat similar to the Sweet Mercy convent, yet it's not the case. Though the storylines bear some resemblance, what with two sets of young girls growing up and being trained in what can only be called a hostile environment, Daughter of Crows has very little in common with Red Sister and its sequels. Greek mythology is at the heart of this tale and not just with the Kindly Ones' myth. Which is why I may be wrong with thinking that this one occurs on Abeth. Several of Earth's religions also exist on this world. It will be interesting to discover just how the man who'll become Emperor Sunder managed to bind the Cruelties to him and conquer most of the continent. It will also be interesting to see how the Kindnesses were ultimately hunted down and killed and the Academy of Kindness destroyed. All in all, Daughter of Crows raises plenty of questions while supplying very little in terms of answers. Man, that Thorn Guy sure knows how to keep you intrigued!

I'm more than a little fed up with the academia trope, so the Academy of Kindness' storyline didn't appeal to me as much as the rest of the novel. I really liked how the author came up with a number of perspectives that kept you guessing as to which one would turn out to be Rue. That was deftly done by Lawrence and it kept the POVs fresh. Especially Eldest's POV which, for the longest time, didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the tale. Still, as a crone filled with rage and regret, Rue just might be Lawrence's most compelling protagonist thus far. She's the perfect narrator for what promises to be a brutal tale of revenge. And yet, there is light amidst all that darkness and violence, and the bonds forged amongst death and suffering created friendships that last to this day.

Daughter of Crows suffers from a few pacing issues. While Rue's plotline moves fast and needs to be restrained while the rest of the storylines can catch up, everything that has to do with the Academy of Kindness' timeline moves rather slowly. And since that particular timeline covers a number of years while Rue's timeline only covers a few days, the rhythm between the two can be decidedly uneven at times. It's never boring, mind you. It's just that Lawrence needs to spend a lot of time laying the groundwork for the rest of the series. Hence, it takes a while for all the plotlines to start making sense and give you a general idea of what the story is all about.

The author makes up for it later in the book. He brings this one to a satisfying close, but with another damned cliffhanger ending that might not please everyone. Then again, if you've been a Mark Lawrence fan for some time, you're probably used to it by now. Thank God the rest of the trilogy is already written and we know we're getting the second volume next year! Still, probably due to the fact that a lot of groundwork needed to be laid out, Daughter of Crows doesn't stand as well on its own as previous first installments from Lawrence did.

Can't wait to find out what happens next!

The final verdict: 7.75/10

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.