Tower Lord

Tower Lord is the second book in the Raven's Shadow fantasy series by Anthony Ryan. Obviously if you haven't read the first book, this isn't the place to start but I'd recommend reading it.

Where's The Tower?

While this is most definitely a continuation of the story that Ryan started in Blood Song, he makes a bold, and risky, choice by changing narrative format. In the first book it was all the story of Vaelin Al Sorna as related by Vaelin to a scribe. It's not a literary device I particularly care for so I was quite happy to see it go away this time round. However, moving from a single viewpoint character to four is a pretty radical change to pull on you readers. And judging by the online reaction some of them really didn't like it. I'd argue that Vaelin is still very much the heart of the book and that even when he's not present, people have a tendency to be talking about him or waiting for him, but that may not be enough to appease some people.

Part of the problem here may be that the name and the description of the book are a bit misleading. Vaelin does indeed become Tower Lord and he does go there. But he doesn't stay and so that portion of the book is pretty short. Combine that with the fact that he is now only in a quarter of the book, but the synopsis makes no mention of this fact and you can see why people might be irritated. Expectations are dangerous things.

Growth

That isn't the only change Ryan made though. Vaelin himself is different. It's a reaction that makes perfect sense if you look at what he went through during Blood Song. But, again, there is a portion of the fan base that just wanted Vaelin to continue being the unstoppable, unflappable, killing machine that he was for so much of that book. I can somewhat see the appeal, but it would be a pretty shallow characterisation.

So instead we have Vaelin finally returning home to the Unified Realm and ready to lay down his weapon and retire. life, and the Volarian Empire, are not going to let him naturally. As a result the character is, not a pacifist, but much less inclined to go for his weapons. Think of him as something like Shane. What some see as weakness I see as a strength of the book. The returning characters have grown and changed from their experiences.

Because Vaelin is not alone in his changed behavior. While most of the returning characters are given only small roles, or killed off, two of the other viewpoint characters are recurring from the first book. It's good to get a better understanding of both Bother Frentis and Princess Lyrna by seeing the world from their eyes. And they too undergo major suffering and significant character change, it may be too early to call it growth.

Looking At The Bigger Picture

Another change in Tower Lord is that we get a better idea of how the Unified Realm fits into the larger world and also how that world and its schemes affect the unified realm. Indeed, the revelation near the end of the book that the entire Volarian invasion was essentially just so they could have a staging area to get at their real target is a pretty effective way to squash people's sense of importance.

We had mentions of a number of these places in Blood Song, but Ryan now has the luxury of three books to tell his story and so takes us on a grand tour of some of the major locations. You can certainly argue that this is the classic weakness of the middle book in a trilogy and I can't really refute it. On the other hand, I enjoyed reading about it, so I guess I don't care? It does help that while clearly setting the stage for the bigger enemy that he's been hinting at since the beginning, Ryan gave us an immediate threat to be addressed as well.

The cultures on the Raven's Shadow books may not be the most original of constructs but they are at least all quite distinct and feel relatively fully formed with belief systems and political systems in place that make sense. There is a feeling as the characters move about that they are actually in different places, not just the same semi-medieval fantasy realm.

What Happens After?

Religion plays a substantial role throughout this story. The Unified Realm itself is a place of multiple faiths, frequently warring with each other. Vaelin himself has now lost his faith after the revelations of the previous book. Meanwhile the fourth viewpoint character Reva is a zealot who gradually learns to question her faith, or at least the people instructing her faith.

In fact, somewhat interestingly, the only culture that doesn't seem to have any sort of spiritual belief is the Volarian Empire, who are most distinctly the bad guys in the book. And the reason for that seems to be that they have allied themselves with the, still unnamed, evil entity that Vaelin clashed with in the first book. An entity who is clearly manipulating things for his own ends.

There's a fundamental, unanswered, question at the heart of this story. Something happens to people's souls after they die. But what? It's an interesting question and I wonder if Ryan has an answer for it.

War Is Hell

Tower Lord certainly belongs to the modern style of fantasy where everything is gritty and dar and bloody. In this case we are shown at length just how unpleasant war and sieges can be. By the end it is not just the villains who are tainted, but the heroes also have done some pretty dark deeds. Ryan keeps the action fast enough that we don't dwell too long on the unpleasantness, but there is no escaping it. Rape, burning, mutilation, murder and just plain death are everywhere in Tower Lord. At this point in the saga only Vaelin's sister can really be described as pure in any sense of the word.

I am a bit weary of all the grime, but it's hard to argue with it when it is solidly executed like this.

I enjoyed this sequel to Blood Song very much. However I should have re-read Blood Song before reading this book. While the story was still compelling I found that I had forgotten many of the intricate character interactions from the first book and kept trying to remember all the details and so I probably missed out on some of the finer points that this book made.

I really enjoyed the not-quite-linear telling of the story through Vernier's account once more. It took a while to connect the dots which made it even better.

I enjoyed reading about Reva. She's quite an interesting character.

All in all however I found that most of the main characters had it a little easy. Maybe I've been spoiled by ASoIaF in that regard, after all there Lyrna had quite an adventure throughout the book.

There are very few explanations in this book regarding the story of the first. So if you read this: re-read the first before this one!