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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Retros_x" data-source="post: 9731613" data-attributes="member: 7033171">So I have finished "The Raven Scholar" by Antonia Hodgson!I think its quite the long time ago that I consumed a 700 page book that fast, it honestly felt more like 400 pages. Expertly paced, well plotted, intricate worldbuilding, interesting characters - this book has it all. I love how masterful the several plotlines and subplotlines get orchestrated by the author without ever being confusing. I also love how the character dynamics evolve over the course of the book. Some great prose too, sometimes even a bit experimental.The exposition was a bit heavy-handed in the first chapters, but overall better done than in most other fantasy books. Also for a book with such delicate pacing, sometimes the "expositition paragraphs" felt really off... but only in the first chapters. Because than something genius happens - we shift our POV to our main character - who is a nerd! She wants to explain stuff all the time. Suddenly the exposition feels not wrong and stiff, but it makes sense from the POV that everything gets explained. Loved this! I think it would've been cool if the first chapters would've done much less exposition so the POV shift would be even stronger in contrast.There were moments where the prose or the dialogue felt too modern for the time period I think this setting is inspired from. I remember for example some nobles at a dinner party complaining about their yachting crew. Sailing yacht as leisure for the rich developed in our world in 18th and 19th century, I envisioned the world in the book as older than that. Ofc a fantasy book doesn't need to follow real world timeline, but it felt a bit out of touch with the own worldbuilding, and I had several of these moments. I also am a bit annoyed by this new fantasy worldbuilding trope of castes/social classes that are very strictly defined. Every follower of the fox always behaves like this, every follower of the raven like that. It seems to be the new "elves are always like this and dwarves like that" of modern fantasy books, because I have seen this multiple times now, but normally more in YA (Red Rising comes to mind).Another small gripe, although its not even the authors fault: This was marketed as epic fantasy but it didn't felt like that until the final chapters. Regarding the climax of the book and where it left the characters and world - the trilogy will probably be quite epic. But for the most part of the book our characters are limited to one location, basically the seat of government. They solve a murder mystery and participate in a competition. Its all very exciting, but it doesn't feel like epic fantasy, it feels like we only see a small but focussed glimpse of the larger world. For me epic fantasy means the opposite, broad strokes into a huge world.But these are all minimal negative points. Every fantasy fan should pick this up, its just great, a super fun and easy read. Unfortunately I want the second book right now, but it will probably need a few years. Hopefully the second book writes faster because most of the world building is alredy done? I think I've read somewhere that Hodgson worked 5 years on the first book.</blockquote>

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