The Raven Ring (Lyra, #5)

by Patricia C Wrede

The world of Lyra is the world of two moons which humans share with the folk of magic: the silvery people of the ancient Shee, the elusive forest-dwelling Wyrd, and the dread Shadow Born, whose evil seeps into men's hearts and the shadows of the world.In this Lyra adventure, a proud young mountain woman must leave her stronghold to travel to the city and accomplish a bitter task. Her mother, a soldier, died suddenly in the line of duty there, leaving behind the beautiful Raven Ring -- an ancient family heirloom that is much, much more than it seems.Retrieving her mother's ring is a simple matter -- but getting it home again will prove no easy task. For there are dark forces at work in Lyra....

• ISBN10: 0812514327
• ISBN13: 9780812514322
• Publish Date: 15 December 1995 (first published 1 November 1994)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 August 2000
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

3.5 stars

I finally finished the Lyra series that I started years ago. My primary disappointment in this book was mine and not the book at all. It's been so long since I read even the last book, let alone the first one, that I knew there was a lot of depth to the story I was aware of and not remembering. Shees and Wyrds and the history of wars and harps, there were connections to the earlier books I recognized (and some I probably didn't) and didn't recall. The nice thing about a standalone series, however, is that while earlier books can add depth to the story, they certainly aren't necessary to make it through this one.

And this one was nice, mild, fantasy fun. It was interesting to read the forward of the 5 book ebook set because Wrede talks about how her main character changed direction in the story. I could see, if not the precise point, at least the general vicinity where the story veered. I don't know what the plan was in the other direction but I rather liked the journey where it ended up.

I liked the cards because I think cards are really sort of intriguing things. I liked the Wrede had the whole deck sorted out even though they didn't all come into play and I liked the cards themselves. They were interesting and sometimes beautiful without being dark or morbid as some decks are. They sort of don't play a major role in the story, except that they get talked about an awful lot.

Speaking of talking, there was one section in the middle that felt like exposition after exposition. Wrede handled it very well and the information conveyed was never repetitive and there was a new flare each time. But for a while a character entered a room and said, "Tell me what's happened" and they told the story and then the scene shifted and someone walked in and said, "Bring me up to speed" and they told the story again. Three scenes all right in a row, "Tell me what's going on" and after the 4th time in three scenes, I was over it. Again, it's remarkable and impressive that she could have such redundancy and keep it from being repetitive. But as the reader, I knew what was going on, I wanted to the story to move forward instead of cycling through itself again.

And there's a good bit of exposition at the end that clears all the pieces up, which was nice but also just kind of... exposition.

That being said, I, almost surprisedly, liked the ending. In some ways it seemed too easy and abrupt. In other ways, I enjoyed that the story seemed to be going in one direction and then all the sudden "look where we are!" without a lot of spinning or nonsense in between. It played out logically and worked very well.

Overall, I think I might have enjoyed the series as a whole more if I stuck to it and grasped more of the threads between books. But if you're looking for pleasant, fantasy fiction, this works well.