The Raven Ring (Lyra, #5)

by Patricia C Wrede

[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.