Jason Ray Carney's Reviews > A Gathering of Ravens

This is a compelling fantasy novel, thoughtful, enthralling, and delightfully difficult to define: on the one hand, it is a historical fantasy written in the tradition of Robert E. Howard's "Worms of the Earth," and so *of* the sword and sorcery tradition (but not quite). On the other hand, it is also influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's vision of the orcs, so it is *of* the the epic fantasy tradition (but not quite). Either way, it is saturated by Northern European mythology and history, structured by literary allusions to the Beowulf legend, and written in a vital, action-packed style. Thus, it is an eclectic mixture of the "high" (medieval literature and "pagan" mythology) and the "low" (pulp literature and the modern fantasy genre). Central to the novel is the rich moral tension between the two main characters: Grimnir (a pagan devil) and Étaín (a Christian saint). Grimnir is driven by vengeance, hatred, and anger, and Étaín by mercy, love, and hope. It's difficult to imagine but this novel dramatizes the way these two opposing forces arrive at a sort of modus vivendi, a "beyond good and evil" understanding, perhaps best articulated in High King Brian mac Cennétig's prayer as he watches Christians and Pagans in the throes of bloody melee: "It is as God wills it." All in all: this is a really fascinating, nuanced, and one-of-a-kind approach to fantasy. Fantasy is often pigeonholed as being morally naive, for rendering simplistic black and white worlds where pure good kills pure evil. Not so in this novel. Étaín and Grimnir's saga is enigmatic, gripping, and as philosophically rich as it is exciting.