TQ's Book Count 2026

[The Queen]

#38: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. Throughout most of the story, I thought it was just another typical fantasy with young self-involved “heroes” undergoing challenges, emerging victorious only to face the reality that the system is rigged and that all the adults have been deceiving them. And I got that, and enjoyed the story, but surprisingly, discovered it has a little more, or at least, a little different than the “typical” story of this type. The characters all begin with that sheen of stereotype, then become rougher and more human as the story unwinds. I’m confused by the villains; the magically-talented ruler is somehow both a madman and a long-term planner, which seems unbalanced and counterintuitive. The right-hand man is painted as wanting nothing but order and continuity, but does little about cumulative disrepair and cockroaches. The gods behave as two-dimensionally as they were imagined, both real and unreal, simultaneously. The wife and mother of the villain is somehow both a plotting puppet master and a macguffin. I’m enjoying the development of the central heroine, and look forward to the next book. Wish it was due to be released sooner.