House Abascar is living on the bare rocks of Barnashum, wondering when they might leave this desolate place. Their king keeps telling them soon then he suddenly vanishes. Should they trust him and his belief in a "made-up" creature, even as the ground is falling out from under them? Bel Amica is losing it's grip on reality, following the Seers and their ways blindly, doing as they want and not caring about repercussions for their actions. The houses are slowly falling while hidden enemies are strengthening. Doom is looming.
This book was better then Cyndere’s Midnight but still not as good as Auralia’s Colors. The very beginning was good, sadly it took a turn for the downright weird. Powders and potions, legends coming to life, as well a variety of confusing religions are created in this story. If you want to read this as a causal read then I don’t recommend it for you. Everything in Raven’s Ladder is in-depth, many character points of view, a plethora of creatures, plots, sub-plots and theological ideas are enclosed in this book. I had trouble keeping people, places and things straight. At times I spent pages going, “Now you are?” The characters are okay here as well. I feel this book, unlike Auralia’s Colors and Cyndere’s Midnight, was based more on plot. Which is good, the author has had two books to set up the characters and worlds so this one needed to be about the plot. The plot for this book was faster then Cyndre’s Midnight but it still isn’t a page turner. I know that fast pace isn’t Overstreet’s style but slow doesn’t help me to get through this book as I would like.
This story teaches what life is like when a group of people looked out only for themselves, greedy and careless. I like the fact that Overstreet used his book to teach this and I hope that Ale Boy’s Feast, the next book in the series, will follow up on this idea.
It was a good book with a catching intro, a dragging middle that then sped up for a interesting ending. If you have read other books by Jeffrey Overstreet you will like this one by him.
C+
As I final note, this is the third book in the series. You cannot tell this by the cover art and this is a series you cannot read out of order. Read Auralia’s Colors and Cyndere’s Midnight before reading this book or Ale Boy’s Feast.
