The Black Raven: Book Two of the Dragon Mage

by Katharine Kerr

Book Overview

Book ten of the celebrated Deverry series, an epic fantasy rooted in Celtic mythology that intricately interweaves human and elven history over several hundred years. At the end of the Civil Wars,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553579193
• ISBN13: 9780553579192
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Another good installment

If you liked all the others, you'll like this one too. The story is finally moving a little again and it's a nice change.

Beautifully written....

As a reader of fantasy novels for many years I rate Ketherine Kerr's series very highly. The Dragon mage series is her best yet. As many of series decline with quality (most notably Jordan - sorry if this offends anybody!) Kerr's books just get better. I was totally captivated by the book and am looking forward to the remaing couple of books in the series. Katherine if your reading this can you speed them up? :-)

Tenth Entry For One Of The Best Ongoing Fantasy Series

Katharine Kerr's Celtic based fantasy series is among the best available, without the fanfare but equal, in my opinion, to other contemporary sword and sorcery fare such as Jordan's or Martin's ongoing series. Not meant as a stand-alone, this work continues the storylines of the previous "Red Wyvern," as well as the overall narrative thread begun so long ago with "Daggerspell." Without starting at the beginning of the series, most readers will find themselves lost here. But for those who have never read Kerr's work, how fortunate, for you can begin with "Daggerspell" and read all ten books successively!I would have rated this book more highly--the quality of writing found in the best of her previous books is present here--had I felt this work significantly moved the storyline along. However, most of the pages in "The Black Raven" are devoted to the relationships existing between the main characters, as well as life at court, and, as satisfying on one level as I found this to be, I would have liked to have seen further resolution to elements of the story left dangling in the previous work, as well as more buildup for the continuance of the narrative to follow. It was gratifying, however, to see a return of the character of Ebany, who has been absent from the tale for some time.On a separate note, I feel I must take the author to task for neglecting to provide a thorough character list and chronology at the back of her books. Her tale spans centuries, shifts back and forth within time, and includes incarnations of characters from different books and simultaneous storylines that creates some confusion for the reader in the lapse between publications. While I recognize providing such an appendix would entail no inconsiderable effort on the part of the author, I feel that after ten books such a listing should be felt to be required of her for the benefit of her readers, and would prove far more helpful than the current glossary of terms she has deigned to provide.

Captivating like the rest of the series.

Like the rest of this series I found I couldn't put the book down, the author is clearly preparing for something special. The thought that this book is bringing us so near the end is a sad one. The only negative point I feel I should mention is the fact that I waited so long for this book I did not retain the characters and their lineage as well as I would have liked.I highly recommend reading the whole series: Daggerspell, Darkspell, The Bristling Wood, The Dragon Revenant (first book of the series I read, read it again after I read the first 3), A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, Days of Blood and Fire, Days of Air and Darkness, and The Red Wyvern

This is a kick-ass series!

Since the beginning in Daggerspell, these books have rocked. They have gone from love to war and back again (probably because a bunch of the love affairs have lead to war and political strife). Although some of the people we came to love are gone now (the books have spanned 54 years not counting the 400 of incarnation, it happens), there are always new ones to love and new villians to hate (Raena and Shaetano - aka Lord Havok - at the moment). See for yourself if you like this type of thing, you'll love this.