QuickTidal, on 17 October 2026 - 11:27 AM, said:
polishgenius, on 16 October 2026 - 09:22 PM, said:
The Raven Scholar is (imo) really good and a book I suspect a lot of members here would like, tbh. Like, it's not one I'd guarantee a double stamp on if QT read it, but I think it's got a pretty good shot.
It's also not romantasy, mind you. Sure, there is a romance in it, but it's a fantasy murder mystery with a heavy dose of politics and some fantasy-tournament shenanigans, and also the lead has a romance thing going on.
I have it, I just haven't gotten to it yet. So at some point we will know if it has the double stamp.
The thing with the Raven Scholar, apart from how little the plot makes sense, how utterly embarrassing the murder mystery is and how the politics is hair pulingly dumb, is that the main characters are supposed to be in their late twenties early thirties, but all act like they're 17. I assume this was originally written as a YA story and aged up to fit better with the whole tiktok thing.
Without spoiling anything I can point to an early interaction as an example. The main character is by all accounts the closest and most trusted advisor to the emperor (this is explained at the onset of the main story, so no spoiler). That has been her role for the last seven years. She has unprecedented access to the emperor, both professionally and socially. An emperor that distains politics and the court and keeps himself distant. In other words, she is incredibly powerful. At least in any system that makes even an ounce of sense. When the emperor needs something done, fixed, or otherwise solved in an efficient manner, he send her to deal with it. However here she is an angsty teenager that is kept isolated from the social circles of the court. Which makes no sense what so ever. They might look down upon her for being common, but her ear is the emperors ear, she acts out the emperor's will. Well, you get it. Any courtier with ambition would kill to get on her good side.
But obviously a thirty year old grand vizier with seven years of incredible power and influence doesn't fit with the YA story the author wants to tell. In the story she is insecure, has no self esteem, and bows and scrapes to all she meets. How else could you tell the story of a brilliant teenager coming into her confidence and her abilities step by step? Finally standing up to her bullies that always treated her as lesser because of her birth? Except for, you know, she's not a teenager at all.
In the setting, the whole blackmail plot in the opening makes no sense at all. It is so fundamentally infuriating that the plot is to be shaped by that nonsense. And it really only get worse from there.
The Raven was cool though.
Help
