![]() To continue the Hamlet analogy one of the city’s key officials wants his daughter Tikaz (aka Cordelia) to marry Mawat and at one point Mawat’s uncle brings two of Mawat’s old acquaintances (aka Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) to bring him round. Mawat’s father has failed to do that, instead mysteriously disappearing. ![]() ![]() The Raven is one of the gods of Vastai and protects the Lease from harm on the understanding that they will sacrifice themselves at the end of their reign. Mawat, heir to the “throne” of Vastai (known as the Lease of the Raven) returns from the front with his aide Eolo to find his father, the former Lease, missing and his uncle in power. Secondly, it gives an immediate, almost omniscient feel, which is appropriate given the book is narrated by a god.Īt first blush The plot feels like it is taken straight out of Hamlet. For a start, this technique avoids gendered pronouns and, as with the Ancillary series, Leckie plays with gender and the reader’s (and characters’) understanding of it. But there is method to Leckie’s madness (and great literary skill). ![]() NK Jemisin used it to great effect in her Hugo winning Broken Earth trilogy. Writing in this way is always a bit of a high wire act. Using a Shakespeare-meets-Homer scaffold she brings a new twist to the relationship between humans and divine beings. And in The Raven Tower she does a similar thing for fantasy. Ann Leckie practically redefined what space opera could be with her debut Ancillary series. ![]()
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