And, you know, there's more than a fair share of action and adventure here, too.
Because this is a story about Rue. Rue is a lot of things. Loyal, certainly. A steadfast friend, one who holds a quiet, absolute commitment to her found family quite deep down in her heart. Someone who has tried to make a life away from the things that shaped her? Absolutely. We see Rue in two timelines, intertwined, her past and her present, and in each she's a builder and a survivor, someone who is willing to do a lot of things to live - and wants to remake herself in her own image, given the chance to do so. And Rue is traumatised, oh, in so many ways, across all of her pasts, pushing back against horrors nearly unfathomable with both hands. Rue is a pragmatist, a woman who wants what she wants, but is willing to settle for whatever she can get - or, more typically, what she can grab hold of with both hands and get away with.
Both Rue of the past and Rue now are lethal, sharp-edged killers, of course. Survivors of the sort of school where making it out alive is very much not a part of the curriculum. But Rue is thoughtful. Kind, where she can be. A woman who has spent a long time searching for, and getting away from family. Hers is an emotional journey, and it says a lot that her emotions are often incorporated into the deaths of others - be they friends or enemies. And...you know what, I like Rue. The older Rue, the one tired of all this nonsense, the one who's a bit slow off the mark, the poisonously ironic and straightforward Rue is a great, entertaining read. And the younger Rue, the one struggling to find herself or her voice, fighting every inch of the way to make herself a lethal instrument without losing herself, the Rue who reaches out and finds solace and survival in the friends she makes and the enemies she despises...she also kept me turning pages well into the night.
And this is Rue's story, make no mistake. Daughter of Crows is a character study outlined in carmine, a biography etched into the graves of everyone around her.
And it's Mark Lawrence at his absolute best. Rue's time in a school for killers is expertly crafted, from the murderous, mutilated staff to the horrifying, esoteric mysticism which also, you know, works, to the seething jealousies and alliances that put the sheer youth of its students into perspective...this is Dark Academia if Dark Academia was handed a stiletto, a grudge, and a nemesis tied to a chair.| And the world outside Rue's school isn't much better, filled with dubious monarchs, murderous mercenariesm abd other factions who seem to have a less than savoury interest in our protagonist. This ios a world that has a history, though we only catch pieces of it from the corner of our eye. This is a world of refugees and rebuilding and long, long crafted plans for vengeance. But it's a world, true enough, where people live and get their meals and pop down the pub and are, you know, real, even if they're a bit more concerned about social collapse or the blade at their throat than I am.
The story is often grim, with twists and turns that will keep you guessing - I thought I'd figured out what was going on several times, only to have my carefully crafted theories thoroughly upended. But always, always it manages to come back to telling us about people, about Rue and her loves and her fears and her family and her friends, and what they want, and how they might get it. It's a story with a sparkle, even if the sparkle is the shine of a blade bouncing off the eye of a recently deceased guard. It has a power to it, a kind of honesty between the pages that meant I couldn't put it down - and in that, it's vintage LAwrence.
In short, this is the good stuff - go give it a read.
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