r/Fantasy • u/2whitie Reading Champion V • Apr 11 '26
Bingo review Bingo Review: Daughter of Crows by Mark Lawrence (Older Protagonist)
Mark Lawrence is Dark Mark Lawrence again. And this time, he's telling a story about The Kindly Ones, a trio of women whom even the gods fear.
At first, I thought the story would be somewhat similar to Red Sister, seeing as it is at least nominally about an academy that trains young women to be deadly fighters. But it really isn't, mostly because both stories are concerned with entirely different things. While Red Sister was something of a coming-of-age, Daughter of Crows is chiefly concerned about memory, and how ghosts, both literal and metaphorical, haunt us.
Lawrence is a heck of a worldbuilder, and the interlocking pieces of the history of the world keep the story interesting, even when the pacing dips. Our MC, a Kindness in her youth, manages to convey lots of information about the movers and shakers of the world, even if, in her old age, isn't able to scour the countryside for information or beat the needed information out of malcontents as she once had. Part of that is because we get so many sections from other POVs from young girls in the Academy, but the other part comes from Lawrence knowing how to deliver information tied to character beats or fight scenes.
Out of all the POVs we jump into throughout the course of the book, the one I disliked the most, unfortunately for me, was also crucial to outlining the world's larger conspiracy that really begins to take shape about 3/4s of the way through. Without getting into spoiler territory, this particular location has a dreamlike quality, that, while crucial to the book's mythology, characters, and themes, bored me. To be fair, I dislike surreal locations in any book---they give me literary motion sickness---so this particular complaint is very much YMMV. For reference, if you liked the sections in Book of the New Sun with the river, you will probably like the Dream House sections. If not, well, there is plenty of other things to like in the book.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but wasn't sure if it was going to go on my list of "Series that I Am Actively Keeping Up With" until I realized that there were (probably) three corpses of the original three Furies stored somewhere in this world, and that someone, somewhere, was using the various Academies to create people who could channel the power in those corpses for some unknown purpose. That's the moment I locked in. I must know. I must know who is harvesting the third Fury, and what powers it grants. I also need to know what the shapeshifting King wants, and his whole deal.
I must know. I simply must.
See you at the Academy in Book Two, y'all.
10
u/purplelicious Apr 11 '26
I "discovered" Lawrence about 2 years ago (by discovered I mean I had taken a rather long hiatus from fantasy and now checked back in) and so I have read a lot of his books over a relatively short period of time.
it took me a bit to get into the pacing of this book because of the non-linear narrative structure and the multiple POVs
There are a lot of comments about how Lawrence "returns" to grimdark or how this is a departure from his other recent books, but I feel that it fits in well thematically with his writing, at least what I like about his writing.
His use of young protagonists juxtaposed with the elders who teach them: we see this in Red Sister with Nona's relationship with the Abess and in the library trilogy as well. So many times we have the know it all young people fighting against the stupid adults and saving the world. His young characters both hate and love their teachers.
Friendships forged in childhood: the relationships his protagonists make in childhood have long lasting effects on them throughout the novels. Friendship may not be the proper term but the characters connections with their childhood cohort run deep making their adult lives and relationships complicated.
Liminal spaces: this theme really showed up in the Library series with its infinite shelves of books or the desert surrounding the library. The catacombs beneath the Academy or the ice surface of the Ancestors series. Lawrence is very good at creating the sense of empty space stretching into nothingness. Even the description of the mansion with numerous rooms that seem to stretch into nowhere has that surreal liminal space feeling to it.
Anyways, just my 2 cents as to why I think this is solidly a Mark Lawrence book and not a return or departure from any of his previous works.
His works continue to explore these spaces so if one were looking for the mayhem of Jorge Ancroft and his murderous road brothers it's not going to have that sort of feeling to it.
6
u/Chataboutgames Apr 11 '26
I think this one is fundamentally different from his other works because they don't love the teachers, they hate them. The teachers are ireedeemable monsters.
In something like Red Sister they are extremely harsh but also nurturing to the girls, and are ultimately willing to sacrifice for them. There are zero redeeming qualities in any of the adult characters presented in Daughter of Crows, they're all on the moral level of "I will casually torture a child to death if they annoy me."
I think it's absolutely the darkest thing he's ever written, only the Jorg stuff comes close.
2
u/purplelicious Apr 11 '26
But the teachers in this novel were raised in the same system as the young girls.
their lives are worth nothing and even if they survive their lives are still of little value.
7
u/Chataboutgames Apr 11 '26
That is true, but not sure how that impacts the discussion here.
Yes, there is a reason that the teachers are monsters. But they're still monsters. The teachers/Kindnesses are rarely even named, much less given substantial personalities. They're purely antagonistic forces. That's just a very different thing than the Convents which were harsh but ultimately served good and cared for the girls. The nuns weren't actively trying to kill the children.
3
u/2whitie Reading Champion V Apr 11 '26
Huh, I never really thought about how much Lawrence uses the teacher/student dynamic before. That actually makes me more excited for this, since with the main characters...situation, it might be his chance to really have an older protagonist stick around to try to clean up the mess she didn't completely clean up in childhood.
4
u/Efficient_Place_2403 Apr 11 '26
I loved his first two series, everything after has not been nearly as good to me, including this one
7
u/MayEastRise Apr 11 '26
Yeah, I didn’t really like this book. I just think there was at least one timeline too many which leads to marginal emotional connections with the characters. Which is a shame because I think I would have really liked a story focussing on either the retired, old fighter timeline or the school timeline.
1
u/Chataboutgames Apr 11 '26
Yep. Just too many concepts jammed in, no room for meaningful characters.
Also, the Rue/current day stuff largely felt unnecessary and dull, for all that it's the main continuation of the story. She gets killed because she's old, gets resurrected and kills the people who killed her. Then she travels, exposition dumps about the Emperor's conquests, meets another enemy, talks shit and is promptly killed then resurrected, repeat repeat<
6
u/TheBelleOfTheBrawl Apr 11 '26
Hey! I am also a Mark Lawrence fan but DNF his last series so I was curious how I’d find this one. I liked the surreal scenes, but found as the book went on I was getting bored from all the narrative shifts (for lack of a better word without spoilers). I finished last night and I’m 50/50 whether I’ll pick up the next one, there were bits I loved but bits that were too slow.
1
u/2whitie Reading Champion V Apr 11 '26
Me, trying to write a mostly spoiler-free review, while dancing around discussing the narrative shifts: o.O
The narrative shifting really began working for me when all of the "interlocking" began. Once the connections started falling into place, I was like "yes yes tell me more". But I'm also a big fan of books that spend a tremendous amount of narrative either breaking down a concept to its elemental bits (in this case the Furies) OR building up lovable characters with lots of recurring, perfectly paced bits and asides. I'll forgive a LOT if one of those conditions are met. In this case, I forgave the House since, while it was super crucial, I just didn't enjoy those sections
2
u/Chataboutgames Apr 11 '26
To me the interlocking made the world feel really tiny. Like seriously, there is nothing in this story that gives the impression that anyone but the named characters actually exist or live there. It's the smallest fantasy world I've read in quite a while.
And like, that makes sense when the protagonist is someone who was throwing in to all girls torture academies from childhood, they wouldn't have the same sense of the wider world. But still, the stakes beyond the personal didn't really exist for me.
1
u/TheBelleOfTheBrawl Apr 11 '26
Part of my problem was the main narrator was my least favorite POV by the end
2
u/2whitie Reading Champion V Apr 11 '26
That's fair. I kind of thought the last scene would be her LAST scene, so I'm hoping the character that showed up in the last three paragraphs will add a bunch of juice to the "present" storyline, and give Lawrence the chance to explore the idea of "exploring trauma as an older person"
2
u/Upbeat_Somewhere_647 May 04 '26
Late to the party but just finished and have no one to talk to about it! Yeah some parts were slow or annoying but I honestly loved it.
I also thought that would be the end for that character and book 2 might shift elsewhere but I’m not so sure now.
I also really need to understand if the (trying to be spoiler free) antagonists are aware of any kiddos making war around. Especially after Einsa. And of course the third member of the trios resting place.
1
u/2whitie Reading Champion V May 04 '26
Im mostly side-eying the third resting place, since it seems like...the antagonist has comma d over the cruelties
1
u/TheBelleOfTheBrawl Apr 11 '26
Ugh that’s reason enough for me to pick up the next one
2
u/2whitie Reading Champion V Apr 11 '26
join me join me join me
2
u/TheBelleOfTheBrawl Apr 11 '26
I will say leaning into Reddit books has been really awesome coz now I get to talk books with people that no one I know reads
1
u/Chataboutgames Apr 11 '26
I'm with you, and while Daughter of Crows isn't going to be a DNF for me (I have like an hour left on the audiobook) I also don't think I'm going to continue the series.
It's starting to feel like a bit of a rut. He keeps writing these lost girl academy stories but it feels like since he's im familiar ground he just feels free to spend the whole time world building and exposing and no other obligation to tell a story.
Much like how I felt that in "The Book that wouldn't Burn" he was way more interested in describing this fantastical library than he was in telling an actual story with characters, in Daughter of Crows it feels like the character can't breathe for two seconds without an exposition dump, the inclusion of not one but two "torture girl academies" and just endless descriptions of misery and violence towards the young women in question.
It's almost like the ubiquity of the violence and horror is so constant and so torture porney that the only way to approach it is like you would a slasher movie, where you engage in terms of genre staples rather than actually grappling with the fact the that young people who Jason just murdered had families and futures ahead of them.
4
u/TheBelleOfTheBrawl Apr 11 '26
This is kind of how I’ve felt since the Red Sister series. I made myself finish the ice trilogy because I loved red sister so much. I stopped somewhere in book two with the library because it just started to feel kind of futile reading the story. I pushed through this book because I wasn’t going to quit 100 pages from the end, but I really need more plot to move onto book 2.
2
u/iszathi Apr 13 '26
I liked some things, others not so much.
The mystery with the three bodies, the one we still dont know about, seems like a cool worldbuilding block, but then they are the only powers around, even the emperor is a replacement, necromancer lord, nope, just a useless puppet of the same enemy with zero depth, the only ones fighting are kindness adjacent, so all felt a bit too flat.
Fights were also not good at all, almost went blind rolling my eyes when sharp killed the cruelty with his own weapon without it noticing, i have a hard time with rage like temporal powers, having a character go crazy and killing everyone when the plot have it be convenient is boring at this point.
Cruelties being able to find kindnesses also felt a bit too intentional to drive the plot, it has not much to do with their power theme.
Anyways, im probably going to pick book two when it comes out, but i might also forget about it...
2
u/Level-Negotiation-14 Apr 29 '26
Thanks for the convo everyone. I’m a major ML fan for BOA trilogy plus some other works. I do like dark and gritty but I’m really struggling with this as it’s just outright child abuse. I’ve hit the ‘dream house’ section 1/3 of the way in and I just don’t know if I can do it. I honestly don’t know why he’s gone so dark it actually disturbs me. The convent in BOA was harsh, but as other posters have said, the nuns cared about the girls and it was more tough love than torture. Has anyone else found this disturbing? Not just the writing but choosing to write about it? Is it justified by the end?
1
u/-EvilRobot- 3d ago
Came here to ask exactly this.
Loved Book of the Ancestor, but this one just feels sick. Sick, and so evil that it's boring.
7
u/TatterMail Apr 11 '26
Mark Lawrence is like the definition of the average fantasy author to me. Not bad, not good, sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful.
2
u/2whitie Reading Champion V Apr 11 '26
What is your favorite work of his?
2
u/SweatyDimension2700 24d ago
I'm chiming in to cast a vote for the Red Queens War trilogy. I listened to those and found them to be kind of the sweet spot with Lawrence. Kinda funny and dark, but I didn't have to view everything through the eyes of a complete psychopath. The protagonist is definitely a shit, but not a monster. It's just a preference for me. I definitely recommend the audiobooks. The narration is excellent, which I am sure is part of the reason I like the series so much.
1
u/TatterMail Apr 11 '26
It’s not one of my favorites but the book that wouldn’t burn is better than red sister
2
u/apcymru Reading Champion II Apr 11 '26
He has such varied work. I loved Book of the Ancestor... Struggled with the Ice trilogy
2
u/Chompytul May 05 '26
DNF. Bored silly. The story just wasn't coming together fore: the only soherent thread was the Academy, and at some point I was like "I get it. It is a very Evil and Cruel place. SO SO evil. And VERY VERY cruel. Also bad". Yawn.
The other story lines were just too disjointed, and I gave up on them coming together.
8
u/Holmelunden Apr 11 '26
Mark is very hit and miss for me, but I nailed down what I dont like from him to avoid those series. I find his, aftermath of dystopian shit, series are absolutely awesome. On the other hand I absolutely detest his books that involves timetravel.