Queen of Fire (A Raven's Shadow Novel) Paperback – June 7, 2016

For your adventure-fantasy reading pleasure add Queen of Fire to your summer-fall reading list. Make sure you read book 1 and 2 first because Queen of Fire picks up where Tower Lord left off. If you are in the habit of reading reviews before purchase, I strongly advise that you disregard the negative reviews found here. The truth is Queen of Fire is a 4-5 star read – bar none. I think the author of Queen of Fire is one of the best in his category. His battle scenes are explicit, personal and detailed to the point where you’ll be sweating the scene with the character. You’ll find yourself going back and re-reading the fight scene again to make sure you didn’t miss anything. But I must admit that due to the negative reviews, I kept searching the book for something obvious and confusing to pop up. All I found were well constructed scenes, well placed humor and memorable quotes. If you’re like me, chances are we like the same books and pine for more high quality and diverse authors to enter the adventure-fantasy arena. Queen of Fire was and still is on my top 10 reads for this year. I sat and waited for its release and now I am sorry I read those negative reviews and delayed buying it the first week.The truth is the negative reviewers do have a right to their opinion, but they shouldn’t use it to needlessly harm others. Again, Queen of Fire picks up where Tower Lord left off. Also, I just can’t get over the notion that most must have skimmed over the book in an effort to get paid, proffer the beliefs of an obscure religious cult or obtain hits for a blog by stirring controversy. I really don’t have an answer for why some of them wrote what they did and made such an effort to diss an adventure-fantasy book. Maybe they mistook Queen of Fire for a political treatise. Whatever the case, I do know from experience that errors happen in judgment when you hold deep seeded prejudices then read a book that may trigger a few of them. For the record, I was not paid. I read the book for the purpose of enjoying an adventure - fantasy read while commuting.Now let’s talk about why you would enjoy the book and the series. Queen of Fire is the culmination of a great personal journey for Vaelin, Lyrna, Reva, Frentis and Venier. In book one, Blood Song, we meet an emerging adult named Vaelin through the eyes of Venier. A lot happens, but Venier chronicles a very important part of the emerging adult Vaelin’s story – Vaelin kills a people’s living Hope! In book two, Tower Lord, each of our young adults meet-up with horrific odds that will have you up all night trying to identify the real enemy! Naturally, through suffering our heroes stop and question their lives and religious beliefs. They also find love in unconventional and strange places and with unlikely persons. Like the others, Vaelin suffers his own horror when he loses his mojo – the same mojo he used to kill Hope (Good Morning Alabama!). He too begins to question his life’s purpose and religious beliefs. In Book 3, Queen of Fire, we find our heroes overcoming challenging odds, evolving, maturing and applying a steady focus on learning about and defeating a ruthless, obscure enemy thus saving their world. Like the others, through love Vaelin recovers, learns to carry on, find wins without his mojo, embraces the path of normal men, and learns what it means to have … (must I spell it out?).If you like adventure - fantasy books that have a lot of action, blood, guts, and a clear moral to the story, you will like Queen of Fire. And, if you like those types of stories where the heroes and their friends don’t often emerge alive or untouched by their choices or circumstance, this series is for you. Just remember to read Book 1 and 2 first because Queen of Fire picks up exactly where Tower Lord left off. Again, the book is well written, worthy of a 4-5 rating and I highly recommend the series to average, commuting to the day job, adventure-fantasy fanatics like me.I'll be waiting for Anthony Ryan's next book!

Disclaimer: Blood Song is actually my favorite book ever. I've read it 9 times in 2.5 years cause I love it and it's so nuanced and I pick up something new every time I read it. I think people's problem with tower lord and queen of fire is that it loses some of that nuance. Blood song was really a critique on religion, society, power, and the reasons people fight wars. The problem with TL and QoF is that they dramatically increase scale and epic ness with the intro of 4 POV's, and te trade off is nuance.As far as QoF goes, I actually really liked it and by that I mean it was better than I was prepared for. I feel really bad when people s*** on tower lord because Anthony Ryan tried to step his game up while following up a spectacular book and expectations were high and people felt he didn't meet them. So I got all my disappointment out of the way and just really dug in and got invested with QoF and it's good!! It's dark and brutal and violent and epic and I really love it in a very different way than I love blood song. I thought it did a good job with wrapping most stories up although I feel like he was trying to leave the door open in case he decided to return to the unified realm someday. I love Vaelin, although he loses something without his song, Reva and Frentis and I will always love them. Lyrna is a little harder. I didn't like that she was healed, I thought the burns made her a far more interesting character and she kind of becomes this brutal despot in a lot of ways and I'm still not sure. Alornis' arc is sort of tough too because we know she can draw like hell, but all of a sudden she's a weapons expert and engineer? Kind of hard to believe, although the PTSD she clearly experiences is more believable. I thought the climax was solid. Knowing everyone would converge in volar was satisfying in a way game of thrones could never do, but ultimately I thought the defeat of the Ally was kind of meh and the black stone is kind of a literal deus ex machina. I also liked that it fleshes out the world and past as well, I thought that was really well done. I also loved te little throwbacks and nods to characters and past books. Like I totally didn't realize the Cumbraelin with reva and the shield in the arena was the son of the woman who was hella pissed at her when she went around recruiting about 400 pages earlier. I love that because it shows the author is trying and leaving things for people paying close attention and it makes his books worth re reading just for that. My biggest problem is actually a loose end that pissed me the hell off. WHERE IS SHERIN?!?!?! She made Vaelin a really grounded character and was one of the best characters in blood song, so WHERE IS SHE? I like dahrena but Vaelin and sherin should always have ended up together. After thinking about it, it really was a big example of how the author is leaving the door open for another book and that's not always good in a story that's supposed to end with book 3. I also thought the ending was rather abrupt. Vaelin and alornis are on a ship, they break the black stone, book over. I was kind of hoping for a moment when Vaelin brushed the stone or something and we just hear a glimmer of the blood song and the book ends there. That's a great ending. It leaves you interested and a little irritated that it's over and that's an ending I would remember.It's so hard to judge QoF based on blood song because they are 2 very different books and I think it's unfair to make such harsh comparisons and saying QoF sucks because it's not as good as blood song. So 4 stars for the meh ending and loose ends that feel like sequel bait and some character arcs that don't work or make sense

Queen on Fire.. Mr Ryan has surpassed himself! A feat I’d thought difficult, but, there you go. He did it, here!When a story within a story becomes greater than the story, that is something to truly behold. It becomes legends unto legends of all ages to all people. The dark that seeps into the light at its edges is pervasive and mordant like. It festers, eats greedily into all the rich goodness of a civil and beautiful world. But as goodness does then goodness will; the light spreads forth with all of its wonderful and powerful gifts. It becomes a parody of mordancy and slowly but surely attacks those dark and festering shadows; scorching them into oblivion with bright, white hot flame bringing the purity the goodness needs to thrive once again!The story line of this book has progressed rapidly from the very beginning. The scope covered in three books is awe inspiring, to me, a vastly read book-type! The depth of meaning, travels, battles, plots in plots, schemes to scheme and, dare I say, (Mr Ryan) becomes the best author I’ve read in a long time; and I’ve been reading: Jordan, Wolfe, Martin et al. Yes, to be ‘at’ and arguably ‘above’ this level is magnificent.The magics and deep seated themes in the series are complex, yet you get them. They’re world consuming, yet readable and the truth is; this is top, top fantasy at its very best, indeed. I cannot think what I’ll follow this series with. I have a plethora of Gemmell to read so, that’s a start to bridge the gap.I say to you, good ladies and gentlemen, go forth, buy these books, read them, & then - read them again.I demand a T.V serialisation of this stuff - forthwith, by the Queens word!Good Brothers, & Sisters of the Orders, good fighting folks and tribes people of the surrounding nations, gather your weapons, steal yourself, and be about your business destroying these filthy Volarian buggers, rid our world of them for good, say no to the endemic and systematic enslavement of all peoples, be stout in your faiths, your gifts and powers, be strong of heart and true to yourself and your peoples, most of all; do yourself a big, huge, massive favour - buy this series (and do what is sensible), and what I’m going to do next: buy all other books by this author, blind, read no further reviews, theres no need - it’s that good.BTW: Mr Ryan, I absolutely loved the Alucius-27 dialogue thing! This had me chuckling, full of mirth for the pure and wonderful sarcasm it engendered - wonderful stuff, sir. I say also, the romantic side of things was very well done, indeed. I admire an author who does not fumble around in the dark with awkward bed scenes, the false amor of relations between persons that only makes one envisage a scene of carnal disproportions and tomfoolery! (Possibly, dirty embarrassment)I look forward to your future books, indeed, I’ve pre-ordered next years release, already, without a clue what it’s about. This is when you know you’re onto a great author - blind loyalty to buy books like this!Highly distinguished is the author, in his services to literary creativity and entertainment - bravo!

I have read the numerous bad reviews for the second and third books in this series. They even made me stop reading the Tower Lord the first time I completed Blood Song as I didn't want to spoil my memory of a good book. But when I read Blood Song the second time, I decided to read on and I am glad I did. The first book was a coming of age story, but that changed in the sequels. I think most people wanted this series to be like Harry Potter, where the story spans the coming of age of the protogonist. But this series is not that. The sequels are the continuation of the blood song, but it has grown too big even for Vaelin. The stakes are more. The story demands more POV and it is filled with melancholy which I think puts off a lot of readers. I found the Queen of Fire a sad tale, but a fitting end. It is not the series spoiling debacle most people say, instead it is a fine conclusion to a fine tale. I can't wait to read the second series.

Great conclusion to a great series. Can not recommend this book or this series highly enough. Best trilogy I’ve read in years.

Uma história dura cheia de provações que termina com diversas reviravoltas. Um livro que deixa evidente a participação de diversos personagens além de Al Sorna, mas que também evidencia, a fibra do protagonista até o fim.

Have not read this book yet, but looking forward to it.