My review of 'RAVEN'S LADDER' by Jeffrey Overstreet
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 12:00PM My review of Raven’s Ladder, by Jeffrey Overstreet
(Raven’s Ladder is the third book in The Auralia Thread fantasy series)
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The last fifteen pages will blow you away…There are twists and turns you’ll never see coming.
I strongly recommend Raven’s Ladder, and here’s why:
Good fantasy is more than an escape from reality: it’s an escape into reality. The alter-world fantasy creates often bears more resemblance to what’s really going on around us than do our dull and naïve perceptions of daily “reality.” We heedlessly inhabit our own world with little thought beyond paying bills, making sure the kids’ homework is done, or doing our best to make life cooperate. Overstreet says there’s more. His novels whisper to us of another Reality without being preachy or cliché; but rather, with nuance and imagination.
In Raven’s Ladder, as in the first two books of the series, I encountered the Keeper – a creature more worthy of my attention than the anemic religious portrayals of benevolence I grew up with. I also explored the Expanse – a world more textured, delicious, and dangerous than the suburban sameness most of us slog through. Overstreet is so adept at creating detail that neither bogs down the reader nor taxes the imagination. His descriptions of creatures and habitat are at the same time other-worldly, while remaining quite accessible.
Overstreet’s writing is neither too dark nor too naïve. Raven's Ladder presents us with the unnerving brutality of evil while maintaining the hope of beauty and rescue. This is a great series and will reward those with eyes to see and ears to hear the rumors of another world.