I had this trilogy sitting and waiting and waiting for me in my to read box for years- and I have no idea why it didn't get pulled out! Forsyth is so brilliant, so I found that with a story and heroine that I never would expect to like, I loved it. I was rooting for her the whole way. I ended up starting these while I was completely disabled by massive morning sickness (I spent months in bed) and feeling too sick to read anything else (Netflix was almost past my threshold), so it is a testament to Forsyth that I plowed right through this. ( )

The short version is: I didn't like it.

This book was recommended to me with universal praise on all sides, and I was terribly eager to read it because, hey, there are flying horses. And the title character Rhiannon is great — I loved her inhumanity, and the fact that her personality had been shaped by such an interesting semi-human culture, and her wonderfully direct pragmatism.

The long version is: I hated every other character in this book. Everybody, everybody is a whiny, patronizing prat with a horrendous holier-than-thou attitude. The characters connected to the Rhin and his elite military force are the worst, and the author has written all of them with the air that every smug little phrase that comes out of their mouths is sainted truth. I'm under the impression that Forsythe is hammering this ultragoodness of the Rhin et al. because they were the set of protagonist characters in Forsythe's preceding seven-volume series, but honestly that only made me hate them more. I would have liked this book better if Rhiannon had knifed them all. Although I probably don't need to spell this out, I will never pick up Forsythe's preceding series and, as the plot of The Tower of Ravens stands now, I'd only be interested in reading the following books if in them Rhiannon overthrows the government and drowns the country in chaos.

And what's with Rhiannon written as constantly bringing her mare to foundering? I don't know if was Forsythe's consistent typo for flounder, which would be an action that would have made sense in the context of the scenes, or if she's just picked founder out of a hat of the names of serious equine ailments in an attempt at verisimilitude. If so, massive fail there; while laminitis can be a very serious ailment that affects the hoof and can lame a horse past its ability to stand, its common cause is feeding a horse an improper diet. Its less common cause is excessively working or standing a horse on hard ground, and remember this is a flying horse we are talking about here. If Forsythe had intended to refer to any equine ailment, she meant broken wind. ( )

Kate Forsyth is best known for her last series the Witches of Eileanan which I haven't read. This book is the first book in her latest series; Rhiannon's Ride. Rhiannon's Ride is a trilogy. Overall this was an excellent and very solid fantasy. For me it fell somewhere between and epic type of fantasy and an adventure fantasy. The first book is more of an adventure fantasy.

This book starts out with No-Horn a half-satrycorn girl who is in danger on being killed by the satrycorn tribe because she has not yet grown a horn. No-Horn manages to kill a prisoner and steal his goods; she captures a black-winged horse and flees the tribe. She ends up in the forest near Lewen's parents' land. Lewen finds her tied to the horse and helps to heal her. Lewen and family decide to name her Rhiannon. The remainder of the book deals with their adventures on their way to the Shining City of Lucescere.

This was a great book. There was a lot of action, the plot is complex and deep. The world is magnificent and is developed to great detail. There are a number of different races of creatures and there is a very complex history behind the story. I am guessing that some of the history and backstory were developed in the Witches of Eileanan series. Rhiannon and Lewen are wonderful characters who come across as believable both in the heroism and their humanity. The supporting characters are also rich with personality and history. Reading this book really made me want to go back to the first series and read more about all the fascinating characters in the background.

That being said, I found this to be a stand alone series. Although I am guessing you might understand the motives of some of the supporting characters better if you knew their history from the first series. That being said this is *not* a stand alone book. The first book stops basically mid journey. I was extremely greatful that I had purchased the next book in the series already.

This really is one of the best straight fantasy novels I have read in some time. There is action, adventure, intrigue, true love, and magic. The intricies of all of the customs of the different races are fascinating but never overbearing.

In summary a wonderful read. My only complaint would be that the book does not wrap anything up before it's conclusion. I would recommend buying all three books if you opt to read the first one; otherwise you will be fretting about what is going to happen to Rhiannon while you wait to get the next book. I can't imagine reading the first book and not reading the second and third one. This book made me want to go out and get all of the books in the Witches of Eileanan series too! ( )

Very rarely does a fantasy novel manage to take you into its world from the first page and refuse to let you go until the ending. More often than not, stories in a series get you hooked into its magical world, then leave you hanging as you breathlessly await the next installment. Not so with Kate Forsyth's THE TOWER OF THE RAVENS. For those who have never visited her world of Eileanan in books such as THE POOL OF TWO MOONS or THE CURSED TOWERS, never fear! THE TOWER OF THE RAVENS is a fantasy epic that can definitely stand alone, and does so with competent writing, fantastic world-building, and a deeply heroic cast of characters.

Ever since she was a young girl, Rhiannon has wanted nothing more than to catch a winged horse, to tame and train it so that she could fly away and escape from the hellish nightmare that is her life. Scorned, ridiculed, and even feared by her fellow man, Rhiannon lives in near solitude, wanting only to belong. Without even a name at this young age, the daughter of One-Horn and a human father. One-Horn is the mother of the tribe of satyricon, fairies who have horns and hoofs instead of feet. Rhiannon, born without a horn and with human feet, is immediately branded an outcast, and she lives her solitary life with only the hope of escape as comfort.

When she finally manages to escape upon a winged horse, its not without injury and risk to herself. Arriving at the home of Lewen, an apprentice witch, she's finally given a name-and perhaps a chance to truly belong. When Lewen and his family decide to bring Rhiannon to the Tower of Two Moons in the city of Lucescere to be tested for magical ability, Rhiannon worries that she might once again lose any sense of self she's just beginning to gain.

Murder, intrigue, and suspicion soon surround Rhiannon when a member of the Guard is found dead. Suddenly surrounded by unimaginable evil and malevolence, it will take all the strength and magic that Rhiannon possesses to protect herself and those she loves.

THE TOWER OF RAVENS is a wonderful fantasy novel that will thoroughly immerse you in Kate Forsyth's magical world. A woman who wants only to find her place in the world, Rhiannon is a strong, caring woman who truly overcomes her past to be a woman that everyone can be proud of. ( )

Apparently I stumbled into the first book of the next series after Forsyth’s Witches of Eileanan books, which I have not read. However, that did not affect my ability to ‘get’ this book. There is a full glossary in the back and anything that happened before this story begins was explained as much as it had to be – I was not lost.

I was expecting one of those, what I call – Girly Fantasy books. You know the kind. A soft, kind of spiritual heroine who spends most of the story tripping around the forest, dosing everyone with feverfew and comfrey and communing with a pantheon of Celtic-type goddesses before meeting the love interest. This does not describe Rhiannon – a half-human, half satyricorn girl who flees from her herd (read ‘family’) on a horned and winged black horse. I was not sure what, exactly, a satyricorn was. The glossary defines them as being “a race of fierce horned faeries” and they are certainly that, the full-blooded ones having horns and upwards of six breasts (just the women). They are also very bloodthirsty creatures. Indeed, this book is populated with a wide variety of faeries of quite diverse types and none of them could be described as Tinkerbell. A number of them are formidable creatures – even the small ones - and they are beings that you don’t really want to screw around with.

Rhiannon (known only as No-Horn at the beginning of the book) flees from her herd; she fears they will turn on her because she is hornless and weak in comparison to the rest. She isn’t really very weak though for while still with her herd she kills a human man with her bow and arrow. The herd, which is mostly made up of females, often takes men captive in order to mate with them, but this male, a messenger of the king, forces the issue by trying to escape and Rhiannon has to kill him in order to prove herself to the herd and win some time for herself. Afterward she wastes no time in capturing and then and tying herself onto the winged black horse. She then flies out of the satyricorns’ territory and into the wider world. She ends up in the company of witches and soon finds herself on her way to the capitol of Eileanan in order to attend kind of a young witches’ university.

At this point, as Rhiannon and the mixed group of young witches set out in the company of a husband and wife jongleurs, I was a little afraid that the story was going to go girly on me, but it didn’t. Rhiannon is dangerous and angry and severely out of place with these people. She is non-cooperative. She does not get much of what they talk about; indeed the language she speaks is almost a pidgin-language. She is attracted to Lewen, one of the students, but doesn’t go all mushy on us. I liked her very much.

The balance of the book is taken up with the journey to the capitol and the trouble they have getting there. In the interests of saving time, Iven, one of the jongleurs, is anxious to get there in order to inform the king of the death of his messenger (the man Rhainnon killed) and so they travel through a part of the realm where things have gone very bad. There are rumors of ghosts, zombies and missing children, but they go that way anyway. Time is of the essence. As they travel, Rhiannon is anxious to keep her guilty secret from these people for she has come to like them.

O.K. That’s as much as I’m going to tell you.

For me the story held up through ‘til the end and I look forward to reading the next book in the series. And the Witches of Eileanan series. In a world of what seems like hundreds of less than mediocre fantasy novels, The Tower of Ravens was a very pleasant discovery. Forsyth has just been elevated to number 4 on my tiny list of excellent fantasy writers where she joins Martin, Flewelling and Hobb. Maybe she’ll go a little higher. ( )