Waiting On Wednesday: Ravencry

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and continued now by Tressa at Wishful Endings under the heading “Can’t Wait Wednesday” where readers and bloggers share and discuss books they are excited about reading and which have generally not yet been released. I’m sticking with “Waiting On Wednesday” just because I like the way it rolls off the tongue.

U.S. Edition

Author: Ed McDonald
Publisher: Ace (In U.S.) and Gollancz (In UK)
Series: The Ravens Mark (Book 2)
Length: 384 pages (Paperback US) / 432 pages (Hardcover UK)
Publication Date: August 21, 2018 (U.S.) / June 28, 2018 UK

Ed McDonald’s follow-up to his debut grimdark novel Blackwing is coming soon and I’m getting excited. I absolutely loved Blackwing as you can tell from the review I posted last year. My comment at the time was:

“Slowly realizing I like grimdark more than I thought I did.” That was my reaction just a few chapters into Ed McDonald’s dark, gritty, and bloody debut, Blackwing. If this book doesn’t make you a fan of the grimdark genre nothing will.

Granted, I had not (and still haven’t) read a whole lot of grimdark, but I still think it will make you a fan. I also commented on how Blackwing offered a hint of hope at the end, something fellow blogger H.P. over at Every Day Should Be Tuesday noted with his post titled, “Blackwing is a Grimdark with Hope (but mostly Blood).”

U.K. Edition

Book 2 in the series releases at the end of the month in the U.K. (late August for the U.S.) and yeah I’m a little jealous my fellow bloggers across the Atlantic will get to read it before I do. According to Amazon they also apparently get a hardcover edition through Gollancz, while we here in the states get a paperback version from Ace. I love the U.S. cover but I’d really like to get my hands on a hardcover…which means I may end up ordering a copy of both…don’t tell my wife.

I’ve been on the lookout for early reviews of Ravencry by bloggers I follow. Here’s HiuGregg’s review for The Fantasy Inn. My favorite line…”When I’d finished, the first words out of my mouth were ‘Now THAT’S a fucking sequel.'” He goes on to say:

“Ravencry has everything you loved about Blackwing and more. It’s a grimdark book, but not typically so. The characters are violent and coarse, but decent. It’s a gritty, violent world, but this story has a heart to it. It has a soul. It has a voice.”

So yeah, I’m impatiently waiting on this one to drop. Anyone else feel the same? If you’ve already read Ravencry and have a review or just want to share your thoughts let me know in the comments. Otherwise maybe we’ll knock it Off The TBR together in a few weeks (or couple months). Till then happy reading!