The Raven’s Mark – Ed McDonald

A few months ago I watched the Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls documentary series ‘The Last Dance’, this revealed that during his playing career, Michael Jordan had a World class ability to take everything personally and to bear a grudge as long as he needed to, he also had an inability, in the early stages of his career to trust others, when the chips were down and his team needed points late in the game, Michael wasn’t letting anyone else have the ball. What does this have to do with fantasy? Well, I’ve just finished reading Ed McDonald’s ‘The Raven’s Mark’, while reading I couldn’t help but see these same characteristics manifest in the protagonist, Ryhalt Galharrow.

There’s two groups of unspeakably powerful beings, the Nameless and the Deep Kings, the Nameless are notionally the protectors of humankind, not because of any altruistic obligation, but because they don’t want to lose their battle with the Deep Kings. They’re slightly preferable protectors to the Deep Kings, who corrupt humans and turn them into Drudge, mutations who exist to serve the Deep Kings.

Eighty years before the events of this series, Crowfoot, one of the Nameless unleashed a magic called the Heart of the Void which created a huge area known as the Misery, a broken land full of bizarre and dangerous fauna and flora, in which the sky is cracked, the air is toxic and the land rearranges itself every few hours, the only good thing about the Misery is that it acts as a strong deterrent to an invasion by the Deep Kings and the Drudge. The Range is a series of frontier stations which border the Misery and house Nall’s Engine, a powerful weapon which drove away the Deep Kings and Drudge the last time they tried to cross the Misery. Rumour has it they’re about to try again.

Enter Ryhalt Galharrow, a disgraced, former soldier of The Range and currently a captain of Blackwing, an operation that could loosely be described as a type of watch, set up to serve Crowfoot, gathering information and conducting any dirty work he demands. Imagine a six and a half foot, drunker, swearier, angrier and stubborner version of Sam Vimes, that’s Ryhalt Galharrow, he’ll do whatever it takes to stop the Drudge taking over his city. The whole series is told from Ryhalt’s first person perspective, it’s not always a nice place to be, casual and callous violence in pursuit of the current objective is very much in the Galharrow playbook. At times he acts completely on impulse, in the moment, uncaring of the consequences, driven by anger or vengeance. Occasionally he regrets those actions but frequently justifies them as the only option, while remaining bitter at the consequences. Behind the violent façade is a man dwelling on life changing events from his youth, lost love, the half-hearted fulfilment of familial duty, the pursuit of status and power, shortly followed by the discovery that in some circumstances neither are attractive, and the consequences of unavoidable failure. You start to understand why Galharrow is usually three sheets to the wind before midday.

Each book follows Galharrow in his attempts to avert an impending disaster, usually instigated by The Drudge, and to the disgust of Galharrow, just as commonly complicated by the naïve behaviour of authority figures supposedly acting in defence of the Range. Invariably Galharrow inserts himself into the situation, takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, and makes the ugly decisions no one else wants to be associated with.

For me, one of the strengths of the series is the wider cast of eclectic characters who orbit around Galharrow, each of them feels quite real and believable. This is complimented by the presence of several strong female characters, appearing as both friends and foe. The Range is a surprising example of equality, all the honorifics used, such as Prince, are unisex, and things like sexuality are dealt with matter-of-factly. Class is the main determiner of station it seems. Galharrow does his bit for equality, he doesn’t care who you are, if you’re useful, he’ll use you, if you’re in his way, get out of it or get hurt.

This was another successful choice of read in 2021, I was repeatedly surprised by the author’s ability to describe ugly things in beautiful ways. These books are incredibly well written, a fact which would be worthless if the story itself was weak, thankfully it’s anything but.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Given the bleakness of the series, it was almost unfathomable that The Raven’s Mark could possibly have a happy ending. But it did. And it really capped a fine series nicely.