Separately, this god also tells the story of its own birth and the birth of this fantasy universe, where big and small gods exist and where language holds immense power. The reader finds all of this out as if they were Eolo through the novel’s narrator, an unnamed 'stone god' speaking in second person.

Eolo, unsure yet matter-of-fact and fiercely loyal to Mawat, is left to broker relationships between the brooding heir and the royal court as well as help solve the mystery of the disappearance of Mawat’s father. The hot-headed Mawat accuses Hibal of foul-play and vows to take his rightful place as the Raven’s Lease. In a plot straight out of the classic Hamlet, Eolo and Mawat return home to find Hibal, Mawat’s uncle, to be the new Raven’s Lease after Mawat’s father mysteriously disappeared. Mawat’s father is what’s known as the Raven’s Lease, the human ruler of the kingdom that’s guarded by the Raven god. The Raven Tower follows our main character Eolo, an aide of the royal heir Mawat, as they both return to Mawat’s kingdom of Iraden.

It's a challenging first installment that will capture the interest of fantasy nerds if they can grasp all of this world's moving parts-including some that the gods themselves don't fully understand. The answer comes in Leckie's newest book The Raven Tower that focuses on mysterious gods and the kingdoms they watch over.

For instance, what if that dystopian-future lens was applied to the fantasy genre? Author Ann Leckie may not be the first to explore the consequences of ruling sentient beings and dueling AIs within a book, though her award-winning sci-fi novel Ancillary Justice and its sequels suggested there were still new storytelling ideas in the conceit.

The raven tower leckie