What do you think?
Rate this book
The Books of the Raksura #1-3
The Books of the Raksura: The Complete Raksura Series
The Complete Raksura Series, by Martha Wells. Containing The Cloud Roads (2011), The Serpent Sea (2012), The Siren Depths (2013).
948 pages, ebook
First published July 15, 2013
122 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
Martha Wells
100 books25.3k followersMartha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series, The Murderbot Diaries series, and other fantasy novels, most recently Witch King (Tordotcom, 2023). She has also written media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, Locus Awards, and a Dragon Award, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the British Science Fiction Association Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, the Sunday Times Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her books have been published in twenty-five languages.
She is also a consulting producer on The Murderbot Diaries series for Apple TV+.
She is also a consulting producer on The Murderbot Diaries series for Apple TV+.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 14, 2022
I've been sitting on this review for the past couple of months, not because I don't have anything to say, but because all I have to say is how much I love this series (I love it so very much). I went into the first book The Cloud Roads expecting to like it, but I wasn't prepared for how much I enjoyed it. All three books are simply amazing, and they remind me of the fantasies I loved when I was younger, particularly the Earthsea Chronicles and the early Pern books.
Simply put, the The Books of the Raksura: The Complete Raksura Series are such satisfying reads and so satisfyingly different from what you'd expect of high fantasy. It doesn't take long for you to be fully immersed in the setting and adventures. It took me only a few pages to fall into the Three Worlds completely. I mean, how could anyone resist? There are flying islands, many of them now in ruins used to belong to long dead civilizations. The more you learn more about the Three Worlds, the more you want to live there, and I didn't want to leave. I mean I literally could not put The Cloud Roads down and ended up breezing through the whole series, short stories and all, in a matter of days. It was a whirlwind experience, and it's been a long time since a series sucked me in so completely that way. It shouldn't have come as a surprise though. Martha Wells is an amazing storyteller.
Now onto the best part of the Three Worlds: Raksura. These are shapeshifters who have two forms: groundling, which is a humanoid form and the one they're often in, and Raksura, which is a winged or wingless reptilian gargoyle-like form and the one they take when they fight or hunt. Winged Raksura, called Aeriats, are divided into three castes: queen, consort, and warrior. Wingless Raksura, called Arbora, are divided into four castes: mentor, teacher, hunter, and soldier. More about each individual caste here. Their functions and distinctions in Raksura court and society are a big part of the story, and I find their dynamic fascinating, so different from the usual Medieval European-like court politics of most high fantasies. And just their day to day lives are a treat to read about.
The antagonists of the Three Worlds are the Fell who are also shapeshifters, but they're more like warped perverse versions of the Raksura. The Fell are also divided into castes and have some kind of society and pecking order, but they're altogether much more medieval and bloodthirstier than the Raksura. They feed on other groundlings, are responsible for destroying civilizations all across the Three Worlds, and brutalize their own. Even Raksura fear them. But the interesting thing is it's believed by some Raksura scholars that the Fell and Raksura once shared a common ancestor. When you look at the two races with that in mind, it adds more depth to the story and you begin to see their innate hatred of each other more clearly. Later books and stories expand more on this idea, but only a little bit at a time.
Beautiful fan art. I had a hard time picture the line grandfather and major kethel until I saw Jessica Peffer's versions.
Basic premise (and some spoilers)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Date Read: January 30 to February 2, 2015
The Cloud Roads begins with a solitary Raksura named Moon, who had been living among various groups of groundlings for most of his life. He's never been able to fit in anywhere and doesn't even know what he is. At the start of the book, he's been living for quite some time in a groundling village before inevitably getting kicked out again. This time, though, it leads him to find another Raksura (Stone), or rather Stone found and rescued him.
With nowhere to go and a desire to learn about Raksura, Moon decides to trust Stone and follow him back to his court, Indigo Cloud, which is only a few days' flight away. On the way there, they stop by another court, but unfortunately not before it was completely destroyed by the Fell, which have increasingly become a menacing presence in these parts of the Three Worlds. Stone brings Moon to Indigo Cloud not only out of his goodness of his heart but for an ulterior motive, which is to help the court fight off the Fell.
As expected, Moon has a difficult time fitting into yet another group of people who view him with suspicion and sometimes distaste, but Jade, the young queen, takes an interest in him and he seems to like her too. However, all of that is put aside as more pressing matter arise and the Fell attack. Moon must decide if his place is to help the Raksura or leave because it's not his fight. He decides to stay.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Date Read: February 3 to 5, 2015
The Serpent Sea takes place after the fight with the Fell. Moon is now a member of the Indigo Cloud court and takes his place beside Jade as her Consort. He’s settling into his new role and has even made a few friends, but before he could get comfortable, new trouble finds its way to the court.
The survivors of Indigo Cloud decide to pack up and leave their pyramid mound. Too many bad memories there for them to stay, and like Stone said, the colony is too hard to defend from Fell attacks. So they head to the court’s original territory in the Reaches, the forest of their ancestors where Raksura originated. The journey is uneventful and they reach the colony tree in a matter of days. Once there, though, they discover the tree’s seed pod is missing and that the tree itself will die gradually if the seed isn’t recovered. Moon, Jade, Stone, and a number of beloved characters from the previous book head out to find the seed, and the journey takes them across the Reaches and into the Serpent Sea.
Reading this book is like going on the journey. There are so many awe-inspiring things to mention: an ancient leviathan with a city on its back magically enchanted to stay afloat, the city on its back, the museum in the city on its back, flying boats, the vastness of the Reaches, and last but not least the colony tree itself. It’s like a multi-level city-sized tree house complete with running water, pools, and platforms for farming. The world building and details in this series is mind-blowing and gets better and better with each book.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Date Read: February 5 to 9, 2015
Now that the Indigo Cloud court has settled into their new home, Moon and Jade focus their attention on starting a clutch, but conceiving proves to be more difficult than either had anticipated. Meanwhile, a powerful court with a powerful reigning queen on the other side of the Reaches makes a claim on Moon. She thinks he is the son she lost during a Fell attack on her colony many years ago. These events line up with Moon's age and vague memories of that time and Sorrow, the Raksura he thought was his mother. According to Raksura law, if a consort hasn't fathered a clutch yet, then his birth court still has claims on him. Once a "feral solitary" with no known ties and a muddled bloodline, Moon now has two courts that want him.
The Siren Depths is about lineages and bloodlines, of both the Raksura and the Fell, and they're explored through Moon, his birth queen, their court, and what happened to their home in the East all those years ago. In short, Moon finally knows where he came from. Revealing any more would spoil the rest of the story, but I will say that it's a great story full of surprises. It had me glued to each page; a few meals were missed and phone calls went ignored. Moon's birth mother is such a great character (so great!), and her court and her side of the story are an intriguing addition to the narrative and Moon's arc. They not only add interest and tension, but a whole heaping amount of history and heritage and so much more depth to an already rich vibrant series.
I will never get tired of rereading these books or singing their praises. They are, hands down, my favorite kind of fantasy and exactly what I had been looking for at the time to revitalize my love for the genre. If you're tired of the same old fantasy books and want to try something new and different, give this series a go. Martha Wells never disappoints, and these books will take you on an unforgettable journey.
More Raksura things:
A post by Martha Wells (about Stories of the Raksura, Volume II) is featured on John Scalzi's blog Whatever.
Also on Whatever by Martha Wells:
The Cloud Roads
The Siren Depths
Still captivating, still beautiful. These books bring my fantasies of flying and living in trees to life--well, as close to reality as possible.
This is my third reread and I still find this world and these characters as interesting as when I first picked up this series and read it in a matter of days.
Originally posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
Simply put, the The Books of the Raksura: The Complete Raksura Series are such satisfying reads and so satisfyingly different from what you'd expect of high fantasy. It doesn't take long for you to be fully immersed in the setting and adventures. It took me only a few pages to fall into the Three Worlds completely. I mean, how could anyone resist? There are flying islands, many of them now in ruins used to belong to long dead civilizations. The more you learn more about the Three Worlds, the more you want to live there, and I didn't want to leave. I mean I literally could not put The Cloud Roads down and ended up breezing through the whole series, short stories and all, in a matter of days. It was a whirlwind experience, and it's been a long time since a series sucked me in so completely that way. It shouldn't have come as a surprise though. Martha Wells is an amazing storyteller.
Now onto the best part of the Three Worlds: Raksura. These are shapeshifters who have two forms: groundling, which is a humanoid form and the one they're often in, and Raksura, which is a winged or wingless reptilian gargoyle-like form and the one they take when they fight or hunt. Winged Raksura, called Aeriats, are divided into three castes: queen, consort, and warrior. Wingless Raksura, called Arbora, are divided into four castes: mentor, teacher, hunter, and soldier. More about each individual caste here. Their functions and distinctions in Raksura court and society are a big part of the story, and I find their dynamic fascinating, so different from the usual Medieval European-like court politics of most high fantasies. And just their day to day lives are a treat to read about.
(Raksura by Jessica Peffer)
The antagonists of the Three Worlds are the Fell who are also shapeshifters, but they're more like warped perverse versions of the Raksura. The Fell are also divided into castes and have some kind of society and pecking order, but they're altogether much more medieval and bloodthirstier than the Raksura. They feed on other groundlings, are responsible for destroying civilizations all across the Three Worlds, and brutalize their own. Even Raksura fear them. But the interesting thing is it's believed by some Raksura scholars that the Fell and Raksura once shared a common ancestor. When you look at the two races with that in mind, it adds more depth to the story and you begin to see their innate hatred of each other more clearly. Later books and stories expand more on this idea, but only a little bit at a time.
(The Fell by Jessica Peffer)
Beautiful fan art. I had a hard time picture the line grandfather and major kethel until I saw Jessica Peffer's versions.
Basic premise (and some spoilers)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Date Read: January 30 to February 2, 2015
The Cloud Roads begins with a solitary Raksura named Moon, who had been living among various groups of groundlings for most of his life. He's never been able to fit in anywhere and doesn't even know what he is. At the start of the book, he's been living for quite some time in a groundling village before inevitably getting kicked out again. This time, though, it leads him to find another Raksura (Stone), or rather Stone found and rescued him.
With nowhere to go and a desire to learn about Raksura, Moon decides to trust Stone and follow him back to his court, Indigo Cloud, which is only a few days' flight away. On the way there, they stop by another court, but unfortunately not before it was completely destroyed by the Fell, which have increasingly become a menacing presence in these parts of the Three Worlds. Stone brings Moon to Indigo Cloud not only out of his goodness of his heart but for an ulterior motive, which is to help the court fight off the Fell.
As expected, Moon has a difficult time fitting into yet another group of people who view him with suspicion and sometimes distaste, but Jade, the young queen, takes an interest in him and he seems to like her too. However, all of that is put aside as more pressing matter arise and the Fell attack. Moon must decide if his place is to help the Raksura or leave because it's not his fight. He decides to stay.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Date Read: February 3 to 5, 2015
The Serpent Sea takes place after the fight with the Fell. Moon is now a member of the Indigo Cloud court and takes his place beside Jade as her Consort. He’s settling into his new role and has even made a few friends, but before he could get comfortable, new trouble finds its way to the court.
The survivors of Indigo Cloud decide to pack up and leave their pyramid mound. Too many bad memories there for them to stay, and like Stone said, the colony is too hard to defend from Fell attacks. So they head to the court’s original territory in the Reaches, the forest of their ancestors where Raksura originated. The journey is uneventful and they reach the colony tree in a matter of days. Once there, though, they discover the tree’s seed pod is missing and that the tree itself will die gradually if the seed isn’t recovered. Moon, Jade, Stone, and a number of beloved characters from the previous book head out to find the seed, and the journey takes them across the Reaches and into the Serpent Sea.
Reading this book is like going on the journey. There are so many awe-inspiring things to mention: an ancient leviathan with a city on its back magically enchanted to stay afloat, the city on its back, the museum in the city on its back, flying boats, the vastness of the Reaches, and last but not least the colony tree itself. It’s like a multi-level city-sized tree house complete with running water, pools, and platforms for farming. The world building and details in this series is mind-blowing and gets better and better with each book.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Date Read: February 5 to 9, 2015
Now that the Indigo Cloud court has settled into their new home, Moon and Jade focus their attention on starting a clutch, but conceiving proves to be more difficult than either had anticipated. Meanwhile, a powerful court with a powerful reigning queen on the other side of the Reaches makes a claim on Moon. She thinks he is the son she lost during a Fell attack on her colony many years ago. These events line up with Moon's age and vague memories of that time and Sorrow, the Raksura he thought was his mother. According to Raksura law, if a consort hasn't fathered a clutch yet, then his birth court still has claims on him. Once a "feral solitary" with no known ties and a muddled bloodline, Moon now has two courts that want him.
The Siren Depths is about lineages and bloodlines, of both the Raksura and the Fell, and they're explored through Moon, his birth queen, their court, and what happened to their home in the East all those years ago. In short, Moon finally knows where he came from. Revealing any more would spoil the rest of the story, but I will say that it's a great story full of surprises. It had me glued to each page; a few meals were missed and phone calls went ignored. Moon's birth mother is such a great character (so great!), and her court and her side of the story are an intriguing addition to the narrative and Moon's arc. They not only add interest and tension, but a whole heaping amount of history and heritage and so much more depth to an already rich vibrant series.
I will never get tired of rereading these books or singing their praises. They are, hands down, my favorite kind of fantasy and exactly what I had been looking for at the time to revitalize my love for the genre. If you're tired of the same old fantasy books and want to try something new and different, give this series a go. Martha Wells never disappoints, and these books will take you on an unforgettable journey.
More Raksura things:
A post by Martha Wells (about Stories of the Raksura, Volume II) is featured on John Scalzi's blog Whatever.
In many ways, the Raksura books are the books I’ve always wanted to write, it just took me writing a bunch of other books to figure it out.
Also on Whatever by Martha Wells:
The Cloud Roads
The Siren Depths
* * * * *
Still captivating, still beautiful. These books bring my fantasies of flying and living in trees to life--well, as close to reality as possible.
This is my third reread and I still find this world and these characters as interesting as when I first picked up this series and read it in a matter of days.
Originally posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
December 3, 2018
As I'm planning on reading this whole collection, I'm going to review each book as I finish it.
2018-11: The Siren Depths. 4.5 stars. What a terrific way to wrap up this trilogy. Moon finds out about his parentage and we find out more about the Raksura-Fell connection and both their origins.
When word gets back to Moon's original Court, Opal Night, of his existence, they make it clear to Indigo Court that they want their son back. Moon is deeply upset by this, and by his queen's apparent acquiescence, just as he was starting to feel that he could belong somewhere after years of rejections by successive groups of groundlings. Jade assures Moon she's bringing him back, but Moon leaves disheartened and feeling rejected by Jade, and finds himself butting up the prejudices of Opal Night Raksura and against all the Raksura customs and expectations he knows little about. Moon struggles to rein in his anger, hurt feelings and loneliness amongst the strangers.
Meanwhile, the Fell reappear at a nearby groundling city, and when Jade, Stone and others appear at Opal Night, the Raksura travel to the city to investigate and prevent the Fell from whatever they've got planned.
What I liked:
-This novel moves along well, building on all we know of Raksura, then making it strange all over again as we experience his home Court with Moon. And the Raksura there who haven't had a chance to appreciate Moon's skills and character as Indigo Court has.
-Though there is much arguing and fighting in this story, of course, what with Moon's temper and the difficulties he faces at Opal Night, and of course, with the Raksura against the Fell.
-I was amused at way Jade and Moon’s mother Malachite kept growling at each other with the queens gradually coming to respect one another’s feelings for Moon.
-And who doesn't appreciate just how terrifying Raksuran queens are?
-What really got me with this book was the way Wells’ took us through Moon’s complex and conflicted feelings at finding his original family while also working through what he’s come to feel for members of Indigo Court. I cheered when Stone showed up at Opal Night for Moon. Stone has been a steady and affectionate (and sarcastic) presence in Moon's life, and in the three books.
-Then there's the way Wells finally brought all the various threads in book 1 and 2 together to explain the Raksura-Fell connection.
This series is fantastic, and I’m so glad Martha Wells wrote some more stories of the Raksura.
2018-10: The Serpent Seas. 4 stars. Moon and the rest of Indigo Court make it to their ancestral home, a gigantic tree. There they find carvings damaged, some dead groundlings and most worrisome: the seed keeping the tree alive and thriving has been stolen. The tree is dying, consequently. After some detection, they realize that someone has stolen the seed, and a small group led by Jade follow the clues to a strange island populated by groundlings far out at sea. In fact, it’s not even an island but a great sea beast into which many buildings have been attached. And there’s a magician living in a tower.
Moon continues to feel ambivalent about Indigo Court, and despite all the fighting and working together to get to the tree, all of Moon’s years spent among mistrustful groundlings has him keep an emotional distance from the Court. This begins to change in this book, and gradually he finds himself caring about the other Raksura. Martha Wells beautifully handles Moon's slow thawing and reaching out. She continues to amuse me with Stone's dry humour, and I also like how Jade's and some of the others', acceptance of Moon's peculiarities, as they see it, which are actually strengths, as a result of his many years alone, help him begin to integrate himself into Indigo Court and as Jade's consort.
2018-09: The Cloud Roads. 4 stars Really interesting start to a complex world, with multiple non-human races, two of which are the focus here: the Raksura and the Fell, both of whom are flying shapeshifters. The Raksura live in large, complicated groups and are made up of the Arbora, who run everything (feeding, teaching, etc.) and the Aeriat, who are the warriors, and out of whom the Queens and Consorts come from.
Enter Moon, unbeknownst to him a Raksura, who has been living for years mostly in his groundling form, and trying to to fit in with groundlings. He's had to hide his shapeshifting and has been moving from one groundling settlement to another to preserve his secret. This hasn't been going particularly well, until it goes really badly with the latest group of groundlings he's with; he's mistakenly thought of as a Fell, drugged and left for predators. Moon is rescued by Stone, a shapeshifter like himself, who tells Moon what he is, and encourages Moon to come with him to Indigo Court.
Moon, having been on his guard and having no one to rely on for many years, is reluctant, mistrustful, reserved, cynical and misanthropic, but does go with Stone to Indigo Court, where he receives a less than friendly reception. Raksura are wary of lone Individuals, and Moon doesn't make it easy for the group to like or trust him. Coupled with this is that the group is under threat by Fell, suffering declining births and the main queen and her heir are not getting along--the whole situation is tense.
I had no idea what this series would be like, but figured Martha Wells would not let me down, and she did not. She delivered a story with a terrific world (I figured James Cameron stole her flying islands), multiple fascinating nonhuman races, longstanding conflict and plenty of danger, and a main character who has to learn to open up and trust and work with others. There is so much more I want to know about the Raksura and how Moon integrates with Indigo Court, and what they'll do next about the Fell, so on to book two.
2018-11: The Siren Depths. 4.5 stars. What a terrific way to wrap up this trilogy. Moon finds out about his parentage and we find out more about the Raksura-Fell connection and both their origins.
When word gets back to Moon's original Court, Opal Night, of his existence, they make it clear to Indigo Court that they want their son back. Moon is deeply upset by this, and by his queen's apparent acquiescence, just as he was starting to feel that he could belong somewhere after years of rejections by successive groups of groundlings. Jade assures Moon she's bringing him back, but Moon leaves disheartened and feeling rejected by Jade, and finds himself butting up the prejudices of Opal Night Raksura and against all the Raksura customs and expectations he knows little about. Moon struggles to rein in his anger, hurt feelings and loneliness amongst the strangers.
Meanwhile, the Fell reappear at a nearby groundling city, and when Jade, Stone and others appear at Opal Night, the Raksura travel to the city to investigate and prevent the Fell from whatever they've got planned.
What I liked:
-This novel moves along well, building on all we know of Raksura, then making it strange all over again as we experience his home Court with Moon. And the Raksura there who haven't had a chance to appreciate Moon's skills and character as Indigo Court has.
-Though there is much arguing and fighting in this story, of course, what with Moon's temper and the difficulties he faces at Opal Night, and of course, with the Raksura against the Fell.
-I was amused at way Jade and Moon’s mother Malachite kept growling at each other with the queens gradually coming to respect one another’s feelings for Moon.
-And who doesn't appreciate just how terrifying Raksuran queens are?
-What really got me with this book was the way Wells’ took us through Moon’s complex and conflicted feelings at finding his original family while also working through what he’s come to feel for members of Indigo Court. I cheered when Stone showed up at Opal Night for Moon. Stone has been a steady and affectionate (and sarcastic) presence in Moon's life, and in the three books.
-Then there's the way Wells finally brought all the various threads in book 1 and 2 together to explain the Raksura-Fell connection.
This series is fantastic, and I’m so glad Martha Wells wrote some more stories of the Raksura.
2018-10: The Serpent Seas. 4 stars. Moon and the rest of Indigo Court make it to their ancestral home, a gigantic tree. There they find carvings damaged, some dead groundlings and most worrisome: the seed keeping the tree alive and thriving has been stolen. The tree is dying, consequently. After some detection, they realize that someone has stolen the seed, and a small group led by Jade follow the clues to a strange island populated by groundlings far out at sea. In fact, it’s not even an island but a great sea beast into which many buildings have been attached. And there’s a magician living in a tower.
Moon continues to feel ambivalent about Indigo Court, and despite all the fighting and working together to get to the tree, all of Moon’s years spent among mistrustful groundlings has him keep an emotional distance from the Court. This begins to change in this book, and gradually he finds himself caring about the other Raksura. Martha Wells beautifully handles Moon's slow thawing and reaching out. She continues to amuse me with Stone's dry humour, and I also like how Jade's and some of the others', acceptance of Moon's peculiarities, as they see it, which are actually strengths, as a result of his many years alone, help him begin to integrate himself into Indigo Court and as Jade's consort.
2018-09: The Cloud Roads. 4 stars Really interesting start to a complex world, with multiple non-human races, two of which are the focus here: the Raksura and the Fell, both of whom are flying shapeshifters. The Raksura live in large, complicated groups and are made up of the Arbora, who run everything (feeding, teaching, etc.) and the Aeriat, who are the warriors, and out of whom the Queens and Consorts come from.
Enter Moon, unbeknownst to him a Raksura, who has been living for years mostly in his groundling form, and trying to to fit in with groundlings. He's had to hide his shapeshifting and has been moving from one groundling settlement to another to preserve his secret. This hasn't been going particularly well, until it goes really badly with the latest group of groundlings he's with; he's mistakenly thought of as a Fell, drugged and left for predators. Moon is rescued by Stone, a shapeshifter like himself, who tells Moon what he is, and encourages Moon to come with him to Indigo Court.
Moon, having been on his guard and having no one to rely on for many years, is reluctant, mistrustful, reserved, cynical and misanthropic, but does go with Stone to Indigo Court, where he receives a less than friendly reception. Raksura are wary of lone Individuals, and Moon doesn't make it easy for the group to like or trust him. Coupled with this is that the group is under threat by Fell, suffering declining births and the main queen and her heir are not getting along--the whole situation is tense.
I had no idea what this series would be like, but figured Martha Wells would not let me down, and she did not. She delivered a story with a terrific world (I figured James Cameron stole her flying islands), multiple fascinating nonhuman races, longstanding conflict and plenty of danger, and a main character who has to learn to open up and trust and work with others. There is so much more I want to know about the Raksura and how Moon integrates with Indigo Court, and what they'll do next about the Fell, so on to book two.
January 15, 2025
A fun world, as long you don't think about it for too long, then it immediately starts to fall apart.
Fun, funny, relatable, dramatic.
And then if you start thinking about any aspect of it for more than two seconds, you see the
foundation of rampant biological essentialism that leads to constant transphobia and racism, and the explicit condoning of eugenics. 😬 Yeesh.
Almost no character descriptions, even for characters that come back book after book. We don't get any detailed descriptions of even the main characters, just surface details from a glance.
Most of the characters we don't even know what their scale colors are, even though that's a pretty important detail for people who spend half their time in a draconic form.
I do definitely recommend it because it was a fun story, but oh gods there are so many problems. So many. So so so so so many.
The protagonist goes around randomly assigning everyone me meets with whatever pronouns he assumes they use, and literally checks peoples genitals before deciding which pronouns he's going to assign them. When he could literally just ask, considering that's a real thing real people do in the real world, and this is a fantasy world where there are hundreds if not thousands of different sentient species who all look different, where clarifying your gender and pronouns to strangers should be considered completely normal, considering the range of sizes and shapes they come in, along with all the different cultures and languages.
But no, Martha Wells loves biological essentialism, so instead of normalizing asking people for their pronouns or even easier, having people introduce themselves with their pronouns, we instead get a protagonist who checks out people's genitals and chests to see if they have breasts or not before randomly assigning them pronouns based on his own perceptions of them.
Oh and it gets worse when we finally get a character who Moon switches refering to [X] as he or it, depending entirely upon how much he currently wants to violently murder [X] at the moment because of pure racism. Like it's just racism at that point. There's "these people are understandably wary of people who've hurt them before" and "straight up racism" and this crosses the line so far it's not even in sight anymore.
These books have evil Black Flying Orcs who are evil for the sake of being evil, and we get a respected, wise, lovably character legitimately propose using eugenics to make these Evil Black Flying Orcs less evil. And we're supposed to cheer and clap and be so happy about this proposal and think it's totally awesome and good and someone should have thought of it sooner. 🤮
The Evil for the Sake of Evil people alternatively have all black scales in their Terrifying Murderous Raping Evil Form™, and are then the only people in the entire story with white skin when they're in their Mesmerizingly Beautiful™ forms.
Yeah, it was clearly meant to be ~subversive~ by giving the evil people white skin...but that doesn't work when literally 99% of the rest of the time they are Literally Black Flying Orcs who are inhernetly evil and violent and literally want to rape everyone and can only be "tamed" by a mixed-race child who inherits her ability to be a good person and have morals from her Good Guy Genes 😬 And we're literally supposed to think that doing eugenics on these people to "breed out the evil" is a commendable, amazing idea that everyone should cheer for.
I'm not even joking.
This series also fails spectacularly in regards to gender concepts. Martha Wells seems to be under the impression that simply having a matriarchal society means that oppressive gender roles are fine now, and shouldn't be criticized or fought against. We get to see exactly one character who has a genuine problem with the oppressive structure of Raksuran society, and he is literally portrayed as a mentally ill serial killer. Again, I'm not even joking.
Reversing the gender roles doesn't make your story feminist if your forget that the reason they're being reversed is to criticize them.
Consorts are property to be traded and given to women more than three times their age, and we're supposed to be fine with this, because it's happening to men and boys, instead of women and girls.
The Arbora are the epitome of the trope of the Happy Slave, but we're supposed to be fine with it because um...they totally enjoy being slaves, totally. So it's definitely not slavery. We're meant to scoff and laugh when other species see the structure of Raksuran society and correctly deduce that the Arbora are the "Servant class". Because they literally are. But we're supposed to pretend they're actually not, because the biologicial essentialism means they *enjoy* doing the work for literally everyone.
Yeah, telling us the trope that they're happy slaves doesn't make them not happy slaves.
Oh and the warriors? Yeah we're told they're completely useless and lazy and never do anything good...but then we're shown that they are literally *not allowed* to help with anything, because they will *literally* get chased away with actual snarling and threatning if they try to help with something as simple as pitching a tent.
They're constantly degraded for not knowing how to do anything properly, like dressing kills when they come back from hunting, but the moment anyone shows them how to do it properly, they are excited to learn and help out.
But we're not supposed to understand that they're being oppressed, we're supposed to believe it as fact that they're useless and "silly" and good for nothing, when they're literally not allowed to do anything.
We're supposed to just take Raksuran society's word for it that Warriors use weaponized incometance...and then ignore all the times we're shown that its the exact opposite. They want to help, but are literally not allowed to. They're not even allowed to LEARN how to do things properly. And then have to deal with everyone constantly crapping on them for being useless. And immediately follow this up by snarling at them when they try to help.
The transphobia comes in with two characters, Chime and River. Chime is explicitly, but apparently unintentionally, transgender.
He was given a magical sex change against his will, and resents it and the way others now perceive him as a gender he does not identify with. He wants to change back to his original sex so that his gender is respected, but this is apparently impossible. I say apparently, because not even his sexual partners can be bothered to give enough shits about him or his feelings to ever think about exploring options.
He woke up one day as a different sex, is now treated as the gender that "goes with" that sex, and is absolutely miserable with the whole thing, and constantly has to fight, unsuccessfully, to be recognized as his original, true gender. And he is treated with nothing but disgust and derision by others for this situation.
Everyone now treats him like a Warrior, and as I mentioned above, Warriors are treated like absolute crap. They're treated as worse than useless, irresponsible and lazy and only ever getting in the way.
And you know, despite how much this series and the author loves biological essentialism, the fact that Warriors literally DO, physiologically, require more sleep than others? Is not taken into consideration. Biological essentialism is good when it means the Arbora are happy slaves, but unimportant when it comes to treating warriors like crap for things they have no actual control over.
Like I said. It's a fun series, until you start thinking about it for more time than it takes to physically read the words.
There are tons of side and background characters, none of whom have any impactful personalities, are even basic descriptions. We literally don't know what color Root's scales are, despite him being one of the "main" side characters.
And like with all the rest of Martha Wells books, there are no real stakes. Every protagonist is the best most amazing person ever to exist, who might lose a fight, but will never actually lose in a way that matters. Doesn't matter how hurt you are, it'll be magically healed before the end of the book, and sometimes even before the chapter's over. No character who actually matters to the story will ever die. The bad guys will always lose, no matter how many times we're told that they're super duper terrifying and scary.
We keep getting told fifty million times that the Fell are terrifying...and then they lose every single encounter they have with the good guys, and even Balm, a random warrior, can win in a fight against a Ruler, and come away with some "scratches" on her arms. Even though if the Fell were actually as threatening as we're constantly told they are, she should, at best, have lost both her arms, not just had some "scratches" on them.
And they're literally described as "scratches". Not gouges down to the bone, not horrible injuries she's likely to bleed to death from, nope, they're just scratches. When she just fought what's supposed to be the scariest of the scary Fell.
Martha Wells had what could have been a cool idea -- a society of nonhumans who have more than six genders and are split into castes like ants or bees -- and then absolutely failed step 1 in regards to actually doing anything interesting or actually feminist with this concept at all.
Classism, sexism, transphobia, and racism are all apparently just perfectly fine in Raksuran society, because their ~Biology~ says that's the way it's supposed to be, and if you have a problem with this oppressive society, well, Martha Wells will literally portray you as a Scarily Mentally Ill Serial Killer who can't be trusted and murders people for fun.
Yeah, no, this is not the progressive story she clearly thought she was writing. This series contains racism, sexism, transphobia, and slavery apologism, all nicely wrapped up in positivity like it's okay as long as we pretend the fantasy species' DNA means its true.
And in spite of, and partly because of that, I do genuinely suggest people read these books. See how not to do these things, and take away what few good things there are. The Books of the Raksura make a great lesson on how exactly not to deal with gender in fiction.
It is possible to write about aliens species who have different morals than we do, and not have a bigoted story. But The Books of the Raksura doesn't manage that. All it ends up doing is reinforcing and upholding the same bigotry we already all have to deal with in real life.
Fun, funny, relatable, dramatic.
And then if you start thinking about any aspect of it for more than two seconds, you see the
foundation of rampant biological essentialism that leads to constant transphobia and racism, and the explicit condoning of eugenics. 😬 Yeesh.
Almost no character descriptions, even for characters that come back book after book. We don't get any detailed descriptions of even the main characters, just surface details from a glance.
Most of the characters we don't even know what their scale colors are, even though that's a pretty important detail for people who spend half their time in a draconic form.
I do definitely recommend it because it was a fun story, but oh gods there are so many problems. So many. So so so so so many.
The protagonist goes around randomly assigning everyone me meets with whatever pronouns he assumes they use, and literally checks peoples genitals before deciding which pronouns he's going to assign them. When he could literally just ask, considering that's a real thing real people do in the real world, and this is a fantasy world where there are hundreds if not thousands of different sentient species who all look different, where clarifying your gender and pronouns to strangers should be considered completely normal, considering the range of sizes and shapes they come in, along with all the different cultures and languages.
But no, Martha Wells loves biological essentialism, so instead of normalizing asking people for their pronouns or even easier, having people introduce themselves with their pronouns, we instead get a protagonist who checks out people's genitals and chests to see if they have breasts or not before randomly assigning them pronouns based on his own perceptions of them.
Oh and it gets worse when we finally get a character who Moon switches refering to [X] as he or it, depending entirely upon how much he currently wants to violently murder [X] at the moment because of pure racism. Like it's just racism at that point. There's "these people are understandably wary of people who've hurt them before" and "straight up racism" and this crosses the line so far it's not even in sight anymore.
These books have evil Black Flying Orcs who are evil for the sake of being evil, and we get a respected, wise, lovably character legitimately propose using eugenics to make these Evil Black Flying Orcs less evil. And we're supposed to cheer and clap and be so happy about this proposal and think it's totally awesome and good and someone should have thought of it sooner. 🤮
The Evil for the Sake of Evil people alternatively have all black scales in their Terrifying Murderous Raping Evil Form™, and are then the only people in the entire story with white skin when they're in their Mesmerizingly Beautiful™ forms.
Yeah, it was clearly meant to be ~subversive~ by giving the evil people white skin...but that doesn't work when literally 99% of the rest of the time they are Literally Black Flying Orcs who are inhernetly evil and violent and literally want to rape everyone and can only be "tamed" by a mixed-race child who inherits her ability to be a good person and have morals from her Good Guy Genes 😬 And we're literally supposed to think that doing eugenics on these people to "breed out the evil" is a commendable, amazing idea that everyone should cheer for.
I'm not even joking.
This series also fails spectacularly in regards to gender concepts. Martha Wells seems to be under the impression that simply having a matriarchal society means that oppressive gender roles are fine now, and shouldn't be criticized or fought against. We get to see exactly one character who has a genuine problem with the oppressive structure of Raksuran society, and he is literally portrayed as a mentally ill serial killer. Again, I'm not even joking.
Reversing the gender roles doesn't make your story feminist if your forget that the reason they're being reversed is to criticize them.
Consorts are property to be traded and given to women more than three times their age, and we're supposed to be fine with this, because it's happening to men and boys, instead of women and girls.
The Arbora are the epitome of the trope of the Happy Slave, but we're supposed to be fine with it because um...they totally enjoy being slaves, totally. So it's definitely not slavery. We're meant to scoff and laugh when other species see the structure of Raksuran society and correctly deduce that the Arbora are the "Servant class". Because they literally are. But we're supposed to pretend they're actually not, because the biologicial essentialism means they *enjoy* doing the work for literally everyone.
Yeah, telling us the trope that they're happy slaves doesn't make them not happy slaves.
Oh and the warriors? Yeah we're told they're completely useless and lazy and never do anything good...but then we're shown that they are literally *not allowed* to help with anything, because they will *literally* get chased away with actual snarling and threatning if they try to help with something as simple as pitching a tent.
They're constantly degraded for not knowing how to do anything properly, like dressing kills when they come back from hunting, but the moment anyone shows them how to do it properly, they are excited to learn and help out.
But we're not supposed to understand that they're being oppressed, we're supposed to believe it as fact that they're useless and "silly" and good for nothing, when they're literally not allowed to do anything.
We're supposed to just take Raksuran society's word for it that Warriors use weaponized incometance...and then ignore all the times we're shown that its the exact opposite. They want to help, but are literally not allowed to. They're not even allowed to LEARN how to do things properly. And then have to deal with everyone constantly crapping on them for being useless. And immediately follow this up by snarling at them when they try to help.
The transphobia comes in with two characters, Chime and River. Chime is explicitly, but apparently unintentionally, transgender.
He was given a magical sex change against his will, and resents it and the way others now perceive him as a gender he does not identify with. He wants to change back to his original sex so that his gender is respected, but this is apparently impossible. I say apparently, because not even his sexual partners can be bothered to give enough shits about him or his feelings to ever think about exploring options.
He woke up one day as a different sex, is now treated as the gender that "goes with" that sex, and is absolutely miserable with the whole thing, and constantly has to fight, unsuccessfully, to be recognized as his original, true gender. And he is treated with nothing but disgust and derision by others for this situation.
Everyone now treats him like a Warrior, and as I mentioned above, Warriors are treated like absolute crap. They're treated as worse than useless, irresponsible and lazy and only ever getting in the way.
And you know, despite how much this series and the author loves biological essentialism, the fact that Warriors literally DO, physiologically, require more sleep than others? Is not taken into consideration. Biological essentialism is good when it means the Arbora are happy slaves, but unimportant when it comes to treating warriors like crap for things they have no actual control over.
Like I said. It's a fun series, until you start thinking about it for more time than it takes to physically read the words.
There are tons of side and background characters, none of whom have any impactful personalities, are even basic descriptions. We literally don't know what color Root's scales are, despite him being one of the "main" side characters.
And like with all the rest of Martha Wells books, there are no real stakes. Every protagonist is the best most amazing person ever to exist, who might lose a fight, but will never actually lose in a way that matters. Doesn't matter how hurt you are, it'll be magically healed before the end of the book, and sometimes even before the chapter's over. No character who actually matters to the story will ever die. The bad guys will always lose, no matter how many times we're told that they're super duper terrifying and scary.
We keep getting told fifty million times that the Fell are terrifying...and then they lose every single encounter they have with the good guys, and even Balm, a random warrior, can win in a fight against a Ruler, and come away with some "scratches" on her arms. Even though if the Fell were actually as threatening as we're constantly told they are, she should, at best, have lost both her arms, not just had some "scratches" on them.
And they're literally described as "scratches". Not gouges down to the bone, not horrible injuries she's likely to bleed to death from, nope, they're just scratches. When she just fought what's supposed to be the scariest of the scary Fell.
Martha Wells had what could have been a cool idea -- a society of nonhumans who have more than six genders and are split into castes like ants or bees -- and then absolutely failed step 1 in regards to actually doing anything interesting or actually feminist with this concept at all.
Classism, sexism, transphobia, and racism are all apparently just perfectly fine in Raksuran society, because their ~Biology~ says that's the way it's supposed to be, and if you have a problem with this oppressive society, well, Martha Wells will literally portray you as a Scarily Mentally Ill Serial Killer who can't be trusted and murders people for fun.
Yeah, no, this is not the progressive story she clearly thought she was writing. This series contains racism, sexism, transphobia, and slavery apologism, all nicely wrapped up in positivity like it's okay as long as we pretend the fantasy species' DNA means its true.
And in spite of, and partly because of that, I do genuinely suggest people read these books. See how not to do these things, and take away what few good things there are. The Books of the Raksura make a great lesson on how exactly not to deal with gender in fiction.
It is possible to write about aliens species who have different morals than we do, and not have a bigoted story. But The Books of the Raksura doesn't manage that. All it ends up doing is reinforcing and upholding the same bigotry we already all have to deal with in real life.
November 14, 2017
Anmeldt af Boris på bookeater.dk:
(http://www.bookeater.dk/vbforum/fanta...)
Sommerens bedste læsning for mig har helt uden sammenligning været Martha Wells’ Raksura-serie. Jeg læste først kortromanen/singlen The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
af Wells og faldt med det samme for hendes skrivestil, som bare gav mig et kick.
Efterfølgende kastede jeg mig over hendes Raksura-serie, og det har jeg bestemt ikke fortrudt.
I modsætning til The Murderbot Diaries, som befinder sig i Sci-Fi genren, er Raksura-serien fuldblods fantasy af fineste skuffe.
Der hvor Wells især (men ikke udelukkende) brillerer er på Worldbuilding-delen. Det er et fantastisk univers hun får skabt i denne serie, som man fuldkommen kan lade sig opsluge af og svælge i.
Raksura-racen er en slags fuglemennesker som på et splitsekund kan skifte mellem deres fugleham og en mindre menneskelignende skikkelse.
Raksura-samfundet er opbygget som en slags hoffer (court) og de øverste i hierarkiet er dronningerne og deres søstre. De næste i rækkefølgen er gemalerne (consorts) som yngler med dronningerne. Herefter kommer krigerne og mentorerne, som er en slags healere. Derudover er der naturligvis arbejdere, lærere, gartnere og mange flere. Det er kun dronninger, gemaler og krigere som har vinger og kan flyve, medens de øvrige har menneskelignende skikkelser.
Den primære klan af Raksura, som vi følger bor i et fantastisk sindrigt hulesystem, skabt i et kæmpetræ inde i en regnskov, men andre klaner bor også blandt andre steder i klippehuler efter samme system.
Seriens hovedperson, Moon, er en enlig Raksura som i begyndelsen slet ikke ved, at han er en Raksura. Han flakker rundt i de forskellige menneskelandsbyer og forsøger at blende ind så godt han kan. Det ender som regel galt, da han ikke kan undertrykke sin trang til at skifte til fugleham.
På et tidspunkt hvor han er i knibe kommer Raksura’en Stone og befrier ham i en penibel situation hvor han er blevet forgivet af landsbyens beboere. Alle mennesker hedder i øvrigt Groundlings i serien. Stone fører ham til Indigo Cloud-klanen, hvor det går op for ham at han er en Gemal.
Hvor bog har sit tema, og det første bind handler om kampen mod de onde Fell, som også er fuglelignende væsner, men som kun kan finde ud af at dræbe og udnytte andre væsner, uden selv at skabe noget.
Bøgerne er meget actionprægede, men der er også plads til at udfolde de mange små historier som er bygget op omkring den verden som Wells har skabt.
Hvis du ikke går af vejen for et par bøger på engelsk og er til bøger i Fantasy-genren, kan jeg varmt anbefale denne serie – og der er da i øvrigt også lidt Romance indbygget i serien, uden at det dog tager overhånd.
Jeg har ikke hørt om at der skulle være en oversættelse på vej af denne serie, men man kan jo aldrig vide.
(http://www.bookeater.dk/vbforum/fanta...)
Sommerens bedste læsning for mig har helt uden sammenligning været Martha Wells’ Raksura-serie. Jeg læste først kortromanen/singlen The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
af Wells og faldt med det samme for hendes skrivestil, som bare gav mig et kick.
Efterfølgende kastede jeg mig over hendes Raksura-serie, og det har jeg bestemt ikke fortrudt.
I modsætning til The Murderbot Diaries, som befinder sig i Sci-Fi genren, er Raksura-serien fuldblods fantasy af fineste skuffe.
Der hvor Wells især (men ikke udelukkende) brillerer er på Worldbuilding-delen. Det er et fantastisk univers hun får skabt i denne serie, som man fuldkommen kan lade sig opsluge af og svælge i.
Raksura-racen er en slags fuglemennesker som på et splitsekund kan skifte mellem deres fugleham og en mindre menneskelignende skikkelse.
Raksura-samfundet er opbygget som en slags hoffer (court) og de øverste i hierarkiet er dronningerne og deres søstre. De næste i rækkefølgen er gemalerne (consorts) som yngler med dronningerne. Herefter kommer krigerne og mentorerne, som er en slags healere. Derudover er der naturligvis arbejdere, lærere, gartnere og mange flere. Det er kun dronninger, gemaler og krigere som har vinger og kan flyve, medens de øvrige har menneskelignende skikkelser.
Den primære klan af Raksura, som vi følger bor i et fantastisk sindrigt hulesystem, skabt i et kæmpetræ inde i en regnskov, men andre klaner bor også blandt andre steder i klippehuler efter samme system.
Seriens hovedperson, Moon, er en enlig Raksura som i begyndelsen slet ikke ved, at han er en Raksura. Han flakker rundt i de forskellige menneskelandsbyer og forsøger at blende ind så godt han kan. Det ender som regel galt, da han ikke kan undertrykke sin trang til at skifte til fugleham.
På et tidspunkt hvor han er i knibe kommer Raksura’en Stone og befrier ham i en penibel situation hvor han er blevet forgivet af landsbyens beboere. Alle mennesker hedder i øvrigt Groundlings i serien. Stone fører ham til Indigo Cloud-klanen, hvor det går op for ham at han er en Gemal.
Hvor bog har sit tema, og det første bind handler om kampen mod de onde Fell, som også er fuglelignende væsner, men som kun kan finde ud af at dræbe og udnytte andre væsner, uden selv at skabe noget.
Bøgerne er meget actionprægede, men der er også plads til at udfolde de mange små historier som er bygget op omkring den verden som Wells har skabt.
Hvis du ikke går af vejen for et par bøger på engelsk og er til bøger i Fantasy-genren, kan jeg varmt anbefale denne serie – og der er da i øvrigt også lidt Romance indbygget i serien, uden at det dog tager overhånd.
Jeg har ikke hørt om at der skulle være en oversættelse på vej af denne serie, men man kan jo aldrig vide.
March 28, 2024
Outstanding fantasy series
I obtained all three books at once, so this review is for the series. Each boom has a defined ending - no cliffhangers . The story is told entirely from the perspective of Moon, a “feral solitary “ Raksura. He is imperfect, but willing and able to learn to be a better person. The stories have a great deal of drama - battles, intrigue, prejudice, and some tragedy as well. By the second book I was a trifle weary of the constant danger and fighting. I was pleasantly surprised that the third book showed more emotional depth, as Moon confronts his origins and his true feelings. And in this book we meet Malachite - a true warrior queen. One of my favorite aspects of this book is its depiction of females as the physically and mentally dominating gender. Malachite is the epitome of a loving but powerful ruler who will stop at nothing’s to protect those she loves. Revealing more about her would be a spoiler, so I will just say that she is as stubborn and determined as Moon.
I obtained all three books at once, so this review is for the series. Each boom has a defined ending - no cliffhangers . The story is told entirely from the perspective of Moon, a “feral solitary “ Raksura. He is imperfect, but willing and able to learn to be a better person. The stories have a great deal of drama - battles, intrigue, prejudice, and some tragedy as well. By the second book I was a trifle weary of the constant danger and fighting. I was pleasantly surprised that the third book showed more emotional depth, as Moon confronts his origins and his true feelings. And in this book we meet Malachite - a true warrior queen. One of my favorite aspects of this book is its depiction of females as the physically and mentally dominating gender. Malachite is the epitome of a loving but powerful ruler who will stop at nothing’s to protect those she loves. Revealing more about her would be a spoiler, so I will just say that she is as stubborn and determined as Moon.
January 17, 2025
Martha Wells knows how to introduce an alien world. You start with a person, then learn a little bit more, then a bit more, until you are immersed in a fully realized world. Some authors start with the minutiae and expect you to keep up. This is a bad idea.
The interesting thing about this book is that the protagonist is just as confused as the reader. He doesn't know where he came from or what he is. As he learns, the reader learns. The events of the book are often surprising but rarely outrageous. Everything follows, everything flows, everyone grows.
I don't want to get into the plot; you can read summaries all over the internet. I'd encourage you to begin reading with foreknowledge and learn the same way the protagonist does.
The interesting thing about this book is that the protagonist is just as confused as the reader. He doesn't know where he came from or what he is. As he learns, the reader learns. The events of the book are often surprising but rarely outrageous. Everything follows, everything flows, everyone grows.
I don't want to get into the plot; you can read summaries all over the internet. I'd encourage you to begin reading with foreknowledge and learn the same way the protagonist does.
December 24, 2017
I read the first book in the trilogy not long after it was published (in 2011 I think) and loved it. More recently, my husband bought this single download of the trilogy, mentioned how much he loved it and it was only when I started reading that I remembered reading it the first time around. This time, of course, there were two more books within the download for me to continue further into the story. I love the concept, the universe, the story (or should I say stories, since there are many), the characters, all of it.
December 1, 2018
Fantastic world building
From the fertile imagination of Martha Wells comes some of the richest world building ever. This world called the three worlds by its inhabitants includes incredibly diverse geography, creatures, sentient beings, and magics After hearing so many great things about this series I bought the box set of the first 3 novels. I blitzed through the set in no time. I didn't want to stop reading! Whether you do like I did and buy the set or get them one at at time you won't be disappointed with your visit to the three worlds!
From the fertile imagination of Martha Wells comes some of the richest world building ever. This world called the three worlds by its inhabitants includes incredibly diverse geography, creatures, sentient beings, and magics After hearing so many great things about this series I bought the box set of the first 3 novels. I blitzed through the set in no time. I didn't want to stop reading! Whether you do like I did and buy the set or get them one at at time you won't be disappointed with your visit to the three worlds!
July 5, 2022
Rousing adventure in a world with unique people
These books are well written, well thought out, and have extremely good characters. The world it is set in is unique, with a variety of intelligent beings. The adventures keep on coming and I just couldn't put these books down until I was finished with them. And now I want more.
The setting reminded me of Ringworld, not in any details, but in the overall feel of being someplace truly alien. I highly recommend it to anybody who likes fast moving SF.
These books are well written, well thought out, and have extremely good characters. The world it is set in is unique, with a variety of intelligent beings. The adventures keep on coming and I just couldn't put these books down until I was finished with them. And now I want more.
The setting reminded me of Ringworld, not in any details, but in the overall feel of being someplace truly alien. I highly recommend it to anybody who likes fast moving SF.
June 16, 2021
All the reviews are similar for this series and very accurate. If you want a brand new fantasy world that is unique and vibrant and fresh... This series covers that itch. I have read the series twice now, my wife has read it multiple times, my sons have read it (one multiple times), it is that good. It worth bingeing. These are novels that keep you up reading just one more chapter, just until they arrive, just until they get the think open...
October 10, 2022
A wonderful epic
A truly original twist to the fantasy genre, painting an original world, with relatable and believable characters I love dearly. I absolutely love everything Martha Wells has written.
A truly original twist to the fantasy genre, painting an original world, with relatable and believable characters I love dearly. I absolutely love everything Martha Wells has written.
September 4, 2018
Really liked the premise, but I read all five books back-to-back. Storylines felt a little repetitive because of this.
read-cross-reference
July 28, 2020
August 3, 2022
A richly vivid and deeply engaging epic.
March 15, 2024
Enjoyed reading these books.
May 24, 2024
This was an enjoyable read for me. Solid fantasy. Nothing more needs to be said.
November 14, 2025
This was a DNF for me - which was disappointing as I devoured Murderbot Diaries voraciously...
September 17, 2018
I love this series! You have a complex world, called the Three Worlds---filled with fascinating cities, great characters, and amazing events! The Raksura are shape-shifters. Moon, a lone shifter who does not know what he is gets introduced to his people for the first time. There are traditions he does not know, the world has lines of force, flying islands, rapacious enemies, beautiful colonies, ancient traditions, and plots galore! It's a beautiful place, and one of the best tales I've read in years. Thank you, Martha!
July 23, 2022
Just... do yourself a favor and find these books and read them. I hadn't realized that another series from this author had been rec'd to me a few years back until I was chomping at the bit for more Raksura and went looking to see what else she'd done. I plan to try out the Murderbot series eventually.
Ok, but why do I think you should read these books? Well... Wells did a GREAT job of pulling on my emotions. The world is mysterious and DIFFERENT. You know pretty quickly that this isn't another sorta-kinda-but-not-really medieval Europe setting, but then she leads you into the world, and you learn it bit by bit. I want to get THIS good at delivering worldbuilding that feels as lived in as this world does. It's vast, there's depth, there's so much that NO ONE knows, she doesn't ever tell us, but there's this sense that she KNOWS all of it. If she doesn't, then more kudos to her for the smooth as buttah trickery. There's inherent magic which she doesn't waste time trying to explain or justify, and what passes for technology is very solarpunk- at least, given my limited knowledge of solarpunk, it sure FELT that way to me, and I loved it. We do get a little bit of how those things work, but not so much that the stories are bogged down by it.
I really can't say enough about the world itself. The STORIES are very simple. I mean, you're not going to find any Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan plot twists here, but I was really ok with that. They are that beautiful, perfect for me, level of predictable but HOW is it going to come together? I knew I was going to get a happy ending out of all of these, but who wouldn't make it? HOW were we going to get to that happy end?
Yes, there is character death.
My one ... two, tiny negative ticks against these books are that, once you get deeper into the series, information is repeated enough that I found myself skimming the exposition (short as it was) that I already knew. I understand WHY this was done, as each book can be read on its own, but it did get repetitive to me since I was basically marathoning the series. That, and the end of The Harbours of the Sun (book 5). It just sorta ... ended. Like she was either really done writing this series or wasn't sure how to give it a solid wrap-up, maybe both. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as strong as the first three. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it a fairly weak ending. It felt like she could've ended it sooner, or should have given a bit more to find that sweet spot. As a writer, I know finding that 'right' ending can be difficult though, and as far as my complaints about stories I've read go, "eh, the ending of one book out of 7 was a bit un-impactful" is barely a criticism and certainly no reason not to go grab these books.
I will add though, that if you get Book 4- The Edge of Worlds, just go ahead and grab The Harbour of the Sun at the same time. They're very much part 1 and part 2 of the same story. The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths DO build on one another, and I think a reader would be served well in starting at Cloud Roads, but they stand alone from one another.
Ok, but why do I think you should read these books? Well... Wells did a GREAT job of pulling on my emotions. The world is mysterious and DIFFERENT. You know pretty quickly that this isn't another sorta-kinda-but-not-really medieval Europe setting, but then she leads you into the world, and you learn it bit by bit. I want to get THIS good at delivering worldbuilding that feels as lived in as this world does. It's vast, there's depth, there's so much that NO ONE knows, she doesn't ever tell us, but there's this sense that she KNOWS all of it. If she doesn't, then more kudos to her for the smooth as buttah trickery. There's inherent magic which she doesn't waste time trying to explain or justify, and what passes for technology is very solarpunk- at least, given my limited knowledge of solarpunk, it sure FELT that way to me, and I loved it. We do get a little bit of how those things work, but not so much that the stories are bogged down by it.
I really can't say enough about the world itself. The STORIES are very simple. I mean, you're not going to find any Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan plot twists here, but I was really ok with that. They are that beautiful, perfect for me, level of predictable but HOW is it going to come together? I knew I was going to get a happy ending out of all of these, but who wouldn't make it? HOW were we going to get to that happy end?
Yes, there is character death.
My one ... two, tiny negative ticks against these books are that, once you get deeper into the series, information is repeated enough that I found myself skimming the exposition (short as it was) that I already knew. I understand WHY this was done, as each book can be read on its own, but it did get repetitive to me since I was basically marathoning the series. That, and the end of The Harbours of the Sun (book 5). It just sorta ... ended. Like she was either really done writing this series or wasn't sure how to give it a solid wrap-up, maybe both. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as strong as the first three. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it a fairly weak ending. It felt like she could've ended it sooner, or should have given a bit more to find that sweet spot. As a writer, I know finding that 'right' ending can be difficult though, and as far as my complaints about stories I've read go, "eh, the ending of one book out of 7 was a bit un-impactful" is barely a criticism and certainly no reason not to go grab these books.
I will add though, that if you get Book 4- The Edge of Worlds, just go ahead and grab The Harbour of the Sun at the same time. They're very much part 1 and part 2 of the same story. The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths DO build on one another, and I think a reader would be served well in starting at Cloud Roads, but they stand alone from one another.
Read
February 7, 2016LOL I REMEMBER HOW WEIRD IT WAS READING THE CLOUD ROADS THE FIRST TIME, BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE AUTHOR OR WHAT FANDOM IT WAS FROM, I KNEW THAT BOOK WAS SOMEONE'S FIC WITH THE SERIAL NUMBERS FILED OFF.
I HEARD SOMEWHERE YEARS LATER THAT IT STARTED OFF AS SGA FIC. IHNI WHAT THE AUTHOR'S FANDOM NAME IS, THOUGH.
DD HOW YOU CAN TELL?
IDK, JUST SOMETHING ABOUT HOW THE MAIN CHARACTER WAS WRITTEN. THERE'S A CERTAIN TYPE OF MALE VULNERABILITY (?) THAT YOU GET IN FIC HET AND SLASH, BUT PRETTY MUCH NOWHERE ELSE.
SPEAKING OF BOOKS, I'M IN THE MOOD TO READ A FANTASY BOOK THAT'S VERY TRADITIONAL WITH THAT LOL MIDDLE AGES WITH MAGIC SETTING AND BATTLES AND SHIT, BUT OF COURSE ALL THE RECENT BOOKS I COULD FIND WERE BY MEN AND BARELY SEEM TO HAVE FEMALE CHARACTERS. ARE THERE ANY LADY AUTHORS WHO WRITE THAT SORT OF THING?
WHOOSERBUCKET WITH THE EXILED / BETRAYAL ETC NOVELS ARE GOOD. ROWENA CORY SOMETHINGOROTHER? I MEAN THE DUDES I WANTED TO BONE DIDN'T, BUT THE BOOKS WERE ENTERTAINING WHILE I WAS READING THEM. HER SECOND SERIES ISN'T AS GOOD BECAUSE THEY ARE CLEARLY THE NOVELS SHE WROTE IN HIGH SCHOOL AND ARE VERY OVERWROUGHT. SHARON SHINN IS GOOD TOO, I RLY ENJOY HER THIRTEEN HOUSES SERIES. MARTHA WELLS IS INCREDIBLY ENJOYABLE, CLOUD ROADS IS MY FAVORITE BY HER BUT THAT SERIES MAY BE TOO MODERN FOR YOUR TASTES, SHE DOES HAVE SOME LOL YE OLD FANTASY STUFF.
I HEARD SOMEWHERE YEARS LATER THAT IT STARTED OFF AS SGA FIC. IHNI WHAT THE AUTHOR'S FANDOM NAME IS, THOUGH.
DD HOW YOU CAN TELL?
IDK, JUST SOMETHING ABOUT HOW THE MAIN CHARACTER WAS WRITTEN. THERE'S A CERTAIN TYPE OF MALE VULNERABILITY (?) THAT YOU GET IN FIC HET AND SLASH, BUT PRETTY MUCH NOWHERE ELSE.
SPEAKING OF BOOKS, I'M IN THE MOOD TO READ A FANTASY BOOK THAT'S VERY TRADITIONAL WITH THAT LOL MIDDLE AGES WITH MAGIC SETTING AND BATTLES AND SHIT, BUT OF COURSE ALL THE RECENT BOOKS I COULD FIND WERE BY MEN AND BARELY SEEM TO HAVE FEMALE CHARACTERS. ARE THERE ANY LADY AUTHORS WHO WRITE THAT SORT OF THING?
WHOOSERBUCKET WITH THE EXILED / BETRAYAL ETC NOVELS ARE GOOD. ROWENA CORY SOMETHINGOROTHER? I MEAN THE DUDES I WANTED TO BONE DIDN'T, BUT THE BOOKS WERE ENTERTAINING WHILE I WAS READING THEM. HER SECOND SERIES ISN'T AS GOOD BECAUSE THEY ARE CLEARLY THE NOVELS SHE WROTE IN HIGH SCHOOL AND ARE VERY OVERWROUGHT. SHARON SHINN IS GOOD TOO, I RLY ENJOY HER THIRTEEN HOUSES SERIES. MARTHA WELLS IS INCREDIBLY ENJOYABLE, CLOUD ROADS IS MY FAVORITE BY HER BUT THAT SERIES MAY BE TOO MODERN FOR YOUR TASTES, SHE DOES HAVE SOME LOL YE OLD FANTASY STUFF.
October 8, 2013
Picked up on a whim from the ebooks section of the library. Very enjoyable, wish there was more books to the series!
April 12, 2016
Was easier to read this way
May 7, 2024
Very entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews