A Time of Ghosts

Raven #2

by Richard Kirk (Pseudonym), Angus Wells (Co-author), Robert Holdstock (Co-author)

A slave that became a warrior, the flamboyant Raven is back. And the dreaded mage Belthis stands again in her way. Along with the mercenary Spellbinder, the young woman will try everything to make his plans fail - until an old shadow, which she believed to be gone, resurfaces ...

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Fiction, Adventure

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Pseudonym of Robert Holdstock and Angus Wells

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who liked the Xena TV series, the "Raven" series, which is considerably older, would certainly be worth a try. I like "Raven" a lot better than Xena because she's much more realistically drawn.

[Leila Anani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine Xena Warrior Princess crossed with Stephen King's Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and you get close to a time of Ghosts.

So Raven our sword wielding heroine and her badass sorcerer boyfriend Spellbinder are sent on a mission to find Kyra (the wife/sister of warlord M'rystal and one of Raven's lovers from book 1) - She's apparently been kidnapped by Lifebane the pirate (another of Raven's lovers from book 1) and M'rystal wants his head. Raven needs to prove Lifebane innocent and find who really took Kyra.

It turns out to be evil sorcerer Belthis (M'rystal's personal wizard whom he exiled last volume and Spellbinder's mortal enemy) to make matters worse he's been possessed by an evil from another dimension - the Crugoan. Oh and the rapist weapons master Donwayne (Raven's nemesis?) he didn't die last volume - Belthis played a trick and saved him and now has him as a henchman.

Raven amasses a band of warriors - the most interesting is Moonshadow a warrior from another dimension who has been cursed so that his powers wax and wane with the moon - he's the mortal enemy of this Crogoan and joins Raven to try and defeat him. He becomes another of Raven's lovers.

Then there's Karmana another female warrior who had also been raped by Donwayne and seeks vengeance.

And lastly randy old Silver - who's always trying unsuccessfully to get Raven into bed. He can turn his skin reflective (like Emma Frost in the X-Men) and dazzle enemies or deflect their energy weapons. After saving Raven for the second time Raven whispers a promise in his ear which I'm assuming means he'll join the legion of her lovers after all. Sigh.

The writing is stilted and there are quite a few errors that a good editor should have picked up. While I like the concept of an independent capable warrior heroine I've never really warmed to Raven. Her endless lovers become a bit of a bore "I belong to no man or woman and that is how I would wish it" - but this freedom really doesn't give rise to emotion or make her likeable. There's also not much of her bisexuality in this one - other than sharing warlord Uthaan with Karmana all her lovers in this one are male.

The other oddity is Raven is swordsmistress of chaos and at some points in the novel you do feel that perhaps you are on the wrong side. She massacres a practically defenceless settlement at one point in order to sow distrust and break up a tenuous alliance. Plus she seems to be supporting M'rystal's regime and he's a complete bastard. It really does feel off to be supporting the side of chaos which is usually the side of evil.

The most interesting thing about this volume was Moonshadow and his Gunslinger like quest for the Crugoan but over all I must say I found this one quite dull, humourless and poorly written.

I love the Chris Achilléos cover art but have to say that the scene is not from the book - there are no wolf men or interesting temples.

[Zamoth Zamzam · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai voulu donner une deuxième chance à cette série. Mais le côté fantasy des années 70/80, inspiré de D&D et ressemblant à du M. Moorcock, vieillit mal (à moins que ce ne soit moi qui vieillisse mal). Une épopée sans saveur, sans rebondissements, avec des personnages dotés de pouvoirs mais sans relief.
Je vais passer à autre chose.

[Hanneke Van Keulen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The action is like a reading a Saturday morning cartoon. Amateur D&D characters are more well rounded and yet - I still don't hate it.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at a second hand store for $1 and I was willing to overlook the cover of a woman wearing only a helmet carrying a sword jumping into battle. I have purchased fantasy books from the 70’s where the marketing was displaying females in fantasy novels as nothing more than naked sex goddess. I had found that did not really represent the story between the covers. On this occasion it does.
This is the second book in the series and I have not read the first one, nor do I intend to. Raven and her band of warriors are out chasing some evil wizard and seeking some personal justice.
The world Kirk has created is not that bad, there is some interesting elements to it and the story is not that bad. What you really need here are strong characters and this is where things become difficult.
Raven is your golden-haired beauty, wielder of a sword, a body every man lusts after and Kirk has created her as a woman who knows her own sexual desires. Raven’s backstory includes her having been raped and rather savagely by a weapon masters she is seeking revenge on. What bugged me was having been violated in such a way she allows several men to make unwarranted advances. One character Silver decides to cop a feel of her breast and behind, she lets him and jokes about it. However if a male attempted the same gesture and was not part of Raven’s gang then he cops a beating for being awful to women. Sorry Richard Kirk you just cannot have it both ways.
I did struggle with the writing style as I found it a bit stilted, formal and repetitive well here is an example “A golden haired warrior who bides her time, riding the vortices of wind and rain and war and peace, bides her time until the time is right and then she strikes.” Now I do not know how many times I read characters extolling the virtues of Raven.
This is a novel of its time and it is interesting to see how much fantasy writing has changed over the last couple of decades.

[Aaron Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If one can get past the trashy cover art, the story is actually really well told, and delivered with enough subltety to transport the reader into the author's imagination. There is not a huge amount of character developement, but the sense of magical mystery, and thrilling danger, combined with the sense of discovery is rather satisfying. This was the only book from the series I managed to get my hands on, but I'm looking forward to reading more from this group of books. I usually find heroines, as created by male writers not terribly believable, but Kirk managed to convince me that he had a feminist streak, despite his choice of cover art.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this was a pretty decent heroic fantasy book. Not a very memorable story though aside from Raven having and/or alluding to amorous relations with almost all of the male characters. A quest to clear a friend's name and avert a war lead Raven and her crew to discover that the past just wont die. A couple of characters stood out for their abilities. First was Silver, who can cover his body with a metallic substance at will (some sort of mutation). Second. was Moonshadow, who's strength waxed and waned with the cycles of the moon. Moonshadow's back story was quite interesting also. So, maybe not a complete waste.

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Must be an English author as no printings exist before 1986 in the USA.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice fantasy series. Quick easy reads. Recommended