I almost didn't read it, because the covers looked like every bland YA fantasy that has been churned out in the past years. Just finished this whole series, and enjoyed it more than any book I've read in a good long while - one of those series where you wake up early to read it in bed before the alarm clock goes off.

And what exactly happened to the Nameless One? And why did the Bards still have their powers? All these questions remained unanswered. I wanted to know why Cadvan loved Maerad, and when he started to love her, and why he hadn't said anything before. She added a little to what happened to them in her appendix but it was also not satisfying. Here I have to read through 1400 pages of painfully detailed landscape and travel description to find out if the two end up together, and then all I get is 'there was no need for words, but they spoke much nonetheless'.and I never find out what they speak about. I even flipped over the last page as I read it making sure that I hadn't missed something or that there had been some sort of misprint. It's like she forgot to write the end of the chapter.

I simply can't review this book without telling you about my disappointment of the way the sub-plot of Cadvan and Maerad's story ends. Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! The main plot was a satisfying conclusion to the story. Allison has a very poetic, lyrical language, and is master of bringing her thoughts to life. Her libretto for Mayakovsky, score by Michael Smetanin, was shortlisted in the Drama Prize for the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. She also writes opera libretti, and the opera she co-wrote with Iain Grandage was Vocal/Choral Work of the Year in the 2015 Art Music Awards. As a critic she was named Geraldine Pascall Critic of the Year in 2009. She is a prize-winning poet and theatre critic, and has released seven collections of poems. Other fantasy titles include Black Spring (shortlisted for the Young People's Writing Award in the 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Awards) and The River and the Book, winner of the Wilderness Society's prize for Environmental Writing for Children. Her latest Pellinor book, The Bone Queen, was a 2016 Aurealis Awards Best Young Adult Book finalist.

Her most recent book is Fleshers, the first in a dazzling new SF series co-written with her husband, acclaimed playwright Daniel Keene. You can sign up to her monthly newsletter and receive a free Pellinor story at Alison Croggon is the award winning author of the acclaimed fantasy series The Books of Pellinor.

The Crow by Alison Croggon