The Raven's Shadow is easily the best book of the series so far - and that's a high standard to have achieved. It is pacy and deep and keeps a relentless course set upon its goals. Despite the fact that this is a book containing a lot of travelling, it doesn't feel like a "journey novel"; it never drags its feet or introduces "random encounters" to make things more interesting. Everything is relevant with no "we're on a journey" side-quests or sagging middle parts. Everything is tight and deft.

The world of The Wild Hunt is vivid and dark but with no stylised grittiness; everything has its place and its reason and it presents a far more realistic pseudo-medieval world than books that try to veer more towards the grittiness, or those that try to avoid it altogether. It has a balance and it holds throughout.

The ante has really been upped with just how the events of The Raven's Shadow play out; the end provides a cliffhanger of an ending that will make your jaw drop. With pieces falling into place across the vast stage of the series, and with each and every character making their own moves and steering others into place, The Dragon House is set to be simply spectacular.

Once again I'm left, at the end of the book, wanting more and wondering where it goes next. ( )