An NPR Best Book of the Year!
Kings become outcasts and lovers become foes in The Faithless Hawk, the thrilling sequel to Margaret Owen's The Merciful Crow.
As the new chieftain of the Crows, Fie knows better than to expect a royal to keep his word. Still she's hopeful that Prince Jasimir will fulfill his oath to protect her fellow Crows. But then black smoke fills the sky, signaling the death of King Surimir and the beginning of Queen Rhusana's merciless bid for the throne.
With the witch queen using the deadly plague to unite the nation of Sabor against Crows—and add numbers to her monstrous army—Fie and her band are forced to go into hiding, leaving the country to be ravaged by the plague. However, they're all running out of time before the Crows starve in exile and Sabor is lost forever.
A desperate Fie calls on old allies to help take Rhusana down from within her own walls. But inside the royal palace, the only difference between a conqueror and a thief is an army. To survive, Fie must unravel not only Rhusana's plot, but ancient secrets of the Crows—secrets that could save her people, or set the world ablaze.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
August 18, 2020 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781250191953
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781250191953
- File size: 7687 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 6.2
- Lexile® Measure: 850
- Interest Level: 9-12(UG)
- Text Difficulty: 4-5
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Reviews
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April 15, 2020
Grades 7-10 Fie, now a Crow Chief taking over Pa's band, thought that delivering the Saboran crown prince safely to his allies would fulfill the covenant and secure the Crows' safety from corrupt Queen Rhusana and the vigilante White Oleanders. But it seems the queen has blamed the Crows for her husband's death, and Fie and the Crows are now in more danger than ever. Fie learns that the only road to safety for her people is for her to reclaim the Crow birthright?something she never realized they had lost. Trusted partners switch sides, and she has only a handful of faithful helpers?including the crown prince?so how can Fie ever hope to win? Owen's fledgling chief and her Crow family stay on the move in this action-oriented sequel to The Merciful Crow (2019), and the tension only escalates as the story advances. The addition of the birthright plotline adds another dimension to the mystical aspects of the tale, and swift and unexpected turns propel it forward breathlessly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.) -
September 25, 2020
Gr 7 Up-In this incisive conclusion to "The Merciful Crow" duology, Fie is now chief of her father's Crow band and has safely delivered the crown prince to his allies in exchange for protection; life was supposed to get easier. When Fie comes face to face with a dead god, she ends up responsible for saving not just her Crows, but all of the Crows in Sabor. Their Birthright-the one history says they don't have-was stolen hundreds of years ago, and it's up to Fie to reclaim it. But the ruthless witch queen Rhusana has begun her play for the throne before Prince Jasimir can cement his claim. She blames the Crows for the king's death, uses the Sinner's Plague to raise skin-ghasts for her army, and gives her Oleander Gentry free rein to hunt any Crows they can find. Owen's adroit worldbuilding turns up already high stakes, while further developing her diverse cast with sharp dialogue, morally charged conflicts, and political intrigue. Romance, betrayals, and a dwindling list of allies move the story through exciting turns that will keep readers glued to the page until the very end. With diversity present in race, gender, and sexual orientation, the series tackles the timely topic of institutionalized discrimination through its caste-system worldbuilding, rather than along racial lines. VERDICT A recommended series for fantasy fans. Owen delivers on all her promises in this exhilarating, action-packed sequel, to create a world that readers won't want to leave.-Emmy Neal, Lake Forest Lib., IL
Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from May 15, 2020
Plague and power struggles continue to ravage a kingdom in this sequel to 2019's The Merciful Crow. Unlike the 11 other bird-named castes of Sabor, only the Crows can handle the Sinner's Plague victims, dispatching fatal "mercy," handling corpses, and taking teeth as payment, yet they are reviled. Fierce young Fie, now a chieftain, and her Crows already delivered Prince Jasimir to safety once, but their promised protection--from daily abuse and nighttime Oleander Gentry raids--is threatened again by Queen Rhusana's ruthless rise to power. When Rhusana interrupts Fie's too-brief reunion with Jasimir and Tavin (his half brother, a royal bastard, and Fie's love interest) via gruesome zombielike skin-ghasts and new mind-control magic, Fie goes solo. Familiar with death, decay, and discrimination, Fie is a refreshingly earthy and grimly determined protagonist with borrowed powers but innate pugnaciousness; romance clashes with her self-reliance. In a world where the dead gods may be reincarnated and every caste has witches and Birthrights, inequality and prejudices nevertheless fester, albeit along caste and class lines (rather than explicitly racial ones). If the first installment was a hair-raising road-trip/hardscrabble survival tale, this one is a proper court intrigue laced with looming social revolution, cryptic religious prophecies, and a fair amount of gore. Owen also raises the stakes, forcing self-reliant Fie to save all Sabor in order to protect all Crows, not just her band, while sustaining the suspense and adventure. A richly textured story of rage, romance, and rebellion. (Fantasy. 14-18)COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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