Sisters of the Raven

Sisters of the Raven
Barbara Hambly, 2002

Premise: The rains have never been this late before. Men's magic is inexplicably fading, but will the women discovering their own powers be allowed to take their place?

(FYI: This is part of my current project to read all the books I bought cheap years ago and judge them mercilessly so as to free up bookshelf space.)

This book is sort of weird to read now. It's not a bad fantasy yarn with a somewhat Arabian-Nights flavor - djinns and deserts and harems and a very sexist society. The women don't even have real names; it's a whole thing. Take from that what you will. The plot follows a group of women who are some of the first to discover that they have magic, just as the men who have always had magic are losing theirs.

It's got a tense and scary plot, often brutally violent, with some surreal and weird turns. 

Hambly's penchant for moderate, realistic characters means that this doesn't turn into a rousing girl-power fable, just various women with different goals trying to survive in a very dangerous time. There's some hope by the end, but they are only able to take tiny steps forward or risk catastrophe. Some limited unreliable magic is no match for a large number of hostile men holding all political, economic, and military power. 

It's a cool idea and a fine story with interesting magic systems in an intriguing world, but none of those aspects are interesting, entertaining, or compelling enough for me to either keep the book for re-reading or get the next one. 

3 Stars - A Good Book