{"id":32929,"date":"2016-08-12T06:30:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T18:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=32929"},"modified":"2016-08-11T20:49:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T08:49:04","slug":"the-wall-of-night-character-series-kristen-blount-features-raven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/08\/12\/the-wall-of-night-character-series-kristen-blount-features-raven\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Wall of Night” Character Series: Kristen Blount Features Raven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/h3>\n

A few weeks back, just for fun, I ran a mystery giveaway<\/a> \u2014 with part of the mystery prize being the opportunity for everyone who entered to:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026contribute a guest post telling blog readers who your favorite character in the WALL series is, and why, and also what you hope for that character in the fourth and final book?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Three commenters took up the guest post offer and today I bring you the first of our character features — in which Kristen Blount has chosen to feature the character of Raven, who enters The Wall Of Night<\/strong><\/a> series in Book Two, The Gathering of the Lost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT: I know some of you hold agin spoilers, so if this is you and you have not yet read the books, the post does contain some reasonably major spoilers about this character — in which case, you may not wish to read on. Consider yourselves warned!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Otherwise, read on and enjoy!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Character Feature: Ser Raven: International Man of Mystery<\/span><\/h2>\n

A Guest Post by Kristen Blount<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"credit:<\/a>

credit: PJ Fitzpatrick<\/p><\/div>\n

When I fall in love, I fall hard. I am head-over-heels for The Wall of Night<\/strong> saga. Our heroes are bold, loyal, and true \u2026 as well as young, dispossessed, scared to death, and making it up as they go along. I’m in up to my eyeballs!<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, Helen introduces us to the other characters in the story: fabulous heralds who speak with one voice, grand knights, powerful demons, and those figures who reside within the Gate of Dreams. In Gathering of the Lost,<\/i> though, we are introduced to someone who seems just a \u201cregular joe\u201d until he becomes a major player. Maybe he was a major player all along? <\/span><\/p>\n

I speak of Aravenor, Captain of the River Patrol, who is also Ser Raven \u2013 hedge knight extraordinaire, who is also Ravirien of the Blood of Fire. As I piece together his story, I am fascinated.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first mention of our International Man of Mystery, he remains behind his mask. Literally. As the Knight Captain of the River Patrol, he always wears his helmet \u2013 as do all his patrollers. After the massacre of heralds in Ij, he is responsible for mobilizing the Patrol under an ancient treaty, and letting the River know in no uncertain terms that the heralds’ diplomatic immunity matters. I got the sense that it was simultaneously an astute and surprising political move. He has a pointed conversation with our favorite heralds, before they move on past the River and we lose sight of the Patrol for awhile.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>

When grand adventure gangs awry…<\/p><\/div>\n

Next, as the (supposedly) new character of Carrick adventures through the pass to the Marches of Emer, we meet Ser Raven. The down-at-the-heels hedge knight mercifully rescues Carrick from outlaws and shepherds him to Normarch. This works out well for all concerned, as Ser Raven takes service in Normarch and becomes instrumental in salvaging the damosels’ grand adventure when it goes badly awry. <\/span><\/p>\n

In this section of the story, though, we gain hints of Darksworn power-users and that perhaps even division among the enemy’s ranks. One of the best parts of Gathering,<\/i> the Darksworn aren’t just faceless \u201cbad guys\u201d but have relationships and agendas.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Gathering<\/i> draws to its conclusion, the hints and glimpses of Raven come together in a breathless moment of Surprise! He has been vetting Malian as she has been questing for the great arms of Derai legend. Raven values his independence greatly, and though he swears service \u2013 it seems much more as an ally than as a vassal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which takes us into Daughter of Blood<\/i>, where we get to see Raven as the remaining Prince of Fire. He instructs Malian in some crucial bits of history as they travel, and she is deeply troubled over the differing perspectives of the millenia-old struggles between the Derai and the Sworn. She was similarly troubled in her realizations of what her culture’s struggles have meant to the world of Haarth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"UK\/AU\/NZ\"<\/a>

Malian, hero and friend<\/p><\/div>\n

In the tragedy that brought House of Fire to Haarth and saw their Ascendant all but dead, he gained an opportunity to reflect and ask questions. He traveled broadly throughout Haarth, then established the Patrol to lend some stability against the terrors he knew would come as the Maelstrom rose. His perspective appears to be entirely unique. The Darksworn adepts and agents seem to be working against each other as much as against Derai interests, and Raven deals ruthlessly with his kin of old as he helps Malian focus on her task at hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In The Chaos Gate<\/i>, I suspect Raven’s apostate heritage and loyalty to Haarth will have an outsized influence on Malian’s decisions. He clearly approves of her ability to find allies instead of vassals; she has shown a distinct pattern with her dealings with Kalan, the Ara-fyr, Yorindesarinen’s shield, and the Patrol and Fire. I deeply suspect that the cliff-hanger ending of Daughter <\/i>will end in another similar choice to leave allies as free, independent movers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever possible, Raven has reinforced and approved of Malian’s instincts to search for solutions that are not Derai or Haarth specific, but that, instead, encompass larger concerns. I find that at the core of the Wall of Night series, the sentiment of, \u201cI keep faith\u201d continually repeats. Raven will keep faith with his house, his new world, and his new friend and hero, Malian.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

—<\/div>\n

About Kristen Blount: <\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n

\"KB<\/a>A lifelong reading enthusiast, Kristen enjoys speculative fiction most but will read just about anything that holds her attention and offers up a good story. With two adult-ish children who are nearing the end of school, Kristen has discovered the joys of free time to indulge in baseball, baking, and cross stitching. In order to pay the bills, she works in the local library’s marketing department as a graphic designer.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Thank you, Kristen for such a wonderful start to this mini-series!<\/p>\n

If you have questions or want to chat further with Kristen on the post, just leave a comment below.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next instalment in this Mystery Galore, The Wall Of Night Character Feature Series<\/strong> will post next Friday, 19 July\u00a0 — brought us by another international Man of Mystery, Prince Jvstin, aka Paul Weimer. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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Introduction: A few weeks back, just for fun, I ran a mystery giveaway \u2014 with part of the mystery prize being the opportunity for everyone who entered to: \u201c\u2026contribute a guest post telling blog readers who your favorite character in the WALL series is, and why, and also what you hope for that character in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,51,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-the-characters","category-guest-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32929"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32949,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32929\/revisions\/32949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}