The Raven Scholar

Antonia Hodgson
Completed 6/5/2026, Reviewed 6/10/2026
5 stars

I didn’t expect to like this book based on the blurb, but I found it incredibly entertaining.  It’s loaded with backstabbing and court politics, not unlike most competition reality shows.  Normally, not my cup of tea.  This book gripped me, with readable prose, an incredibly complex magic and religion, and very well-developed characters.  I loved that they are mostly adults in their 20’s or so, rather than teens.  It’s a doorstopper of a book but enough action to keep the pace pretty high.  This book was nominated for the 2026 Hugo Award.  It has a lot of love in the online review arena, but also several loud detractors.  I can see the argument of the detractors, but I align with those who loved it. 

The book starts out with Yana as a teen.  Her father was a traitor to the Emperor and was executed.  Yana, her mother, sister, and brother have been living under the good graces of the Emperor since.  Out of nowhere, he decides Yana helped her father too much during the uprising and banishes her to certain death.  Then the book picks up with Neema, an intelligent scribe with good penmanship, being tasked by the Emperor with writing the proclamation of exile.  Neema is against this but complies to better her position with the Emperor.  She ends up living with that guilt for the rest of the book.

Some years later, the term for the Emperor is over and the traditional competition to take the throne is set.  It brings in representatives from the eight houses of the religion, named after different animals.  When the Raven competitor is mysteriously killed, Neema is blamed for it, but never actually accused.  Being the second best in Raven class, Neema is assigned to the competition by the Emperor.  She has never trained for it and is sure it’s a death sentence in disguise.  And her competitors include Cain, the boy she grew up with who has since become estranged from her, and Ruko, Yana’s uber-intense surviving brother.  

Neema is interesting.  She is riddled with guilt and self-doubt.  At times, she was very annoying, but I bought into her character 100%.  Within the context of her childhood and education as a Raven, she was so abused and disliked by her classmates and even her instructors that I understood why it took so long for her to start breaking through her own walls.  Sometimes, bullying is so extreme that some people may never break through.  Throughout the book, she steps up to the challenges placed before her and somehow perseveres.  So when she does have the occasional triumph, it’s very satisfying.  

There are a lot of characters in this book.  There are the eight original competitors, there’s the king’s court, Yana’s family, and a host of others.  The thing that’s most remarkable is that despite Neema’s fears, she is a kind and gentle person.  My favorite of the other characters is Benna, the maid assigned to Neema when she becomes a contender.  Beena is keyed into Neema’s goodness and her responses are hysterical and heartfelt.  Cain also has a pretty satisfying character arc.  He goes from being a snarky pain to Neema.  He’s still angry at her for signing Yana’s exile document and leaving him for an assignment with the emperor.  But then, old feelings between Neema and Cain arise and that complicates matters for both of them.  He’s much more likeable than Ruko who seems to be a monstrous machine.

One thing I noticed about this book is that it makes many statements about politics, this being chock full of backstabbing and devious plots.  There is so much going on, to comment on it would be a spoiler.  It’s too bad, because I would have liked to discuss this book with someone as I read it.  The book is all about power and powerlessness.  One would hope the powerful are toppled, but there is at least one sequel.  So yeah, the ending is good, but there’s so much that remains to be dealt with and overcome.  

The prose is decent, nothing too flowery or pretentious.  The star of the book, though, is the world-building.  The religious and magic system is incredibly detailed and interesting.  It was unlike anything I’ve read so far.  It’s what made this book great for me.  It lifted what could have been a tired trope (a reality competition like Survivor or The Hunger Games) into something complex and surprising.  I give this book a five stars out of five.  I surprised myself by really getting into every detail about Neema, the Emperor, Cain, and Ruko and their relationships to each other.  I remember my shock in realizing I kept so much info in my head, including the details of all the competitors.  This book hit me just the right way.  I can’t say this is my number one pick for the Hugo, despite the stars, but I will say that reading it was an intense experience.