Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm conflicted about this read.

On the one hand, I think, with managed expectations, this is a delightful book. Mild, thoughtful, and almost always following the PoV of a special crow through the ages. One that has died, traveled the land of the dead, come back, and lives on and on. Sometimes Dar Oakley talks with men and women, sometimes he just has adventures, but they all tend to revolve around life and death.

I think it has a really good premise.

What I wanted was something more, however. More interesting conflicts, less average, run-of-the-mill adventures, and maybe less seemingly middle-aged-white guy musings. The thoughts on Christianity, or the reflections of the classic Greek stories aren't amazing. In fact, they're a bit timid.

Maybe if I had come across this as one of my first books into the wide world of wandering adventure through lots of time, without knowing and experiencing a hundred others that do the same thing as well if not better, I might have been amazed by this book.

As it is, I have, and other than following the admittedly pretty cool PoV of this crow through a vast stretch of time, with some admittedly cool mini-stories interspersed, I was profoundly meh'd by this novel. It's far from being bad, but it was... boring. To me. But that doesn't have to be the case for anyone else!

This IS perfect for anyone, however, who likes morality plays, good observations about Crows in real-life, and enjoys a sprawling, wandering tome of stories within stories... AND likes them done mildly, gently, and introspectively.

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