Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Blackwing

  • The Raven's Mark, Book 1
  • By: Ed McDonald
  • Narrated by: Colin Mace
  • Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (443 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Blackwing cover art

Blackwing

By: Ed McDonald
Narrated by: Colin Mace
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Of Blood and Fire cover art
Kings of Paradise cover art
City Under the Sand cover art
Son of the Black Sword cover art
Barrowlands cover art
A Perfect Shadow [Dramatized Adaptation] cover art
The Ember Blade cover art
Pathfinder Tales: Shy Knives cover art
Mud, Blood, and Magic cover art
The Heart of Stone cover art
Cry Havoc cover art
A Warrior's Path cover art
Unbound cover art
Unfettered cover art
The Red Sea cover art
The Sum of All Men cover art

Summary

The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long-dead sorcerer's legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel: traitors, flesh eaters and the ghosts of the wastelands seek to destroy them, but if they cannot solve the ancient wizard's paradox, the Deep Kings will walk the earth again, and all will be lost. 

The war with the Eastern Empire ended in stalemate some 80 years ago thanks to Nall's Engine, a wizard-crafted weapon so powerful even the Deep Kings feared it. The strike of the engine created the Misery - a wasteland full of ghosts and corrupted magic that now forms a no-man's-land along the frontier. But when Galharrow investigates a frontier fortress, he discovers complacency bordering on treason: then the walls are stormed, and the engine fails to launch. 

Galharrow escapes only because of the preternatural magical power of the noblewoman he was supposed to be protecting. Together they race to the capital to unmask the traitors and restore the republic's defences. Far across the Misery, a vast army is on the move, as the empire prepares to call the republic's bluff. 

Blackwing is a gritty epic fantasy for fans of Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch and Daniel Polansky. 

Read by Colin Mace. 

©2017 Ed McDonald (P)2017 Orion Publishing Group

What listeners say about Blackwing

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    279
  • 4 Stars
    119
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    283
  • 4 Stars
    90
  • 3 Stars
    26
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    250
  • 4 Stars
    107
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

It turns out I like grimdark fantasy after all

I chose this book after an Amazon recommendation, which I don't usually do, but I thought I'd take a punt on a new author.

This book was great! Gripping story, characters that develop more and more as the story goes on - Galharrow, the narrator, unfurls into a really memorable lead character, who you want to spend more time with.

I've previously tried other novels described to be as 'Grimdark' - which seems to mean that the main character is a bit of a nasty git.
I read Paul Hoffman's trilogy, but thought it peaked with Left Hand of God. I enjoyed it though.
I wanted to like Mark Lawrence. The plot kept me turning pages to the end of each book, but I found the lead character two dimensional and tiresome by the end.
This was everything I wanted those books to be! It blew them out of the water.

The premise reminded me of Chronicles of the Black Company, but with more vivid storytelling.

I also really loved that, while there's lots of potential for more books in the series, the narrative of this one finished its ark with the book. I'll be waiting eagerly to read the next one, but it's great not to always need that to finish the story.

The narrator was really good. A very convincing Galharrow who can carry off everyone else's voice too.
I didn't realise Nen was an Aussie though...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A bit of a flop!

I had high hopes for Blackwing as the blurb sounds awesome but ended up quite disappointed when this turned out to be a distinctly below average fantasy story with bad writing and some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue I've encountered in a while.

The building blocks were in place for a decent story.

The World

This was one of those flintlock era fantasy books that mixed in magic with 19th Century technology. The world had a post apocalyptic feel to it. A magical weapon of mass destruction was used to push the immortal Deep Kings and their mutant legions into the South and away from the lands ruled by the equally immortal mages known only as the Nameless. The use of Null's Engine has left a vast wasteland, know as the Misery. The Misery is a place to be feared as all sorts of mutants and monsters roam its twisted landscape.

It could have been a cool setting but the mutants and monsters basically only filled the role of mindless zombies and the like in your average post-apocalyptic tale. Which I felt was a total waste of potential as a few of the Deep Kings mutant creatures like the Darlings (evil mages in the bodies of children), the Gillings (gnome like creature that babble the same few sentences over and over again and paralyse their victims with with venom before eating them), and Brides (creatures capable of seducing humans to do their bidding) actually had the potential to be really cool. Sadly that potential was mostly just wasted as they never developed beyond bland monsters that had zero individual personality or significance.

The magic was OK but nothing special. It was all pretty vague and I have to admit I hated the name given to the mages, spinners, because lets be honest that awful name almost sucks all the coolness out of magic on its own!

The Story

Ryhalt Galharrow is a Blackwing Captain and a bounty hunter in service to the most powerful remaining Nameless. It is his job to hunt down traitors and defectors who seek to flee to the Deep Kings realms to the south and to deal with any of the Deep King agents and monsters who venture into the Nameless's realm. After a trip to the Misery to hunt down a few traitors he finds himself at a Misery outpost and gets orders from his Nameless lord to escort a noblewomen back to Valingrad (the border capital and home of the powerful Engine). Keeping the noblewomen safe is no easy task considering she is spouting a few dangerous heresies but Ryhalt has the incentive to listen since she has links to his own long forgotten past!

I feel like there was nothing wrong with the actual plot. The story could have been good if it was not hampered by the execution and McDonald's writing, which I just did not get on with at all. Some of it was pretty predictable but it did manage one fun twist near the end.

The Characters

Only three characters in the whole story made enough of an impression on me to remember their names. Ryhalt Galharrow was our lead character. This story was told from his POV. He seemed a decent enough character but was hindered by spending the whole book wallowing in self-pity.

--
‘Go fuck yourself, Herono,’ I said. ‘It isn’t that I love the girl. Truth is, I gave up on myself a long time ago. I’ve always been fucked over one way or another, and when your life’s as worthless as mine you get to stop caring about it altogether.
--

That is an actual bit of dialogue. The guy was so "woe is me" it was unreal. He was a sad cynical veteran soldier who spent his time working, boozing, and swearing. I'm sure he went with the boozing to show how depressed he was and how crappy his life was and the swearing just to prove what a hardman he was. Unfortunately both were so overdone that he ended up coming off a little bit comical. On the plus side that did help me with liking the guy as he came across as so downtrodden that it was hard not to sympathize with him.

The only other characters that made an impression were Nem, Ryhalt's disfigured companion and number two in his mercenary band, and Lady Ezabeth Tanza, the noblewomen and mage he is tasked with protecting and who he still totally has the hots for. I actually thought both were promising secondary characters.


The Writing

This was the big flaw of the book. I thought the writing was awful and this book really did contain some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue of all time. Here are some of the gems:

--
‘You need to eat less cock,’ I said, ‘you’re heavy as fuck.’
Nenn’s snarl told me she’d have made some savage retort if breathing didn’t hurt so bad.

‘In all honesty, Galharrow, as frustrating as yesterday’s stunt was, I understand you. You want to fuck the girl. Spirits of dread know why, with those scars, but I suppose everyone has a fetish. I always liked the blacks.’
--

The other big flaw in the writing is that it just feels like this book is trying so hard to be grim dark that it becomes a laughably parody of the genre. The word "shit" is used 68 times while the word "fuck" manges a good 141 outings. It just seemed a bit much!

There was also the general "woe is me" tone to the book.

--
The look in his eyes said he wanted to kill me. The look in mine said I meant him to suffer before he died.
--

This was another of the many trying too hard to be grimdark bits of writing that riddled the story.

All in all I was not super happy with this one and I doubt I'll bother with the sequel.

This was narrated by Colin Mace. I thought the guy did a below average job. He has an annoying voice, no great talent for voice acting, and just stuck in a bizarre Australian accent for Nem for no discernable reason. Though at least that out of place accent made it easy to tell when she was speaking which was better than the generic voice used for most of the rest of the characters. Honestly it is a pity Mace narrates so many fantasy books!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent grimdark

Mark Lawrence better up his game or this lad will be king of grimdark. Can't wait for more - hope they keep the same narrator too

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Main Character act like a 13 horny child.

Nothing more cringe than a supposedly hardened killer acting like a little lost boy around a woman he barley knows.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Serious. Contender

In my personal opinion, of the modern writers who have chosen to throw their lot in with dark fantasy, Joe Abercrombie is the brightest star. Oh, I reluctantly accept George R R Martin, though, his written work too often smacks of pornography, which blights its more inspired moments.
But Ed Mcdonald I feel is right up there with the best of them, chomping at Joe's coat tails. I hope there will be more authors who create such worlds and characters, such trials and beautiful sacrifices, both dark and light. I will be watching this guy certainly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic romp!

This was a great book, really enjoyed it. It had a bit of an Abercrombie vibe with the miserable main character, kind of reminiscent of the Bloody 9/ Glokta. Some good world building and pacing, I had many an enjoyable walk with my dogs listening to this audio book.

Also I think the narrator, Colin Mace was excellent as ever, his voice is just right for this style of story telling with gritty, earthy tones that suit the characters brilliantly.

I'll be moving onto the sequel in short order.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it! straight into the next!!

Great characters, evil villains, an alcoholic hero... what more could you want?!
Filled the void I'd had since finishing the Demon Cycle.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great universe, Great writing, Great acting

Overall a spectacularly well put together piece of work. I've just finished my second listen and really allowed myself to sink into it very heavily from the get-go. The second listen through was in fact a lot more rich and I would heavily recommend doing so.

I've recommended this book to a number of people, one of the finest works I've listened to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

perfect grimdark

as a big fan of Joe Abercrombie, I was looking for something violent and brooding. this ticks all by box's... its what "we are the dead" by Mike Shackle should have been... this scratched my ich for a story violence, betrayal bleakness perfectly! looking forward to reading the rest in the sires.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great characters, great story.

The narration brings this story to life. The characters and story are great. Unfortunately, the editing is very amateur but not enough to take away from your enjoyment. It just leaves you a little perplexed as to why this wasn't picked up on before release.
I shall be diving straight into the next book in this series with great gusto and abounding enthusiasm.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!