Raven

About the Raven series

The Raven duology is a secondary-world fantasy pairing Seraph, a powerful and wary magic-user, with Tier, a former slave and warrior returning home after years of captivity, in a world of political tension between human kingdoms and older, more dangerous forces. Raven's Shadow opens with their arranged, largely practical marriage of convenience becoming something neither of them planned for, against a backdrop of magic Seraph has spent years trying to control and hide. Raven's Strike continues directly, raising the stakes as threats from Tier's past and Seraph's power both come to a head.

As with Hurog, Patricia Briggs applies her hallmark grounded, competence-first character writing to a secondary-world setting here -- guarded protagonists, hard-earned trust, and magic with real cost and danger -- distinct from both her earlier Sianim series and her later Mercy Thompson urban fantasy.

Complete at two books, Raven is a self-contained duology unconnected to Briggs's other series.

How to read this series

Read in publication order: Raven's Shadow, then Raven's Strike. It's a direct two-book story that continues without a major time jump, so read them in sequence. The duology is complete and stands apart from Briggs's other fantasy series (Sianim, Hurog) and her Mercy Thompson urban fantasy -- no shared world or characters.