Crusade (The Ravenmaster Chronicles Book 3) – K. A. Riley

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Kress, Brohn and Render have flown off to the Dordogne Region of France, with Mérdienne and Corbin in tow. They’re hunting the mythical First Feather – something that is said to hold the future of genetic and digital code together – and the thing that could potentially save the world. They just have to get to it before Epic and his team of assassin Hypnogogics. Can Kress overcome the toxic river, the mountainous ruins and her own self doubt before Epic has a chance to destroy her?

I’ve been reading K. A. Riley’s tremendous saga since the first lockdown – April/May 2020. I remember getting somewhat lost in Kress’s world, coming up for air sparingly. When I got to the end of the ennealogy (a nine-part series), I was somewhat dazed. A world of complete and utter destruction, with toxic air and cyst plagues ravaging humans and nature. A world where the governments invented the ominous sounding ‘Eastern Order’ as a common enemy who will bomb the living daylights out of everything and everyone. The same government who kidnap seventeen year olds and send them to a Processor to be turned into living, breathing killing machines to be used against the made up enemy.
We travel with Kress, (a soon to be seventeen-year-old girl from The Valta – a quiet mountain side town in Colorado), and her group of contemporaries as they’re bustled off to their Processor and trained to become soldiers. It soon becomes clear though, that nothing is quite as it seems. Her pet raven, Render, follows them, and through a strange, almost telepathic bond, warns Kress about her groups imminent demise. She convinces her group that they’re about to be killed, and they make a harrowing escape – and discover that they’re all something slightly different to humans. They’re Emergents.

When Kress was six, her father tattooed her arms. He told her at the time that the patterns were to help her remember the specific gestures she should make to communicate with Render. Not long after he gifted her these tattoos, he disappeared. Presumed killed by the Eastern Order.
Except, after they’ve escaped the Processor and experienced unbelievable tragedy in the meantime, they learn that the Easter Order is pretty much a figment of their dictatorial President’s imagination. The group – or Conspiracy as Kress has started calling them – is now on a mission to wipe out Krug and his toxic lies. Over the next eight books, we follow them as they rescue Emergents from other Processors dotted around North America and Europe.

At the end of the ennealogy, we meet a young girl named Branwynne. A sarcastic, sardonic, potty mouthed teenager from London. She’s also like Kress, in that she’s connected to a raven also. This one resides in the Tower of London, is pure white and is named Haida Gwaii. They’re both taken in by Kress and her Conspiracy, and return with them to The Valta – where they’ve set up a base and called it their Academy. Riley then takes us on a three book journey with Branwynne in the lead as she and Haida Gwaii try to navigate their way through a completely different culture and learn how to control her abilities. We’re also taken on a slight wave of Welsh Mythology (of which, I approved of greatly).
As Branwynne’s story stutters to an end, Kress takes over once again. But this time it’s only to be her, her bullet proof boyfriend, Brohn, and of course, Render, who embark on a mission to rescue something or other from an Arcology in Denver. I’m not too sure who or what they were doing there, just that, as everything does, it went pear shaped, and somehow Kress ended up descending into the seven circles of hell. It was on this mission that she met Méridienne and her little brother Corbin, and learnt of the mythical First Feather; which sees us at the start Crusade.

So, that’s the back-ground on Kress and the whole world of the Emergents.

What I’ve particularly enjoyed about this post-atomic, post-apocalyptic hell-scape is that Riley has managed to base each individual book around a different mythology or theme. For instance, Kress is often referred to as the Kakari Isuste – or, The Girl Who Dreams in Raven; a slightly off-kilter inference to the Native American legend of how Raven transforms the world. The same legend is also referenced with Branwynne’s raven – Haida Gwaii. Raven was specifically a trickster god of the Haida Tribe.
Similarly, Branwynne’s tales revolve around ancient Celtic myths and legends, particularly from the Mabinogi – a collection of Welsh folklore written in the mid 12th-13th centuries – and likely transcribed from oral traditional stories.
But it’s not just ancient folk-lore, myths and legends that Riley has indulged in within this magnificent saga. She’s incorporated her own, twisted and ultra-modernised Dante’s Inferno, where Kress descends the nine circles of hell as she traipses through a ravaged version of Denver.

With Crusade, Riley has purportedly ended Kress’ (and by extension, her conspiracies) saga in an adrenaline fuelled race to the end through the beautiful but dying Dordogne Region of France. We meet more colourful characters, have more heart wrenching moments with Render, and even more thought provoking analogies. The theme here, should it not be obvious, is medieval France and the Knights Templar. We learn history lessons and more facts about birds than we’d ever thought we’d need to know. We even meet a rag-tag group of young people who are trying to build their society without the need of violence or gender boundaries. In this part of the book, Riley manages to explain the different definitions and debate around gender and sex without any jargon and in a way that makes perfect sense. It’s equally interesting when a rival group attacks this group of free-living and open minded youths, purely because they’re terrified of changing the societal norms – despite the fact that society as we know it has completely disintegrated.

This was a magnificent ending to an action-filled, thought-provoking allegory of the descent of man-kind, if we continue down the fear-filled war-path we’re currently heading down.

S. A.

To read K. A. Riley’s incredible saga, the reading order is as follows.
The Resistance Trilogy – The beginning of Kress’ journey.
Recruitment
Render
Rebellion
The Emergents Trilogy – Now Kress and her conspiracy must try to recruit other teens to their cause.
Survival
Sacrifice
Synthesis
The Transcendent Trilogy – The Conspiracy have gained victory of Krug, but at what cost?
Travelers
Transfigured
Terminus
Academy of the Apocalypse Trilogy – Branwynne has left the Tower of London with Kress, and now she’ll learn who she is.
Emergents Academy
Cult of the Devoted
Army of the Unsettled
The Ravenmaster Chronicles Trilogy – Kress, Brohn and Render must embark on a new, even deadlier mission.
Arise
Banished
Crusade

All of the books are available as e-book to buy and keep, or to read for free on Kindle Unlimited.