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The Black Raven

Deverry Series #10 / 15
by Katharine Kerr
The Black Raven (Deverry Series #10) by Katharine Kerr
  ★ 7.40 / 5
1★2★3★4★5★16★17★38★9★10★

Book Two of The Dragon Mage

The second novel in the exciting new series, The Dragon Mage – and the tenth in the Deverry Cycle – The Black Raven continues the tales begun in The Red Wyvern.

At the end of the Civil Wars, Prince Maryn stands on the brink of bringing peace at last to the torn kingdom, but powerful magics threaten his reign and his life. Only Nevyn's young apprentice, Lilli, can see the horrifying power of the curse, her dead mother's legacy of evil, that could bring disaster upon them all. But she has only untried magic for a weapon as she fights to save her beloved prince.

Centuries later, the ancient evil rises again, threatening a raging tide of war that could destroy Deverry forever. Out in the lonely Northlands the savage Horsekin are gathering their armies to march west and conquer the kingdom promised them by their blood-maddened goddess, Alshandra, and her human priestess, Raena. Directly in their path lies the peaceful city of Cerr Cawnen, trembling in the fear of war.

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Standard Shelves
Updated 04/09/2025
Category: Fantasy, High Fantasy
Release date: 1999

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Katharine Kerr

Katharine Kerr

In the realm of epic fantasy, few names echo with the same fierce clarity as Katharine Kerr. Best known for her immersive Deverry Cycle, Kerr didn’t just create a world—she wove a tapestry of time, memory, and reincarnation that spanned centuries, yet remained achingly intimate. Her stories pulse with Celtic inspiration, layered timelines, and flawed, deeply human characters who evolve across lives and generations.

But Kerr’s journey to fantasy legend wasn’t charted from childhood. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she was more interested in jazz and science fiction than medieval swords and sorcery. It wasn’t until she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area—where myth and counterculture have long danced together—that her path bent toward high fantasy. A longtime fan of roleplaying games, she began designing complex worlds for tabletop campaigns before ever writing a novel. That attention to internal logic and continuity became a hallmark of her fiction. Unlike many traditional fantasy epics, the Deverry books don’t rely on prophecy or fate. They depend on choices—some noble, many terrible—and the way consequences echo through lifetimes.

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Her prose is deliberate and lyrical, often laced with an almost folkloric cadence that sets her apart in the genre. Kerr never shied away from moral ambiguity, nor did she sanitize the brutality of her imagined world. Yet even in the darkest corners of Deverry, there's a thread of compassion running through—the quiet possibility of redemption.

Over the decades, her work has earned a fiercely loyal readership, not through marketing hype, but through the depth of her worldbuilding and the emotional resonance of her characters. Critics have lauded her for reimagining the genre’s possibilities, threading reincarnation into epic fantasy in a way that feels not only plausible, but inevitable.

As Kerr once noted in an interview, “If you remember who you were, can you really be who you are now?” That single question, perhaps more than any sword or spell, captures the soul of her storytelling.

For readers new to her work, the Deverry series is an experience of discovery—a puzzle across lifetimes, a meditation on cause and consequence, and a masterclass in immersive fantasy that rewards patience with wonder.

Deverry Series

Deverry Series consists of fifteen primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

Related series The Justice War

Daggerspell (Deverry Series #1)
  ★ 6.82 / 33
Darkspell (Deverry Series #2)
  ★ 6.92 / 25
Dawnspell (Deverry Series #3)
  ★ 7.46 / 11
Dragonspell (Deverry Series #4)
  ★ 7.40 / 10
A Time of Exile (Deverry Series #5)
  ★ 7.62 / 8
A Time of Omens (Deverry Series #6)
  ★ 6.72 / 7
A Time of War (Deverry Series #7)
  ★ 7.40 / 5
A Time of Justice (Deverry Series #8)
  ★ 7.26 / 4
The Red Wyvern (Deverry Series #9)
  ★ 8.00 / 5
The Black Raven (Deverry Series #10)
  ★ 7.40 / 5
The Fire Dragon (Deverry Series #11)
  ★ 7.80 / 5
The Gold Falcon (Deverry Series #12)
  ★ 7.66 / 3
The Spirit Stone (Deverry Series #13)
  ★ 7.26 / 4
The Shadow Isle (Deverry Series #14)
  ★ 7.66 / 3
The Silver Mage (Deverry Series #15)
  ★ 8.00 / 2
Deverry: Three Tales (Deverry Series)
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