The Faithless Hawk offers a riveting conclusion to Margaret Owen’s fantasy saga

In The Faithless Hawk, Margaret Owen wraps up her first fantasy series with a sequel that’s every inch as good as its (exceptional) predecessor.

Margaret Owen’s The Merciful Crow was one of the best fantasy novels of 2019 – so to say that expectations were high for its sequel, The Faithless Hawk, is…something of an understatement. Well, rest easy, readers. I’m here to tell you that it more than meets them.

Owen’s fantasy world is a dark and complicated one, full of plague, prejudice, and an oppressive caste system that thrives on keeping certain groups beneath others. It’s not the sort of story that feels as though a happy ending could even be possible, let alone appropriate. And, that’s true – the story doesn’t necessarily end happily.

Instead, The Faithless Hawk‘s ending is so satisfying precisely because it reminds us that there really isn’t such a thing as a happy ending in the first place – there’s only a story in which the work goes on, and in which all are called to be better people than they were the day before. Redemption and a brighter future are certainly possible, but Owen’s story doesn’t shirk the fact that there’s real work involved to get there.

The Faithless Hawk picks up where The Merciful Crow left off, with Fie taking over as Chief of her band of Crows, Prince Jasimir preparing to claim the throne of Sabor and the promise of improved treatment for her people hanging in the balance. However, when Jasimir’s stepmother, Rhusana, makes a bid for the throne in her own right, things get messy – and dark – quick.

From allowing a plague to creep across the kingdom to resurrecting the dead, it’s clear that Rhusana will do anything to claim power for herself, including setting the people of Sabor against the Crows as the cause of it all. As the danger rises for Fie and her people, she must go undercover in the royal palace itself, dig into the Crows’ murky history, and use her inner grit to forge a new future.

(It’s really hard to talk about a lot of this without the risk of spoilers, but suffice it to say that there are plenty of shocking twists and turns throughout, and you’ll be hard-pressed to look away from this story.)

Fie herself remains a realistic and rootable heroine – her constant, ever-simmering anger over the way she and her people have been and are currently treated by those they dedicate their lives to helping is palpable, as is her fear that she won’t be able to both do her duty and keep those she loves safe. She’s brave, strong, foolish, and reckless by turns, and her complicated, messy relationship with the Hawk Tavis is as compelling as its ever been.

The book doesn’t shy away from presenting the myriad and uncomfortable reasons that Fie and her Crows never quite feel safe anywhere, even with the power of royal friends at their backs, and it’s an honest look at how lifetimes of oppression can truly scar people, both individually and collectively.

The Faithless Hawk also digs a bit deeper into the caste system of Sabor, both in terms of how distinct groups within it treat one another (the Crows aren’t the only ones who suffer, though their suffering is probably greatest). The history of the various castes, their gods and Birthrights is also fleshed out a bit more fully here, and we learn precisely how the Crows are connected to all of them, despite being on the bottom of the proverbial totem pole.

There’s so much to love about Owen’s story and writing-style – the colloquial way the Crows speak to one another is so well done – but what makes this book and this duology stand out is her dedication to the world she’s created. The worldbuilding in this series is nothing short of incredible, and the layers upon layers of the story are so rich and interconnected.

So much so in fact that you may feel a bit lost at the beginning of the story unless you’ve read The Merciful Crow again very recently because The Faithless Hawk jumps right back into things with little time to catch your breath and almost zero reminders of what came before. Yet, even after two books set in this universe I still want to know more – how was the original Birthright caste system enacted, who are the other dead gods who seem to reincarnate over and over again, how did the Phoenixes slide so unrelentingly into corruption?

The Faithless Hawk is a great ending to a fantastic series, and it is absolutely a story that belongs in your to-read pile. It firmly establishes Owen as a fantasy author to watch in the future – and I personally can’t wait to see what she does next.

The Faithless Hawk is available now. Are you planning to add it to your summer reading list? Let us know in the comments.