So: it’s develop into a factor for me that Ray Nayler, with I consider solely two novels, a novella and a few quick tales to this point, has develop into a must-read creator. Each novels, The Mountain within the Sea and The place the Axe is Buried, have each been in my better of the yr lists once they have been revealed; the novella The Tusks of Extinction was acclaimed and gained the Hugo Award for Quick Story in 2025, a nominee for the Nebula Award of 2024 and a finalist for a Locus award. To my thoughts, Ray is slightly like Ted Chiang for me, the place the creator’s output is comparatively small, however the high quality is often excessive.
Ray’s tales have tackled interspecies communication, octopuses, mammoths, over-fishing within the Asian seas, know-how, AI, political authoritarian dictatorships of the long run and the consequences of soul-crushing censorship, reflecting points in our personal world in addition to that in a fictional one.
With all of that in thoughts, I can say that I wasn’t anticipating this.
Palaces of the Crow begins in Jap Europe in June 1941, We’re informed the plot by way of 4 principal characters. First, we meet Neriya, a younger Jewish lady who desires of changing into a scientist who has noticed and befriended quite a few crows outdoors her dwelling, particularly one she has named ‘Buster’, after the movie star Buster Keeton. We then meet Czesław, an underage Polish deserter fleeing the Purple Military by hiding within the woods in Latvia. Thirdly, Kezia is a Roma horse dealer whose household is on the run from Soviet collectivisation however who’re killed, leaving Kezia to outlive alone within the woods; and ultimately a anonymous, deserted boy often named ‘The Boy’, who can’t communicate, probably because of trauma.
Pushed deep into the Lithuanian woods, they type an unbreakable bond with each other and with a flock of crows whose uncanny intelligence hints at a secret older and stranger than they might ever have imagined.
At a primary degree, Palaces of the Crow is a narrative about conflict and the consequences of such occasions on the widespread individuals – not simply the troopers, the combatants, the lads (for it’s often males) in cost who make life-changing selections, however most people, the lads, ladies and youngsters left at dwelling on whom these horrific occasions are impinged upon. Lots of the surprising atrocities talked about listed below are primarily based on real-life occasions, primarily based on Ray’s intensive analysis. Writing in speculative fiction permits us to take a look at such concepts with a level of distance. Right here Ray reveals us that the previous must also be examined, studied and realized from.
Sadly, world occasions at the moment, as I sort this, there are miserable similarities between the occasions of 1941 and now, none of which present people in a very good gentle. Then, like now, there may be division, distrust, racial and spiritual bigotry, antisemitism, xenophobia – human traits which are seemingly fixed. Struggle is hell. And but we appear decided to not be taught from the previous, to repeat actions already confirmed to be pointless and futile.
In Palaces of the Crow, against this, there may be morality, there may be intelligence and even majesty – however that is proven most by the crows, not the people, which makes the savage and brutal actions of the people within the novel all of the extra heartbreaking.
“The crows deal with their sick, their aged, their wounded… they educate, they be taught, they stay and die in a world that’s parallel and akin to our world however just isn’t the world we stay in.”
Like Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Youngsters of Time (2015), to not point out Ray’s personal The Mountain within the Sea, as I learn I discovered myself siding with animals slightly than people, regardless that we’re at all times warned to not make such anthropomorphic connections, aren’t we? (Ray himself additionally factors this out in his Acknowledgements.) Our brains strive to do that to make sense of what we all know, and generally 2 + 2 = 5 because of this. While Ray by no means turns into Disney-like and nostalgic, it’s clear that there’s a lot that individuals might be taught from these typically ubiquitous and but pretty unknown birds. I discovered that as The Mountain within the Sea made me go down the rabbit-hole for particulars of octopi after studying, so Palaces of the Crow did for crows.
The ending just isn’t predictable, nor essentially apparent as an ending, for while there may be closure, there’s a diploma of ambiguity. Its open-endedness might not be what some readers need or anticipate. Nonetheless, I consider that it’s acceptable – I did sit and give it some thought for some time after I closed the guide.
So, what did I contemplate? Effectively, three novels in, and I’m beginning to discover a development, a sample. While Ray’s books are sometimes set within the close to future, in addition to now prior to now, they convey up concepts and ideas that appear everlasting. Just like the scientist Neriya, Palaces of the Crow additionally examines these concepts, placing them beneath a microscope, learning them, testing them after which operating with them to see what they’ll do. In its setting of conflict and injustice, Palaces of the Crow tells of the significance of communication and relationships, each between people – Neriya, Czeslaw, Kezia and The Boy – but in addition between people and different species.
Ray’s books present us that this can be a problem, {that a} lack of communication causes issues. And but, such challenges might be overcome by individuals and animals, communities working collectively to resolve issues and minimise false impression.
As well as, the worth and significance of intelligence is emphasised, but in addition how such intelligence is badly used or ignored (often by people!)
Summing up then, regardless of its totally different setting, Palaces of the Crow is yet one more affecting and efficient novel from Ray. It’s slightly emotional, maybe his most affecting story to this point. Like earlier than, with Ray’s earlier books, Palaces of the Crow made me unhappy, it made me offended, and but made me suppose. All of this collectively implies that Palaces of the Crow is one other guide by Ray that hits the ball out of the park for me. Nonetheless a must-read creator.
© 2026 Mark Yon
Hardback | Orion Publishing (W & N)
PALACES OF THE CROW by Ray Nayler
Might 2026 | 384 pages
ISBN: 978 139 9637
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