Crows, Ravens and Shadows

Am I the only one who’s noticed fantasy’s fascination with crows, ravens and shadows? I mean, just the number of books that have one of those words in the title…

Shadow and Bone

Queen of Shadows

A Gathering of Shadows

Lord of Shadows

The Oathbreaker’s Shadow

The Shadow’s Curse

Shadow Kin

Six of Crows

A Feast for Crows

The Raven Boys

The Raven King

To name just a few. And not to mention books that have words related to those, in particular to shadow, such as darkness, night etc

Lady Midnight

Crown of Midnight

Twilight

The Night Circus

Nevernight

Queen of Air and Darkness

A Darker Shade of Magic

I’m sure I could find more if I dug a little. And these are just the ones that mention it in the title. There are so many that may not mention it in the title, but that feature these things as fairly prominent.

The Darkling from The Grisha Trilogy. The Three Eyed Raven from ASOIAF; Mia Corvere from Nevernight as well as her being a darkin; Rhysand’s darkness powers in ACOTAR as well as the Night Court; Shadowhunters.

Now that I think of it, there are actually several such themes running, particularly within the fantasy genre. Fire, mist, light, bone, blood, wind or air, time of day (dawn, midnight or just day). I think I might just compile a list of titles for each of these groups, just to see how they rank. I like lists and patters. So if you like lists and patterns as well, stay tuned for that, I guess.