About
articles • book quests • news • library
reviews • podcast • gifts • archives
Crew manifest Faith statement FAQs
All author resources Lorehaven Guild Subscribe for free

Tilly
Reviews, Jun 24, 2022

The Wonderland Trials
Reviews, Jun 24, 2022

Phantastes
Book Quests, Jun 23, 2022

Library

Find fantastical Christian novels

fantasy · sci-fi · and beyond
middle grade · young adult · grown-ups
All novels Search Add a novel
Shadow of Honor, Ronie Kendig
Lost Bits, Kerry Nietz
Rats of Dweltford, Matt Barron
Vivid, Ashley Bustamante
My Soul to Take, Bryan Davis
Into Shadow's Fire, Mark Castleberry
Deceived, Madisyn Carlin
Arena (2022 edition), Karen Hancock
Kurt Nickle-Dickle of Whiskers, N. J. McLagan
"In a city where debts are paid in blood, one young man will learn that everyone needs help sometimes if they want to survive." New in the Lorehaven library: A Matter of Blood, Lauren H Salisbury
Son of the Shield, Mary Schlegel
Maxine Justice, Galactic Attorney, Daniel Schwabauer
Mordizan, Alyssa Roat
Prentice Ash, Matt Barron
Reviews

Find fantastical Christian reviews

All reviews Request review

Tilly
“Written in 1986, Frank E. Peretti’s novelette Tilly may feel melodramatic to today’s readers, but remains a tearful tale of brokenness and redemption.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 24, 2022

The Wonderland Trials
“Although indebted to a classic, The Wonderland Trials is inventive and colorful in its own right, abundantly able to charm and to intrigue.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 24, 2022

Rise of the Earthborn
“Societal intrigue plus steampunk flair and a dash of romance help make Emma Buenen’s Rise of the Earthborn a solid extra-biblical adventure.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 17, 2022

Elite
“Elite explores parallels to the early Church, beautifully intertwining faith and action in this high-stakes post-apocalyptic adventure.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 10, 2022

Book Quests

Join quests in our digital book club

All book quests
Lorehaven Guild Faith statement FAQs

Phantastes
Book Quests, June 2022

Lost Bits
Book Quests, June 2022

Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney
Book Quests, May 2022

The Green Ember
Book Quests, April 2022

Podcast

Get the Fantastical Truth podcast

Podcast sponsors | Subscribe links
Archives Feedback

117. Why Should You Build a Fantastical Lending Library? | with L.G. McCary
Fantastical Truth, Jun 21, 2022

116. Why Do Homeschooled Students Love Fantastical Fiction? | with Ethan Nunn
Fantastical Truth, Jun 14, 2022

115. How Do Lorehaven Creators Strive to Follow Biblical Statements of Faith?
Fantastical Truth, Jun 7, 2022

114. What If The Abolition of Man Became A Political Thriller? | The Testimony of Calvin Lewis with Daniel Friend
Fantastical Truth, May 31, 2022

Gifts

Find new gifts for Christian fans

Browse back issues (2018–2020)

Order back issues online!

The original SpecFaith: est. 2006

site archives | statement of faith
Articles Questions? Writers

Yes, Speculative Faith Is Closed, At Least For Now
E. Stephen Burnett, Dec 30

Last Stands, Custer, General Gordon, and Being a Christian Warrior
Travis Perry, Jul 2

How Christian Must Christian Fiction Be?
Rebecca LuElla Miller, May 24

Gender In Fiction: The Implication Of Failure
Rebecca LuElla Miller, May 10

Making a Story Visual UPDATE: Behind the Scenes of the Animal Eye Comic
Travis Perry, May 9

What Does “Woke” Culture Have To Do With Christian Fiction?
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Apr 26

About
Library
Reviews
Podcast
Gifts
Guild
Archives
SpecFaith
Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Subscribe free to Lorehaven
/ Library
Author:
Morgan L. Busse
Ages:
adult young adult
Genres:
fantasy
BookTags:
dreams fantasy The Ravenwood Saga series
Publisher:
Bethany House
“Those who walk in dreams wield great power to inspire—or destroy.”
—Lorehaven review, fall 2018

Mark of the Raven

Lady Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift of dreamwalking.
Morgan L. Busse · fantasy for adult, young adult readers · November 2018

Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate.

As she discovers her family’s dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy–a legacy that supports her people–or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift.

Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.

One path holds glory and power, and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood. The other path holds shame and execution. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?

Review of Featured Review: Mark of the Raven

Those who walk in dreams wield great power to inspire—or destroy.
Lorehaven Review Team, fall 2018

For generations, the women of House Ravenwood have abused their gift of dreams.

No, they are not gifted with daydreams or hopes for a better future. Instead, these women inherit the supernatural ability to actually walk in another person’s dreams. They’re able to share in, and even help to manage, a person’s memories and fears.

Such a great gift may help a dreamwalker better know or even love another person.

Or such a terrible gift may help to inflame the dreaming target’s worst terror, working from the inside out to ruin or even murder that person.

As readers fall into Mark of the Raven’s vision, House Ravenwood’s heir apparent, Lady Selene, has just received the dreamwalking gift. At this rite of passage, Selene becomes privy to more secrets of her family, their castle and lands, and their part in the history of the land’s seven great houses that are each supernaturally gifted.

Selene also learns that her family line was nearly destroyed by an evil empire, left without help from other houses. For Selene’s mother, Lady Ragna Ravenwood, that generational grievance justifies many actions, including the fact that dreamwalkers like Ragna have acted more like dream mercenaries. They’ve sold their gift to any employer who needs to slay a political enemy and make it look like natural death.

What, then, does a young dreamwalker do when her mother tells her that dream-assassination is the only way to protect your family—and that, by the way, if you don’t, she’ll just go to your younger sisters and train them to become killers?

This last tension for Lady Selene seems to give this story its primary driving force. As Morgan Busse’s first Ravenwood Saga episode, Raven is light on action but heavy on familiar-yet-complex character drama, mounting tension, and lush details.

Readers may especially appreciate Busse’s emphasis on the tragedy and humanity of every person, both House leaders and the marginalized. In this world, every soul matters—not just the life of Damien Maris, the water-gifted leader of his house who wrestles with the choices of war, but the lives of the castle servants whom Selene has known for years and whose memories she’s forced to turn against them.

Morgan L. Busse has written six novels, including the Follower of the Word fantasy trilogy and The Soul Chronicles series. She and her husband have four children.

MorganLBusse.com
@MorganLBusse

Explore this novel in the Lorehaven library.

Such themes could lead to simplistic conclusions: peace good, war bad; love good, assassination bad. Yet Busse doesn’t let Raven escape into such sentiments. Damien wants to protect his House for peace, but can’t do this without also imperiling the lives of his enemies. Selene wants to protect her sisters, and also her own heart from the pain of wounding others, but at the cost of her own humanity. And all the while, their world is haunted by the whispers of some lost and ancient past, when every member of every House used their supernatural gifts for good.

This is a great way for Christian-made stories to explore magical gifts. It’s not the magic itself, but its human limitations—and even its human abuse—that makes it interesting in a story. For the Ravenwoods, we’re certain their sin has separated them from rightful use of their gifts, but not forever. Here’s dreaming that fans can share in more stories like this, in The Ravenwood Saga series and beyond.

Best for: Young-adult and adult fans of medieval fantasy, who love human drama and poignant challenges about character relationships and talents.

Discern: Selene’s family drama, which includes a sinful parent and rightful rebellion against her; references to physical attraction, but within a context of covenant love.

Share your fantastical feedback. Cancel reply

Lorehaven magazine, spring 2020

Wear the wonder:
Get exclusive shirts and beyond

Listen to Lorehaven’s podcast

Authors and publishers:
Reach new fans with Lorehaven


Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.