Feather and Bone: The Crow Chronicles

Inspiration to begin writing the trilogy

Clem Martini became interested in writing about crows when he saw a large number of the birds cawing, seemingly to each other, while waiting for his daughter's school bus to come. He also thought about the poor public image of crows, and how smart and helpful they really are. He wanted people to be aware of how great these birds really were, so he wanted to write them that way. When deciding that the novel would be written for preteens, Martini says that he wrote it with his daughters in mind. Despite being a playwright, Martini never saw himself being a novelist until he got the inspiration for The Mob.

Inspiration for certain elements in the trilogy

Martini says that the reason that almost all of the crows' names start with K (with the exception of Erkala) was because of the "Kaw" sound that crows make. Martini had a "rough idea" that when he wrote The Mob it would become a trilogy, and had a general outline of what would happen that he later got rid of because in the second book, "there were a number of crows who suddenly started talking... and I didn't know who they were. ... So I made room for them."

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The Plague (Book Two)

While on an excursion with Kalum, Kyp and Kym prepare themselves for the next gathering of the flock, hoping that one of them will be chosen to succeed Kalum as the next Chooser, so that they can change those ancient traditions which have become harmful. However, a plague suddenly breaks loose, and both Kym and Kalum contract it. Kym is taken away by scientists wanting to study her, whilst Kalum is killed by a vengeful, crazed Kuper, angry that nobody attempted to rescue him or find out if he was really dead. He also believes that Kym, of whom he had feelings for, died of the plague. He tries to kill Kyp, believing it to be Kyp's fault and that Kyp did not try to rescue him because he wanted Kym for himself. Kyp tries to tell Kuper that Kym has actually been taken away by the humans. Kuper, who was himself taken away by the humans after his battle with the cats, does not believe Kyp due to his maddened state.

Kyp escapes, injured, and spends a month recuperating in a burrow, despite the laws against it. He then meets Katakata when they fight over a fish. Katakata is a crow who was banished from his clan due because the new leadership enforced new religious laws which Katakata did not believe in. When Katakata learns that Kyp is headed looking for a female crow (Kym) who can speak with humans, he tells Kyp that he heard a rumor about such a crow from the east. Katakata joins Kyp in his journey, feeling that perhaps the Maker has brought them together for a reason.

Kyp remains reclusive and determined, occasionally straining his new friendship with Katakata. They are soon joined by a group of three crows: the talkative Kyf, her quiet brother Kaf, and her other brother Kwaku, a small crow who was banished from his flock due to his prophetic visions. Katakata takes a disliking to this group, but Kyp thinks that they are perhaps another gift from the Maker. Kwaku's visions appear to be helpful, but Katakata is still skeptical. When Katakata eats some poisoned meat left out by the humans, a strange crow named Erkala who tests Katakata. Luckily, Katakata tests true, and is given the remedy. Erkala takes them to her rocky shoreline home, Where she tells them of how her mother died after they were driven out to sea in a storm and she made her own way in the world, even moving in with a family of rats. Erkala asks to join them.

The group then journeys on and meets up with a much larger flock of young crows in need of guidance. Kyp manages to guide nearly all of them to safety when they are attacked by humans with guns, thanks to one of Kwaku's cryptic visions. However, they then only narrowly escape once more when they are confronted by Kuper, now the Chooser for an enormous flock of disciples who believe his words of hatred towards the humans and follow him into the human cities to scavenge, believing that the Maker wants them to survive because they are the greatest of all creatures, and also wants them to change much of their old ways.

They then journey to a large human city (New York City, although the crow's do not recognize it by that name). After living in Central Park for weeks, they finally find Kym in a building caged up with many other birds. The humans are taking their blood, and Kym suspects it has something to do with fighting the plague. Despite her interest in the humans, Kym wants to be freed. Erkala enlists the aid of the rats, despite the laws forbidding crows to go underground. "The Maker's tests are never easy," she explains. Together, Kyp, Kwaku, Erkala, and Katakata journey up into the building to free Kym and the other birds. However, the building catches on fire at that moment. Kwaku manages to guide nearly everybody to freedom and safety, but he himself is engulfed by the flames and perishes. Katakata later has a dream in which he is seated in a tree with Kwaku, and Kwaku gives him and Kyp some final guidance before his spirit departs forever. When he recovers from the ordeal inside the burning building, Kyp leads the flock away from the human city in search of a land where they can live in peace and safety.

The Judgment (Book Three)

The beginning of the third book starts out just a small while after the end of the second book. All of the non-crows released from human confinement have left with the exception of a single magpie, and those that are crows have joined Kyp's flock. They travel together without much difficulty for a while, although there is one crow named Kryk who eats little, nests away from the rest of the flock, and flies at the end. The magpie finds her roost and, before she leaves, tells the flock, in crow, that the Collection has doubled in size since they last saw the flock of crows.

One night when they are resting, an owl comes along. Kyp tells them to stick close to the tree, but some of them fly out and are attacked by the owl. Among those is Kaf, leaving Kyf the only living member of her family. When flying away along the coast, they become hungry because there is little they can eat. They find a loading dock with tons of fish, and Kryk creates the sound of a police siren. The humans run away distracted and the crows gather to eat fish. Katakata finds that a human dropped one of their rings and wears it like a necklace. Although it slows him down and occasionally chokes him when he perches, he does not drop it.

When the Collection comes looking for them, Kyp's flock realizes that the magpie was right, and now there are a hundred thousand crows in the Collection. They manage to avoid him by leading the Collection away from the majority of crows, but Kyp decides that they need to fly more carefully now, so they will follow cars at night to make sure that they cannot be seen by anybody else. While they are doing this nocturnal behavior, when they come to perch during the day they find that there is an elderly crow by the name of Kuru who was trapped under a branch. He had just fought off three of the Collection and was almost dead. Since he was an elder and therefore of the highest respect and knowledge, Kyp invited him to fly with them. However, once flying with them he took to angering the crows by telling them that they are useless and taking over Kyp's control as Chooser. Right before they are about to get rid of Kuru, Kyp decides that they cannot keep running from the Collection; they will need to band together more crows and fight back. Kuru says that the Urkana, a massive band of a million crows, is real and that he visited them once, so he leads them to the Urkana.

Once at the Urkana, Kryk tells Kym that when he was young, he was captured by a human. That human taught him to call for help on command. When he called for help, he got food. Eventually he was put on a leash and called for help. When the crows would answer his call, the human would shoot them. Kym tells him that sometime he's got to tell the rest of the flock about this, and he begrudgingly agrees. Soon the Collection come with the same intention: for the Urkana to join them. They both tell the Urkana why their flock should be picked, and before the assembly is to begin, where the elders will decide who they will join, Ur-Ryk, an Urkana crow, spots Kryk and starts attacking him. Ur-Ryk tells the Urkana about what Kryk did, and Kryk's punishment is Banishment from all three flocks forever.

When the assembly begins, one of the elders gives his reasons for joining the Collection, which angers Kuru into unleashing a powerful speech that postpones the rest of the assembly. The next morning Kuru is found dead. The crows think it is a variety of reasons from the cold giving him hypothermia to his heart giving out after the speech, but Kyp, Kym, Kyf, Kata, and Erkala figure out that in the middle of the night, Kuper killed Kuru and made it look like he was killed of natural causes. They discuss this behind an owl's nest, and Kyup, a scout of the Collection, tries to listen in but is killed by the owl.

Two mornings after, the assembly begins again, and when a very elderly crow gives his reasons for joining the Collection, Kyp becomes as angered as Kuru, but instead of giving a speech, he says that he is taking the flock elsewhere and they will never become a part of the Collection. This sends Kuper into a rage and he starts fighting Kyp. With each attack the Urkana draws away from the Collection. Kyp never gets hurt because of his flying agility. One move he performs with grace, but he does not see a car coming and gets hit. Afterwards, Erkala requests that she leave the flock. The next night when Katakata is walking alone, he throws the ring off of his shoulders. Kyp hears the sound and calls for Kata to come by and tells him that he pretended to be dead, and he and Erkala had planned it the whole time, using the body of Kyup in place of Kyp's own. He told Kata to make sure that the flock slowly leaves the Urkana and only then would he and Erkala come back to join them. Kata follows this plan, but soon afterwards hunters come and plan to kill the crows. Kyp comes back to warn all of the crows. The Urkana and Kyp's flock go back to the fallback nests, but the Collection begins attacking the humans, and eventually the others do, too. Kyp hears Kym calling for help and tries to help her, but instead gets caught in a spiderweb when Kuper and Kryk come. Kuper had told Kryk to imitate Kym's call and promised Kryk that he would have a new home once they were finished. Kuper then says to Kryk that his new home would be among the dead and tries to kill Kryk. However, Kryk survives and manages to attack Kuper back into the spiderweb, where Kyp grabs hold of Kuper's leg. Then, a tornado strikes and Kuper is caught between a moment of self-preservation and revenge. He hesitates, and a willow branch knocks him unconscious. He and Kryk are pulled into the tornado and are killed, while Kyp, though pulled in as well, survives.

Meanwhile, Erkala, Kata, Kyf, Kym, and Kymnyt are caught inside a car while trying to avoid hail, and humans get in the car. Kym says that when she was flying behind a car she saw that the humans could open a window, and she was going to try to find the thing that opened it. She said that if the humans looked back to distract them. When the humans looked back, Erkala tried attacking them and the others followed suit until Kym had opened the window and they flew out. They found the area where the tornado had hit and found Kyp, alive but blind. Together they decided to move as a group. Kyp's left eye fully recovered and his right eye got a little better, but his vision was no longer what it had always been. Meanwhile, Kata and Erkala had chicks together and flew together as a pair. The trilogy ends with a story of the Maker creating three new mates for Great Crow after Kaynu Firstmate died, and how Great Crow chose the crow, because it bleeds and feels pain but recovers in the end.

Crows

Other animals

The Family Kinaar

In the novels, the Family Kinaar is divided into six clans, Kemna, Kelk, Koorda, Kurea, Kark, and Kush. Kurea is Kyp's clan and Kemna is Kym's clan. Kyp's full name (Kyp ru Kurea ru Kinaar) Kym's full name (Kym ru Kemna ru Kinnar) states that he is all three of these things. It can be assumed that the Kinaar family is only made up of species living in North American, such as the American crow. Erkala's full name is Erkala ru Erkata ru Eru, but she comes from across the sea and is quite obviously of a different species, and therefore an entirely different clan and family. However, it is stated in the novels that all the crows of this world are descended from Great Crow and his offspring. In the back of The Plague and The Judgment there is a family tree of the family Kinaar, the name Kinaar coming from a crow by the name of Kinaar Wind Rider. The Urkana come from varying clans and families from Kwu to Kwyt. Kuru's family name is Kolk, however he mentions in the Judgment that he has no family anymore.

Crow mythology

The crows have a rich mythology of stories that they use to explain everything. The Maker is the creator of all, and Great Crow is their ancestor. The beginning of the book will begin with one of these stories, and occasionally chapters in the middle will do the same thing. Sometimes these stories are used in actual speech by the characters in conversation. In The Judgment, Kyp uses the story of The Maker forgiving Great Crow for stealing Sun Eagle to get a band of crows known as the Urkana to forgive a crow named Kryk. Other times it will be used as a symbol for what they are going through. At the end of the third book, Katakata tells us a tale about after Great Crow lost Kaynu Firstmate and the Maker created three new mates for him; he picked the third, a crow, because it bleeds and feels pain but recovers. This was to symbolize how through their journeys they had experienced death and pain, but they had recovered.

Publication history

American and Canadian copies are printed separately from United Kingdom copies, so they have different covers.

The Mob

Kids Can Press printed the American and Canadian copies of The Mob, hardback in August 2004 and paperback a year later. San Val printed an American library binding edition in September 2005. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC printed the United Kingdom copies of The Mob, hardback and paperback in January 2006, with a reprinting of the paperback in July of the same year. Oakhill Publishing Unlimited produced an audio version of The Mob in July 2007.

The Plague

Kids Can Press printed the American and Canadian copies of The Plague, hardback in August 2005 and paperback a year later. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC printed the United Kingdom copies of The Plague, paperback only, in January 2007.

The Judgment

Kids Can Press printed the American and Canadian copies of The Judgment, hardback in August 2006 and paperback in September 2007. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC printed the United Kingdom copies of The Judgment, paperback only, in July 2007.

Reviews

The trilogy was optioned early on by the Canadian entertainment company Nelvana, which is known for its children's animation.

The Mob

The first book got a review of two and a half stars out of four from CM Magazine. The critic praises Clem Martini for his "wonderful command of language" and the "unique and exciting" personalities of the crows within the book. However, he also criticizes the "back-and-forth" foreshadowing and flashbacks, as well as the late introduction of conflict to the novel and late shift of the focus of the story to the three "main" characters. The overall review was stated as "recommended with reservations."

A reviewer for School Library Journal reviewed The Mob and praised its balance of character ages, non-preachiness of values, avian knowledge, humor, and originality, but disapproved of the slow plot and preference of talk over action.

Quill & Quire reviewed The Mob and said that, with the exception of the crows' mythology, the novel read like an imitation of the Silverwing series without the "same magical imaginative spark".

Booklist disapproved of the use of a detached protagonist, specifically an elder with ritual recitations, but praised Martini's ability to "drum up sympathy for main characters generally regarded as unsavory pests".

The Plague

The second book got a review of three total stars out of four from CM Magazine. The critic praises the author for "seamlessly and successfully integrating crow lore throughout the story." The myths and lore themselves were written in such a way that, according to the critic, "managed to make all the old stories, history, and bits of wisdom seem interesting, relevant, and unobtrusive." In addition, she stated that the book was easy to follow for those that had not read the first. The only flaw that the critic found with the novel was the interesting choice of first person, which she believed gave the novel a very "jarring" effect. Overall the book was recommended.

The reviewer for School Library Journal also reviewed The Plague and was much more negative. This time, they praised the folklore, but had no more positive words. They felt that all of the K names made it too difficult to distinguish the characters, and that there was little character development. They felt that the plague was just a convenient excuse to jumpstart the story, and that the fire to save Kym was a convenient way to end. They ended with saying that fans of The Mob will enjoy it, but everyone else can pass.

The Judgment

The third book got a review of two stars out of four from CM Magazine, the lowest of the trilogy. The critic still manages to praise Martini for his "harmonious balance between storytelling, philosophizing, and imparting information about his imaginary crow society", which she says has become better throughout the trilogy. However, the book got the lower rating for the feeling of "something absent", where the critic goes on to state that she did not feel "passionately invested in the fates of the crows while reading The Judgment." Despite the low rating, the book was still recommended by the critic.