The Mob by Clem Martini

Author: Clem Martini
ISBN # 0747575800
Publisher: Bloomsbury
First Published: 2004
236 pages

It's springtime - hundreds of Crows set out on their yearly migration and converge at the Gathering Tree. This sacred Gathering is an opportunity for the six crow Clans of the Family Kinaar to assemble, to make decisions and to celebrate being together. But when young blood is lost, sacred laws are tested as an illegal Mob seeks revenge, and a schism threatens the unity of the flock. The Family's situation is made yet more precarious when a severe blizzard hits and the Crows are faced with the dilemma of where to find shelter. Breaking age-old decrees and working together may offer their only chance of survival. This is a startling view of the world from a bird's-eye perspective, complete with its own set of beliefs, mythologies and politics. But it's a world familiar to us too - where the needs of the individual often clash with those of the group, and where the desire to be free must be tempered with the need to be safe, to survive.

Clem Martini does for crows what Richard Adams did for rabbits in Watership Down. As the first in a trilogy that promises to be epic, The Mob does a wonderful job of drawing the reader into a world seen from above, where humans are strange creatures whose actions are indecipherable; cats are viciously sly and dangerous creatures; and the safety of family flock is the most important thing to consider at all times. It’s a fascinating story, filled with heroism, triumph over personal fears, and the philosophy that understanding each other and working together can mean the difference between life-or-death in the animal kingdom. Told from the point of view of Kalum, a crow who lived through all the trials and tribulations and is passing the story on to the next generation; this unusual approach works really well in drawing the reader into the flock and seeing things from a birds-eye view.

Rating: 7