A Few Crows Adaption Thoughts (Six of Crows / Shadow and Bone)

*Crows-related spoilers for Shadow and Bone.*

I’ve already written about the Crows as portrayed by Shadow and Bone, and once I started reading the books, my enjoyment of the Shadow and Bone trilogy didn’t stop me from anxiously anticipating the Six of Crows duology. I’ve now read the first of the Crows books, and it’s every bit as awesome as I want it to be – funny and action-packed and cool and angsty and devious. I’m glad that I still have another book of theirs to read, but now that I’ve been introduced to these characters in the series, I want to revisit their portrayals in the TV show.

When I first read Shadow and Bone, I was struck by how well season 1 of the show generally stuck to the plot of the book. There are definite changes, like Alina being mixed Ravkan/Shu, but on her side of the story, we cover pretty much all the major plot points as they occur in the book, with a little fleshing out with Mal to depict scenes he only tells her about in the novel and adding in some backstory for General Kirigan (who, in another change, goes by an actual name instead of just “the Darkling.”)

Then there are the later-book characters who don’t appear in the Shadow and Bone trilogy but were brought forward to make their Shadow and Bone TV appearances early: the Crows of Ketterdam (my beloved Jesper, Inej, and Kaz,) and Grisha prisoner Nina with her Fjerdan captor Matthias. When I finished the first three books and moved on to Six of Crows, I discovered that Nina and Matthias are actually Crows as well (along with a character we’ve not yet met on the show, making up the eponymous sixth member of the group,) and their storyline in season 1 is basically the backstory we get from them in the book.

So, Alina’s story with Mal, the Little Palace, and the Darkling, drawn extensively from the book. Nina and Matthias’s story, drawn extensively from the book. That leaves us with the Crows (again, I know there are six of them, but “Crows” is a moniker reserved in my mind for Kaz, Inej, and Jesper, so there.)

Unless there are a lot of familiar scenes to be found in the pages of the second book in their duology, the Crows’ storyline on the show is cut pretty much out of whole cloth. There are certain nods and touchstones that are critical to the book – their famous “no mourners, no funerals” mantra, snatches of Inej’s backstory, hints towards a secret about Jesper – but their actual plot is none of the things they get up to in Six of Crows. Both stories involving them pulling an elaborate (foolhardy?) heist, yes. But completely they’re different heists in different countries, under different circumstances, with different complications, for different payouts.

That means the show’s writers came up with all the Crows’ awesome scenes on their own. Jesper expertly shooting all the volcra attacking the train on their journey through the Fold. Inej making a deliberate choice to take a life in order to save Kaz’s. Kaz facing off against Kirigan and living to tell about it. Milo the goat! Given that I really enjoyed reading Shadow and Bone, just like I enjoyed reading Nina and Matthias’s backstory in Six of Crows, I’m not sure what it says about me that a lot of my favorite scenes in the show weren’t from any of the books.

But for all that, the show nails the characterizations for all three. There are some changes, like Inej’s code based on her faith, and some things that haven’t been revealed on the show yet, like Kaz’s backstory, but the writing and acting work together to bring these characters to life impeccably. Kaz is cold and ruthless, always calculating, but while he pretends to be an utter stranger to softer emotions, that isn’t true. Inej is a quiet, watchful survivor, an acrobatic spy who holds tight to her faith and isn’t easily ruffled. Jesper is brimming with life and energy, a crack shot and jittery gambler with a high opinion of himself. Each is very specific and very true to who they are in the book, and that’s managed while taking basically none of the things they do and hardly anything they say in the book. In a way, it’s high-quality fanfiction playing out on a TV show, and the show has all three of them down cold. It drops them in a new situation but captures the sorts of things each of them would say and do, how they’d react, and how various developments would shake up the group dynamic. That takes talent, and the show deserves props for it.

Six of Crows (2015)

Let’s go! I enjoyed the Shadow and Bone trilogy more than I necessarily expected I would, but this book was sitting there the whole time, waiting for me to get through Alina’s story. As soon as I finished Ruin and Rising, I was like, “Yes, let’s get into all the complex heists and gang rivalries and tragic backstories! I am here for it!” Six of Crows does not disappoint on that score.

Kaz, a ruthless young lieutenant in the gang the Dregs, makes waves in the crime-and-pleasure-filled city of Ketterdam. When one of the wealthy merchant class offers Kaz an incredible payout for a nearly-unthinkable heist, Kaz assembles his best people for the job: Inej the acrobatic indentured spy, Jesper the sharpshooting gambler, Nina the vivacious Grisha Heartrender, Matthias the zealous convict with vital intel, and Wylas the aristocratic fledgling explosives expert. Everyone has their part to play in scoring one of the biggest prizes Ketterdam’s ever seen, but there are countless opportunities for everything to go sideways.

Personally, I think following the Shadow and Bone trilogy with the Six of Crows duology was a smart move. There’s one more duology in the series that’s more closely tied to the events and characters of the original trilogy, but this is a completely new story with all new characters set in a different locale. While there are plenty of references to Ravka and other countries we’re familiar with from the first three books, along with allusions to Alina and some of the things she did, this book greatly expands the storytelling possibilities within the initial world Leigh Bardugo created. Even with things we’re already very familiar with, like Grisha power or the militantly anti-Grisha Fjerdans, Six of Crows gives us new insights and developments to explore.

It’s also just an entirely different sensibility. The Shadow and Bone trilogy is an old-fashioned Chosen One narrative, an epic in which the literal fate of the world rests on one teenage girl who’s only recently discovered how super-special she is. By contrast, Six of Crows is 100% a heist adventure, full of likable crooks, moral complexity, and meticulous strategies that require improvisation at the last minute when things go pear-shaped. The best analogy I can think of here is Star Wars: Shadow and Bone is the original trilogy, the epic hero’s tale, while Six of Crows is The Mandalorian, a story set within the same world but different in tone and tenor, less plugged in to the grander mythology.

A well-done heist story always makes for a good time, and this one is fun and exciting. We’ve got good suspense, both in terms of whether all our heroes will survive and just how far they’ll go to achieve their aims, and Kaz’s scheming is just the right mix of watertight and adapting-on-the-fly. Everyone’s unique skills are called on at various points in the story, everyone proves a liability at least once, and some of the characters have evolving feelings over whether it’s right to do the heist at all.

And then there are the characters. After watching Shadow and Bone, I was a little surprised to have a sextet instead of a trio, but given that the book is called Six of Crows, it obviously fits. Kaz, Inej, and Jesper remain my favorites, and they’re definitely the core three of the group, the ones with the most-established relationships and the longest tenure in the Dregs. It’s a genuine pleasure to watch them scheme together, argue, and lean on one another. But Nina and Matthias, whose backstory is shared in season one of the TV show, add an interesting dynamic to the group too. In particular, Matthias comes from a deeply-formative and disciplined religious/military background that puts him at odds with the slippery and flexible morality of his criminal acquaintances. And Wylus is the only one not yet introduced on the show, but after some initial, “Who’s this guy and why should I care?” reactions in the earlier chapters, I came to enjoy him well enough. (Still, Kaz, Inej, and Jesper for life.) The characters and the relationships between them fuel the snappy comedic dialogue and the tragic personal histories in organic ways, bringing both humor and pathos effectively.

I’ll end on a quick PSA: if you read Six of Crows, I would highly recommend having its sequel, The Crooked Kingdom, on hand before you finish it. While Bardugo doesn’t quite end on a Suzanne Collins-level cliffhanger, it’s definitely an ending that leaves you wanting to find out what happens next!

Warnings

Violence (including references to sexual abuse,) sexual references, language, drinking, disturbing imagery, and strong thematic elements (including slavery and prostitution.)