John Crowley is a writer whose novels exist in that liminal world between myth and materiality, part lore, part fantasy, part dream. Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga, $28.99) is his first original novel in eight years, and it is a beautiful tapestry of a tale, a love letter to corvids and a fable-like look at human and crow history. It follows a crow called Dar Oakley through the centuries, from the Iron Age and early Europe, and into the post-apocalyptic future. It is a novel written by a seasoned master, for it revolves around the central theme of death, humanity’s fear and obsession with it, and our belief that there must be something more beyond our end. It is a vast and dramatic novel, spanning thousands of years and thousands of human lives, best read slowly by the fire in the depth of winter, with an ear to crows’ cries.