The Binding Stone: The Raven’s Trail - Book 2 (The Raven's Trail)

In her novel "The Binding Stone", Liz D. Marx revealed several mythical, cultural, fantastic, romantic and mystic significations behind the structures of space, event and the cognition of the main characters, that the narrator implied to a hidden fantasy and cultural conflict between the civil space and the mystic deep world of some folk people and their specters in the collective unconsciousness of some characters, such as Pamela, Chloe, Mason and Foster.

On the other hand, we can find the narrative activity of some magical signs, such as the cave, the mystic stone, the image of the crow and the specter of the stone. So, these signs developed the events of the story from the calm life to the loud discovery of the old facts of the space and the survival of both human harmonious sense and the renewed conflict circularly.

In addition to the duality and hidden conflict of the space, we can read the types of characters and things according to Algirdas Greimas's narrative model of actors, that Pamela represented the hero who supported human love and the harmonization between the modern world and the magical, natural world.

In contrast, Richard was the opponent of the hero, that he supported the logic of sending the marginal people away. Also, the magical stone represented the important spiritual message of the history of the others, their images, archetypes, mythical creature and the global love. So, the narrator developed the adventure by its impact and its internal power in Pamela's consciousness.

Moreover, characters were developed in several ways, that Pamela supported the rights of the others after she had discovered the original and magical truth of the space. And also, Chloe was her helper in this context. As for Mason, he reflected the interaction between modern life and the hidden, mystic world.But Johnny was developed as a frequent hero in a circular way behind conflicts. So we can find the old archetypes and their hidden activity beyond the visible world.

Additionally, I think that the sign of the magical stone was effective in reading the story, that it had a rich semiotic structure in its complex symbols and the impact of its presence which reflected the creative, paradoxical tones of horror, love, magical life and discovery of truth.

Finally, the novel has a cultural, aesthetic and human impact due to its hyper activity and poetic imagination.