Raven's Cry … does not pretend to be any more than a novel.

As such it catches the interest and holds it, while at the same time introducing, almost by sleight of hand, many very real and pertinent anthropological observations. Social institutions such as the potlatch, totems, family structure, and trade are brought into the picture like the sweetest sugar-coated pills, and anyone reading this book is, whether he likes it or not, going to emerge not only interested but informed. Yet the book is utterly without pretense. (p. 28)

Colin M. Turnbull, in Natural History (copyright © the American Museum of Natural History, 1967; reprinted with permission from Natural History), November, 1967.