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Quick Review: through Wolf's Eyes
Jan. 13th, 2009 01:23 pmBy all rights, I should have never read this book. When you have a book who's cover shows a girl in a white gown next to a wolf, plus a castle, and the story involves a woman raised by wolves, brought home to be a princess, comparisons to silly new-age fiction and Mercedes Lackey books are bound to arise.
But appearances are deceiving: a closer look shows the woman on the book cover has tangled hair and wild eyes; she looks like a feral child that's been shoved into a dress. And the story itself has far more similarity with The Jungle Book or Tarzan than Women who Run with Wolves.
PLOT
Firekeeper is the only two-legged member of a pack of Royal wolves, wolves that are larger and smarter than regular wolves. When an expedition of humans arrives in her area, curiosity leads her to join them, and on their return she is hailed as Blyth, the lost daughter of a deceased contender for the throne, and is likewise a contender for the throne. The story follows Blyth's learning of human society, and also the political machinations surrounding the king who has so far, not chosen an heir. But as a wolf, Firekeeper knows about power struggles herself.
REVIEW
That may be the basis of the plot, but it really doesn't convey the charm of the book. Firekeeper/Blyth isn't a nature child, nor quite a feral child. She considers herself a wolf, albeit one who has to use a dagger as a substitute claw, and pelts as substitute fur. As such she brings a wolf-child's outsider perspective to the events. One of the nice elements of this book is the author takes her time to introduce Firekeeper to the humans; it's a process of exploration and discovery on both sides, and Firekeeper finds delightful things about humanity (like soft shirts for a start). This is definitely not a "pure nature meets the rapacious humans" tale; Firekeeper is a hunter, not a wilderness saint, being rather concerned with survival and keeping her place in the pack. At the same time, she's fascinated by these strange creatures, humans.
Lindsgold has an excellent eye for the two major types of world building. For the first, she evidently did some good research on wolves, enough to build a picture of what a society of wolves with human intelligence would be like, and without lecturing, brings out both the parallels and the differences between wolf and human cultures. Another nice worldbuilding element is this isn't quite a faux-medieval Europe. It's rather like a fantasy analog of American colonies, if there was no gunpowder, the Europe equivalent had magic to maintain their power, and the colonies had been isolated and left to go their own way due to a major plague. And of course if the Appalacians were untrod and had giant, intelligent animals in it. So while the fantasy society isn't completely original or exotic, it does have interesting differences from your standard Extruded Fantasy Product. And so far, no elves, thank the author.
The book does have it's limitations; there were a couple points where contemporary phrases seemed to be dropped in, and like in many fantasy novels, the author seems to play fast and loose with distances and travel times. She also has to at times do digressions into histories and genealogies, both important for knowing the factions. On the plus side, she does some really well-done characterizations, so that not only Firekeeper's, but also her allies and friends grow and develop in both predictable and surprising ways. And to my mind, there's nothing like seeing a happy surprise in the development of a character.
Finally, while this is a series, I appreciate that this book has a definite beginning and end. Questions about a number of characters are answered, a crisis is resolved, and then life is ready to go on.
FINAL RATING
Good enough to get a copy of the second book in the series. I recommend it.
But appearances are deceiving: a closer look shows the woman on the book cover has tangled hair and wild eyes; she looks like a feral child that's been shoved into a dress. And the story itself has far more similarity with The Jungle Book or Tarzan than Women who Run with Wolves.
PLOT
Firekeeper is the only two-legged member of a pack of Royal wolves, wolves that are larger and smarter than regular wolves. When an expedition of humans arrives in her area, curiosity leads her to join them, and on their return she is hailed as Blyth, the lost daughter of a deceased contender for the throne, and is likewise a contender for the throne. The story follows Blyth's learning of human society, and also the political machinations surrounding the king who has so far, not chosen an heir. But as a wolf, Firekeeper knows about power struggles herself.
REVIEW
That may be the basis of the plot, but it really doesn't convey the charm of the book. Firekeeper/Blyth isn't a nature child, nor quite a feral child. She considers herself a wolf, albeit one who has to use a dagger as a substitute claw, and pelts as substitute fur. As such she brings a wolf-child's outsider perspective to the events. One of the nice elements of this book is the author takes her time to introduce Firekeeper to the humans; it's a process of exploration and discovery on both sides, and Firekeeper finds delightful things about humanity (like soft shirts for a start). This is definitely not a "pure nature meets the rapacious humans" tale; Firekeeper is a hunter, not a wilderness saint, being rather concerned with survival and keeping her place in the pack. At the same time, she's fascinated by these strange creatures, humans.
Lindsgold has an excellent eye for the two major types of world building. For the first, she evidently did some good research on wolves, enough to build a picture of what a society of wolves with human intelligence would be like, and without lecturing, brings out both the parallels and the differences between wolf and human cultures. Another nice worldbuilding element is this isn't quite a faux-medieval Europe. It's rather like a fantasy analog of American colonies, if there was no gunpowder, the Europe equivalent had magic to maintain their power, and the colonies had been isolated and left to go their own way due to a major plague. And of course if the Appalacians were untrod and had giant, intelligent animals in it. So while the fantasy society isn't completely original or exotic, it does have interesting differences from your standard Extruded Fantasy Product. And so far, no elves, thank the author.
The book does have it's limitations; there were a couple points where contemporary phrases seemed to be dropped in, and like in many fantasy novels, the author seems to play fast and loose with distances and travel times. She also has to at times do digressions into histories and genealogies, both important for knowing the factions. On the plus side, she does some really well-done characterizations, so that not only Firekeeper's, but also her allies and friends grow and develop in both predictable and surprising ways. And to my mind, there's nothing like seeing a happy surprise in the development of a character.
Finally, while this is a series, I appreciate that this book has a definite beginning and end. Questions about a number of characters are answered, a crisis is resolved, and then life is ready to go on.
FINAL RATING
Good enough to get a copy of the second book in the series. I recommend it.
