Review: Through Wolf’s Eyes
Note: Recently, Neil Gaiman’s publisher gave away “American Gods” for a month, and found that sales increased by 300% (per Neil Gaiman’s blog). Of course, Cory Doctorow is famous for doing the same, and has been doing it for quite some time. Another great source of intro reads is Baen’s free library, which has also been around for quite some time. You can sometimes get free books by signing up to review the new books from various publishers at Library Thing, and there have been ads seen on FaceBook for free copies of Infected by Scott Sigler (of which I availed myself, even though I’m not sure it’s my kind of book).
Tor jumped on the free-book bandwagon while building buzz for their new website, to the joy of voracious readers everywhere who can’t buy enough books on our meager budgets. That was how I acquired Jane Lindskold’s Through Wolf’s Eyes. I don’t believe it’s still available, but you can sign up to receive news of their freebies (including some incredible art for desktop wallpapers) at tor.com.
So, was it worth it? First, I have to say, the cover art is horrendous. The model’s neck looks both excessively long and broken and–as if that weren’t enough–she looks more as if she’s suffering from dwarfism than that the wolf is actually of a monstrous size. She even has zombie feet and hands! I’m one of those crazy people who picks up a book with a cool cover first, and may not even pick up the book with a bad one, so, I was a little less than enthusiastic about reading it. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that it’s actually a very good story. The bad guys are multi-dimensional! The good guys aren’t perfect! There’s a whole world with different cultures!
Ten years before the story opened, the king had disinherited his youngest son after discovering that said son had run away from home through a pass in the nearby mountain range that reminded me of Andre’ Norton’s Witch World. On the other side, of course, are some marvelous things, as we discover when we go through that pass looking for the prince, his wife, and daughter. During the course of those ten years, however, all of the prince’s siblings had died.
The King is old and all of his relatives are clamoring for him to choose his successor. Earl Kestrel, our intrepid explorer, has put together a party to find the prince because he hopes for royal favor if he thus produces a possible heir. Unfortunately, all he finds is a ruin and a girl. The girl doesn’t speak any human language, but she does have some startling companions–a giant wolf and a giant hawk–and seems to be able to communicate with any of the animals at will.
Kestrel returns with her through the pass, and puts her in the keeping of Derian, a young member of his party who seems to have clicked with the girl. Derian teaches her as much as he can about how to act like a human being in the limited time they’re given, and then they’re taken and introduced to a polite society that includes murder, evil sorcery, and bitter rivalry.
Our heroine has dreams she doesn’t remember, thus informing the reader about things everyone else is left wondering, such as how she survived and who she really is, and also gives interesting hints about future events in the series.
During the course of the story we’re introduced to other cultures and people, political rivalries, and multiple attempts to murder various people, our wolf girl not least among them. The King is lured to the border between his country and the next, and then a conflict is engineered between Hawk Haven, the country we’ve sided with, and Bright Bay, which had split off from Hawk Haven during their fight for independence from the old country from whence the bad sorcery came, and Bright Bay’s allies. When it’s all over, one person intends to be the new ruler of both.
So, if you’re a fan of Andre Norton’s Witch World series or Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera, you’ll find a lot to like here. There are minor weaknesses, but they’re easily overlooked for the rough and tumble rush to find out who the bad guy really is–or which bad guy is on top–and then whether or not he, or she, will succeed. I give it a solid B.
Tags: fantasy review