Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Good, solid world building and interesting concepts. I wasn't super invested in many of the characters for the start of the book, which was the one downside for me, but some grew on me, and I'm definitely keen to find out what happens next.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
The cover is gorgeous, that much is clear. The rest of the story left me more conflicted though.
Maniye has grown up in a world where people from clans with different totems can 'Step' or transform into these animals. The different clans are constantly at war with each other, which also fills a major part of the story. Maniye is the result of her Wolf father mating with his Tiger trophy, which left Maniye with the ability to transform into both a Wolf and a Tiger. Her father plans to use her for yet another war, but Maniye doesn't want this and escapes her father's clan.
I feel like I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. The beautiful cover made me believe it would be impossible to put the book down but that wasn't true. Besides Maniye's story there are many other featured. I think it stands for something when the most interesting storyline is not the one featuring the Dragon-shapeshifter! Large parts of the book cover fights between almost everyone and people being hunted. It became a bit repetitive since this is not something I particularly enjoy reading about. I did like the writing, and I would pick up the next book to see where the story is going from here.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The cover is gorgeous, that much is clear. The rest of the story left me more conflicted though.
Maniye has grown up in a world where people from clans with different totems can 'Step' or transform into these animals. The different clans are constantly at war with each other, which also fills a major part of the story. Maniye is the result of her Wolf father mating with his Tiger trophy, which left Maniye with the ability to transform into both a Wolf and a Tiger. Her father plans to use her for yet another war, but Maniye doesn't want this and escapes her father's clan.
I feel like I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. The beautiful cover made me believe it would be impossible to put the book down but that wasn't true. Besides Maniye's story there are many other featured. I think it stands for something when the most interesting storyline is not the one featuring the Dragon-shapeshifter! Large parts of the book cover fights between almost everyone and people being hunted. It became a bit repetitive since this is not something I particularly enjoy reading about. I did like the writing, and I would pick up the next book to see where the story is going from here.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Still thinking about how I felt about this for a bit.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“She had three skins; none of them fitted her, and two of them were at war.”It’s not Adrian Tchaikovsky’s fault that I shamelessly prefer science fiction to fantasy; that I keep looking for those tell-tale clues in fantasy books that suggest that all that magic is just sufficiently advanced technology, given the air of mystery by society’s regression to pretechnological levels.
Well, this is NOT that kind of story. It’s fantasy to the bone, but done meticulously and thoughtfully. And it’s good.
“That is how people are. Once they have food and drink and shelter, the next thing they must find is a quarrel.”
It’s a land of Iron Age tribes of shapeshifters, with everyone being able to Step into the form of their tribe’s totem animal - the Wolf, the Tiger, the Horse, the Bear, the Crocodile, the Eagle, the Dragon, etc. In the North, the Crown of the World, the Wolf tribe led by an ambitious chieftain had subjugated the Tiger tribe before, but the chief’s plans are disrupted when his daughter, a result of the rapes of the Tiger queen who was then ordered to be killed, refuses to act like an obedient tool in the chief’s hands.
“If he had asked for her agreement, she might have said yes, and been forever after bound by her own word. He took her consent – her subjugation to his plan and his will – as a given though. He never asked, and so never extracted that agreement from her.”
————
‘My father,’ she murmured . . . but of course he was not her father, he had never been her father. He was only the man who had tried to make her his.
Maniye in the meantime not only has the soul of both of her gods - the Wolf and the Tiger - but those souls are at war for dominance inside her mind. ‘I have too many souls, and they’re tearing me apart,’ and it’s not just a metaphor.
And it’s not just the story of a young person rebellion and soul-searching. There are hints of politics. There are alliances built and remade in this very brutal and cruel world where survival is not easy. There are greater forces at play in a world expecting war. There are painful choices when it comes to belonging and loyalty, friendship and sacrifice, freedom and obligations.
‘The Wolf I follow is in here.’ Broken Axe tapped his chest. ‘He wants no sacrifice. He needs no man to die in agony by fire. He wants the clean joy of the hunt, the fresh snow, the wide sky and the moon. He wants a simple life that isn’t stained by other men’s ambition and greed.’
It’s a very vivid and complex world that Tchaikovsky crafts masterfully, without ever resorting to the pitfalls of infodumping and overdescribing. He makes the tribes distinct, balances a few distinct cultures, bring in the sense of history to the world he created. And true to his love for biology, he is shapeshifter tribes follow zoology quite well.
Its a book heavy on battles and combat, which may or may not be your jam. Battles and fights are vivid, described in a way that can be easily visualized - and that makes sense, but at times it did get a bit too much. And it starts with a slow setup, building up for a while until exciting things start happening - which also may be a turnoff to a few readers. The payoff is good — but it does take a while to get there, and unlike in his science fiction stories I did feel the weight of the pages it took before we got to the end.
“Looking back, she could see that the actual privations she had thought she was escaping were small things. She had lived a life where she was fed and sheltered; not a thrall, nor fending for herself. But when she had rescued Hesprec and fled, she had unwittingly broken out from a different prison: a prison of no choices. She had defied her father, and in doing so had become someone for the first time.”
It took me a little while to warm up to it, but after the first quarter or so, after the set-up was done, it was easy to get through, and it remained nicely original throughout — and even the umpteenth warrior duel could not quite break the spell. It’s a slow burn, but ultimately worth it. And the characters are trademark Tchaikovsky, with dimension and weight to them, and an interesting variety of them. But among all the shapeshifters and totems there may be a dinosaur feel at times — but no spiders or other multilimbed creatures? Who’s this guy and what has he done to Adrian we know and love?
All in all, an interesting read even if it wasn’t my favorite Tchaikovsky SF. But for fantasy it was quite good.
4 stars.
‘There are two ways of seeming strong: to build yourself up or to throw all others down. But only one of these is truly a way of being strong.’
——————
Also posted on my blog.
——————
Recommended by: Phil
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
slow-paced