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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
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:
Yes
This is GOT with shapeshifters!!! A fascinating story world with unforgettable characters. I'll be continuing this series for sure.
This is a stone age fantasy, the first volume of the trilogy. One of the fellow readers aptly called it ‘GoT with werewolves’ and it is accordingly full of characters and their interaction. While there are combat scenes, blood and gore, they are maybe a little less cruel than in [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562726234l/13496._SY75_.jpg|1466917]. I have to admit, reading both fantasy and SF by [a:Adrian Tchaikovsky|1445909|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282303363p2/1445909.jpg], I preferred his SF, but this fantasy is strong and unusual to urge me to read more.
A lot of fantasy follows ‘classics’, where the world is a version of European middle ages (often an imaginary version of later Enlightenment historians, who coined the term Dark Ages), recently with a bit larger globe coverage, adding Indian, Chinese or pre-Columbian Americas cultures, but still, ‘Knights and Mages’. This one is a rare (but not unique) attempt to step much deeper in history, closer to earlier civilizations, and more importantly – pre-civilization (i.e. urban) cultures. As it is known, such cultures almost always had a totem animal, which was considered a progenitor of the tribe. Here it is taken literally to the next step – all humans are were-animals of their tribe, be it wolf, hyena, horse or snake.
The story has several characters and their individual lines slowly intertwine as the book progresses. The first is Maniye Many Tracks, a daughter Akrit Stone River, who is a leader of one of Wolves’ tribes, who raped and then, after her birth, ordered to kill her mother, who was captured from the enemy tribe of Tigers. Wolves may be uncouth and brute, living in the snow-covered North, next to the Crown of the World, but they are the only people in the known world who know a secret of making iron. And iron makes a huge difference in a world where others are limited by stone, wood or bronze. Maniye, as a half-blood is shunned by other teens of the tribe, the father sees her just as a tool for his promotion… but she has a rare talent to turn into both wolf and tiger.
The second line is that of Asmander, First Son of Asman, a Champion sent by his father on a mission to the inhospitable North. He is accompanied by a former pirate Venater. The one was an earth-dark River Lord youth with an easy smile, the other a burly, villainous-looking estuary man, both are expert fighters in both their human and their beast form, with Venater being a Komodo dragon and Asmander a crocodile and something more…
This is a great story with a lot of characters, who are quite ‘alive’ and not just a flat character-function. Both the world and the heroes make you want to read more.
A lot of fantasy follows ‘classics’, where the world is a version of European middle ages (often an imaginary version of later Enlightenment historians, who coined the term Dark Ages), recently with a bit larger globe coverage, adding Indian, Chinese or pre-Columbian Americas cultures, but still, ‘Knights and Mages’. This one is a rare (but not unique) attempt to step much deeper in history, closer to earlier civilizations, and more importantly – pre-civilization (i.e. urban) cultures. As it is known, such cultures almost always had a totem animal, which was considered a progenitor of the tribe. Here it is taken literally to the next step – all humans are were-animals of their tribe, be it wolf, hyena, horse or snake.
The story has several characters and their individual lines slowly intertwine as the book progresses. The first is Maniye Many Tracks, a daughter Akrit Stone River, who is a leader of one of Wolves’ tribes, who raped and then, after her birth, ordered to kill her mother, who was captured from the enemy tribe of Tigers. Wolves may be uncouth and brute, living in the snow-covered North, next to the Crown of the World, but they are the only people in the known world who know a secret of making iron. And iron makes a huge difference in a world where others are limited by stone, wood or bronze. Maniye, as a half-blood is shunned by other teens of the tribe, the father sees her just as a tool for his promotion… but she has a rare talent to turn into both wolf and tiger.
The second line is that of Asmander, First Son of Asman, a Champion sent by his father on a mission to the inhospitable North. He is accompanied by a former pirate Venater. The one was an earth-dark River Lord youth with an easy smile, the other a burly, villainous-looking estuary man, both are expert fighters in both their human and their beast form, with Venater being a Komodo dragon and Asmander a crocodile and something more…
This is a great story with a lot of characters, who are quite ‘alive’ and not just a flat character-function. Both the world and the heroes make you want to read more.
I have to admit that I picked this book up mainly due to the stunning cover. The book itself did not disappoint, though. It is definitely quite slow at points as there is a lot of world building and other information that needs to be told. Having said that, I never felt bogged down by all the information. It was all necessary - it just set a bit of a slower reading pace. I love the setting of this book, with tribes that can 'step' into different animals. I also loved the main character, Maniye. She is such an interesting and complex character. The other characters are also extremely well written and I loved that all the characters have some mannerisms or indication of the animal they are linked to. The diversity of this book is great - there are so many different tribes and different beliefs. I really enjoyed finding out about them all. I very much enjoyed this book and I will definitely be continuing on with this series.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A great novel by an author I had never even thought to try. If everything he writers is this good, I will definitely keep on reading.
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
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:
Yes
I really liked and enjoyed the book. Both writing and worldbuilding was fine also the magic systems was okay. The paced of plot was too slow for my liking. the cover of book was simple but stunning and the characters were okay but they needed be flash out more.
I received this book as winner in a contest, courtesy of the author and Dave at the Write Reads.
Bleak in some ways, yet utterly compelling, this book is a masterpiece. It’s unlike many other fantasies that I’ve read. Instead of a linear story, where I have an idea of where things are going, this felt more like a window into a world. The story was less important than the book as a whole, if that makes sense.
In this world, humans can shift into animal shapes. It feels very tribal, in that there are clans and each clan can shift into only one shape (that of the clan’s animal totem). Maniye is an exception. She’s the daughter of the Wolf clan’s chief, but her mother was of the Tiger clan. Maniye can shift into both forms. This is an ability she hides, only known to herself and her clan’s priest, who is most definitely not on her “side.”
Instead of discussing where the story goes, I’m only going to say that in many ways it’s a coming-of-age tale. Maniye struggles with her identity, her messed-up relationship with her father, and finding her place in the world. The fact that the world features shape-shifters, and many fights, is a benefit to the reader.
The strength in the writing, for me, comes down to the excellent world-building. While the characters and story are interesting, the world is engrossing. I loved reading about the different tribes and how their lifestyles varied from each other. I especially liked the Laughing Men. The idea was so original!
This book will not be for everyone. It’s not your usual fantasy. It’s stark and without fantastical frills (if that makes sense). It is, however, incredibly good.
I highly recommend this book to fantasy readers who like fully-realized worlds, and don’t mind slower builds.
Bleak in some ways, yet utterly compelling, this book is a masterpiece. It’s unlike many other fantasies that I’ve read. Instead of a linear story, where I have an idea of where things are going, this felt more like a window into a world. The story was less important than the book as a whole, if that makes sense.
In this world, humans can shift into animal shapes. It feels very tribal, in that there are clans and each clan can shift into only one shape (that of the clan’s animal totem). Maniye is an exception. She’s the daughter of the Wolf clan’s chief, but her mother was of the Tiger clan. Maniye can shift into both forms. This is an ability she hides, only known to herself and her clan’s priest, who is most definitely not on her “side.”
Instead of discussing where the story goes, I’m only going to say that in many ways it’s a coming-of-age tale. Maniye struggles with her identity, her messed-up relationship with her father, and finding her place in the world. The fact that the world features shape-shifters, and many fights, is a benefit to the reader.
The strength in the writing, for me, comes down to the excellent world-building. While the characters and story are interesting, the world is engrossing. I loved reading about the different tribes and how their lifestyles varied from each other. I especially liked the Laughing Men. The idea was so original!
This book will not be for everyone. It’s not your usual fantasy. It’s stark and without fantastical frills (if that makes sense). It is, however, incredibly good.
I highly recommend this book to fantasy readers who like fully-realized worlds, and don’t mind slower builds.
This book was a complete cover-buy a few years ago, and I’ve let it hang out on my TBR-shelf for that time because I didn’t want to read it and find the story not fitting the cover. But this last year I’ve been trying to dig into my TBR, and because I found this book on Audible with an OK narrator, I though I would give it a chance.
The story was rather meandering and all over the place, and I kept wondering what the plot actually was, but at the same time I also enjoyed it and found myself wanting to keep reading – I didn’t because my OCD kept me from messing up my ‘’books read in 2020 total’’, but now that it’s 2021 I could fly through the rest!
The writing is good and the characters interesting. I liked that there wasn’t really a romance element, although there was a lot of relationship-ARCs. I also liked the classic epic fantasy-feel of part of the story, mixed in with shapeshifting and tribal culture. I often feel that epic fantasy stories are against the tribal cultures, not seen from that POV.
That said, I did have some trouble with the tribes. It felt like the author had just a rudimentary feeling of how the different animals really lived and worked in real life, and that he twisted and turned that into fitting his idea for this world. And that idea was a really black and white one that I don’t understand. If you look back on a lot of tribe-history, it’s not that black and white. Women aren’t pushed down to such an extent – or men, when the women ruled. The complete subjugation of one sex is a modern thing – in most places, at least from what I’ve read – and seeing it put into a story like this just tasted wrong on so many levels. Not to mention it’s a cheap crutch for an author to lean on.
Over-all, though, I’m glad I gave the book a chance. Will I be reading on with the series? I don’t think so. Book 1 felt finished to me, and I don’t think I see anything interesting in the plot of the next two books, so I’m gonna leave it at that instead of risking ruining a good reading experience.
The story was rather meandering and all over the place, and I kept wondering what the plot actually was, but at the same time I also enjoyed it and found myself wanting to keep reading – I didn’t because my OCD kept me from messing up my ‘’books read in 2020 total’’, but now that it’s 2021 I could fly through the rest!
The writing is good and the characters interesting. I liked that there wasn’t really a romance element, although there was a lot of relationship-ARCs. I also liked the classic epic fantasy-feel of part of the story, mixed in with shapeshifting and tribal culture. I often feel that epic fantasy stories are against the tribal cultures, not seen from that POV.
That said, I did have some trouble with the tribes. It felt like the author had just a rudimentary feeling of how the different animals really lived and worked in real life, and that he twisted and turned that into fitting his idea for this world. And that idea was a really black and white one that I don’t understand. If you look back on a lot of tribe-history, it’s not that black and white. Women aren’t pushed down to such an extent – or men, when the women ruled. The complete subjugation of one sex is a modern thing – in most places, at least from what I’ve read – and seeing it put into a story like this just tasted wrong on so many levels. Not to mention it’s a cheap crutch for an author to lean on.
Over-all, though, I’m glad I gave the book a chance. Will I be reading on with the series? I don’t think so. Book 1 felt finished to me, and I don’t think I see anything interesting in the plot of the next two books, so I’m gonna leave it at that instead of risking ruining a good reading experience.