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readermonica's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to reading book two. The only reason that I can't give this five stars is that it took about 150 pages for me to start loving the story, but it will still go on my favorite reads list because when it grabbed me it kept me wrapped up until the very last page.
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @monicaisreading
Instagram: @readermonica
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @monicaisreading
Instagram: @readermonica
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
cupiscent's review against another edition
A quick bounce. Very epic, thick with happenings and plot, but I just couldn't find a way in for my attention and emotional investment. No harm, no foul; just not for me.
colossal's review against another edition
4.0
An Asian-inspired epic fantasy with a huge cast of characters and exploring generational social and political upheaval.
The Hundred is a small and largely coastal area north of the hug Sirinakian Empire and relatively recently saved from warring demons by a nobleman from the Empire who has set himself up as King of the Hundred. We get an introduction to Captain Kellas as he gets assigned to be the head of the King's son's personal guard as well as the King's daughter Dannarah who desperately wants more from life, to be a giant eagle rider rather than just another daughter married off to a foreign nobleman.
Then we get a time jump of 44 years to find out how that all turned out. Kellas and Dannarah are still very much main characters, but we also follow a whole cast of much younger people, including the shamed daughter of a Ri Amirah clan (a religious and ethnically separate minority), the adopted daughter of a peasant family who has both a destiny and a hidden past, and a bored young nobleman chafing against the expectations of his family.
The Hundred itself is a very different place with a southern religion insinuating itself everywhere, the palace rife with intrigue with at least three separate factions, and civil unrest because of the number of people swept up into work-gangs and marched south. Meanwhile, the demons are active again.
I enjoyed this quite a lot, but the length and rambling nature of the book were major problems for me. I also felt that pacing was a problem with the story being carried by different characters at what felt like uneven rates and with uneven amounts of time spent with them. Kellas, while setting up to be a major character through the first part of the book becomes backgrounded later on and major elements of his story are hinted at throughout but left hidden to the reader for dramatic purposes until later. I'm not a huge fan of this writing technique for a viewpoint character. It's one thing to have a hidden or shameful past, it's something completely different to reveal that his goal is very different to what you had been told.
I was a huge fan of the female characters in this, particularly the adopted girl and the Ri Amarah. Both are under societal strictures of what women can and can't do and both are brave, bold and capable besides. I also like the feckless nobleman. All of whose stories have barely begun and in a much wider context than just the Hundred.
Very much looking forward to book two.
The Hundred is a small and largely coastal area north of the hug Sirinakian Empire and relatively recently saved from warring demons by a nobleman from the Empire who has set himself up as King of the Hundred. We get an introduction to Captain Kellas as he gets assigned to be the head of the King's son's personal guard as well as the King's daughter Dannarah who desperately wants more from life, to be a giant eagle rider rather than just another daughter married off to a foreign nobleman.
Then we get a time jump of 44 years to find out how that all turned out. Kellas and Dannarah are still very much main characters, but we also follow a whole cast of much younger people, including the shamed daughter of a Ri Amirah clan (a religious and ethnically separate minority), the adopted daughter of a peasant family who has both a destiny and a hidden past, and a bored young nobleman chafing against the expectations of his family.
The Hundred itself is a very different place with a southern religion insinuating itself everywhere, the palace rife with intrigue with at least three separate factions, and civil unrest because of the number of people swept up into work-gangs and marched south. Meanwhile, the demons are active again.
I enjoyed this quite a lot, but the length and rambling nature of the book were major problems for me. I also felt that pacing was a problem with the story being carried by different characters at what felt like uneven rates and with uneven amounts of time spent with them. Kellas, while setting up to be a major character through the first part of the book becomes backgrounded later on and major elements of his story are hinted at throughout but left hidden to the reader for dramatic purposes until later. I'm not a huge fan of this writing technique for a viewpoint character. It's one thing to have a hidden or shameful past, it's something completely different to reveal that his goal is very different to what you had been told.
I was a huge fan of the female characters in this, particularly the adopted girl and the Ri Amarah. Both are under societal strictures of what women can and can't do and both are brave, bold and capable besides. I also like the feckless nobleman. All of whose stories have barely begun and in a much wider context than just the Hundred.
Very much looking forward to book two.
undersealibrarian's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
slow-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
5.0
coolcurrybooks's review against another edition
4.0
Trigger Warning: Rape
This may be my favorite read yet from Kate Elliott, and I have the feeling that this trilogy will become one of my all time epic fantasy series. If non-Western epic fantasy with loads of ladies who do things sounds like something you’d like, then you need to read Black Wolves.
The first hundred pages of Black Wolves introduce many of the central characters, but everything then changes after a forty-four year time skip. King Anjihosh saved the Hundred from demons and conquered it in the process. The story starts with Kellas, a captain of the Black Wolves, the king’s elite unit of soldiers and spies. The king’s son, Atani, learns of a family secret and soon after disappears. Kellas is tasked with his retrieval. The first section ends soon after. In the time skip, Atani both became king and was murdered on one fateful night still shrouded in questions and mysteries. Now Atani’s son is king, and he fears that no one around him can be trusted. His aunt Dannarah enlists a now elderly Kellas to return to safeguard her nephew and his kingdom.
However, Kellas is just one of many protagonists, all of whom have their own storylines. Dannarah is a Marshel of the Reeves, an ancient military order who’s members are chosen by and bonded to giant eagles. Under her nephew’s rule, she’s seen her power diminish, and she fears for the Reeves as a whole and their traditions.
Lifka is the adopted daughter of a poor carter, who just wants to help her family survive. But the Hundred’s conquerors have become increasingly oppressive of the native culture as the generations have worn on, and new taxes, religious mandates, and forced labor endangers her family. On top of all that, Lifka might just be one of those orphans who has a secret past…
The last couple of major characters are a couple in fact — Gilaras and Sarai, two young people who end up (from her own design in Sarai’s case) in an arranged marriage. Gilaras’s father betrayed Atani, and the family seeks an alliance with a wealthy merchant clan to stay a float. Sarai’s people usually do not marry outsiders… but Sarai is mixed race and has never been fully accepted by her own family members. She’s spent her entire life inside the family’s rural compound, and she wants out. Her girlfriend’s already left, so there’s not much left for her besides spending her days cataloging plants and growing old. When she sees the chance of an escape, she jumps at it.
I was not expecting the time skip at all. I was pretty confused for the first hundred pages! I kept looking at the back of the book and being like, “This doesn’t fit at all what’s happening?” Of course it didn’t. The back blurb was describing events forty-four years later! It was an unusual choice for Kate Elliott to make, and I don’t know how much I liked it. I think it led to Black Wolves having a slower start than it might have otherwise, and I’m not sure it was entirely necessary. On the other hand, it was interesting to have the characters and my assumptions about them shift so radically from one page to the next. Dannarah went from a naive teenage girl to a mature leader, and Kellas went from a young badass male lead to, well, a badass grandpa.
I actually really liked all of these characters. Plus there were some great supporting cast members as well! There’s so many women doing things and being generally amazing… and they interact with other women doing things. Women doing things and interacting with other women isn’t a high bar, but it’s something a lot of fantasy series fail at. Black Wolves gloriously passes that bar.
And the cast of characters is diverse in many different aspects. The majority of the cast are POC and all of the POV characters are. The culture seems to have been based on East Asia but it’s original enough that I can’t pick out any specific influences. Oh, and Sarai is bisexual! Her culture doesn’t allow women to meet with unrelated men before they’re married, but since she’s bi that doesn’t stop her from having a romantic and sexual relationship before she enters into the arranged marriage with Gil. This had the bonus effect of putting her and Gil on more equal footing since they both came in with some prior relationship experience.
Actually, I think Gil and Sarai’s relationship was one of the best arranged marriage plotlines I’ve seen. I tend to hate these plotlines. You know how they go. There’s some naive young woman who has no experience with men or marriage who is suddenly married off (usually unwillingly) to a handsome and super worldly man who is in a more powerful position than her. Of course, he tends to turn out to be the embodiment of perfection and she falls in love with him. Black Wolves changes the equation. Sarai is in her early twenties, not particularly naive, and arranges the marriage herself. Plus, she retains control of all the financial assets she brings to the marriage, so she’s not helpless in comparison to Gil.
I really enjoyed Black Wolves. It just has so much of what I want from fantasy. A world that feels unique and tangible, characters I love, and a plot I find exciting. And I’m going to reiterate this point: it has loads of ladies doing things and some of them are queer. Basically, Black Wolves is everything I love in the fantasy genre wrapped into one awesome package. I’m sure I’ll be recommending this one a ton in the future, and I can’t wait until Kate Elliott releases the next book. It’s slated for spring 2018 and it can’t come out soon enough!
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
This may be my favorite read yet from Kate Elliott, and I have the feeling that this trilogy will become one of my all time epic fantasy series. If non-Western epic fantasy with loads of ladies who do things sounds like something you’d like, then you need to read Black Wolves.
The first hundred pages of Black Wolves introduce many of the central characters, but everything then changes after a forty-four year time skip. King Anjihosh saved the Hundred from demons and conquered it in the process. The story starts with Kellas, a captain of the Black Wolves, the king’s elite unit of soldiers and spies. The king’s son, Atani, learns of a family secret and soon after disappears. Kellas is tasked with his retrieval. The first section ends soon after. In the time skip, Atani both became king and was murdered on one fateful night still shrouded in questions and mysteries. Now Atani’s son is king, and he fears that no one around him can be trusted. His aunt Dannarah enlists a now elderly Kellas to return to safeguard her nephew and his kingdom.
However, Kellas is just one of many protagonists, all of whom have their own storylines. Dannarah is a Marshel of the Reeves, an ancient military order who’s members are chosen by and bonded to giant eagles. Under her nephew’s rule, she’s seen her power diminish, and she fears for the Reeves as a whole and their traditions.
Lifka is the adopted daughter of a poor carter, who just wants to help her family survive. But the Hundred’s conquerors have become increasingly oppressive of the native culture as the generations have worn on, and new taxes, religious mandates, and forced labor endangers her family. On top of all that, Lifka might just be one of those orphans who has a secret past…
The last couple of major characters are a couple in fact — Gilaras and Sarai, two young people who end up (from her own design in Sarai’s case) in an arranged marriage. Gilaras’s father betrayed Atani, and the family seeks an alliance with a wealthy merchant clan to stay a float. Sarai’s people usually do not marry outsiders… but Sarai is mixed race and has never been fully accepted by her own family members. She’s spent her entire life inside the family’s rural compound, and she wants out. Her girlfriend’s already left, so there’s not much left for her besides spending her days cataloging plants and growing old. When she sees the chance of an escape, she jumps at it.
I was not expecting the time skip at all. I was pretty confused for the first hundred pages! I kept looking at the back of the book and being like, “This doesn’t fit at all what’s happening?” Of course it didn’t. The back blurb was describing events forty-four years later! It was an unusual choice for Kate Elliott to make, and I don’t know how much I liked it. I think it led to Black Wolves having a slower start than it might have otherwise, and I’m not sure it was entirely necessary. On the other hand, it was interesting to have the characters and my assumptions about them shift so radically from one page to the next. Dannarah went from a naive teenage girl to a mature leader, and Kellas went from a young badass male lead to, well, a badass grandpa.
I actually really liked all of these characters. Plus there were some great supporting cast members as well! There’s so many women doing things and being generally amazing… and they interact with other women doing things. Women doing things and interacting with other women isn’t a high bar, but it’s something a lot of fantasy series fail at. Black Wolves gloriously passes that bar.
And the cast of characters is diverse in many different aspects. The majority of the cast are POC and all of the POV characters are. The culture seems to have been based on East Asia but it’s original enough that I can’t pick out any specific influences. Oh, and Sarai is bisexual! Her culture doesn’t allow women to meet with unrelated men before they’re married, but since she’s bi that doesn’t stop her from having a romantic and sexual relationship before she enters into the arranged marriage with Gil. This had the bonus effect of putting her and Gil on more equal footing since they both came in with some prior relationship experience.
Actually, I think Gil and Sarai’s relationship was one of the best arranged marriage plotlines I’ve seen. I tend to hate these plotlines. You know how they go. There’s some naive young woman who has no experience with men or marriage who is suddenly married off (usually unwillingly) to a handsome and super worldly man who is in a more powerful position than her. Of course, he tends to turn out to be the embodiment of perfection and she falls in love with him. Black Wolves changes the equation. Sarai is in her early twenties, not particularly naive, and arranges the marriage herself. Plus, she retains control of all the financial assets she brings to the marriage, so she’s not helpless in comparison to Gil.
I really enjoyed Black Wolves. It just has so much of what I want from fantasy. A world that feels unique and tangible, characters I love, and a plot I find exciting. And I’m going to reiterate this point: it has loads of ladies doing things and some of them are queer. Basically, Black Wolves is everything I love in the fantasy genre wrapped into one awesome package. I’m sure I’ll be recommending this one a ton in the future, and I can’t wait until Kate Elliott releases the next book. It’s slated for spring 2018 and it can’t come out soon enough!
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
readermonica's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to reading book two. The only reason that I can't give this five stars is that it took about 150 pages for me to start loving the story, but it will still go on my favorite reads list because when it grabbed me it kept me wrapped up until the very last page.
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @monicaisreading
Instagram: @readermonica
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @monicaisreading
Instagram: @readermonica
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
friendleghost's review
4.0
An engrossing read. I will try to patiently wait for the next book, but with the length of Kate Elloit's backlist that shouldn't be so hard :) Now I can finally read all those reviews @renay wrote
jessicaetrudeau's review
4.0
Loved this first book of a series. Wavered between a four- and five- star review. Settled on the four star for a bit of a slow start when we're first introduced to all the POV characters in the "present day" of the main part of the novel. Random things I loved: Old! characters who are still prime movers of the action, bisexual representation, detailed/multicultural non-western fantasy world, women getting shit done all over the place.
Not crazy about the cover, though. Not that it's ugly or anything, but it's not the best representation of the contents. If that's supposed to be Kellas, they should have him as he is for the bulk of the novel- 74 years old.
Not crazy about the cover, though. Not that it's ugly or anything, but it's not the best representation of the contents. If that's supposed to be Kellas, they should have him as he is for the bulk of the novel- 74 years old.
popestig's review
4.0
I am a bit torn about this book.
The world and the story is rich and wonderful - some of the character interactions are a bit odd. Characters react to news with complete and utter shock way too often and they also also seem to be able to read other people like open books from time to time. Small issues like this trouble the first half of the book, but eventually the story and the world takes over.
The world and the story is rich and wonderful - some of the character interactions are a bit odd. Characters react to news with complete and utter shock way too often and they also also seem to be able to read other people like open books from time to time. Small issues like this trouble the first half of the book, but eventually the story and the world takes over.