Minor Thoughts from me to you

Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

I download this book for free, several years, ago as part of a Tor.com giveaway. I read it then and enjoyed it. I was always interested in the sequels but never quite got around to tracking them down. (There are a few series that I read but I'm generally pretty bad about tracking down sequels.)

Recently, I was visiting a used bookstore in preparation for air travel. I saw both this book and it's sequel, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart. I really wanted to just pick up the sequel, to read on the airplane. But I discovered that I really couldn't remember anything about the first book. So I bought both and had to start by rereading this one.

Jane Lindskold plays with one idea: a child raised by wolves. But, just for fun, don't make this a Jack London story about a child raised by wild wolves. This is, after all, a fantasy novel. No, these wolves are Royal Wolves. They are bigger and stronger than normal wolves. Most importantly, they're smarter. They have a shared culture and language and are at least as intelligent as humans, even if it is in a very wolfian manner. Make the girl be the keeper of fire, leading the wolves to call her Firekeeper. And give her a friend: a Royal Falcon named Elation. Also bigger, stronger, and smarter than your average falcon.

Now, bring Firekeeper back to the kingdom of Hawk Haven. King Tedric is elderly, without a clear heir. Earl Kestrel believes that Firekeeper is the king's heir. The court, predictably, disagrees. Now, add in tensions with the neighboring kingdom of Bright Bay. Mix all of these ingredients together, stir, and simmer for the length of one novel.

Overall, I think this recipe works. True, it was slow moving. There was a lot of talking, as a girl accustomed to wolf society needed to have human society explained to her. There was a lot of political maneuvering too. While some of that is based in action most of it is also based in talking. But, after all, this books is titled "through wolf's eyes". It was all about depicting the kingdom of Hawk Haven from the perspective of a non-human outsider.

Yes, it was slow moving. But the book was entertaining nonetheless. Now that I know how the story starts, I can read Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart to see what happens to Firekeeper next. I see that the series has expanded to 6 books. I don't know yet whether or not I'll read all of them. A lot depends on what I think of the next book. And none of us will know how that turns out until I take my next trip by air.