Wolf Brother, part two
Sep. 17th, 2004 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserI was very bad. Though I've had only about seven hours sleep total for the whole week, I stayed up late (again) to finish the book. Stopping and saving some for tonight really wasn't an option, even though I knew I'd be tired today. I just couldn't put the darned thing down.
Unlike the first half, the second half had a really, really strong HP-ish feeling. On all points but one, I think this is just because the themes in HP are not new (a main character having to save the world, a main character being tested, childhood friendships, moral decisions, etc). But there was one similarity which really gave me pause: The writer (who has said she read and liked the HP books) named her group of bad guys the Soul-Eaters. As my mind was already comparing the two books, that made my eyebrows go way, way up. In the context of the book, it's a reasonable name for the group of bad people, but... to me it seems like a writer might/should say "Hey, wait, HP is so popular and the bad guys are Death Eaters, maybe I should make mine Soul-Stealers or Soul-Thieves or Soul-Suckers or something slightly different...".
For a not terribly long book (300-ish pages), the characters were just amazingly real. Even Wolf (a wolf) was wonderfully fleshed out and complex -- I felt as though these were real people that I could run into at any time. The interactions between the characters were outstanding. I wish I had read this without having read HP though, as my mind kept going "Oh, he's so Peter" and "Oh, she's such a Hermione!".
I don't often say this, but I think the book would have benefited by having a hundred or so pages added. To me, the ending felt a little rushed. (But keep in mind I was exhausted, so this could be a reflection of me rushing to finish it so I could sleep.) Wolf Brother is only the first of a series, but to me it seemed as though this book alone could have been made into two or three books.
All in all, I totally loved the story. It's not often that a book makes me go "Oh no!" and "Eek!" and "Ack, watch out!" out loud as I read! (I snickered at myself the first time I caught myself doing it.) And the characters were so interesting! I want to know more more more about them, right now! (The next book is due to come out in 2005.) One of the ... oh, how to go into this without spoiling. Well, I'll just say that the characters are not just black and white, there is much grey area, and that makes it all the more interesting.
You can pre-order Brother Wolf at Amazon. I was incorrect about one thing in my post yesterday: I had thought Brother Wolf was an old print, just "discovered" and made popular this year. It was actually released this year, sold out, and is going to a second printing now.
Unlike the first half, the second half had a really, really strong HP-ish feeling. On all points but one, I think this is just because the themes in HP are not new (a main character having to save the world, a main character being tested, childhood friendships, moral decisions, etc). But there was one similarity which really gave me pause: The writer (who has said she read and liked the HP books) named her group of bad guys the Soul-Eaters. As my mind was already comparing the two books, that made my eyebrows go way, way up. In the context of the book, it's a reasonable name for the group of bad people, but... to me it seems like a writer might/should say "Hey, wait, HP is so popular and the bad guys are Death Eaters, maybe I should make mine Soul-Stealers or Soul-Thieves or Soul-Suckers or something slightly different...".
For a not terribly long book (300-ish pages), the characters were just amazingly real. Even Wolf (a wolf) was wonderfully fleshed out and complex -- I felt as though these were real people that I could run into at any time. The interactions between the characters were outstanding. I wish I had read this without having read HP though, as my mind kept going "Oh, he's so Peter" and "Oh, she's such a Hermione!".
I don't often say this, but I think the book would have benefited by having a hundred or so pages added. To me, the ending felt a little rushed. (But keep in mind I was exhausted, so this could be a reflection of me rushing to finish it so I could sleep.) Wolf Brother is only the first of a series, but to me it seemed as though this book alone could have been made into two or three books.
All in all, I totally loved the story. It's not often that a book makes me go "Oh no!" and "Eek!" and "Ack, watch out!" out loud as I read! (I snickered at myself the first time I caught myself doing it.) And the characters were so interesting! I want to know more more more about them, right now! (The next book is due to come out in 2005.) One of the ... oh, how to go into this without spoiling. Well, I'll just say that the characters are not just black and white, there is much grey area, and that makes it all the more interesting.
You can pre-order Brother Wolf at Amazon. I was incorrect about one thing in my post yesterday: I had thought Brother Wolf was an old print, just "discovered" and made popular this year. It was actually released this year, sold out, and is going to a second printing now.
