[Review] A Companion to Wolves - Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear

[digitaldiscipline]

A COMPANION TO WOLVES is one of those things that I was aware of since it had been published, but only recently got around to buying and reading. If you like high fantasy, don't mind intense sex scenes in service to the narrative, and are a dog person, just stop here and buy the fucking book.

The tag-team duo of Bear (matociquala) and Monette (truepenny) is one of my favorite collaborative voices (their short story "Boojum" and the follow-on fiction in that world is excellent sci-fi), and here, they have tackled a slice the Norse mythos by way of turning the "warrior/chosen one finds their animal familiar and heroics ensue" from 45 to 270 degrees around a several axes.

Young men are tithed to the force that guards their homeland from trolls and other threats, which kicks off the narrative, as our protagonist brings us into that world. It is cold and harsh, and things promptly begin to go into multi-named and/or hard-to-pronounce[1] handbaskets.

As anyone who has gone to a breeder or animal shelter knows, you aren't the only one choosing a friend; so is the animal, and here, the wolves drive the bus, and the humans need to keep their shit together in service to the pack. Thus, there are two sets of politics, two sets of social hierarchy, two sets of friendships and yearnings, and two sets of chains of command to be navigated and negotiated, and it's as overwhelming for our protagonist as it is for us as readers, as he tries to keep himself and his wolf-sister alive and only appropriately embroiled, with the expected varying levels of success.

It is a tough read in some places - it's not grimdark for the sake of grimness and darkness - but there is hard sledding to be done socially, in combat, and a handful of scenes that are a starkly visceral blend of both.

I will definitely be picking up the two further books in the series - A TEMPERING OF MEN and AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES, because, even though this book absolutely stands alone, I want to see what else Bear and Monette have in store for this world and its inhabitants.

[1] If you enjoy Russian novels for their [sarcasm font]ease[/sarcasm font] of identifying individuals who can be referred to by six or seven different names/titles and casts of characters running to fifty or so, this will not be the challenge for you it was for me. I found myself having to pause frequently to try and remember if it was Skjaldir or Skollmir or Skaljir who did the thing with the stuff, or if that was Hrolldir, Hrair, Hrafn, or Harry and the Hendersons who had. There were, however, definitely no militant moles wielding Mjolnir, although subterranean creatures swinging clubs *do* feature prominently.

Comments

[vatine]

I guess it's one of those fantasy subgenres where more than a passing familiarity with Norse naming schemes is actively useful. I mean, "Skjaldir" and "Skaljir" are clearly not the same name, in the same way that Dave and Bob are clearly not the same name. Harry and Hendersons may be the same name, though, they're sufficiently close.

All in all, my memory is that I did read and probably liked the book, but at the time of me reading it, I don't think it had sequels. I do not recall if that was before I started doing book "memes".

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Since it came out a few years back, so maybe you did...? Men, wolves, trolls, ice elves, mayhem, carnage?

There are sibling-characters with very similar names, separated by just a single letter (a contemporary analogue would be something like twins named Timmy and Tommy), with the added challenge of them looking like keyboard salad to English speakers. :-)

[vatine]

I seem to recall some of man-male-wolf on man-female-wolf action during the pack mating, which perhaps was not as appreciated by the latter man, as it was by the female wolf he was bonded with.

I also suspect there was a Hrothgeir in there, there's almost always a Hrothgeir.