Great setting that definitely lets it stand out from the usual fantasy medieval-esqe one.
Maniye is the daughter of a Wolf chief and the captured queen of the Tigers. Her childhood has been lonely and hard, facing the antagonism and indifference of her father and the whole tribe. She is about to go through the tribe’s right of passage into adulthood and must give up one of her animal spirits but she feels equally of both. Then a Serpent priest is captured that sets in motion events she hadn’t planned. In conjunction with this, Asmander has been sent by his father up to the North to try to get mercenaries to help fight in a potential war in the rich South in the Crocodile nation of which he is part.
I’d originally tried reading this a few years ago and just wasn’t feeling it at the time. However this time around I ended up enjoying it even though there are a few issues with it. One of the big plus points is the setting. These are very primitive societies, think late bronze age, early iron age and you’ll get the idea. People don’t have much and being part of a tribe is literally usually a matter of life and death. The fantasy element here is the ability to shapeshift in the animal of your people. I like the way they have to learn to encompass their armour and weapons into their animal shape, so if you have an iron knive, your teeth or claws might have an iron covering etc. People with a parent from more than one totem animal need to choose one or the other, otherwise the competing animal spirits will drive them mad.
Maniye is a fairly stereotypical teen protagonist being honest. I’m not against this trope but a fair warning here. She basically spends the book running from one problem to another, while being helped out by people on her way. She’s a very sympathetic character but the random strangers constantly helping her out is my main peeve with the book as it does seem pretty out of keeping with this harsh world. Asmander doesn’t get quite as much screen time but he is definitely the more interesting of the two and even by the end of book his motivation is not entirely opaque. The other main POV is Maniye’s father, a pretty cruel and ambitious ruler, and I always enjoy a POV from the ‘antagonists’ side.
The first half of the story is great, and though I did enjoy the second half as well, it did get a little repetitive as Maniye went from one disaster to another. There were a few kind of curveballs towards the end, one I saw coming almost from the start but the other I didn’t see at all which was cool. I’m glad I eventually got to finish this book and I’m looking forward to the next book which sounds like we’ll get to explore more of the world.
4 stars
Barry's Bloody Books 