Book Jacket:
Shapeshifting mercenary Aralorn leads a dangerous existence. Now she must return home for her noble father, the Lyon of Lambshold, has passed away. But when Aralorn and her companion Wolf arrive, they find he’s not dead, but ensorcelled by the ae’Magi, using him as a conduit to destroy Aralorn and Wolf. She must overcome this mysterious mist or fall to the blackest of magic.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
Reading Masques and Wolfsbane back to back is an interesting window into Patricia Briggs’ evolution as a writer. Wolfsbane, the long delayed sequel to Masques, was the last Sianim book Briggs wrote, and the three books worth of experience Briggs garnered between the writing of Masques and Wolfsbane results in a cleaner, tighter, self contained narrative that focuses squarely on one castle, one family, and one very personal peril. And while I found this sequel to be a more satisfying read than the first, I also found myself missing the larger scope of the first book. Masques spread itself thinly across a grand fantasy landscape, and though it never quite succeeded in living up to its ambitions, it still revolved around world ending consequences. Wolfsbane, by contrast, is very much an internal family drama. It has greater sophistication in terms of relationships and characterizations, but the stakes were just not writ as large. I suspect Briggs wrote this story for the characters and not the world, and as satisfying and enjoyable as it is to see more of Aralorn and Wolf together, I did feel as though this story was somehow orphaned from the larger design of the previous book.
The heart and soul of this book, as in the first, is the relationship between Aralorn and Wolf. Their interplay is just effortlessly entertaining, with the cheerful and sly Aralorn and gruff and damaged Wolf maneuvering around each other and trying to do what’s best for each other, regardless of the other’s objections. Briggs does a wonderful job exploring their maturing relationship and giving us a solid and complete resolution to their arc. Spending more time with these two is more than enough reason to enjoy this book.
In terms of story, the plot was easily interesting enough to keep my attention, but it just felt too much like a stand alone designed to give more page time to Aralorn and Wolf’s relationship. There was a complexity and scope missing from this story – it didn’t seem to do much with the world, in terms of the mythology or history, and the wonderful character work couldn’t quite overcome the constrained nature of the story – such that it felt like Briggs was only painting on one very small corner of the canvas. Still, there are some undeniably cool fantasy bits – a magic maze that reveals your inner nature as you navigate it, ice monsters that drive you mad with voices on the wind – and some hints at what Briggs had in mind for the larger architecture of this world, had the series continued – largely contained in one of Aralorn’s storytelling sessions, which while interesting felt a bit too much like an info dump. And again, that storytelling session ultimately became another example of how this story seemed too boxed in – instead of tying into the larger story, instead of unveiling a new and dangerous facet to the unknown they faced, that new bit of history and magic instead was relegated to serving as a red herring, nothing more.
Yet while unrealized potential lurked in the corners of this book, in terms of the world and it’s magical landscape, the relationships easily held this story together. The family discord, the prejudice, the history between Aralorn and her various family members, all were wonderfully well wrought and serve as further testaments to Briggs’ maturing talent.
In the end, Wolfsbane is a fast, easy, and entertaining read – and though it is still not quite up to Mercy Thompson weight, it is easily my favorite of the Sianim series.
Byrt Grade: B+
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
As you’d expect, Briggs’ writing is better this time. She has a smooth style that I find pleasant to read (or in this case, listen to, since I read this on audio, again read by Katherine Kellgren). I enjoyed spending more time with Aralorn and Wolf and agree with Ms. Briggs who, in the humble introduction to the book, said she wrote Wolfsbane because these characters deserve further attention. They’re smart, witty, and good, and their relationship is believable.
Of the four Sianim books, I like Wolfsbane the most. Maybe it does show in the writing that Sianim #1-3 were still a part of PB’s learning process while #4 is a later effort, a “professional work” as PB calls it. Wolfsbane does seem to contain the essence of whatever it is that I read Patricia Briggs for.
