A review by lanko
Black Wolves by Kate Elliott
3.0
Black Wolves does something pretty bold in the beginning.
In the first ~90 pages we get Atani, Dannarah, Anjihosh and Kellas as our main characters. They're well-fleshed, dynamic, interesting and compelling. Other secondary characters appear and provoke intrigues, revelations and other actions that promise a lot of tension and conflict later.
Atani and Dannarah are great siblings, complementing each other very well. Kellas is also great, the spy/assassin member/secret leader of the deadly Black Wolves. Anjihosh is pretty grey when you look closely. Then comes queen Zayrah, the king's mother and politics, demons get involved, Mai, Arisit. The initial buildup is very good.
Then after getting attached to these characters and a really difficult choice is presented... Fourty-four years later...
Yes, that's right. It's a time skip of almost half a century.
And you learn that Atani, a great character, simply died twenty-two years ago, murdered by his own general. Dannarah is more than 60 years old. Kellas is more than 70. The Black Wolves were disbanded. The whole world is different, customs changed and there's a whole new cast of characters for you to start again.
Atani was intriguing. Dannarah was a 17 year old betrothed to a prince of another country. She didn't want to go, she wanted to do so many other things. Atani also didn't want her to go. Now we learn she actually escaped that fate by becoming a reeve. A reeve are riders of giant eagles. They are scouts and aerial warriors of the kingdom. Kellas is retired and threatened back to service.
I struggled through the next ~100 pages. I don't think it was only the massive changes, but also the way things were portrayed. There is a lot of exposition explaining things. And not much well-disguised infodumps, including characters speaking like encyclopedias during various tea meetings.
Then things started to move pretty nicely. Mostly Dannarah and Kellas carried until Sarai/Gil warmed up to a really nice plotline. Lifka started interesting but quickly faded into the background. The other interesting thing is the very rare flashbacks of Atani, whose murder and mystery were probably far more intriguing than the main plot.
There are lots of other secondary characters. And this causes a lot of exposition, because there really isn't page time for all of them. Tavahosh and Jehosh are more present and discernible, followed a little behind by Queen Chorranah.
There a lot of others (specially more sons, daughters, kin and etc) but they either simply end up fading or being introduced too late. The only thing you can make about them is what other characters explicitly tell you about their traits and behavior, which means you're always being told how to see/feel them.
There's a lot of factions and lots of people with secret agendas. Maybe a little too many of those. Jehosh, Tavahosh, Farihosh, Chorranah, Dia, the daughter of the neighboring Empire later, their agents' plots and the main characters.
This book already clocks around 800 pages and I think that for such large scope it wasn't nearly enough to properly shown it all.
Even Dannarah and Kellas start to fade a little near the end.
It felt like the book tried to do too much at once, even for 800 pages. And then that means for it to be more engaging, it would have to be even longer.
This means that even for a 800-page book, the story is overpopulated.
I think this affected the prose and the writing as well, as I highlighted very few passages (maybe 5) throughout 800 pages.
I think that the first ~90 pages were so gripping because they were showing me Kellas, Ajinhoshi, Dannarah and Atani extremelly well, but after the time skip and so much plot going on in an already long book, it had to switch for pure necessity to much more telling.
When characters were arguing it was still really nice and fluid to read, but when this wasn't happening and the narrative and descriptions settled in, it started to really suffer with pacing.
Also, the initial theme and intrigue of demons also disappears after the beginning to only return at the end of the book.
On the other hand it accomplishes other things really well. One thing a lot of people search for is for female empowerment and Black Wolves delivers on that.
Both queens (the king can have multiple wives) are the major players in the plots of the realm, much more than the king.
Dannarah continues to be a reeve and is also a Marshal who tricks princes and gets her way most of the time.
Sarai is the most curious one in this regard. While a lot of the other women usually fight against the traditional condition, Sarai fights to actually keep it, in a way. For example, Dannarah in the beginning doesn't want to marry politically. In the end, it works her way. Sarai, on the other hand, is sent to Gil (who also didn't want to marry anyone). Turns out they work together fairly well and come to like each other genuinely. Then he gets disgraced and everyone plots to divorce Sarai and even cause a miscarriage on her. Sarai passes the entire book fighting to actually keep her status as married to Gil. She's one who found freedom, in both body and mind, in marriage, and decides to stay in it out of her own choice instead of a pawn in others' plots.
There's very little violence in this book. I think there's only one mention of a battle (in a flashback near the end). There are no duels, gruesome assassinations or wars, sadly not even with the reeves and their mighty eagles. There's one or other dark moment, but considering the length, too few.
I think it's also a theme of the book. The cases of injustice, abuse and violence are all based on abuse of power. People getting arrested for very minor things, taxation, customs, racism, hierarchies. It's all about the power.
If you need battles and the like, you'll be a little disappointed. But if you want intrigue and power plays, you'll enjoy it if the other things I mentioned don't get in your way.
Finally, I have to say that Atani and his storyline (and how he died and why) is what made me really curious to keep going. It's very short, but definitely surprised me and probably won't disappoint you as well.
That's kinda of saying something about Atani. He only appears in the "prologue" and is dead for 90% of the book, only appearing through three of four rare and short flashbacks. For a comparison, he's a much better Rhaegar Targaryen.
While that says he's pretty great, maybe it also says something about the main plot and characters.
Which all comes down to the 44 year time skip.
I think I would've enjoyed Black Wolves much more if the initial story was the one told.
I wanted to see Atani grow (he also manages to get his two wives to be friendly to each other, another interesting plotline that is only mentioned briefly) and his death would've been much more shocking.
I wanted to see Dannarah's frustration at her fate and then becoming a reeve and working her way up to be one of the best. And her love/infatuation case with Kellas.
In the same line, I wanted to see more of Kellas' jobs and relationship with Dannarah and Mai. There's a part where Ajinhoshi discovers something about Kellas and Atani has to intervene. I wanted to see that scene, but it's only summarized.
And of course, the facets of good father to abusive/uncaring spouse of Ajinhoshi.
I think this plotline would've covered the book very well, and I would have been shown them instead of told. Or maybe it was the time skip that was too long.
Anyway, at that point the characters were really gripping, the story was flowing well and being pretty tight and surrounded with nuanced and explicit conflict and tension, present and future.
At the very least this story really left me wanting for much more. And it's probable it will be explored in later installments, but again, most likely through flashbacks.
It has some noticeable flaws, but overall it was an enjoyable ride, specially if you don't have trouble adjusting to the massive time skip.
In the first ~90 pages we get Atani, Dannarah, Anjihosh and Kellas as our main characters. They're well-fleshed, dynamic, interesting and compelling. Other secondary characters appear and provoke intrigues, revelations and other actions that promise a lot of tension and conflict later.
Atani and Dannarah are great siblings, complementing each other very well. Kellas is also great, the spy/assassin member/secret leader of the deadly Black Wolves. Anjihosh is pretty grey when you look closely. Then comes queen Zayrah, the king's mother and politics, demons get involved, Mai, Arisit. The initial buildup is very good.
Then after getting attached to these characters and a really difficult choice is presented... Fourty-four years later...
Yes, that's right. It's a time skip of almost half a century.
And you learn that Atani, a great character, simply died twenty-two years ago, murdered by his own general. Dannarah is more than 60 years old. Kellas is more than 70. The Black Wolves were disbanded. The whole world is different, customs changed and there's a whole new cast of characters for you to start again.
Atani was intriguing. Dannarah was a 17 year old betrothed to a prince of another country. She didn't want to go, she wanted to do so many other things. Atani also didn't want her to go. Now we learn she actually escaped that fate by becoming a reeve. A reeve are riders of giant eagles. They are scouts and aerial warriors of the kingdom. Kellas is retired and threatened back to service.
I struggled through the next ~100 pages. I don't think it was only the massive changes, but also the way things were portrayed. There is a lot of exposition explaining things. And not much well-disguised infodumps, including characters speaking like encyclopedias during various tea meetings.
Then things started to move pretty nicely. Mostly Dannarah and Kellas carried until Sarai/Gil warmed up to a really nice plotline. Lifka started interesting but quickly faded into the background. The other interesting thing is the very rare flashbacks of Atani, whose murder and mystery were probably far more intriguing than the main plot.
There are lots of other secondary characters. And this causes a lot of exposition, because there really isn't page time for all of them. Tavahosh and Jehosh are more present and discernible, followed a little behind by Queen Chorranah.
There a lot of others (specially more sons, daughters, kin and etc) but they either simply end up fading or being introduced too late. The only thing you can make about them is what other characters explicitly tell you about their traits and behavior, which means you're always being told how to see/feel them.
There's a lot of factions and lots of people with secret agendas. Maybe a little too many of those. Jehosh, Tavahosh, Farihosh, Chorranah, Dia, the daughter of the neighboring Empire later, their agents' plots and the main characters.
This book already clocks around 800 pages and I think that for such large scope it wasn't nearly enough to properly shown it all.
Even Dannarah and Kellas start to fade a little near the end.
It felt like the book tried to do too much at once, even for 800 pages. And then that means for it to be more engaging, it would have to be even longer.
This means that even for a 800-page book, the story is overpopulated.
I think this affected the prose and the writing as well, as I highlighted very few passages (maybe 5) throughout 800 pages.
I think that the first ~90 pages were so gripping because they were showing me Kellas, Ajinhoshi, Dannarah and Atani extremelly well, but after the time skip and so much plot going on in an already long book, it had to switch for pure necessity to much more telling.
When characters were arguing it was still really nice and fluid to read, but when this wasn't happening and the narrative and descriptions settled in, it started to really suffer with pacing.
Also, the initial theme and intrigue of demons also disappears after the beginning to only return at the end of the book.
On the other hand it accomplishes other things really well. One thing a lot of people search for is for female empowerment and Black Wolves delivers on that.
Both queens (the king can have multiple wives) are the major players in the plots of the realm, much more than the king.
Dannarah continues to be a reeve and is also a Marshal who tricks princes and gets her way most of the time.
Sarai is the most curious one in this regard. While a lot of the other women usually fight against the traditional condition, Sarai fights to actually keep it, in a way. For example, Dannarah in the beginning doesn't want to marry politically. In the end, it works her way. Sarai, on the other hand, is sent to Gil (who also didn't want to marry anyone). Turns out they work together fairly well and come to like each other genuinely. Then he gets disgraced and everyone plots to divorce Sarai and even cause a miscarriage on her. Sarai passes the entire book fighting to actually keep her status as married to Gil. She's one who found freedom, in both body and mind, in marriage, and decides to stay in it out of her own choice instead of a pawn in others' plots.
There's very little violence in this book. I think there's only one mention of a battle (in a flashback near the end). There are no duels, gruesome assassinations or wars, sadly not even with the reeves and their mighty eagles. There's one or other dark moment, but considering the length, too few.
I think it's also a theme of the book. The cases of injustice, abuse and violence are all based on abuse of power. People getting arrested for very minor things, taxation, customs, racism, hierarchies. It's all about the power.
If you need battles and the like, you'll be a little disappointed. But if you want intrigue and power plays, you'll enjoy it if the other things I mentioned don't get in your way.
Finally, I have to say that Atani and his storyline (and how he died and why) is what made me really curious to keep going. It's very short, but definitely surprised me and probably won't disappoint you as well.
That's kinda of saying something about Atani. He only appears in the "prologue" and is dead for 90% of the book, only appearing through three of four rare and short flashbacks. For a comparison, he's a much better Rhaegar Targaryen.
While that says he's pretty great, maybe it also says something about the main plot and characters.
Which all comes down to the 44 year time skip.
I think I would've enjoyed Black Wolves much more if the initial story was the one told.
I wanted to see Atani grow (he also manages to get his two wives to be friendly to each other, another interesting plotline that is only mentioned briefly) and his death would've been much more shocking.
I wanted to see Dannarah's frustration at her fate and then becoming a reeve and working her way up to be one of the best. And her love/infatuation case with Kellas.
In the same line, I wanted to see more of Kellas' jobs and relationship with Dannarah and Mai. There's a part where Ajinhoshi discovers something about Kellas and Atani has to intervene. I wanted to see that scene, but it's only summarized.
And of course, the facets of good father to abusive/uncaring spouse of Ajinhoshi.
I think this plotline would've covered the book very well, and I would have been shown them instead of told. Or maybe it was the time skip that was too long.
Anyway, at that point the characters were really gripping, the story was flowing well and being pretty tight and surrounded with nuanced and explicit conflict and tension, present and future.
At the very least this story really left me wanting for much more. And it's probable it will be explored in later installments, but again, most likely through flashbacks.
It has some noticeable flaws, but overall it was an enjoyable ride, specially if you don't have trouble adjusting to the massive time skip.