Writing for Beans

I had the good fortune to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of A Companion to Wolves, by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear.

Irskyne is a cold, grim world.  The influences of our (or as the authors frame it Terran) nordic landscape, languages, and under-myths are unmistakable.  These are analogues, however, not point for point translations.  This is not the story of our own ancient myths told anew; instead it is its own story in a setting that we can relate to through these points of commonality.  In this sense, the setting rings true--part and parcel of the story.

My first instinct was to think of this novel as a coming of age story.  Yet that's not exactly it.  It starts out with Njall just on the cusp of manhood.  It's hard to consider him a child, though part of his early struggles in the book is to not be seen as such.  This is a world, however, where people don't have the luxury of "growing up" in their twenties or thirties.  So at sixteen, he is ready to take up his adult identity.  Early in the book we see him make the break with childhood, a decision to join the wolfcarls, and the story develops from the consequences of that choice.  What follows from that pivotal moment in Njall's life, is bulk of the story.  Not a coming of age, rising into adulthood, though indeed Njall, soon renamed Isolfr does go through that.  Instead the journey we see is of a young man making his place, defining his role in society.  It's a story about choices, honor, and what both of those mean to him.   It felt not like the story of an apprentice who rises to journeyman, instead more like a journeyman who makes himself into a master, finding his niche in the world.

The non-human aspects of the novel were particularly well handled.  The trellwolves, animal companions linking this work to a long history of  tales bearing that motif within the genre, didn't play by all the old rules.  If anything, it felt as if the authors were knowingly playing with our expectations, showing where and how these animal companions were different.  I am by no means an expert on wolves, yet in behavior and personality of the wolves in this portrayal felt true.  While striking, the complex sexuality introduced by the wolves upon this society of male warriors, is yet another of the plays upon our expectations.  Intentional or not, it reminded me of such other notable works involving animal companions as the Pern novels.  In some aspects, Isolfr reminded me of the main character of Dragonflight, Lessa.  Companion induced sexuality was certainly one of them.  As well, each had an expected role they had to come to terms with because of the particular companion they bonded. 

Besides the wolves, however, the world was also populated by other non-humans.  Pleasingly, these others weren't merely humans in different shapes, pointy eared or ridged nosed.  Even more, they were uniquely different non-humans--some more alien than others, yet even still we understand them through their interactions with the humans of the story.

But what defined this novel for me was the relationships.  The variety of male-male relationships within the novel was impressive.  The sexual politics certainly force a wider variety than you might otherwise encounter, and yet to me some of most endearing were the simple friendships: Ulfbjorn, Frithulf, and Isolfr.  One other notable fact, was that amidst a book so focused on human male relationships (to the extent that we barely see the relationships with women, and practically none that do not in some way involve Isolfr) it was rather interesting  that the other races are rather fairly represented by their women.  In some instances, such as the human's strongest allies the trellwolves, we see a matriarchal society--ruled if you can call it that, by their konigenwolf.

Edgy and fast paced, filled with unique takes on some old fantasy motifs, and a world of complex societal structures, this adult fantasy dragged me through a dark cold world, and left me curious to know what stories might follow.  An engaging setting, but even more engaging characters.  I hope this will not end up an only novel set in Irskyne, nor the only collaboration between these authors.