Wolf Tower

by Tanith Lee

Grade: Good (To Own, maybe?)
Story: Claidi is a slave--until a handsome stranger appears in her tiny walled-off palace, and she escapes with him. Then--Adventures! Romance! Sequels! Lots of really weird science/magic stuff!

Well, I did it again. I read all three of these books (the fourth is on its way) before I had a chance to write up on this one. (Which is rather unfortunate, because they changed my impression on this first one.) I read them all in one day too, at a rather break-neck pace. (Which is excusable because school is over! Whippeeeee! That's also why I'm writing this at such an ungodly hour.) Anyway, I'm going to try to write up on each individual book, but it will prove difficult, as it always does in such circumstances.


This book is so COMPLETELY different than I expected, in so many ways. I suppose it was partly because I'd seen these recommended by Angieville, and I'd just finished reading a quartet of books recommended by Angieville. So I had this idea in my mind that both quartets would be pretty similar. I thought this book would be Romantic and political with a heroine who was extremely good at fighting. (Although...now that I come to think of it, this series is hugely political, and there's a fair bit of Romance, and Claidi--well, she's never extremely good at fighting, but she certainly gains some powers. Anyway, my point is, these books are totally and completely different from Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses series.)

SLIGHT SPOILERS

I also expected the handsome, golden-haired prince would be the one she fell in love with. And she did! But not for very long! I first started to realize that these books were different and actually highly like-able when Claidi decided very early on that she was in love with Nemian. Then she mused to herself whether her annoyance with him was a result of being in love with him, because she'd heard that love makes you alternate between hating someone and adoring them. I found this very refreshing. In so many novels, the heroine gets hugely annoyed at the hero, and then wonders why. It drives me crazy. Have they not read any books at all? How are they so completely ignorant as to not realize they are attracted to him? And besides, I don't think being in love actually does make you extremely annoyed at someone. (Although what would I know...)

END SLIGHT SPOILERS

Anyway, I had a lovely blog post all thought out it my mind. It was scintillating and well-written--a perfect description of my feelings about this book and series. But I didn't write it down of course, so now I'll just have to make do with this. I'll just write about Claidi and then stop.

So. Claidi. She is one of the best heroines I've met in a long time.
--She's fiesty and trouble, but she can't fight big men that are way stronger than her, and she's also a bit of a coward sometimes.
--She's refreshingly open. As I was mentioning above, most heroines don't seem to realize that they are attracted to someone. Claidi mentions it as soon as she realizes it.
--I don't know how to explain this further, because I'm not in a writing sort of mood. Perhaps by the time I get to reviewing the third in the series, I will have more thoughts.