A Companion to Wolves (Iskryne World, #1) in Queereaders

Oct 28, 2009 Sock Goes Where rated it really liked it

Shelves: m-m, 4, fantasy, norse, wolves

First, let's get this out of the way: there were some consent related issues in this book that made me profoundly uncomfortable. Not because they were there, but because they felt more like the authors' kinks and not strictly necessary to the plot, imho. That said, overall it was well written with good characters -- a little less melodrama wrt Isolfr would have been even better, but I really liked Vethulf, for example. Also, there were a lot of things that they did do right. I kept coming up aga ...more

Like · see review

Oct 18, 2015 Akiva ꙮ rated it it was ok

Shelves: 3-fmt-f-novel, f-queer, f-scifi-specfic, a-mythology, f-historical

Watch out if you are thinking about reading this---the main character is maybe a Kinsey 0.5, so it's hardly "M/M romance" unless your idea of M/M romance has nothing to do with actual gay men. Also, every sex scene is dubiously consensual at best, and most of them are worse.

For the record, I agree with every other review I've read, both positive and negative. Yes, it can be read as a more detailed and thoughtful take on what sex and social life is like when you're "soulbonded" to an animal, and Watch out if you are thinking about reading this---the main character is maybe a Kinsey 0.5, so it's hardly "M/M romance" unless your idea of M/M romance has nothing to do with actual gay men. Also, every sex scene is dubiously consensual at best, and most of them are worse.

For the record, I agree with every other review I've read, both positive and negative. Yes, it can be read as a more detailed and thoughtful take on what sex and social life is like when you're "soulbonded" to an animal, and about the harsh gender roles of historical Norse life. Yes, it can also be read as a slightly upscale version of a lot of terrible fanfic tropes like "going into heat" and "~~aliens~~ wolves made them do it," and as very homophobic and misogynist besides.

But it did happen to be exactly the right level of trashy fantasy novel for me to read this week.

There were hints of openness to transfeminine characters (those who bond to wolves are men who love men as well as people perceived as men who have gender-transgressive interests), but there aren't any in the story unless you count Ulfmaer, whose name apparently means "wolf maiden." Nothing in the story would lead you to think Ulfmaer is anything but another of the buff hairy wolfbros, though.

Oh and yes, I started looking up the meaning of the characters' names partway through, in case it helped me tell them apart. It didn't really---there are too many characters, and their names are too similar, and most of them are fairly indistinguishable in word and deed, and you just can't keep track of them. This made the pack politics very hard to follow, which is unfortunate since the complications of both men and wolves having their own interlocking politics was supposed to be one of the main points of the book.

There's an implication throughout the book that Isolfr's position is very much like his sister's---in a very misogynist society, they're both going to make political marriages to people they may not like and aren't attracted to, and that's just the way things are. Towards the end of the book Isolfr has some interesting and fairly believable changes of heart about women's oppression. I liked that most of them are phrased in terms of Freyja's mythology---which, granted, I don't know that much about, independent of this book. ...more

Like · see review

Jan 02, 2010 Suuanda rated it it was ok

Took me forever to read this. -_-, It was quite interesting, unfortunately there are way too many characters with names you can't even *read* let alone remember, so I kept going back a few pages to understand who this or that character was.. Very tiring. But it was mostly enjoyable despite that. Not sure I would recommend it to my friends, but if you like wolves or human and animal bond stories, then you might want to give this one a try. As for me, I prefer Sarah Monette's Melusine series. ...more

Like · see review

Dec 20, 2010 Kimberly rated it it was amazing

This story was so different that I couldn't put it down. Can't wait to read the sequal. ...more

Like · see review

Jun 22, 2011 Aniytlia rated it really liked it

Shelves: glbt, romance, scifi

Beautiful, plenty of blood and gore moderated by enough personal epiphany to retain my interest throughout as well as a great welling of plot line to structure the occasional bought of m/m romance. It never ceases to frustrate me when authors seem to think that an m/m novel but be comprised entirely of sex, ridiculous scenes of romance, with a brief scattering of a half-assed plot to push the story alone. Thank Freya (XD) that A Companion to Wolves ignores all of that and goes straight for the t ...more

Like · see review