The Tiger and the Wolf by
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Echoes of the Fall #1
In the bleak northern crown of
the world, war is coming
Maniye’s father is the Wolf clan’s chieftain, but she’s an outcast. Her mother was queen of the Tiger and these tribes have been enemies for generations. Maniye also hides a deadly secret. All can shift into their clan’s animal form, but Maniye can take on tiger and wolf shapes. She can’t disown half her soul, so escapes – with the killer Broken Axe in pursuit.
Maniye’s father plots to rule the north, and controlling his daughter is crucial to his schemes. However, other tribes also prepare for strife. It’s a season for omens as priests foresee danger, a time of testing and broken laws. Some say a great war is coming, overshadowing even Wolf ambitions. But what spark will set the world ablaze?
Adrian
Tchaikovsky, the man behind one of the series that
shook and shaped modern fantasy. The Shadows of the Apt series. This will haunt
him forever in a good and perhaps bad way. Everything that he writes will undoubtedly
be compared to this series, either intentionally or not.
Last
year he broke ground with writing two standalone books, and this year he
returns with a new epic fantasy series, for me already a winner.
Imagine
a world of shapeshifters, for those not familiar, people who can assume the
form of animals. Just this bit should appease to the Epic Fantasy fan. Instead
of writing about insect civilizations as in Shadows of the Apt, Adrian Tchaikovsky
creates a crossover between human and animal with this idea. Anyway. The
Tiger and the Wolf picks up with the Maniye who lives with the Winter
runners a, a tribe of Wolf shapeshifters, but she is learning and understanding
some of the changes that are happening to hear. Maniye isn’t a Wolf shifter
alone. Back in the days when the Wolf was conquering land her father defeated
the Tiger tribe and took the queen of the Tiger tribe as one of his wives, she
was the only one able to give him a child, Maniye. Making her a half Wolf, half
Tiger and making her doubt of what is best. Driven to a sort of desperation by
her father, she sees only one escape and that is to flee the Wolf tribe
together with a Serpent shifter who guides her. If only it were that easy for
Maniye as she was important in more than one way to what her father was
planning, hence her father’s right hand, Broken Axe is send in pursuit of
Maniye to return her home to him. During Maniye’s escape and subsequent fleeing
for her live for Broken Axe, a whole new world opens up for her… And it seems
that she wasn’t only key to her father’s plans…
A unique
bit of the book and where other fall short is the way that Adrian Tchaikovsky
fully utilizes the concept of the different animal tribes. This is similar to
the powerful cultures that he showed with the Shadows series. I liked how
Adrian Tchaikovsky explored each tribe and how well the natures of the
different animals were reflected in the tribes. This produced that epic feeling
of grandeur for me, by creating such a solid foundation it just cannot fail
whatever he does. The viciousness of the Wolfs, the solitary Beers, the gentle Horses
they all speak for themselves. Adrian Tchaikovsky really knows how to turn some
ordinary things into some quite extraordinary.
Next to
this piece of amazing world building, Adrian Tchaikovsky also makes sure that
the characters of the book receive more than enough attention. For starters the
main protagonist of the story, Maniye is really something beautiful. A young
girl who is facing a lot of problem already in her young life. Torn between two
allegiances you see her struggling whether to accept the Tiger or the Wolf or
swear of both. These internal struggles are portrayed very nice from the
beginning on. Due to the challenges that Maniye faces she directly gets into a
learning curve and this is what makes her character even better. Granted she
still has her naïve moments but who hasn’t? Next to Maniye the supporting cast
are also there with a purpose. I particularly liked the companion of Maniye,
the Snake priest, Hesperc, he is a wise old man but still has that needed edge
of humor about him. As I mentioned the other supporting cast like the killer
Broken Axe and Asmander are all there for a reason and fleshed out in a good
way both human and animal.
The bottom-line
conclusion? You never know what you can expect with Adrian Tchaikovsky but you
can bet you money that it will be awesome. This first instalment of the Echoes
of the Fall series, The Tiger and the
Wolf, is all that you look for an a fresh and exciting and well thought
through Epic Fantasy series. As you can expect from him, the writing style is
easy to get into and even though this book clocks in with 500+ pages, its over
to soon.
Comments
Post a Comment