Garry Kilworth

A story of wolves living in northern forest and tundra. From the wolves’ viewpoint, but unlike any other book I’ve ever read about wolves. I was fairly riveted, but it took so long to read because of eye strain, and some technical issues (see below). I had to take breaks and read easier books or graphic novels here and there instead. The main character is a wolf who doesn’t really fit in well, to his strictly-ordered pack. Thinking outside the regimented norm is dangerous when survival is at issue. As he finds out even more keenly when ousted from the pack and living on his own. Barely survives at times, thrives in others. Has encounters with strange wolves, a fierce weasel, ravens and half-wild dogs. Travels long distances, faces down a rival, and meets a female unlike any he’s known back home. Then he starts a family but almost looses them, gets captured by humans, narrowly escapes but in a strange set of circumstances ends up in an uneasy partnership with a human in the wilderness. (Other wolves never quite believe him when he tells about this later on). He suffers greatly travelling to try and find his family again, not sure if they’re even alive. And in the end encounters other wolves with a risky, death-wish agenda: to kill as many humans as possible, in retaliation for what mankind has done to all animals. Led by his old rival. When they finally meet, he discovers they have more in common now, and form an uneasy truce- if they can survive it.

So much more than I can mention here! The story had a deeply-felt sense of culture among the wolves- the meaning of their songs (howls), the legends and stories shared (their own version of Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, etc). A sense of the very landscape being alive. The inter-relationship with other wildlife. The keen communication via scent and sound, the shape and feel of the wind, the terrain, etc felt so vivid at times. There was also a very subtle but profound examination through the story, of what a complete paradigm shift in how a family approaches things can occur, and how difficult that is to navigate. I feel like I’m not quite stating that clearly, but it’s the best I can do now.

I've seen other readers state that this book has inaccuracies in how it depicts wolf behavior and pack structure, but I enjoyed it regardless. Maybe it helps if you don't know too much.… (more)

Skelter is a blue mountain hare from the highlands. He lives a relatively good life for a wild hare, even though predators and other dangers must be constantly avoided- not far into the book there is a bloody scene of a deer dying, which firmly introduces the reader to the fact this story doesn't shy away from death. Lots of animals die. Even main characters. Just when I was beginning to like them. Well, Skelter is looking forward to the upcoming mating season, when he will box with other hares to earn his right to a female. But men sweep across the fields catching wild hares to use for coursing their greyhounds. Skelters is shut in a cage, transported to the coursing field, has to run for his life. He narrowly escapes and finds himself in the lowlands, a strange countryside very different from the highland slopes he used to live on.

Skelter has to find ways to adapt in the new land. He takes up with some rabbits for a while, then tries to live among some lowland field hares. He becomes companionable with some females and wards off rival males. He has to face prejudices and superstitions galore- in this story, the differences between rabbits and hares are constantly pointed out, hares scorning the smaller rabbits' company. Skelter also lives near a badger's sett, gets to know a few otters and a short-tempered hedgehog. There are foxes that skulk across the fields, farmer's dogs that let them in on what humans are doing, and many other animals in the story. But strangest of all and most threatening is a giant exotic eagle. Through the whole story the eagle is described but never quite identified- the rabbits and hares simply call it a monster- its hunting patterns are different than any other predator they've met, and it threatens them with extinction. Turns out it is a harpy eagle, an exotic pet released when it couldn't be kept. All kinds of implications in that part of the story. The oddest part was that the tower the eagle nested in talked to it. The tower talked. That was a bit much.

Well anyway Skelter the hare goes out on this insane quest to find the harpy eagle's hideout, learn more about it in case it can help them deal with the predator. And I won't tell you more about that part of the story- you'd have to read it. I can see why this book has been compared to Watership Down. Lagomorph leaving its homeland under duress, searching for a way to find a safe new home. It even gives a few serious nods to the other book.... But this isn't as deep a story. Details of the highland countryside are nice, but later such depictions of nature are less frequent as the story has more action. The characterization isn't nearly as good. There were some inconsistencies in the story that bothered me- a hare feeling indifferent to one thing, then hating it later on with no real explanation for the change in attitude for example... Also a few odd spellings...

There were other things that seemed not-so-well thought out. The mythology and culture of the rabbits and hares just had too much going on. In the beginning of the story there was an info dump on hare beliefs- something like a hell full of tempters that dead hare spirits pass through while trying to reach heaven- and I was ready to buy that, to accept it as part of the story. But there’s also ghost-hares that guide the living, hare spirits that get turned into flowers, racial memories that some of the animals access when in a kind of trance (like in Nop’s Trials). In addition, the hares and rabbits have tons of superstitions including human-made objects seen as good luck items.... It was just a lot of various belief systems and mythologies going on when I would have rather sunk deeply into just one.

It was nice that things were shown solidly from the animal perspective. They observe a murder that happens on a farm, but don’t know what's going on, although the reader is able to piece it together. They see a new feature arrive on the land, and something described as a "rigid bird" which I thought was an albatross (for a few pages). All the animals speak, although in different languages and dialects, and humans are the ones who make meaningless, superfluous sounds so the animals assume they communicate by gesture only.

I almost feel sorry to give this book a low rating, but I really had to force myself to finish it in the end. There's an overly dramatic chase scene and a last-minute encounter with the harpy eagle that ends with unexpected suddenness. I have to say the way the author worked that final encounter into the story was quite clever. I feel like I’ve said quite a lot now, especially for a book that in the end, I didn’t care for that much. If you look on Goodreads, there’s someone who really goes on and on about it.

from the Dogear Diary… (more)