Jane Lindskold

I had such high hopes for this book. As someone who loves both fantasy and wolves, this series seemed like a perfect fit for my tastes... but instead, I admit I was tempted to abandon it at various points, and for the first time I can remember, I decided to simply actively skim whole chapters devoted to particular characters. That is, obviously, not a good sign for how I felt about the book as a whole.

On its surface, the concept here is simple--and I think that's where its power lies. For show more me, the chapters that focused on Firekeeper, her wolf companion Blind Seer, and their immediate companions were the heart of the work, and although I would have liked a bit more attention to be paid to Blind Seer--rather than him sometimes seeming only like a human voice in wolf form vs an actual wolf--those chapters felt engaging and true to the concept that made me pick up the book. Unfortunately, I'd say that half of this book was devoted to exploring court lineage and intrigue, to the extent of including full chapters focused on characters who, truly, the reader didn't need to get to know at anywhere near such length. The book would have been so much stronger if the writer had forced herself to stick to telling the story through chapters focused on Firekeeper and her immediate companions. Instead, however, it felt as if Lindskold wanted to spend time explaining every bit of world-building she'd come up with and every character's family--even if, in the end, they'd have no real effect on the story.

I suspect that, had this book been around 300 pages instead of near 600, I would have raved about it and immediately ordered the rest of the series. As things stand, I doubt I'll read anything more from the author. I do already have the second book in the series--I got it together with the first, I was so sure I'd enjoy this--so I may look at the book jacket and see if it sounds like there's a stronger focal point in the second book, but it's just as possible that I'll simply give the book away. This was an incredibly disappointing read, and I suspect the author was more interested in writing about court intrigue than fantasy, but thought this would be an angle through which to sell court politics. Certainly, that's how it felt. show less

The fifth book in the Stephanie Harrington series has Stephanie and the other members of the Treecat Conspiracy adding more members since it is becoming more and more essential that treecats be recognized as a sentient species. The main stumbling block to the declaration of sentience is that treecats have no spoken or written language. While Stephanie and her cohorts are convinced that treecats are both empathic and telepathic, there are no tests available to prove that.

Enemies, both overt show more and covert, have vested interests in proving that the treecats are only animals. The overt ones like the Franchitti's see treecats as obstacles to their using the land given to them as land grants when they settled on Sphinx. Covert enemies also see the treecats as obstacles to their plans for future use of Sphinx.

And a new enemy is introduced. The Alignment whose goal is to genetically engineer superior humans, even though that is forbidden by the Beowulf Accords, would love it if the treecats were telepathic. They would love to experiment on them to see if telepathy could be added to their new, improved human genome.

Besides the focus on Stephanie and her new fiancé Karl, the story also stars Nosey Jones, a reporter being courted by the covert anti-treecat faction, and Trudy Fanchitti, who is finally finding a way to free herself from the abuse she has suffered since childhood at the hands of her father and brother.

While this was an excellent story, it is clearly not the last. The sentience of the treecats becomes much more apparent after a variety of incidents, but the covert enemies are not defeated and are still out there threatening treecats. The books ending, while not completely a cliffhanger, does leave a lot of issues to be resolved. show less

Excellent start for what should be a fine series. Great set of characters good and bad, though the latter do get whittled down slightly in the course of the story. Firekeeper with her wild falcon and wolf compadres transition well into the ranks of nobility added and tutored by the faithful Derian. The plebeian names of the nobles such as Lord Oyster, are a little disconcerting initially but are easier to manage than the more fanciful ones created by other authors. Looking forward to Book 2.

Cute. Three intertwining plotlines, as usual - interpersonal relationships between the kids (and they are all kids), the bonds between humans and treecats, and a mystery. The mystery is weird and highly nebulous, and helps fix a lot of broken relationships. The treecat part is lovely as usual, but even more confusing - there's _three_ sets of names for people now, and for some of the secondary characters I wasn't able to figure out who was meant some of the time. It didn't seriously detract show more from the story, but it did distract me at times. It was interesting seeing this right after reading the Stephanie story in the latest anthology - much less settled into her relationships. There was one big logic hole. I know Stephanie has never been one for nightclubs - but _because_ of that, someone (her parents, Anders, someone) should have thought to review basic safety precautions. And she mentions roofies earlier, so she is marginally aware (and that's still a problem then, ugh). She should have known better than to drink that. I winced when she did and knew what would happen (and BTW, they've figured out how to extract the pertinent stuff - lumps in the drink would have been noticeable). Fun story, I'll likely read it again sometime. show less