Wolf Who Rules

This story is a direct sequel to TINKER. It begins with a Prologue that catches up the reader on the main events in TINKER through the vehicle of Windwolf's participation in a ceremony of memory. Then the action begins...

Pittsburgh is stranded on Elfhome along with its 60,000 citizens who are mostly human but also include tengu and oni and half-oni. Windwolf and the Wind Clan need to root out the oni who are also immortal, breed like rabbits, and want to conquer Elfhome. It is too big a task and requires Windwolf to call in help from other clans. But this comes at a cost: the Stone Clan sees this as a weakness in Wind Clan and wants to institute a land grab and even assassinate Windwolf and Tinker and the Queen's representative also show more wants to gain a greater control in the Westernlands.

While Windwolf plays politics, Tinker is busy trying to clean up the mess left behind when she destroyed the interdimensional gate. Besides stranding Pittsburgh on Elfhome, it also left the ghost lands - a weird spatial discontinuity which seems to contain fractured pieces of various dimensions all jumbled together.

Tinker is also being plagued by dreams that seem to contain prophesy which are waking her screaming in the night and leaving her sleep deprived during the day. The dreams indicate that there is something she still needs to do to make things right. They contain elements from the Wizard of Oz which is odd because Tinker had not seen that movie. In it, she is the Scarecrow and is the one with the answers which she finds increasingly frustrating.

While helping xenobiologist Lain with a black willow - a mobile and dangerous tree, she needs to explore her grandfather's papers and discovers the family birth certificates but hers is missing and a strange file on a woman named Esme whose picture shows her to be one of the people who are starring in her dreams of Oz.

The story is action-packed and has great worldbuilding. I love that Tinker hasn't lost her human heart in her transformation to elf. I also like the look at Elven culture and the ways it is suited to a race that is potentially immortal.

This book was immensely engaging and entertaining. I do recommend reading TINKER before this one despite the information catch-up of the prologue. While this book can stand alone, much depth and richness would come from reading TINKER first. show less

What a tease! To come SO close to dealing with polyamory, then skip back! I guess it's just been too long since I read Tinker, but I don't really remember any hints of polyamory there at all. In this book, though, it's made very clear that elven society has found monogamy to be an unreasonable model for people who normally live thousands of years. Anybody who hasn't read Tinker shouldn't read this review, because there are spoilers for that book - but hey, that's to be expected in the review for a sequel. Just knowing that certain characters live and marry is a spoiler!Anyway, Tinker may be an elf now, but she was raised as a human, and apparently the half-elven quasi-nursemaid Tooloo who has always been part of her life either doesn't show more know about the difference in societal expectations, or never saw fit to mention it. That isn't so surprising, as Tooloo is depicted as several tacos short of a combo plate. But why, when some of the elves (especially Stormsong) are shown to be familiar with human culture, haven't any of them anticipated this as a source of trouble in Tinker and Wolf's marriage? Why doesn't anybody ever just sit down and say, "Look, honey, the rulers only choose guards with whom they get along well, and with opposite-sex guards, that can mean getting along with sexually. Your new husband has had sex with all of his female bodyguards in the past, and it's expected that you'll eventually take your own male Sekasha as lovers, too. Deal." (I'm not even starting on how very heteronormative everything is. You're telling me there's all that lucious pretty and thousands of years in which to experiment, and nobody ever crosses those streams, so to speak? Yeah, right.) There's a perfect opening for such a speech in the book, a point when the need for it is made very, very obvious--but I suppose having it all out in the open would remove a source of conflict. Why are so many authors so bloody timid about laying things out like that, about showing healthy communication between people? Yes, we can imagine the most amazing advances in technology, and societies very different from our current ones, but by Goddess we must continue to show people screwing up their relationships in exactly the same way as in Shakespeare's day or nobody could relate to them! show less

This story is a direct sequel to TINKER. It begins with a Prologue that catches up the reader on the main events in TINKER through the vehicle of Windwolf's participation in a ceremony of memory. Then the action begins...

Pittsburgh is stranded on Elfhome along with its 60,000 citizens who are mostly human but also include tengu and oni and half-oni. Windwolf and the Wind Clan need to root out the oni who are also immortal, breed like rabbits, and want to conquer Elfhome. It is too big a task and requires Windwolf to call in help from other clans. But this comes at a cost: the Stone Clan sees this as a weakness in Wind Clan and wants to institute a land grab and even assassinate Windwolf and Tinker and the Queen's representative also show more wants to gain a greater control in the Westernlands.

While Windwolf plays politics, Tinker is busy trying to clean up the mess left behind when she destroyed the interdimensional gate. Besides stranding Pittsburgh on Elfhome, it also left the ghost lands - a weird spatial discontinuity which seems to contain fractured pieces of various dimensions all jumbled together.

Tinker is also being plagued by dreams that seem to contain prophesy which are waking her screaming in the night and leaving her sleep deprived during the day. The dreams indicate that there is something she still needs to do to make things right. They contain elements from the Wizard of Oz which is odd because Tinker had not seen that movie. In it, she is the Scarecrow and is the one with the answers which she finds increasingly frustrating.

While helping xenobiologist Lain with a black willow - a mobile and dangerous tree, she needs to explore her grandfather's papers and discovers the family birth certificates but hers is missing and a strange file on a woman named Esme whose picture shows her to be one of the people who are starring in her dreams of Oz.

The story is action-packed and has great worldbuilding. I love that Tinker hasn't lost her human heart in her transformation to elf. I also like the look at Elven culture and the ways it is suited to a race that is potentially immortal.

This book was immensely engaging and entertaining. I do recommend reading TINKER before this one despite the information catch-up of the prologue. While this book can stand alone, much depth and richness would come from reading TINKER first. show less

This story is a direct sequel to TINKER. It begins with a Prologue that catches up the reader on the main events in TINKER through the vehicle of Windwolf's participation in a ceremony of memory. Then the action begins...

Pittsburgh is stranded on Elfhome along with its 60,000 citizens who are mostly human but also include tengu and oni and half-oni. Windwolf and the Wind Clan need to root out the oni who are also immortal, breed like rabbits, and want to conquer Elfhome. It is too big a task and requires Windwolf to call in help from other clans. But this comes at a cost: the Stone Clan sees this as a weakness in Wind Clan and wants to institute a land grab and even assassinate Windwolf and Tinker and the Queen's representative also show more wants to gain a greater control in the Westernlands.

While Windwolf plays politics, Tinker is busy trying to clean up the mess left behind when she destroyed the interdimensional gate. Besides stranding Pittsburgh on Elfhome, it also left the ghost lands - a weird spatial discontinuity which seems to contain fractured pieces of various dimensions all jumbled together.

Tinker is also being plagued by dreams that seem to contain prophesy which are waking her screaming in the night and leaving her sleep deprived during the day. The dreams indicate that there is something she still needs to do to make things right. They contain elements from the Wizard of Oz which is odd because Tinker had not seen that movie. In it, she is the Scarecrow and is the one with the answers which she finds increasingly frustrating.

While helping xenobiologist Lain with a black willow - a mobile and dangerous tree, she needs to explore her grandfather's papers and discovers the family birth certificates but hers is missing and a strange file on a woman named Esme whose picture shows her to be one of the people who are starring in her dreams of Oz.

The story is action-packed and has great worldbuilding. I love that Tinker hasn't lost her human heart in her transformation to elf. I also like the look at Elven culture and the ways it is suited to a race that is potentially immortal.

This book was immensely engaging and entertaining. I do recommend reading TINKER before this one despite the information catch-up of the prologue. While this book can stand alone, much depth and richness would come from reading TINKER first. show less

Wolf Who Rules the Wind is the rare Elf who takes chances and now everything he's taken a chance for is endangered by a heretofore unknown invasion of oni from a third "dimension" from earth or Elfholme. Tinker, who Wolf has changed from human to elf is, after spending almost a month in oni custody and foiling direct invasion is growing unstable from nightmares. The two viewpoints alternating sometimes with only a paragraph break can be awkward, but the pace remains fast if staccato, with no lingering on the aftermath of actions, but leaps to next events.

I gave a rave review for "Tinker" and continue to do so for "Wolf Who Rules". I did find it somewhat funny that Ms. Spencer decided to call the book after Wolf, as there is actually very little of his presence in the book. He is mostly playing politics throughout the book, until the end, when you finally get to know a bit more about him, and come to realize just how special he really is, given the society in which he was raised. He is developing to be a truly good and kind person, and I like that - a LOT.

***********SPOILERS ALERT************************************

Tinker herself learns a lot more about her family in this edition. Unlike some of the reviewers, I really, really liked the Alice references, AND the dream sequences. Dreams show more have often been a huge part of fantasy, as well as aural and mythological history. Ms. Spencer's grasp of mythology and history are excellent, and utilizing the dreaming sequence to develop the Tengu characters, as well as the space scene was, in my estimation, some of her best work in this book.

Tinker has had to learn an incredible amount, incredibly quickly. Ms. Spencer is developing her relationships with the new people in her life slowly, while allowing her to learn from her mistakes, and take more time thinking before she 'jumps'. This should stand her in good stead as she chooses her own Hand. I also love how Ms. Spencer has brought Tinker so close to Discord and Pony. Pony is entirely loveable, loyal, and dedicated - honestly, my favorite character besides Tinker. Discord is right up there with him, a perfect foil for Tinker's tough yet gentle persona. It will be interesting to see whom else Tinker chooses for her Hand. I am thinking Cloudwalker, but we shall see. THANK GOODNESS she can turn down Blade - what an ASS.

The situation with the Tengu, in my estimation, could not have been handled better. Unlike other writers whom I could mention (do NOT get me started on Hamilton's Anita Blake series . . . grrrrr) Spencer doesn't have her heroine offer protection to others, then go out of her way to make her leave her protectees hanging out to dry! (Oh, Please oh, Please oh, PLEASE Ms. Spencer, don't let that happen in Elfhome!) I also look forward to Wolf and Tinker, as well as the other elves and the Tengu, protecting the oni halfbreeds and the humans who were so brutalized by the oni. Kill the oni? Oh, Hell Yes! But a child is not their parent, and shouldn't be punished for the horrors and brutalities they have been forced to survive. There is a point, near the end of the book, where Wolf is rescued by a half-oni (I won't say whom, so it won't totally ruin things for you if you haven't read the book and still read this review) in which these lines are said: "Wolf had never considered that the half-oni wold think of themselves as human. How could he refute the difference that mind-set made in a person? . . . If the half-oni had the capacity for human compassion, then it had to be logical that they could be revolted by the oni's lack of it." I LOVE that series of lines. They set out, in three sentences, what I feel is the whole point of the difference between Wolf and the other elves. Wolf can see, truly See, that there IS a difference - that just because you are born of a monster and a human, that does not automatically make you a monster.

Hooray for Ms. Spencer for her insight, and for allowing her main characters to grow, learn, and use their strengths to protect the weak. Hooray, hooray, hooray!

I also hope we see more of Oilcan in the next book. He is a very special human being, with unique talents of his own, and his relationship with Tinker has been shown somewhat, but I would really like to see him have a bigger part in future books, as well as Lain and some of the other characters that we have met, and not yet truly come to know. Love it, love it, love it. Off to the shopping cart to buy my copies, and a preorder for "Elfhome", then am going to curl up in bed and re-read starting with the first page of "Tinker". I don't need no stinkin' sleep! LOL show less

I gave a rave review for "Tinker" and continue to do so for "Wolf Who Rules". I did find it somewhat funny that Ms. Spencer decided to call the book after Wolf, as there is actually very little of his presence in the book. He is mostly playing politics throughout the book, until the end, when you finally get to know a bit more about him, and come to realize just how special he really is, given the society in which he was raised. He is developing to be a truly good and kind person, and I like that - a LOT.

***********SPOILERS ALERT************************************

Tinker herself learns a lot more about her family in this edition. Unlike some of the reviewers, I really, really liked the Alice references, AND the dream sequences. Dreams show more have often been a huge part of fantasy, as well as aural and mythological history. Ms. Spencer's grasp of mythology and history are excellent, and utilizing the dreaming sequence to develop the Tengu characters, as well as the space scene was, in my estimation, some of her best work in this book.

Tinker has had to learn an incredible amount, incredibly quickly. Ms. Spencer is developing her relationships with the new people in her life slowly, while allowing her to learn from her mistakes, and take more time thinking before she 'jumps'. This should stand her in good stead as she chooses her own Hand. I also love how Ms. Spencer has brought Tinker so close to Discord and Pony. Pony is entirely loveable, loyal, and dedicated - honestly, my favorite character besides Tinker. Discord is right up there with him, a perfect foil for Tinker's tough yet gentle persona. It will be interesting to see whom else Tinker chooses for her Hand. I am thinking Cloudwalker, but we shall see. THANK GOODNESS she can turn down Blade - what an ASS.

The situation with the Tengu, in my estimation, could not have been handled better. Unlike other writers whom I could mention (do NOT get me started on Hamilton's Anita Blake series . . . grrrrr) Spencer doesn't have her heroine offer protection to others, then go out of her way to make her leave her protectees hanging out to dry! (Oh, Please oh, Please oh, PLEASE Ms. Spencer, don't let that happen in Elfhome!) I also look forward to Wolf and Tinker, as well as the other elves and the Tengu, protecting the oni halfbreeds and the humans who were so brutalized by the oni. Kill the oni? Oh, Hell Yes! But a child is not their parent, and shouldn't be punished for the horrors and brutalities they have been forced to survive. There is a point, near the end of the book, where Wolf is rescued by a half-oni (I won't say whom, so it won't totally ruin things for you if you haven't read the book and still read this review) in which these lines are said: "Wolf had never considered that the half-oni wold think of themselves as human. How could he refute the difference that mind-set made in a person? . . . If the half-oni had the capacity for human compassion, then it had to be logical that they could be revolted by the oni's lack of it." I LOVE that series of lines. They set out, in three sentences, what I feel is the whole point of the difference between Wolf and the other elves. Wolf can see, truly See, that there IS a difference - that just because you are born of a monster and a human, that does not automatically make you a monster.

Hooray for Ms. Spencer for her insight, and for allowing her main characters to grow, learn, and use their strengths to protect the weak. Hooray, hooray, hooray!

I also hope we see more of Oilcan in the next book. He is a very special human being, with unique talents of his own, and his relationship with Tinker has been shown somewhat, but I would really like to see him have a bigger part in future books, as well as Lain and some of the other characters that we have met, and not yet truly come to know. Love it, love it, love it. Off to the shopping cart to buy my copies, and a preorder for "Elfhome", then am going to curl up in bed and re-read starting with the first page of "Tinker". I don't need no stinkin' sleep! LOL show less