Promise of the Wolves

Told from the point of view of the young wolf Kaala of one of the Wide Valley packs. The story takes place 14,000 years ago and is an imagining of how wolves might have come to cooperate with humans. A touch of fantasy and the supernatural is involved but there is also a lot of detail about how wolves live. I really enjoyed this book and feel it is an excellent debut novel. As Jean Auel said on the cover, lovers of Watership Down may well want to give this book a try.

As someone who isn't of the millions of dog-lovers in the world, I had less of an affection for this book and more of an understanding of it. To love this book I think you must be more than just indifferent to dogs.

I could not find my suspension of disbelief for how intelligent these wolves are; I don't think animals' minds process in the same way as ours do and cannot appreciate when a human makes it seem so. If this writer, who has a lovely story and good ideas, were to make the narration and actions closer to how a wolf might think, I could get behind it. As it stands in the canon of YA fantasy works, I am less than impressed and feel there are many issues that should have been resolved and ideas that might have been more carefully show more planned and developed. show less

You know, I didn't actually hate this. When I got it in the mail to review, I kind of went "oh god, not some damn book about talking animals," but it was really pretty interesting. Definitely an easy read*, and clearly sets up a sequel, but a lot better than I expected.

If you're going to read one anthropomorphic-wolf novel this year, it should probably be [book:A Companion to Wolves] by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, but if you have it in you to read another one, this wouldn't be a complete waste of time.

Oh and also, it has a blurb from [author:Temple Grandin], so she must have gotten the wolf pack behavior stuff right.

*Also, for my teen librarian friends out there, this would be a great crossover book for YA readers. In fact, I'm show more not sure why they didn't just publish it as a YA novel in the first place. show less

So I'm going to side with several people here(and Goodreads), if just because I was young when I bought this book and for awhile there was no sign of another book online or anywhere else. I've not checked if it took years or if it was my own young incompetence, as I checked the new book area and stores that sold the first so surely I was not stupid. I asked about the next book, etc. I will say the experience this book gave me was infuriating. It was good, sure, not a bad read, but now holds a bit of resentment like some really badly done sequels hold.

I read this book assuming it was stand alone, a book that didn't end vague and confusing. For all the good this book does, it sure does stab you with an ending that goes lolnope, read the show more second book to see how this wraps up. There are more than two books that I've heard now, and I do desire to know how it "ends", but have so little desire to truly read the next two or so books.

My experience with seeking book #2 was a fruitless search, and yielded me anger, a reread of this book only further pissed me off and made me mad. Pardon my language, but the cliffhanger-natured ending was one of the worst I have ever experienced.

I just checked and if I am reading right, this one came out in 2008, while book two was 2011, maybe I'm crazy but this book was meant to hitch and pull in younger readers to teenagers, while I cannot fault the writer if rl stuff interfered, I will say that is way too long to hold a teenager's breath in your hands and then drag out releases. I waited and searched for two years and then quit. I hated the first book so much I wore the last few pages out rereading it in anger.

I have never had such an experience with a book. I've never had a book cop out on me and crap on me like this one has. I've had bad disappointments, I've had dead characters resurrected by love tropes, I've had cliche romances and unhealthy Fifty Shades bull all shoved down my throat, but this is the one that was so bad to me, it wasn't good.

Maybe I could recommend this book now, now that the next two books are out, but in 2008, not 2011 and 2013, I'd have told you to put it back down. It's not a good book unless the other two are out, and I've not read the other two, so this could be a slide downward instead of a fun ride into another book of fun. It feels to me like if I ever do read the Wolf Chronicles #2 and #3, I might feel less resentment, but if the dates are really that far apart, I understand why so many years ago I had anger at this series that has only barely faded. show less

An excellent book. I love wolves to begin with, and am therefore attracted to any fantasy book that has wolf in the title. Not everyone can carry it off, though. Dorothy Hearst can. I think the strength of this book are her characters. Kaala and Ázzuen in particular are easy to love. Her second strength is the bond between the characters. At first the bonds exist only between the wolves. It is heartening to see Kaala and Ázzuen become like siblings. Marra also joins their group, but most of the time she's a bit of a nonentity. Filler, you might say. Later on, the humans get into the mix. The bond between the wolves and the humans almost makes me jealous. Who wouldn't want such a partnership? Combine all of that with mystery and show more danger, and you end up with Promise of wolves. I'm looking forward to the next book! show less

First line:
~ It got cold ~

Just finished Promise of the Wolves which I absolutely loved. It reminded me so much of Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel and I happened to be re-reading this at the same time. Similar scenarios in both book: not belonging, always feeling not good enough, brutal beatings etc etc and then triumph in the end and yet sadness and sorrow permeate both worlds.I usually don't care for talking animals but in this case it worked for me. I raced through this book in the last 10 days or so which is a fast read for me. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the Earth's Children series. You won't be disappointed. Now I have to get the sequel from the library.
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Promise of the Wolves
By Dorothy Hearst
Pub. Date: June 2008
Not Rated
Recommended

I decided not to finish this book, because it is Anthropomorphic Fiction. As a personal preference, I don’t read these books. From the sixty pages I did read, I can comfortably say its worth your time. This book steadily kept the plot rolling and entertaining. The dialogue was believable and in all the appropriate places. As the main character grew in Wide Valley Knowledge, so did I. If you enjoy Anthropomorphic books, I suggest Promise of the Wolves.

Date Reviewed: April 4th, 2009

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