A Companion to Wolves by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette

[lightreads]

A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oh good, I am no longer seethingly annoyed by the mere presence of Elizabeth Bear’s name. Time does fade all things, including deeply enraging internet behavior. And this book is far less indulgent than the last few things of hers I read.

Nota bien: “Indulgent” is a book review sneaky code word for “interested in things I don’t care about, as opposed to things I do.”

This is a book about a young Viking…ish man who is taken from his family’s home and bonded with an empathic wolf, and then they fight monsters and there’s lots of wolf mating/dubiously consensual empathic gay gangbang shenanigans. So as advertised, then.

Ha, okay. This book does the extremely difficult thing of critiquing and problematizing companion animal fantasies, particularly the sex, while also being a really satisfying companion animal fantasy. This book made me want to go back and reread large swaths of Pern because it is getting right to the heart of *gestures* that thing, except I know Pern would just be particularly painful now. This is a book written in a deceptively simple style, telling a story, and doing some nice – if not incredibly deep – work on subjects/objects and duty and sex and gender.

Actually, I should mention my one overarching critique, which is that it’s one of those books about gender where it’s all about masculine assumption of feminine roles without actually being about, um, any women at all. You know what I mean.

But my main point is that I was reading along, mildly interested, whatever, and then suddenly after the halfway point I was all, “but, but. Who will be his wolfy consorts? Tell me more!”

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Comments

[ecaterin]

*goes and looks* Well drat. They don't have this available on Kindle. Hmph - I want instant literary gratification! :D Sounds very intriguing!

[firecat]

I was disappointed in that book. I felt the authors didn't really grok canine.

[kass]

I read this book a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I agree that it does a lovely job of showing what's problematic about the companion animal trope while also managing to be a satisfying companion animal book! It is one of my comfort rereads now.