The Tiger and the Wolf
The Echoes of the Fall series, Book 1
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Pan Books
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In a wild world of ancient gods and shapeshifting tribes, Maniye is a girl torn in two. Her father, Akrit Stone River, is the ambitious chieftain of the Winter Runner clan of the Wolf people; when he made war against the Tiger people, he took their queen captive and forced a daughter on her, then had the woman killed to leave her matriarchal kin leaderless and lost in their eastern refuges. Maniye's childhood has been one of deprivation and resentment, harried by her father and the clan's priest Kalameshi Takes Iron (holder of the secret Wolf-gifted knowledge of forging weapons stronger than stone or bronze), but she holds a secret: she can step - change shape - into both wolf and tiger, having two animal souls within her own instead of the one of most people of the world. But tiger and wolf are natural enemies, and the rival spirits will tear her apart unless she chooses one and cuts out the other. Even as she faces this fate, she discovers Stone River's terrible plan for her. Fleeing the clan with an imprisoned priest of the Snake people, intended for sacrifice in the jaws of the Wolf god, Maniye sets out across the wide, cold crown of the world... crossing paths with a southern prince Asmander, a Champion of the southern Sun River Kingdom with a stepped form from another age, and his companions. A great change is coming to the whole world, a time that could see the many tribes and gods united against a common enemy - or see them fall, torn apart by men like Stone River, until all people die.
REVIEW: This was another audiobook that I downloaded to kill time at work, but I enjoyed it enough to listen even on my days off. Tchaikovsky creates a prehistoric world with traces of our own ancient traditions, but mixed and melded into its own thing, a world of endless wilderness and cruel nature and ever-watchful gods and tribal rivalries that spill over onto neighbors. Nor is the shapeshifting confined to ordinary animals; Asmander's Champion is a velociraptor, and other Champions include ancient eagles and saber-toothed cats, part of the animal spirit-based cosmology of the fantastic world. Shifting even absorbs clothing and weapons to strengthen the animal form; a shifted Wolf hunter wearing iron mail has a near-impenetrable hide, while a Tiger warrior's bronze knife can become gleaming claws or teeth. It's a little thing, but adds a nice dimension to the shapeshifter concept, opening up interesting possibilities while also dealing with the eternal question of what happens to a werewolf's clothes.
Maniye starts out a somewhat weak character, undersized and beaten down, full of resentment and anger yet still determined to prove herself to the very people who hurt her, and to the Wolf god who knows her to be of mixed heritage. Try as she might, though, her dual nature cannot be denied, as the tiger and the wolf start quarreling within her for dominance. Her encounter with the Snake priest Hesprec sets her on a new path, if one that initially extends no further than escaping the Winter Runners and the stalking lone wolf Broken Axe, who may sometimes share her father's fire but is his own man with his own motivations. Meanwhile, Asmander has his own journey, a quest to secure the legendary "iron wolves" from the north as mercenaries in a looming war of succession in his native Sun River Kingdom, and the Snake priest Hesprec follows a hidden agenda. There are frequent battles, some bursts of levity, several reversals of fortune, and a few stretches of dialog that border on being too grandiose and weighty, but overall it's a decent story in a unique and interesting world, one I wouldn't mind revisiting in the sequels.
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