Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #1: Wolf Brother (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness)

Rating:
Summary: A good quick read
Review: I found this to be an enjoyable, quick read. The wolf was very real & I enjoyed the interaction between him and the main character.

Rating:
Summary: Very overhyped and stereotypical
Review: The last thing I ever wanted to do was give my child something from the blackface minstrel show/stage Oirish/Me Tonto school of bad Hollywood racial and cultural stereotypes. I had no idea that's what I would find in this much-hyped book, apparently the beginning of a series. I found the writing painful in its lack of depth and insight, which I suppose comes from the author's disconnect from the understanding of a real culture that may have prehistoric roots which could have informed her fantasy culture. While the story is not utterly awful, it does have a lot of 'oh, come ON!' moments. My daughter and her friends, all voracious readers in a mixed gender book club, roundly disliked this book and said they would not read any sequel. Some of them didn't even finish it.

In short, I think this was much anticipated and not worth the wait.

Rating:
Summary: Why all the fuss?
Review: This a nicely packaged book with excellent illustrations by Geoff Taylor. The prose style is tidy and the plot pretty much follows a balanced four act story form to keep it moving along. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, the so called research must have taken up no more than a lunchtime at the local Library, and even at that, the whole thing would be consistent with any preindustrial era, native culture. Simply take out any use of metals, add a good dollop of rampant mysticism, and you'd be there today.

The dialogue is too developed for such a long-ago period and the terminology is hardly credible, and sometimes derisory: World Spirit, and Soul Eaters ( was this not in Harry Potter?), for example.

Although young teens, with hardly any reading experience, would find this book pleasant enough reading, it strikes me as being an utterly cynical exercise to cash in on the popularity of other recently published books of this type. As is Ridley Scott's interest from the perspective of making a film.

A more intelligent choice would be books by C.J.Cherryh, and Fritz Leiber.