Wolf Moon

Rating:
Summary: The convocation continues on...
Review: John R. Holt, Wolf Moon (Bantam Spectra, 1997)

John Holt's third (as far as I have been able to discern) novel is sort of a continuation of his second, The Convocation; it's another Children of the Griffin novel, this one set in the small upstate New York town of St. Claire. The town's two most important families, the St. Claires and the Balthazars, have been waging quiet war against one another for generations, and are down to two St. Claires and an unspecified (at the beginning) number of Balthazars, along with each side's various allies. A few characters from The Convocation pop up now and again, but you can't really call Wolf Moon a sequel to The Convocation in any real sense; it's more another novel set with the same parameters, a number of years later, with almost an entirely new cast of characters. One of those new characters is Freya Kellgren, an ally of the Balthazar clan who is an entity all her own who adds another dimension of oddity to the plot. Holt never quite reveals the true nature and powers of Kellgren's character; it's almost as if he's setting us up for a third Children of the Griffin novel (which has not, to date, materialized). Most, if not all, of the pieces are in place. All we can do now is hope the man gets another one out at some point in the future.

Wolf Moon has many of the same weaknesses as The Convocation, with the principal one being that the book starts off slow. Once you've been introduced to all the main characters and have the backstory down, though, things pick up. It has all the same strengths, however, and like he Convocation, the strengths make the book well worth reading. Holt draws his characters very well, and once the pace picks up he knows how to spin a tale well enough that you don't really notice the lack of bloodshed for the first three quarters of what purports to be a horror novel; Holt spends his time getting you involved in the lives of the principals, instead, drawing the lines on the map of the battlefield and showing the reader the intricacies of the allegiances.

Very good stuff, well worth hunting down. *** ½

Rating:
Summary: Realistic contemporary fantasy.
Review: Not so much a book about lycanthropy as Luciferianism, the bonds of friendship, and family history. Ms Klausner's review below gives all you need to know about the plot. As for my opinion, I think what impressed me most is the way the book remained entirely credible all the way through. Too many modern day horror/fantasy stories fall into the trap of an over-the-top, unbelievable climax (if not before). This one doesn't; everything works. And it has a *perfect* ending.

Rating:
Summary: Um.... No.
Review: Ok, where do I start. The adventure was the only pleasing thing I truly found in this book. The proffusion of foul language turned me off from the start and the amount of un-called for sexual content has no place in the book.

Playboy meets the X-Files, the only thing that kept me reading is the fact that I never put a book down, no matter how bad, but once I finished this one, I said to myself, What?

The main character's lycanthropy in the end has nothing to do with the story and I can understand the detail needed in describing these rituals, but in the end, none of it was truly needed to further character development or plot. I felt ashamed that I had actually made myself read this book and sold it to the half price book store soon after.

It is certainly not without it's good points, though those are far and few. Shapeshifters have always been a favorite of mine and the few scenes where she does actual shift into her alternate form were slightly satisfying, though many were rushed and provided no detail.

Overall, if you're offended by foul language accompianied by vivid sexual acts, I highly dissuade you from reading this one. In fact, I would tell anyone that asked me, 'It's not worth it.' I've read good books and I've read bad book and this one certainly fits into the latter category. The plot is loosely strung, existing only to provide the sex scenes this author so obviously adores and halfway through, you forget what the book is about anyway.

That is all I have to say.

Rating:
Summary: Um.... No.
Review: Ok, where do I start. The adventure was the only pleasing thing I truly found in this book. The proffusion of foul language turned me off from the start and the amount of un-called for sexual content has no place in the book.

Playboy meets the X-Files, the only thing that kept me reading is the fact that I never put a book down, no matter how bad, but once I finished this one, I said to myself, What?

The main character's lycanthropy in the end has nothing to do with the story and I can understand the detail needed in describing these rituals, but in the end, none of it was truly needed to further character development or plot. I felt ashamed that I had actually made myself read this book and sold it to the half price book store soon after.

It is certainly not without it's good points, though those are far and few. Shapeshifters have always been a favorite of mine and the few scenes where she does actual shift into her alternate form were slightly satisfying, though many were rushed and provided no detail.

Overall, if you're offended by foul language accompianied by vivid sexual acts, I highly dissuade you from reading this one. In fact, I would tell anyone that asked me, 'It's not worth it.' I've read good books and I've read bad book and this one certainly fits into the latter category. The plot is loosely strung, existing only to provide the sex scenes this author so obviously adores and halfway through, you forget what the book is about anyway.

That is all I have to say.

Rating:
Summary: a truly dark fantasy
Review: This is excellent horror fantasy novel about a young woman who is a victim of a family curse to turn into a werewolf. She is the only one that can save her friends and the man she loves from cabal of satanists bend on destroying them all! This novel boasts scenes of eroticism and black magic, gruesome violence and a truly wicked final twist.

Rating:
Summary: a truly dark fantasy
Review: This is excellent horror fantasy novel about a young woman who is a victim of a family curse to turn into a werewolf. She is the only one that can save her friends and the man she loves from cabal of satanists bend on destroying them all! This novel boasts scenes of eroticism and black magic, gruesome violence and a truly wicked final twist.