book review: The Tempering Of Men
Oct. 25th, 2011 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraSequel to A Companion To Wolves, which I reviewed back in August. Sadly I read most of this book weeks ago and had various snarky things to say about it, but petered out before reaching the end and have now forgotten most of that. So I guess the overall verdict here is: not gripping. It's not *bad*, but I'm not convinced it adds a lot to ACtW, except for maybe making sure we're reading ACtW the "right" way.
So looking back at my ACtW review, I made some predictions - were they any good? Yes, new viewpoint characters, but no, not Kari, although we get a bunch of Kari. Interestingly, the viewpoint characters this time around seem less extraspecial in the bond department, and there's much less focus on bonding per se - we hear about a couple of new Impressions, but only in passing. I think Monette and Bear felt like they got their work of critiquing companion-animal stories done in the first one. On the other hand, boy does Tempering continue their critique of slash. The only romantic thread of the book is all about how Vethulf and Skjaldwulf sort out a sexual partnership for themselves that doesn't include Isolfr, as much as they, and all us slash-fans, might wish it could. As predicted, the main conflict is now with other humans, and our humans learn to work with svartalfar in new and closer ways, and that brings us, in the predictions, to ladies.
Ladies! So bummed that Kari doesn't seem to secretly be a girl - I still might write this, or request it for Yuletide or something. However we do get the nifty character of Fargrimr, born a girl but turned male socially/legally for inheritance reasons. Also a svartalf who still takes male pronouns but has female standing, and Otter, who is a play on certain Mary Sue tropes - she gets adopted by a main character, and if the wolf people survive the upcoming war, it will pretty much be entirely due to her awesomeness. (But she also has a rather grotesque scar, and nobody falls in love with her.) (I think either Otter or Fargrimr would be an interesting romantic pairing for Isolfr - Otter seems more textually plausible, but insofar as the inflexibility of Isolfr's heterosexuality is key to the story, Fargrimr would be an interesting tool to interrogate that, like, does Isolfr actually need someone socially female, or does he just like pussy? Culturally Fargrimr is only supposed to take female lovers, but Isolfr can't be the only irredeemable heterosexual in Iskryne...) Anyways. With the lamentable non-ladietude of Kari, our last best hope for some woman-on-wolf bonding action seems to be Isolfr's daughter, presently "being raised by wolves like a hero of legend", which I dearly hope is foreshadowing for a third book. Alfgyfa bonding some gigantic male alpha and telling everyone to suck it would be pretty awesome, and, okay, yes, this is really not so much a review as Yuletide brainstorming, isn't it. ::grin:: In any case. There are some actiony bits in Tempering - they fight a bear, they fight a wyvern - but it's made pretty clear that the important work is talking to people, convening committees, mentoring youngsters, etc, continuing the theme started in ACtW of centering social work/"women's work" as heroic on a par with the actual fighting. (In one interesting mentoring twist, Isolfr comes to realize that despite his disinterest in dudes it really is his job to initiate the new bondmates of female wolves into bottoming, although we don't find out how that goes - tell me there's not a fic in that, too.)
Oh yeah, and some Rheans. ... I have nothing to say about the nominal plot, except that Iunarius seemed interesting although they didn't really do much with him - he sort of seemed like a guest-star vehicle? Like this is when Chiwetel Ejiofor shows up for a couple minutes of screentime and everyone is like "awesome!" and then he goes back to whatever he's really doing these days.
So looking back at my ACtW review, I made some predictions - were they any good? Yes, new viewpoint characters, but no, not Kari, although we get a bunch of Kari. Interestingly, the viewpoint characters this time around seem less extraspecial in the bond department, and there's much less focus on bonding per se - we hear about a couple of new Impressions, but only in passing. I think Monette and Bear felt like they got their work of critiquing companion-animal stories done in the first one. On the other hand, boy does Tempering continue their critique of slash. The only romantic thread of the book is all about how Vethulf and Skjaldwulf sort out a sexual partnership for themselves that doesn't include Isolfr, as much as they, and all us slash-fans, might wish it could. As predicted, the main conflict is now with other humans, and our humans learn to work with svartalfar in new and closer ways, and that brings us, in the predictions, to ladies.
Ladies! So bummed that Kari doesn't seem to secretly be a girl - I still might write this, or request it for Yuletide or something. However we do get the nifty character of Fargrimr, born a girl but turned male socially/legally for inheritance reasons. Also a svartalf who still takes male pronouns but has female standing, and Otter, who is a play on certain Mary Sue tropes - she gets adopted by a main character, and if the wolf people survive the upcoming war, it will pretty much be entirely due to her awesomeness. (But she also has a rather grotesque scar, and nobody falls in love with her.) (I think either Otter or Fargrimr would be an interesting romantic pairing for Isolfr - Otter seems more textually plausible, but insofar as the inflexibility of Isolfr's heterosexuality is key to the story, Fargrimr would be an interesting tool to interrogate that, like, does Isolfr actually need someone socially female, or does he just like pussy? Culturally Fargrimr is only supposed to take female lovers, but Isolfr can't be the only irredeemable heterosexual in Iskryne...) Anyways. With the lamentable non-ladietude of Kari, our last best hope for some woman-on-wolf bonding action seems to be Isolfr's daughter, presently "being raised by wolves like a hero of legend", which I dearly hope is foreshadowing for a third book. Alfgyfa bonding some gigantic male alpha and telling everyone to suck it would be pretty awesome, and, okay, yes, this is really not so much a review as Yuletide brainstorming, isn't it. ::grin:: In any case. There are some actiony bits in Tempering - they fight a bear, they fight a wyvern - but it's made pretty clear that the important work is talking to people, convening committees, mentoring youngsters, etc, continuing the theme started in ACtW of centering social work/"women's work" as heroic on a par with the actual fighting. (In one interesting mentoring twist, Isolfr comes to realize that despite his disinterest in dudes it really is his job to initiate the new bondmates of female wolves into bottoming, although we don't find out how that goes - tell me there's not a fic in that, too.)
Oh yeah, and some Rheans. ... I have nothing to say about the nominal plot, except that Iunarius seemed interesting although they didn't really do much with him - he sort of seemed like a guest-star vehicle? Like this is when Chiwetel Ejiofor shows up for a couple minutes of screentime and everyone is like "awesome!" and then he goes back to whatever he's really doing these days.
