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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"We've Never Met. Probably Never Will...", November 28, 2004
"The Wolf Star" (also published as "Wolf Star Rising") is the second of four books known as the Claidi journals, stories told in the format of a diary by the young escaped-slave Claidi and her travels throughout a fantasy world in search of her origins and a home of her own. In the first installment "The Wolf Tower", which you really must read if you want to understand what's going on in this story, Claidi escaped the confines of the House with the handsome Nemian, only to find that his intentions for her were less than honourable. Taking her to his dismal city and the matriarch Ironel, Claidi found that the inexorable Law of the Wolf Tower made her the new distributor of the cruel and unnecessary rules that governed the land. Destroying the mechanisms that put the Law in place, Claidi made her escape with the handsome bandit-leader Argul - her betrothed. At the beginning of this new part of her diary, Claidi is immensely excited about her approaching wedding to the man she loves, and her acceptance into the extended family of the Hulta. But as she prepares on the wedding day, a catastrophe occurs - she is kidnapped by men of the Wolf Tower in a great balloon, and taken across the sea to a strange place known as the Rise. With only clockwork figurines for company, Claidi desperately searches for a way to escape the confusing and dangerous moving rooms of the Rise, a huge palace and garden carved into the side of a great cliff. Soon she discovers that she's not alone - the Rise is the home of the elusive and confusing Prince Venarion (or Venn for short), who is just as bewildered at Claidi's presence in his home as she is. Abandoned by his mother Ustareth at a young age, Claidi suspects that somehow she is connected to the events that are now unfolding: the hidden designs of the House and the someone who has plans for them both without either of them knowing, someone who mysteriously signs their letters as "we", and who has a secret agenda going on. Wanting only to uncover the mystery of the higher interest in her, and to return to her beloved Argul, Claidi talks Venn into undertaking a trek deep into the Rise to find the library - the one place where they might both find the answers they're looking for. Unfortunately in continuing the story, Tanith Lee raises more questions than answers, and many of her ideas come across as confused and contradicting. She possibly has a master-plan in mind for the completion of the story and the unfolding of the mystery, but she is unravelling it in a very muddled way - it's almost as if she's making it up as she goes along and later figuring out how all the clues fit together, rather than the other way around. Despite this however, the characters, the story and the mystery of Claidi's role in the world is interesting enough to keep one reading. There are also complaints concerning the setting of the book - "The Wolf Tower" was a journey that took place over a large area, whilst here Claidi is stuck almost entirely within a single house. Granted, it is an exceptionally fascinating house, with moving rooms and clockwork servants, but much of the appeal of the first book was the scale and freedom of Claidi's travels. Here, that is gone. But "The Wolf Star" is a good follow-up to the previous book, and most will be interested enough in picking up the next one "Wolf Queen," even though I am always frustrated at writers/publishers that split books into more than one volume needlessly. Claidi's journal is one big story - it should be presented as one large volume, not lots of little ones. There are overviews of the previous book at the start of each new installment, but I'd recommend reading them in order.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall a good read, June 2, 2001
This review is from: WOLF STAR Claidi Journals Book II (Hardcover)
The sequel to "Wolf Tower" is an enjoyable fantasy book with occurrances and themes that are not portrayed widely in fantasy. It does, however, suffer a little from sequelitis. There are some uneven parts, but this is a very good fantasy! Claidi's wedding day is disrupted when guards from Wolf Tower abduct her (that'll spoil any bride's day). She is transported across a body of water to a small house near an enormous palace. She is shown into the palace, which is a self-made maze that continuously shifts. Additionally, the strange Wolf Star rises over the palace all the time. Soon she befriends Prince Venn, the occupant of the palace, who doesn't particularly want her there either. She gains both his trust and cooperation, but must consider seriously her misty past and equally questioning future. Claidi is still the same feisty heroine as in Wolf Tower, though I thought the slightly more introspective tone in this book made her seem more mature. Venn was an interesting character, though I thought he lost some of the sparkle partway through. An extra star for originality! The mechanical rooms that forever shift and alter the layout of the palace is a bizarre, dreamlike stroke of genius, and added a touch of oddity to the growing trust between Claidi and Venn. The writing style to describe these is excellent, especially when describing the Wolf Star and Venn's palace. A good read, especially if you read the previous book. Here is hoping for more Claidi.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Where's the fun of the first book?, March 17, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: WOLF STAR Claidi Journals Book II (Hardcover)
I really liked 'Wolf Tower,' so I was excited when I got my hands on 'Wolf Star,' the second book in the Claidi Journals series. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to the high expectations produced by the first book. Instead of the rollicking adventure of 'Wolf Star,' 'Wolf Tower' traps the reader in a monotonous structure called "The Rise." Claidi is trapped here too, and I suppose Tanith Lee wanted to get that imprisoned feeling across. Unfortunately, the author succeeded all too well. I kept wanting to skip ahead, to find out if Claidi would ever escape from the Rise's constantly moving rooms (an interesting concept at first, but continued to the point of redundancy). And then, after everything Claidi goes through to return to her true love, to find out you have to read the THIRD book to find out what happens is rather frustrating. 'Wolf Star' can not stand on its own like the first book did. I was also disappointed that 'Wolf Star,' which I thought was part of a fantasy series, seemed to dissolve into cheesy science fiction near the end. Case in point: Yinyay. She sounded like the silver hose one would find behind a clothes-dryer, and she's just the type of character that you might find in some bad 1950s sci-fi movie, complete with tinsel hair. I understand that Venn's mother was supposed to be a "scientist," but Yinyay was just too much. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book. I just wanted the story to be over.
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