Customer Reviews

WOLF STAR Claidi Journals Book II

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

this book is inspirational. Tanith Lee's style of writing will really captivate your imagination, i think. I am very picky about writing styles, being a author myself, and i will only enjoy the style that is written easiest for the mind to imagine. Every good fantasy book needs basically five things: an intriging writing style, and unruly or loveable character, a romance, and indeniable action. Any book that lacks those five key elements isnt favorable, and almost all of Lee's books are some that i would HIGHLY recommend. And, if you like her style of writing, look up the name Lacie Perry on the little search bar at the top of your screen. Go ahead, do it; You'll be glad you did ;)

I enjoyed this book very much. Although it is not, in my opinion, the best of the Claidi Journals, it is a good read and I definitely recommend it for fantasy lovers! An exciting, intruiging beginning, tho it slows down towards the middle when she gets to the tower. However, things speed up a bit when Claidi finds herself trying to find out Venn's past and, at the same time, wondering if she's falling in love with him. Altogether, its an exclellent book with an interesting plot and, of course, a great heroine!

The Claidi Journals Series is one of my favorite. Tanith Lee illustrates beautifully every situation and can weave an intricate story that competes with the very best of books. When you read the book, you feel like you know Claidi like she's your best friend. Wolf Star was far better and more interesting than Wolf Tower. It had many more twist and turns that made the book even more entertaining. I recommend this book for a day when you're sick or you need something entertaining to read. It's not a book you'll want to put down until you're finished.

I'm sorry, I just finished reading this book about a week ago after looking for it for a very long time, and I'm frankly disgusted. I can't believe I went through the trials I went through to get this book after reading the first one nearly two years earlier!
The plot is unsurprising and dull, and you will not once feel any affection or loathing for the characters or their goals. The characters, plain and simple, are laid out HORRIBLY! I knew how the book was going to end literally HALF WAY THROUGH! Along with horrible literary effort, the cover is also just plain ugly. I truly don't recommend you buy this book, nothing happens. It seems Ms. Lee's series went fully rank after Wolf Tower, the first and much better book in the Claidi Journals series.

I was lured into reading Gail Carson Levine's 'Ella Enchanted" after hearing how wonderful it was... I was pleased with this book enough that I read it through twice... but I was still wanting for something.

Going through my local bookstore I pulled book after book, till I noticed 'Wolf Tower' had a note from Kirkus Review recommending it for fans of 'Ella Enchanted'... I am so glad I picked this book up... however, this is the second, not the first of the series...

The second picked up wonderfully from where the first left off... it flowed smoothly. The descriptions were very good, I can't bring myself to say wonderful due to the fact I felt left hanging at points, but I was able to close my eyes and see Claidi's world, or Ven'n's as it happened.

I love the character's Lee has created... Claidi seems to be everything a girl wants to be- brave, fairly intelligent, leading her own life, it's very appealing- Argul is an interesting one, that I feel I don't know very well at all, and Ven'n, he was an interesting one.. I could identify with him more than the others, perhaps it is that his mother favors my father... a depressing thought.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who likes storys of the downtrodden who, through trials, come out top dog. ;-) Not my best summary, but ah well.

This second book in the Claidi Journals was a bit of a let down for me. Delving right into this after completing Wolf Tower, the first book in the series, I was looking forward to new adventures with Claidi which would teach me about new cultures and ideas in her world. Instead I was forced to go with Claidi to this strange palace with moving rooms where very little happened beyond Claidi whining and making me start to dislike her. The unfortunate thing here is that the palace itself was actually pretty cool; the author just didn't use it well. Claidi could have had so many interesting adventures in that house, getting lost and stumbling onto truly interesting places, instead of dingy kitchens with big flying rats . . . I'm sorry but that just isn't as imaginative as I might like in a fantasy book. I wanted Claidi to use her brain and observational skills to figure out a pattern to the movements of the rooms, or develop some clever strategy to keep herself from getting lost, or really I wanted Claidi to do ANYTHING. Instead she let herself be led from one place to another meekly while she felt sorry for herself. She says at the beginning of the book that she doesn't want to stay at the palace, but she never really makes any escape attempts. One time she accidentally stumbles onto a way out, but she gets scared when there are large predatory animals in the jungle and she gives up. The biggest movement and action in the story, on a quest to navigate the rooms and find answers in the Library, is driven forward by Venn, not Claidi. In fact Claidi has very little interest in this effort at all.

Claidi also angered me because she seems to start questioning her feelings and devotion to Argul. We didn't get to see very much development in that relationship during the first book, which was fine with me. I didn't expect to see too much development because it WAS the first book. But it felt strange to me that they would be getting married right at the beginning of the book, and then horribly disloyal when Claidi gives up on getting back to Argul right at the beginning of the book. She left him once in the first book to try to be a loyal person to Nemian. To have her give up Argul again in the second book completely undermines that relationship.

Anyway, I read this book because I still believe the Claidi Journals are worth reading, but this book was a weak part for me, and I'm hoping Claidi redeems herself in the next one.

The unbelievable story of a young girl named Claidi who tries to find out who she is and the people that she meets. As the story goes on Claidi is enjoining her wedding day until she was kidnapped and lead to believe that she was being taken back to the Wolf Tower. Until the people that had taken her were instead taking her to a mountaintop palace. There she finds that the host had been lied to and that she had been spied on. The host of the palace named Venn had never been around people much and didn't know how to feel around them. Even with all this she would find that Venn and Argul her fiancé were closer then she thought and that all this had to do with the Wolf Tower. Also at the palace you learn that most of the people and animals are mechanical and that even that Wolf Star that comes up every night is too. Not to mention that the palace it self moves all over the place with in the cliff and that you have to be careful where you go in it. With all this you get everything from the point of view of Claidi who knowledge of everything is small but with what see knows is what helps her the most. Even with a host that goes from disliking her in a way falling in love with her the story goes on. She gives as much details as she cans and continues it through all of the books. In my mind this isn't the best of the series but it is a great one to read. So find out if she leaves the palace and finds Argul her love or if everything has changed forever. Read on and find out.