Customer Reviews

Wolf Who Rules

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I actually had to read this one twice before I liked it. I'm going to blame myself for that. I loved Tinker, and was jazzed when Wolf Who Rules was finally released, so I read it very quickly the first time, and almost immediately lost the plot. I was so disappointed, I re-read Tinker, just to remind myself how really great it was, then forced myself to go slowly, and read Wolf Who Rules again. The second time, everything fell into place.

The elves look human but their culture is so very alien, the shocks and surprises in this book happen without warning. The story takes place only days after the first book ends, and Tinker is having to get used to her new body and her emotional reactions after being finally saved from the Oni. The good guys are not always good, the bad guys are not always bad, and the wacky dreams Tinker is having are adding to the confusion.

It is a wonderful book, but not an easy one. Read it slowly, give yourself time to enjoy it, you won't be disappointed.

I went into this novel expecting it to be centered on the Title Character. I wasn't far wrong, however the execution of this theory was unique. It certainly gave us a much deeper insight into Wolf Who Rules (aka Windwolf) psyche. But not by following his character the way Tinker (the novel) followed Tinker (the character.) Tinker, herself, was still the main vehicle of the novel as she is plunged into the mystical world of elven life. life tended to get in the way of the physics as she had to learn to understand the complex relationships between the castes and kin of the elves and to a bewildering extent the tengu as well, in addition to her own newly discovered familial (or perhaps I should say genetic) relations. Struggling to absorb the different aspects of her life and new physiology (expecially her new magical/mystical vulnerabilities through her transformed elven genetics), Tinker takes us on a organic ramble through the elven country-side of Pittsburg instead of the scientific race that we gasped through in the first novel.
All in all WWR's was a highly interesting look into Windwolf's life (the life of a domi on elfholme) through Tinker's eyes. Different in flavor from the novel "Tinker" but a solid and highly enjoyable sequel.

Tinker is the genius human turned elf who is just realizing the repercussions of her plan to stop the Oni from invading both Earth and Elfhome by the smashing of the interdimensional gates which tie the worlds together. Unfortunately her plan, while having been moderately successful, has stranded the city of Pittsburgh on the world of Elfhome. More than that Tinker has discovered a large discontinuity, an area which seems to be in flux between the three (or more) worlds.

Wolf Who Rules, also known as Windwolf, is the elf viceroy who has fallen in love with Tinker, changed her to elf so as not to lose her to her human frailties, and has made her his Domi. All too aware of his responsibilities Windwolf finds himself constantly deserting his new wife while she is still trying to adapt to her new world and is trying to put right the world altering damage she has caused.

Wolf Who Rules is a delightful follow-up to the story Tinker. In fact, I believe I may like this sequel even better than its predecessor. Windwolf and Tinker are constantly torn apart by their respective duties and obligations but even without knowing they seem to be in tune and foraging towards a common goal. Tinker is also confused by her feelings for her sekasha, Pony, although the other elves do not understand her very humanlike discomfort in these feelings.

Filled with action, adventure, science, fantasy and romance, Wolf Who Rules has it all. My only complaints is that in the rare parts where Windwolf and Tinker are actually together it seems like the emotions are carefully glossed over, as though the author was consciously trying to keep the emotional depth to as bare a minimum as possible. In contrast the scenes betweeen Pony and Tinker resonate with more emotional depth. I would definately recommend Wolf Who Rules to anybody with a taste to fantasy/sci-fi mixes.

This could be a standalone book but you'll enjoy it more if you've read "Tinker".

We get more of a background on Elvish culture and their clan structure. Sure Tooloo shared her point of view with Tinker but she never tells the truth. Windwolf gives a more balanced view of what happened with the Skin Clan and how the domana and the sekasha came to be. Windwolf also gets to do some time as the main character and we get to 'hear' what he is thinking.

Tinker does some growing up in the short time that we're with her in this book. Space of about nine days with lots of action thrown in. She learns that her actions can have very negative consequences on those around her when she inadvertently causes the death of a former friend.

There's more on the tengu in this book as well. It really would be cool to be able to fly as they do. Tinker also agrees to have them be 'beholden' to her without understanding the full scope of how many there are of the tengu.

This doesn't feel like the end of a series but a nice further foundation laying of a new world to enjoy. I'll be checking Wen's LiveJournal to hopefully learn more about the next book - Endless Blue that may be the third in this series.

I ran across 'Tinker' on the Baen website and read it. When I learned that a sequel was on the horizon I could only wait with growing desire for it to come out. Wen Spencer has not disappointed me.

'Wolf Who Rules' takes up shortly after 'Tinker' left off. Now that Tinker has saved Elfhome she needs to repair the damage. The only problem is her dreams are coming straight out of the Wizard of Oz. Who are the tin-man, cowardly lion, wizard, and wicked witch in real life? Why is she dreaming about her mother who was lost on one of the exploration ships sent from Earth?

A great blend of fantasy and science fiction, this book is a must for 'Tinker' fans. If you haven't read the first book then do so!

Wolf Who Rules is the second book in a series that starts with Tinker. Although not as innocent as Tinker, remember Tinker was a slave to the Oni, this book is just as fun as the first book. I hope book number 3 doesn't take 2-3 years to come out like Wolf Who Rules did, but it is well worth the wait. Like her husband Windwolf, in High Elf he is named Wolf Who Rules thus the title, Tinker is now an Elf. She thinks she has succesfully destroyed the gates between Earth, Elfhome the homeworld of the elves, and the Oni homeworld, but a disturbance outside Pittsburgh won't go away and apparently keeps a window open to the Oni homeworld. Tinker musts close this window while fending off Oni; Tengu, a subspecies created by the Oni that mixes human and crow genes and allows them to fly, the 3 Elflords of the Stone Clan who are brought in to put down the Oni invasion; and protect the human citizens of Pittsburgh from the Elves executing Oni left and right. Oh yes she must also fend off 2 dragons as well.

Wen Spencer creates a fascinating blend of Western Elvish Mythology and Japanese and Chinese Mythology with modern technology and magic. Her charcters are very well developed, the twists and turns of the plot are very unpredictable and the pace is very intense. Windwolf's turning the human teenager Tinker into an elf and then marrying her has created lots of complications in Tinker's life, and this 18 year old child geniuse's struggles to bring her life back under control is fun to watch. I am also enjoying the development of human and elven societies' rules and regulations to live with each other is just as fun to watch as the story of Windwolf and Tinker.

The first book of this duology, Tinker, made me hunt up ALL of Wen Spencer's other works. The action and background are different than when Tink was human, and she seems more tentative in her new role as an elf, but naturally she comes through with flying colors (called dragons.) I admit without shame that I like books where the protagonist is successful. Don't give me dark tragedy and expect me to enjoy it; there's more than enough of that in the real world. If you liked Tinker, you will certainly enjoy this sequel.

It's really hard for me to quantify my feelings for this work. I absolutely loved the first volume, "Tinker," it struck so many chords. Wolf Who Rules tries to play a different tune, and this music is dissonance with Tinker's techy melody.

First, the author using dreams and lots of references to 'Wizard of Oz' and 'Alice and Wonderland' takes the novel in a surreal fantasy direction. Tinker isn't about surreal fantasy; she's about cold logic and outsmarting her enemies by lateral thinking. I kept waiting for the physics genius Tinker to rail against the mystic confusion, but instead she accepts it without analyzing it much. I felt like she should have put up more of a fight, at the very least quantification of her strange dream experiences into logical paradox.

The reason Tinker attracted me and kept me as a fan was her quirky, unique genius. This essence tries to be there in Wolf Who Rules, but I feel like I'm being told this instead of shown it. Tinker makes truly impressive leaps of logic, but I don't really feel her character. It's more like she's making the leaps because the plot needs to advance, instead of her innate ability shining through. I didn't feel the satori, like in the first book.

Without giving away spoilers, I'll say Tinker's family situation is explored more. However her emotional reaction to some of these revelations is not to think about them, and push them aside. Not thinking about something strikes me as contrary to Tinker's character.

While Wen fleshes out the world a good deal, and introduces an awesome new character in the blue-haired elf Discord, what really made the first novel sparkle was Tinker herself. Wolf Who Rules doesn't take Tinker's character far enough, and that's the element in the book I thought was missing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the story; it's just I had a strange dissatisfaction while reading. It's like Tinker wasn't herself strongly enough.

So if you like Wen Spencer as an author, buy it. If you loved the first volume of Tinker, I'd still advise you to buy it, but prepare for a less character driven story. Maybe wait for soft cover; while the novel was good, it wasn't five star material.

I was not happy about waiting so long to get this sequel. I thought Tinker was fantastic and was looking forward to this one. Wolf Who Rules is obviously about Windwolf, although the story was not centered around him as you would expect. Tinker still played a large part of this story. Spencer basically moved from Windwolf to Tinker as the chapters changed.

What was great about this novel was that the action never stopped and the characters, especially Windwolf, became more vivid and well rounded, Tinker makes major mistakes that she regrets dearly, the reader gets to learn more about Tinker's parents, and Pony's back. Gawd, he sounds sexy!

I'd rather not give anything away, so you'll have to read to find out more. What I can say is I hope this is not the end of the series.

Without giving away too much of the plot (I hope) Tinker discovers the secrets of the badlands, uncovers the mystery of her birth, forms a closer bond with Pony and her shekasa, learns more about her new husband's character, discovers a bit more about magic, gets into and out of several tight spots, and solves the mystery of her premonition. So far, so good, yet this book left me feeling empty after reading it, like something important but indescribable was missing from the story. Perhaps it's because I'm not too fond of that whole Wizard of Oz premonition thing that is so central to this plot. Yes, it makes all the puzzle pieces fit together but it's awfully formulaic to my taste. On the positive side, we learn a lot more about the elves, tengu, oni, and dragons. The characterization is quite good and the insight into elvin society and politics is great, particularly the symbiotic relationship between the shekasa and the domi. All in all it left me a little flat...it is an interesting story but if I had to do it all over again I'd have waited for it to come out in paperback.