#iskryne

[nativemossy]

I just finished A Companion to Wolves (after adoring Sineala’s fic for literal years and years) and whoof, there’s a lot there, but i liked it enough to buy the other two books in the series! I love the premise, and the characters are engaging, but there’s absolutely some Stuff that isn’t Ideal, but thats ok i think

[oenomelous-blog]

“Women,” Tin said thoughtfully, as if tasting the word and finding it not entirely to her liking. “Females, yes?” “Yes.” “We do not have the word,” she said, gesturing him through a narrow doorway and into a small room which had been painstakingly hollowed out around a fountain, clear water rising from a cleft in the rock, a bench-like shelf around the walls. “/Women./ It is an odd word. Sit down, wolfbrother.” He sat, propping his axe beside him, and she hopped up nimbly to crouch beside him. “But you are female.” “Yes?” she said, looking at him sidelong, her eyebrows rising. “What do you … what do you call yourself?” “Svartalf,” she said. “Tin of the smith’s guild and the Iron Kinship. What else /ought/ I to call myself?” “I beg pardon,” Isolfr said again. “I do not know.”

A Companion to Wolves, Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

[cjk1701]

Started reading the Iskryne series by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. Liked the second book more than the first, so far. But frankly, I liked @dsudis‘ and @sineala‘s fic best of all, where wolfbrothers and -sisters are concerned.

[galaxygirlsladyknights]

An Apprentice to Elves - Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

Third Book in the Iskryne World Series.

My Rating: Really enjoyed it

Specific Genre: Fantasy

Blurb:  Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear return with the third book in their Iskryne trilogy, An Apprentice to Elves. The trilogy began with A Companion to Wolves, and continued in The Tempering of Men. This novel picks up the story of Alfgyfa, a young woman who has been raised in the Wolfhall by her father, Isolfr. The warrior culture of Iskryne forbids many things to women—and most especially it forbids them bonding to one of the giant telepathic trelwolves. But as her father was no ordinary boy, Alfgyfa is no ordinary girl. Her father has long planned to send his daughter to Tin, a matriarch among the elves who live nearby, to be both apprentice and ambassador, and now she is of age to go.

My Review: So, full disclosure, I have not yet read the first two books in the series! I would probably have understood more if I had, but regardless, it was extremely enjoyable! I am definitely going to go back and read the first two in the series, because there were so many great characters (including a trans character! yay!) and the writing was just great. I’ve loved books from both Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette (who also goes by Katherine Addison; she wrote the Goblin Emperor, my book of the year last year!) so it was great to read a book they wrote together, which included great things that I’ve come to love from them individually. 

For fans of: wolfish fantasy, stubborn women who won’t give up on their dreams.

I received a review copy of this book from Tor and that has not affected my review in any way. 

[bookwraiths]

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES

An Apprentice to Elves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Iskryne World #3

Publisher: Tor (October 13, 2015)

Author Information: Sarah Monette at: Website | Twitter

Elizabeth Bear at: Website | Twitter

Length: 320 pages

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Apprentice to Elves is a fascinating novel, where the multi-layered, mythical world is as much a star as the characters…

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[bookwraiths]

BOOK SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY: AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES

BOOK SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY: AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES

.

  An Apprentice to Elves by Sarah Monette and

Elizabeth Bear

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Iskryne World #3

Publisher: Tor (October 13, 2015)

Length: 320 pages

  Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear return with the third book in their Iskryne trilogy, AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES (A Tor Hardcover, $26.99, On-Sale: October 13, 2015). The third collaboration between renowned fantasy writers Bear and Monette, the…

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[dsudis]

I re-read Every Marine a Wolfbrother a while ago, and was reminded of the first time I read it. After, I immediately read A Companion to Wolves and really enjoyed it. Then I tried to read ACtW again, and I can only conclude that it was the high from your fic that carried me through it the first time, because wow was there some problematic shit there. Things that I enjoyed lots, sure, but also many bits I'd ignored the first time. But your fic is, if possible, even better with re-reads <3

Awww, thank you!

And, yeah, in the course of dragging the source material into the 21st Century I put a lot of thought into how modern institutions struggle to make this as sane and survivable for everyone involved as possible. (A lot. A lot of thought. So many nights spent staring into space contemplating boot camp instead of actually writing anything.) I spent a lot of time thinking about how consent works in the Every Marine a Wolfbrother universe, and how the rules around consent are carefully and deliberately taught and enforced and protected institutionally, and I like to think the distance between the modern professional military and the Old Ways in my fic, uh, helps to mitigate a lot of the problems I find when I go back and reread ACtW.

I mean, and also I was writing happy-ending slash on purpose, I think that helped too. ;)

[dsudis]

About a week ago I sent you an ask calling you satan for getting me hooked on GK nate/brad fic. Now. Dammit. I've finally finished your wolfbrothers series and. OMG. WTF. I had so many problems with those books but your stories were... great? transformative? unbelievably excellent? WHY? HOW? If there is something worse than Satan, it is you. YOU DIRA. YOU. OMG. I might not recover. EVER. UGH.

Thank you! And, ahahaha, let me just say I feel so much better about doing that than the people who read my series and then go "I love soulbonded wolves! I'm gonna go read the books!" and I'm like, "Umm. I wrote the fic for a reason. Good luck with that!"

Honest to God, when I first read A Companion to Wolves I had never felt so much like I was the exact target audience of the book! And when I then read The Tempering of Men--and when I went back and read ACtW in that context--I had never felt so much like the author was punishing me for wanting to read the thing I thought they were writing for me.

So I wrote some fic and fixed that for them. :D