Please don’t misunderstand I get what they were TRYING to do. In the beginning the writing was nice because of the descriptions and the prose but I quickly realized that the authors were not going to be kind to a gay reader like myself.

I realized at that point that I no longer trusted that the authors really cared about what they were writing and as a result my heart was no longer in the story. At one point he gets basically raped by about 7 or 8 men in rapid succession until he literally passes out, all for the good of his female wolf and their connection and so that she may get pregnant. He had a girlfriend at the beginning of the story before he left, he slept with countless women within the wolf camp, and he got a local village girl PREGNANT! (Why was all this even in a “gay-themed” piece of literature?) And in-between all of that he was basically getting rammed in the butt by his male peers, none of which encounters did he actually initiate or want (though it was easy for the authors to say that he got erect once it started happening, as though autonomic response truly equals desire).

Sure it was generally consensual (emphasis on the “generally”) but he basically just feared and tolerated being buggered by men. I felt that the sexual aspect was totally unnecessary and, as a gay reader, I felt that the homosexual element was insulting in a number of ways, chief among them being that it was never portrayed as something the main character actually desired. I feel as though the authors asked a whole lot of the reader in the way of suspending disbelief but gave very little pay-off for it.

Isolfr, now bonded to a queen wolf, Viradechtis, must learn where his honor lies, and discover the lengths to which he will to go when it, and love for his wolf, drive him.I hate to be this negative, but I’ll get right to the point, I simply did not enjoy this story. But the winter of Isolfr's bonding, the trolls come down from the north in far greater numbers than before, and the holding's complaisance gives way to terror in the dark. The wolfhealls are small, and the lords give them less respect than in former years. The people of this wintry land depend on the wolfcarls to protect them from the threat of trolls and wyverns, though the supernatural creatures have not come in force for many years. Isolfr is deeply drawn to the wolves, and though as his father's heir he can refuse the call, he chooses to go.

Contains mature themes.Ī Companion to Wolves is the story of a young nobleman, Isolfr, who is chosen to become a wolfcarl-a warrior who is bonded to a fighting wolf. Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear present the first novel in the Iskryne series.

A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette