But for now Njall has to come to terms with something more immediately difficult: sacrificing his worldly notions of honour. As soon as she crawls towards him, he knows that he would sacrifice his life for her.
Instead, when the alpha female Vigdis (the konigenwolf) gives birth to a litter of pups, Njall is immediately smitten with the fierce little bitch-puppy Viradechtis. But this wouldn’t be a fantasy bildungsroman if the hero simply came home again. His father’s only hope is that Njall won’t be chosen for the bond and can come back home, away from the corrupting influences of the werthreat. And yet the people fear them: there are scurrilous rumours about what these landless men get up to, and Njall’s father clearly believes the worst but an obligation is an obligation.
All that stands between these terrors and the common people are the wolfcarls: warriors who have bonded with the great trellwolves and devoted their lives to keeping the land safe. When Njall Gunnarrsson is sixteen, the wolfcarls come seeking their tithe of young men. He is the son of a jarl, a local nobleman, but status is no protection in these dark days, when trolls roam the forests and wyverns have been spotted in the mountains. Monette and Bear tackle the old fantasy cliche of human-animal bonding, which we see in books like the Pern novels, and fearlessly ask what it would actually be like to share awareness with another creature, especially if the bond of influence runs both ways. You have been warned. But let me explain the context, because that’s what makes the book so interesting as a story. They are well-written, but this isn’t a book for the prim, the squeamish or the homophobic. Monette and Bear, I discovered, don’t pull any punches with their sex scenes and, although they never quite reach the level of skin-crawling unease provoked by parts of Corambis, they were nevertheless frank enough to make my ears blush. I was also, by the end of chapter four, rather embarrassed and unsure quite where to look.
Third, but by no means least, The Iskryne Saga focuses on a fantasy culture rich with Viking and Anglo-Saxon influences, and I was intrigued. Second, I loved The Goblin Emperor, cautiously enjoyed the Doctrine of Labyrinths sequence, and was keen to explore more of Monette’s fantasy worlds. First, Heloise is a great admirer of both authors. We settled on this for several reasons, none of which had anything to do with the cover, I hasten to add. Ever since our joint reading of King Hereafter, Heloise and I have been keen to read another book together.
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