The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff - review

The Wild Ways
Gale Women #2
Tanya Huff

******  (6 out of 6 stars)

cover - I'm not crazy about this cover, it's just personal taste.  There's nothing really wrong with it...except the art is weird (for me) on the woman's stance.  Maybe it's the way her arm looks.  Perspective is off.  I DO like the dragon shadow, though, and the way the seal is represented.  So the cover does kind of fit the story - except I don't remember where Charlie is possibly standing at the beach, staring at a hole in the mountain, but...is probably a representation - right? At least the girl has the right color hair. ;)


Man- I just love Tanya Huff's writing.  I don't know if there's anyone that can really compare, it's so original.  Subtly different than many writers out there.  Huff has written more series than I've read, but each book I've read written by her, I've loved.

The Wild Ways is the second of the Gale Women series.  This one features Charlie (Charlotte).  She is the cousin with Wild Powers.  Meaning she could go either way - evil or good, so the "Aunties" are always watching her.  One of my favorite characters in this novel is Jack, the other younger wild power.  Not only is he a wild power, but he happens to be a Dragon Prince.  He was introduced in the first novel (The Enchantment Emporium) and is a typical fourteen year old boy with the powers of a dragon...and a Gale.  Wow.

Charlie has been traveling, on tour with a country band when she gets called to tour with a former band, all friends of hers.  Things line up to make this possible without disappointing anyone and she's on her way.  When she's at the coast at one of the festivals the band is playing, the fiddler's girlfriend has been crying - incessantly.  This affects the band, so Charlie ends up helping out - turns out there are sealskins involved, corrupt oil company CEO and assistant and things are a bit of a mess.  AND an exiled Auntie is involved - another wild power - Catherine Gale.

Tanya Huff wrote a story that I read in just about 24 hours, mas o menos.  Between the magic, the charms, the smoke from Dragon Prince Jack, and the interplay between the cousins and friends, there isn't one 'bleh' moment in this novel. The setting is Canada and there are both hetero and same sex characters (along with bi), but nowhere is this done in an exploitive or judgmental way.  Very refreshing.

Charlie grows as a person and a Gale Wild Power, as does young Jack.  Made me want to find the first book for a reread.  Huff is definitely one of the best writers around.

Westward, Home - the final installment of the Into The West serial has been recently released.  Available at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and OmniLit.  It's a great final episode - with a good ending.  I bought my copy.  :)  Suitable for 13 and up.  I don't normally get into young adult fiction, but I enjoyed this a lot.  J.A. Campbell can sure write an interesting, good story.


In other news (haha, like what I do is NEWS!), I tried reading a scifi book....tried like hell.  I like SciFi, like it a lot...but I also like my SciFi light on the info dumps....Swear to god - there would be possibly a page of story...then came a few paragraphs explaining in way too much detail some, well - detail.  Then back to the story - only this time a few lines, then BACK TO THE EXPLANATIONS.  This went on for -no kidding- 88 pages.  When I realized that I was actually BORED ALMOST TO TEARS, along with having a feeling you get when you're forcing yourself to slog through a boring textbook.....just for the pieces of story inserted here and there I GAVE IT UP.  Put it aside.  When my stomach and chest feels like it's burning it's time to stop reading.  I was getting so frustrated-  So after taking a break right about page 33 to read Westward, Home! (which, by the way, has NO info dumps, or long boring passages),  trying again to read this particularly full of needless information (seriously, I tried like hell, to enjoy this story) I finally gave it up and went to The Ninth Circle by R.M. Meluch.  I read this book in a 36 hour timespan - with a break for sleeping and Castleville.  In comparison, it took me five days to get to page 88 of this other book.  Funny thing is - I've read a couple of other books by the same author - and I don't remember long boring passages.  I remember a good story, with good dialog.  It's possible that this book would get better if I slogged through toward the end - but I just don't have the patience.  


Ironically, The Ninth Circle is part of a series that I almost missed out on, because I didn't get into the first book right away.  I'm so glad I went back to that particular book, because it ended up to be one of the most interesting novels I read, and led me to read one of the most interesting series I've read in the SciFi genre.  Once in a  while, there is a bit of a info dump - usually in the form of discussions between people - but these are few enough that I still enjoy the series - and there are enough small nuggets of information that you know what's going on technically and politically.  AND - these conversations are made more palatable by the barbs or witticsms inserted throughout the dialogue.


SciFi series I absolutely can't get enough of is The Jenny Casey series by Elizabeth Bear; The Valor series by Tanya Huff, and now this Merrimack series by R.M. Meluch.
Urban Fantasy series?  too many to name

Reviews of Westward, Home!; Graveminder; and The Ninth Circle are in the works.  Now I have to figure out what's going to read well after reading near perfect fiction by talented writers.

lolcats

The Enchantment Emporium

The Enchantment Emporium



Tanya Huff



******


Tanya Huff writes quite a variety of books. Some of her books include what I think is considered high fantasy, and others are contemporary fantasy (if that's even a real term - it's real to me!). I wouldn't exactly call them urban fantasy, because these don't really fit the mold. There is magic, strong female characters (but not your average urban fantasy female character) and they are usually set in Canada. Makes sense, since Tanya Huff lives in Canada.

I liked The Enchantment Emporium SO MUCH, THAT I actually sent Tanya Huff an LJ message, telling her how much I liked her book. I've only done that with a few authors. I'm 50 years old, and way too old to be behaving like a fangirly reader! Nope! you won't find ME squeiing all over the internet (except for once in a while, a teeny little squee here and there, but then I'm properly embarrassed afterwards...)

The Enchantment Emporium is a novel with a large cast of characters...but you won't find your-self confused and wondering who is who. The thing is, there is one character that's really a group- The Aunties. They are the matriarchs of the family, and full of legend, strong magic and ego. I love them. At 470+ pages, this is a satisfying and meaty read. Even so, the minute I finished the book, I wished I was still reading it.

There are the Cousins...some are distant cousins, but they're all in the family and very connected to each other. In fact, everyone has a part to play in the regular rituals the family performs. Each of the cousins has their own unique magical gift. Not a lot is explained, and there are no infodumps, rather you learn a bit at a time bits and pieces of what the family does with their rituals, and how they power the rituals, and how they release the power.

The main character, Alysha Gale travels to her Gran's special shop after a family get-together. Later, some of her cousins come to her a bit at a time, but at first she's alone in a big city, far away from her family. This is a big deal, because the Gale family is usually very close and interconnected. In fact, when one of the females moves away, they are usually watched from afar to she if they are going rogue. While Ally at first feels lost without her family close to her, with time her feelings begin to change.

Anyway, Alysha's granmother has disappeared, and while minding the shop, Ally is determined to find out what has happened to her, if anything really has happened. During this time, she meets a man that she is strongly attracted too, meets some fae characters, makes new and strange friends and also begins to question the way Gales have always done things. What's really happening is she's coming in to "her own". The man she meets seems to have a hidden agenda, which Alysha accepts because she does also. She also comes to the attention of some dragons and a sorcerer. Both are ready to cause her severe harm at the drop of a hat, and yet they are also fascinated by her.

The novel had me chuckling all throughout. At the Aunties and their interfering ways, the charms that appeared on and in everything. The Charms themselves were almost a supporting character, it seemed that everyone was using some type of charm, and at times overwriting each other's charms. There were many varied magical items that were fun to read about. Unlike some books, where a quirky item is mentioned, and then forgotten, with The Enchantment Emporium when a magical item is introduced you get to see how it works quite a few times, it becomes a large part of the story.

Alysha ends up having to decide whether to fight off dragons from another world, or to allow them to go about their quest, and the dragons have their eye on Alysha also. Seems the dragons are quite interested in the man that Alysha is attracted to....more would be spoiling the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way Tanya Huff presented her characters, her plots and subplots and the way the charms, magic and the aunties were used throughout the story. The narrative was great, and the dialogue was wonderful. A lot of humorous teasing went on between the characters. A very funny, entertaining book about coming of age, female matriarchy, dragons, sorcerers, and relationships. A sequel featuring Alysha's cousin Charlie (a female) is in the works.

Reading Challenge
2010 Speculative Reading Challenge