I just finished “Wolf’s Blood”, the sixth and latest installment in the Firekeeper series of fantasy novels penned by Jane Lindskold. I’ve been following this series for the last two months or so, and it’s proven pretty interesting. Essentially, Lindskold tells the story of one Firekeeper, a feral human girl raised by intelligent wolves, who was found and brought back into medieval human society because it is thought she might be the missing heir to the throne. But that’s just the start.
Soon, with rival kingdoms at war, political skulduggery, sorcery and secrets hidden for generations coming to light, and even rising tensions between the humans who birthed her and the intelligent Royal Beasts who raised her, Firekeeper goes through a whole host of adventures in lands fascinating and foreign. What I really appreciate about this series is the depth of the world-building involved.
Lindskold may not always tell the most riveting or action-packed of stories, and the plot sometimes staggers along without being as smooth-flowing as some other writers, but the sheer depth and complexity of the thought that has been put into the world that Firekeeper inhabits is mind-boggling.Whole societal structures, belief systems, languages and syntax, geography, history and magic are created and viewed through the eyes of the simple girl who thinks she’s a wolf, and finds out that she’s something much more complex. The clash of cultures and worldviews is something that comes across very well, and it’s a treat to see how deftly that’s handled by the author. It’s a world that rivals Tolkien’s Middle-Earth for its depth and richness (with the possible exception of Elvish poetry).
And the author takes advantage of that excellently. Time and time again, Firekeeper and her wolfish companion Blind Seer are whisked away to foreign lands, where they have to deal with even more complex societies, where politics, magic and religion mix in strange new forms. More and more, with each successive book, mysteries about the world and the secrets behind the Plague that destroyed all magic-users generations ago are revealed. New societies of Man and Beast co-existing in different ways… and how Firekeeper acts as a catalyst upon the world, changing the way things work, bringing more of the world’s nations together, because she is separated from all of them. And her essential loneliness is shown to us too… a being in between the worlds of Man and Beast, belonging to neither and both at the same time.
Admittedly, the narrative is complex and can sometimes get a bit bogged down in political drama and the endless travelling between countries. It sometimes feels like the narrative of a MMORPG fetch-and-carry quest, where the main character constantly travels from one end of the world to the other, bringing messages and fighting battles along the way. Yet the sheer richness of the world and the mystery behind the magic is something that keeps drawing you back. If you can take the slow and complex pace, and enjoy the richness of the world, you’ll find this series an enjoyable one.
Wolf’s Blood feels like the culmination of the entire series, though the ending is predictably open-ended. But many beloved characters from the older books are brought back, every nation that Firekeeper has visited is helping in some way, and one of the biggest mysteries of the series has been solved. True, there is still room for expansion – knowing what happened is not the same as reversing the process – but the very fact that the two worlds are now connected once again gives hope. It feels like an ending… and Firekeeper seems to have accepted her relationship with Blind Seer. A satisfying stopping point for me. But who knows? If Jane Lindskold does continue to write Firekeeper stories, I wouldn’t mind going on to the next adventure of the wolf-girl.
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