White as a Raven's Wing

InCryptid #6.3

by Seanan McGuire

Ryan and Istas have been dating happily for quite some time, and now it seems that they're ready to take the next big step: marriage. But what is normal for a tanuki is not for a waheela, and before she can make a lasting commitment in Manhattan, Istas must return to Kugluktuk to conclude her affairs in the world where she was born.

From the urban sprawl to the white wastes at the top of the world, Istas and Ryan will travel to answer the question of who she is and where she truly belongs. For no member of her family has ever gone into the thaw and remained there, and for the waheela, born as they are to the cold that never ends, a happy ending may seem to be impossible.

However this goes, it will be an ending.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Short Stories, Paranormal, Fiction, Ebooks, Speculative Fiction

44 pages, ebook

First published December 9, 2014

About the author

Hi! I'm Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I'm also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.

Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).

I do not check this inbox. Please don't send me messages through Goodreads; they won't be answered. I don't want to have to delete this account. :(

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that's the last of the Ryan and Istas shorties, at least for now (*crosses fingers for more*).

Man, waheelas have a brutal life. I'm glad Istas is changing her future with good choices and a sexy tanuki. :)

[Cass · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ryan is ready to take that next step in their relationship and he has asked Istas to marry him. She wants to be his wife and have his children but there's just one small thing she has to do before she can - return to her homeland and kill her other husband. It's time for Istas to face her demons once and for all so she can move on with her life but will Ryan still want her when he's seen exactly where she came from?

I've really enjoyed the Istas and Ryan short stories, they're such a great couple and even though they face a lot of challenges due to their different species they fit together really well. Although Ryan knows most of Istas' past she has never quite let him see the worst that the waheela have to offer and she's afraid that he'll walk away when he's seen her darkest side. She knows that she has to be honest with him before they move forward with their relationship though so one hellish journey to Canada later and she's ready to face her family for a final time.

I'm a little disappointed that this is the final story about this couple, not because I didn't enjoy it but because I'd like to see more of them. I think more than anything I'd like some closure with Ryan's family. Considering the way they treated Istas in the last short story I'd have liked to be shown them interacting with her in a positive manner. Of course I always love a good wedding too so I wouldn't mind an insider look at their big day either! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that Seanan McGuire decides to revisit the couple in the future.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book surprised me many times. I loved the rooftop picnic that started everything out, but then I think my eyes were wide the rest of the time.

I think this story showed both me and Ryan a lot more about Istas, ensuing that we love her even more.

I'm incredibly satisfied with the way it ended, and am hopeful for the future of the waheela.

[Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

2.7 - White as a Raven's Wing

4.5 stars

Part of the reason I rated this one so highly was the consistent alienness of Istas.

She is Waheela. She is not human.

It was easy to reconcile her otherness, b/c in her human form, she was also other. She was a bloodthirsty steampunk goddess, but steampunk is a human subculture, so while she was other, I thought I understood her.

I did not. And these last few shorties have done an amazing job of illustrating that point.

And now that Istas has taken care of her unresolved family business, I hope there will be happiness in her future.

[Brok3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet the family

I will begin by explaining what I'm reviewing here. Seanan McGuire has written a lot of short stories in The Incryptid Series. You can find a couple dozen of the older ones listed on the Incryptid Short Stories page on her web site. (Note, she has also published many stories through her Patreon site. They are not listed on the the Incryptid Short Stories page on her website, although many of them are listed in her bibliography.)

The stories are divided into groups, which can be divided into two supergoups: those that occur before Half-Off Ragnarok, and those that occur after. The first supergroup mostly concerns the early backstory of the Healy/Price family in the USA. The post-Half-Off Ragnarok stories are about the present-day (more or less -- 21st century) Prices and cryptids. It is this second group that I'm reviewing here. BE WARNED: spoilers for Half-Off Ragnarok follow.

These are the stories in question:
Verity Price and Dominic De Luca:
The Ghosts of Bourbon Street, free download from McGuire's web site
Snake in the Glass, free download from McGuire's web site
Swamp Bromeliad, free download from McGuire's web site
Waking Up In Vegas, free download from McGuire's web site

Antimony Price:
Blocked, free download from McGuire's web site
Bad Dream Girl, in the Anthology Glitter & Mayhem
Jammed, in the Anthology Games Creatures Play
Survival Horror, in the Anthology Press Start to Play

Sarah Zellaby and Arthur Harrington
IM, free download from McGuire's web site

Istas and Ryan
Red as Snow, in Anthology Hex in the City
Black as Blood, free download from McGuire's web site
White as a Raven's Wing, free download from McGuire's web site


Eliza
Balance, in Anthology Urban Enemies

The Verity and Dominic stories all take place after Half-Off Ragnarok and reflect the state of things as they were left at the end of that book. Half-Off Ragnarok had two main consequences for the future of the Incryptid world: Dominic De Luca is now irrevocably committed to Verity and severed from the Covenant. In fact, the Covenant believes he is dead, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Sarah, who damaged herself modifying the memories of the participants in Half-Off Ragnarok. So, there are the promised spoilers: Verity and Dominic are now a couple (this will come as a surprise to precisely no one), and Sarah has hurt herself badly.

Verity and Dominic are driving from New York to Portland in a rented U-Haul truck so that Dominic can be introduced to Verity's family. They are driving because Verity has a colony of Aeslin mice to transport -- not easily accomplished by air. Also, Verity is taking the scenic route, to introduce Dominic to various folks. The first story in this series, The Ghosts of Bourbon Street, is a crossover, in that it also belongs to McGuire's Ghost Road series -- you meet Rose Marshall, the main character of those books. Some other old friends show up: the Carmichael hotel in Chicago, and the Swamp Bromeliad in Buckley Township, Michigan. This series of stories ends as intended, with Verity introducing Dominic to her family in Portland.

Most of the Antimony stories have no obvious relation to the events of Half-Off Ragnarok. One may suppose they occur before that. If you have read the first three Incryptid novels you have sort-of been introduced to Antimony, because she features heavily in Verity's recollections of growing up, as the annoying little sister who excelled in such Price family staple skills as extreme survival, setting traps, and demolition. Now, introduced to Antimony in person, we see that she has complementary memories of Verity and Alex as the older siblings who her parents (in Antimony's view) always seemed to value more than her. Antimony becomes a roller-derby skater in these stories. A word about the anthologies: I read only one non-McGuire story. Several reviewers of Glitter & Mayhem, mentioned the story about the dancing princesses, so I read that on, too. It was OK. Jammed appeared in Games Creatures Play, which appears to be out of print. I couldn't easily get a copy, so I listened to the audiobook version. Survival Horror is in the Anthology Press Start to Play -- I read none of the other stories. The Antimony stores were a fun intro to Antimony, whom I now look forward to encountering in the novels. They also introduce her cousin Elsinor Harrington, whose father is an incubus, making Elsie a succubus.

That brings us to Antimony's other cousin, Elsie's brother Arthur (Artie). We have actually heard quite a bit about Artie in the novels because he and Sarah are hopelessly in love, and Verity also tends to phone Artie when she needs geek skills. IM is really all about whether Sarah is going to recover.

Istas is a kind of fun character. We met her in the Verity Price novels, where she works as a cocktail waitress at the place where Verity works, and fights at Verity's side. She's a sort of werewolf/werebear (as is her main squeeze Ryan). But what's fun about her is her very direct, uncomplicated way of thinking and speaking.

The final story, Balance, is about a cuckoo who, as far as I know, appears nowhere else in the Incryptid world. I didn't enjoy this story as much as the rest.

In summary, these stories are a good way to meet the Price/Harrington families. I give them four stars, except for Balance, which rates only three.

[Nyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gruesome but necessary. No lies, no secrets.

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

This is (so far) the last part about Ryan and Istas, but I would like to see more of them in the future. This story features Istas and the cruel world that she came from.

Interesting short read.

[Jenevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review first published on My Blog. Check out all my reviews there!

Ryan has finally proposed to Istas. She knows how important marriage and children are to him and she is willing to join him for these things but she also knows that to be true to those ideals she must first go home and confront her father who has claimed her as his wife after killing her mother according to the traditions of her people. It will not be easy, even harder with Ryan's insistence that he goes with her, but she can do nothing else if she is to honor their relationship even if it means her death trying.

Lots more into the culture of the waheela in this one which I really enjoyed. It's nice getting other perspectives into this universe besides those of the Price family (although I love those!). I hope we get more stories with Istas and Ryan. They seem an interesting pair to follow as they try to navigate a cross-species relationship.

[Erin (PT) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love the Ryan and Istas stories. I could easily read an entire novel about them. This story could easily be the end of their arc of stories, but I hope not. Istas is such an interesting protagonist and with Verity having left New York, I don't know if/when we'll see her again otherwise.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't really like the waheela culture/ life very much. It seems wrong and gross to eat your sister, wife, and kill your father. Glad that Istas and Ryan can get married now though.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 4 out of 5]

White as a Raven's Wing is another short story in the InCryptid Universe. What makes this story unique (in my mind) is that it doesn't follow any of the Price/Healy family members. No, it's about Ryan, a tanuki in New York. (I promise the first few novels in the series will give you his introduction).

It was fascinating to read a story from an InCryptid perspective, especially one we've known for a long time. Also, I adore Istas and Ryan, so I will never complain about another chance to see the couple.

You Can Also Find Me On:
Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks | Quirky Cat's Comics | The Book Review Crew | Monkeys Fighting Robots | Storygraph | Bookhype | Bookstagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Reedsy

[Nirkatze · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third (and last, so far) of the Istas & Ryan shorts. I read all three of these one after another, and think they could easily be read so after the first two Verity books without spoiling anything. The goings-on of the rest of the world don't really affect their story, so there's no need to wait.

This entry pulls on threads from the first two shorts and brings them to a nice conclusion. It's really interesting seeing where Istas came from, and learning more about the waheela--and that Istas isn't quite as much of an outlier as she's made it seem. Maybe in fashion, but not in modernizing or shunning the normal isolation of her kind. There's some action and Ryan even gets a tad--just a tad--more depth. Everything is wrapped up rather nicely, though I'd still really love to see more with these characters.

[Nerdy Werewolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In a world of alpha predators, we are the apex of tooth and claw and hunger. Our greatest enemies have always been ourselves."

Ryan & Istas again. This time, she's got to travel back home to kill some family. No big deal for a waheela. We get to know Istas far better in this story than any other so far and she may seem standoff-ish and extremely candid, but for her species, she's a downright extrovert. This story explains why.

[Cj Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The battle was much shorter than I anticipated. But I liked that Izzy walked so far back to her roots so she could escape.

This book speaks of abuse and trauma, and sometimes finding what it takes to break the cycle. In this case it was ripping out her father's throat with her teeth, which is not the most traditional means, but it was effective in this case.

I like Izzy, I wish we saw more of her.

[Ronnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm glad we got this after Red as Snow; it was very needed. I'm also glad we got so much more of Istas' family and background. Meeting her aunt was necessary in a way I didn't realize it was, and I'm so happy that her and Ryan are going to be married. My heart! My babies!

[fia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i suspected in the first novella what the deal with Ista's father was, and oof did I not want to be right. Really nice conclusion, even if I do wish there was more anyway. I just like Istas and Ryan a lot!

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this story! A bit violent, but pretty darned awesome!

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Izzy's world was screaming awful. Good story though with a weird background for Izzy.

[Roberta R. (Offbeat YA) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rated 4.5 really.

[Skye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored Issy and Ryan in the main InCryptid series, I mean, they’re both predators, but with vastly different family dynamics, and this shows in their actions. Plus, they go to bat for Verity multiple times, giving her the backup and support that she needs. Which, of course means that when I realised they have a few of their own short stories, I was pretty happy and hooked.

It’s fairly obvious from the beginning of this series that Waheelas are pretty scary and uncomfortable creatures, but this short story shows just how much Issy refrains from acting on her nature. That, and you know, how terrifying their family structure is. I kind of wish there were more moments of Issy beating people up in the bigger series – she’s is incredibly scary and tough.

I love that, although it’s kind of obvious that Issy is trying to scare Ryan out of a relationship with her, he sticks with her instead. He manages to see her for exactly who she is, not some idea of reality, and chooses to love her anyway. To me, this is the perfect indication of true love – understanding all of someone’s past and flaws, and loving them anyway.

I might have loved the creepiness of the Waheela family dynamics. And just this short story in general, but now I really want more Issy and Ryan. Mostly because I can’t wait to find out what a Waheela / Tanuka baby is going to be like…

[Kathy Davie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's one of Seanan McGuire's free short stories (PDF, MOBI, and ePUB) — 2.6 in the InCryptid urban fantasy series with the focus on Antimony Price.

My Take
Awww, Ryan asks Izzy to marry him, and she'll "return the favor" from "Black as Blood" by taking him home to meet her family.

Izzy is so cute, in her big wolf-bear waheela person. Her Lolita-style clothing. Her stilted speech. Her very literal interpretation of anything said to her.

Waheela culture also seems to be very poetic as Izzy goes all mystical at the drop of a hat. It's a fascinating contrast with waheela culture and Izzy herself. And waheela culture is, well, disgusting is a mild word. Really makes you appreciate what Izzy has done to fit in in New York.

The Story
It's the first time Ryan has brought a girl home to meet his family, and he's tense. He's tanuki, she's waheela, and a tanuki must mate and have children to build their species back up after the Covenant massacres.

The Characters
Istas "Izzy" is a waheela and the bouncer at the Freakshow. She's also considered an aberration because she fled the tundra, loves pretty clothing, and dislikes the mindless slaughter.

Ryan Yukimura is a tanuki and in love with Izzy. He's also a bartender at the Freakshow. Yukimura "Ako" Chiyako is his mother. His father, Paul is a human witch. Christine, Ryan's sister, came to New York.

Mary's Bar is...
...in Kugluktuk, Canada and lets customers in 24/7 — there's a "help yourself" sign. It also functions as a safe house for anyone caught out by the weather. Izzy's Aunt Miali runs the bar. Irniq and Siluk are her two brothers.

The Freakshow is...
...a highly specialized nightclub in Manhattan — a carnival-themed bar and burlesque club. Kitty Smith is the bar owner. Candy and her fellow dragon princesses bus the tables. Angel is the human bartender.

The waheela look like the First People of Canada in their human form while they look like wolf-bears in their animal form. The Covenant of St. George massacred the tanuki; the waheela fought back viciously.

The Cover and Title
The cover has a mystical feel in spite of the blood-washed lower third of the cover, the blue of the trees of the forest, and the white light surrounding a naked Izzy perched on a rock, huge snowflakes falling around her, as she considers her past.

The title is totally lost on me. What the heck does "White as a Raven's Wing" have to do with this short story?

[K.F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how i feel about this portrayal of Waheela culture and the whole "domestication" angle but honestly Istas voice comes through very clearly and gives her more consciousness than her voice through Verity--she's calculating but she loves deeply.

[Jessalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this Incryptid short story. it takes place after Midnight Blue Light Special & before Half Off Ragnarok.

It's about Istas the waheela, who is a bit of a mystery in the series. I liked that we were able to learn more about her and get information about her species, as well as be introduced to some members of her family.

Her boyfriend Ryan has proposed to her, but Istas has to journey back home to the cold North and settle some unfinished business in order to close up her past life and move on in the new life that she had created for herself with Ryan before the two of them can be formally married.

This is not what I would call a happy story, but it's satisfying in its own way, so be warned!

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad she finally killed her dad, but puzzled why her choice not to kill him two stories ago was treated as some kind of proof of her humanity. Killing a guy who killed his wife and wants to fuck his daughter and get her pregnant would not make one a monster by any reasonable human standards. Maybe this trilogy of short stories was meant as a deconstruction of the idea that killing a monster makes you a monster, but more likely it's just inconsistency in message. This particular short isn't bad, but the majority of it is pointless because she should have killed her dad two shorts ago when he showed up, chained her to a chair, and demanded she be his mate.

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh I love Seanan McGuire's work... The Incryptid series is probably my favorite. White as a Raven's Wing, is about Ryan and Istas, two of my favorite cryptids. Ryan is Tanuki and Istas is Waheela. Istas has to go back home and take care of some loose-ends before she can accept Ryan's proposal. This is the third story in this 'story arc' and I recommend that you read all three. Of all the stories I have I probably will reread these 3 the most.

Yeah, it's that time... But today I have an excuse! I just finished reading Seanan's new book Magic for Nothing, and when I finished it I wasn't ready to leave the world... Istas had a cameo in the new book and I just had to reread her story arc... and why not the story is available for free on Seanan's website...

[Shayla Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"“I wish to marry you, Ryan Yukimura,” I said. “I will be the first waheela with a surname of my own. But before that can happen, we must return to the high country, so that I can kill my husband.”"

Holy crap, did not see that coming.

Beautiful and stark and cruel, as is natural. Never forget that human society is far removed from natural in so many aspects....

[Dr susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

White As A Raven's Wing is available on Seanan McGuire's website for download. I love Istas and her love of lace, boots, parasols, and Ryan. I would read a book written about Istas, and White As A Raven's Wing gives readers insight into why Istas is the way she is.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was interesting if only to learn more about Istas's Waheela nature. I'm glad that she is domesticated, glad that she fought to have the rest of her family follow in her footsteps and glad that Ryan saw and accepted that part of her nature.

[Nilchance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Seanan's Istas stories. This one in particular hit me where I live.

This could provide a great wrap-up of the Istas short stories, but I hope they continue.