The Tiger and the Wolf

Echoes of the Fall #1

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

In the bleak northern crown of the world, war is coming

Maniye's father is the Wolf clan's chieftain, but she's an outcast. Her mother was queen of the Tiger and these tribes have been enemies for generations. Maniye also hides a deadly secret. All can shift into their clan's animal form, but Maniye can take on tiger and wolf shapes. She refuses to disown half her soul, so escapes, rescuing a prisoner of the Wolf clan in the process. The killer Broken Axe is set on their trail, to drag them back for retribution.

Maniye's father plots to rule the north and controlling his daughter is crucial to his schemes. However, other tribes also prepare for strife. Strangers from the far south appear too, seeking allies in their own conflict. It's a season for omens as priests foresee danger, and a darkness falling across the land. Some say a great war is coming, overshadowing even Wolf ambitions. A time of testing and broken laws is near, but what spark will set the world ablaze?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Audiobook, Epic Fantasy, Adult, Shapeshifters

603 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2016

About the author

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off I have to say what everyone else says . . . This book is gorgeous. The spine is even beautiful!





This world was so different from anything I have read. But, it is Adrian Tchaikovsky and having reading a couple of his books thus far, anything goes.

This world is filled with shifters and clans and rituals, so many things.

I loved Maniye (Many Tracks), Broken Axe, Hesprec, and Loud Thunder so much. There are a few others as well.

Maniye is a wolf/tiger shifter. Her father is the leader of the pack and he mated with the queen of the tigers. There is a whole lot to that story. One you need to read for yourself and realize the horrible position Maniye is put in with her family.

Hesprec is a snake shifter that Maniye takes up as a friend as well as Loud Thunder the bear shifter. Broken Axe is a lone wolf within her pack and he's not what he seems at all.

This is one of those books that I can't put my feelings into words about. Some of it broke my heart so bad. And some of it has me wondering what is going to happen. Are people going to be brought back? And what form will that be?

Either way, I enjoyed most of the book and I hope the next two books don't break my heart.

Happy Reading!

Mel ♥

MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List

AMAZON: REVIEW

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“She had three skins; none of them fitted her, and two of them were at war.”

It’s not Adrian Tchaikovsky’s fault that I shamelessly prefer science fiction to fantasy; that I keep looking for those tell-tale clues in fantasy books that suggest that all that magic is just sufficiently advanced technology, given the air of mystery by society’s regression to pretechnological levels.

Well, this is NOT that kind of story. It’s fantasy to the bone, but done meticulously and thoughtfully. And it’s good.

“That is how people are. Once they have food and drink and shelter, the next thing they must find is a quarrel.”

It’s a land of Iron Age tribes of shapeshifters, with everyone being able to Step into the form of their tribe’s totem animal - the Wolf, the Tiger, the Horse, the Bear, the Crocodile, the Eagle, the Dragon, etc. In the North, the Crown of the World, the Wolf tribe led by an ambitious chieftain had subjugated the Tiger tribe before, but the chief’s plans are disrupted when his daughter, a result of the rapes of the Tiger queen who was then ordered to be killed, refuses to act like an obedient tool in the chief’s hands.

“If he had asked for her agreement, she might have said yes, and been forever after bound by her own word. He took her consent – her subjugation to his plan and his will – as a given though. He never asked, and so never extracted that agreement from her.”
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‘My father,’ she murmured . . . but of course he was not her father, he had never been her father. He was only the man who had tried to make her his.

Maniye in the meantime not only has the soul of both of her gods - the Wolf and the Tiger - but those souls are at war for dominance inside her mind. ‘I have too many souls, and they’re tearing me apart,’ and it’s not just a metaphor.

And it’s not just the story of a young person rebellion and soul-searching. There are hints of politics. There are alliances built and remade in this very brutal and cruel world where survival is not easy. There are greater forces at play in a world expecting war. There are painful choices when it comes to belonging and loyalty, friendship and sacrifice, freedom and obligations.

‘The Wolf I follow is in here.’ Broken Axe tapped his chest. ‘He wants no sacrifice. He needs no man to die in agony by fire. He wants the clean joy of the hunt, the fresh snow, the wide sky and the moon. He wants a simple life that isn’t stained by other men’s ambition and greed.’

It’s a very vivid and complex world that Tchaikovsky crafts masterfully, without ever resorting to the pitfalls of infodumping and overdescribing. He makes the tribes distinct, balances a few distinct cultures, bring in the sense of history to the world he created. And true to his love for biology, he is shapeshifter tribes follow zoology quite well.

Its a book heavy on battles and combat, which may or may not be your jam. Battles and fights are vivid, described in a way that can be easily visualized - and that makes sense, but at times it did get a bit too much. And it starts with a slow setup, building up for a while until exciting things start happening - which also may be a turnoff to a few readers. The payoff is good — but it does take a while to get there, and unlike in his science fiction stories I did feel the weight of the pages it took before we got to the end.

“Looking back, she could see that the actual privations she had thought she was escaping were small things. She had lived a life where she was fed and sheltered; not a thrall, nor fending for herself. But when she had rescued Hesprec and fled, she had unwittingly broken out from a different prison: a prison of no choices. She had defied her father, and in doing so had become someone for the first time.”

It took me a little while to warm up to it, but after the first quarter or so, after the set-up was done, it was easy to get through, and it remained nicely original throughout — and even the umpteenth warrior duel could not quite break the spell. It’s a slow burn, but ultimately worth it. And the characters are trademark Tchaikovsky, with dimension and weight to them, and an interesting variety of them. But among all the shapeshifters and totems there may be a dinosaur feel at times — but no spiders or other multilimbed creatures? Who’s this guy and what has he done to Adrian we know and love?

All in all, an interesting read even if it wasn’t my favorite Tchaikovsky SF. But for fantasy it was quite good.

4 stars.

‘There are two ways of seeming strong: to build yourself up or to throw all others down. But only one of these is truly a way of being strong.’

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Also posted on my blog.

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Recommended by: Phil

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review first posted on Fantasy Literature. But first, let's take a moment to admire one of my favorite book covers ever:



The Tiger and the Wolf (2016) immerses you a Bronze Age/early Iron Age world, where every human is a shapeshifter. People divide into clans according to the animal they change into, which happens instantly and, for the most part, at will. Their shapeshifting animal informs their clan’s physical appearance as well as the nature of their society. It’s a brutal life, with the stronger tribes like Tigers and Wolves fighting for supremacy. Groups like these dominate the weaker clans like the Deer and Boars, using them as subject people, servants and thralls, and even human/animal sacrifices.

In this harsh world, Maniye, a girl of the Winter Runner Wolf tribe in the northern area known as the Crown of the World, grows up isolated and friendless. Though her father is chieftain of their Wolf pack, he is distant and disapproving. Her mother was the queen of the Tigers, captured by the Wolves during the Tiger-Wolf wars and forced to marry Maniye’s father, Akrit Stone River, for political power. Akrit promptly had her killed off as soon as she produced a child. Because of her dual heritage, unlike most, Maniye can shapeshift or “Step” into the shape of either a Wolf or a Tiger, though only the Wolf priest in her tribe is aware of her secret.

Her dual spirit animals, however, cause issues with fitting in and conflict within Maniye’s soul, and in a moment of personal triumph she’s ready to disavow and bury the Tiger part of her and become pure Wolf. But hard on the heels of that proud moment comes her callous father’s disclosure of his plans for her, which finally pushes her over the edge. Maniye goes on the run, taking a Snake priest ― the Wolves’ latest planned sacrifice to their Wolf god ― with her. Her outraged father sends Broken Axe, his best hunter and his intended husband for Maniye, after her. As Maniye twists away from her intended fate, her actions cause ripples in the Crown of the World, and eventually not just the Wolves, but others, are seeking to capture her.

It’s a cruel but fascinating world, and Maniye has had a bleak life. As she travels, she finds loyalty and friendship, but also terrible brutality. She also finds that she can be much more, in both understanding and abilities, than she ever imagined. To some extent The Tiger and the Wolf is a coming of age novel, but it’s far more than that.

It’s a world where beliefs that initially sound like superstitions ― your name has power that can be taken from you; if you die in human form rather than in your animal form, your spirit may wander forever and be lost ― turn out to have a solid basis in fact. If you are collared around the neck, whether by a rope, a torc or the arm of an enemy, you are instantly forced to shift into human form and to stay that way until your neck is free. The animal gods worshiped by each tribe really do keep an eye on their doings, and will intervene if sufficiently motivated.

The worldbuilding here is impressive: There’s a clear echo of various historic Native American cultures in most of the tribes we see up close, but also a glimpse of some different cultures as well, suggesting that in the south there may be South American, African, or other influences. Each tribe is culturally distinct, some (the Tiger) with matriarchal societies, others (the Horse) with a trading-based culture. There’s a sense of history as well: bygone civilizations that built cities of carved stone; stories that once all people could shift into multiple animal shapes; tales of the Plague People that drove people to a new land; spiritual leaders foreseeing a time of war and great troubles to come.

It was an old tale, and she had heard it many times, in various incarnations. Not like this, though. Grey Herald spoke as though it was a true article of faith to him, deeply and directly relevant to every day of his living. This ancient tale had no dust on it, for him.

In the same way, The Tiger and the Wolf may be a story set in an ancient type of setting, but the themes it explores ― thirst for power or revenge, forgiveness, honor ― are relevant to each reader. This tale has no dust on it.

The Tiger and the Wolf didn’t appeal to me as much as Adrian Tchaikovsky‘s last novel, Guns of the Dawn, which hit my personal Jane Austen-esque sweet spot, but I tend to think that’s a limitation of my own tastes. This was a very different type of fantasy, set in a somber, conflict-driven world, with innumerable hand-to-hand fights (though: shapeshifting fights!), and with a deliberate pacing that at times can start to feel slow. I almost bogged down and gave it up, but in the end I’m very glad I didn’t. For the right reader, this is definitely a worthwhile, epic read. The sequel in this two-part series, The Bear and the Serpent, has just been published, and I hope to read it soon.

Initial comments: Wow, this book was a change of pace. It's a little slow in places, in that epic fantasy kind of way, and I almost bogged down and gave it up, but in the end I'm glad I didn't. I don't think this will be everyone's cuppa tea, but those who enjoy this type of book will really like it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review. Thank you!

[Mayim de Vries · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Do not let your strength become your weakness.”

Tchaikovsky’s hallmark triad of quality: unconventional worldbuilding, intricate characterisation, and a profound zoological knowledge once again serves as a springboard for a fantasy tale like no other I have read.

If you are tired of the ever-multiplying Middle Ages derivatives and the ubiquitous Eastern-inspired civilisations, you should be thrilled by the Crown of the World inhabited by shapeshifting tribes of the bronze/iron age. Normally, I do not enjoy shapeshifter stories in their urban fantasy variety as they are usually a poor excuse to introduce some alpha male or two. Luckily for me, Mr Tchaikovsky developed stepping into the animal form into such a fascinating variation of shapeshifting, enhanced by his zoological prowess which provides a solid factual foundation, that I was enthralled from the very beginning. Behind this ability is a dramatic history of conquest and loss, mostly forgotten epic struggle that provides a wider setting for the tribal microcosm. Each tribe has its own animal totem: there are the Wolves and the Tigers, the Laughing Men (actually women) of the Hyena, the lazy Lions, the wise priests of the Serpent, and the entrepreneurial Horse as well as the introvert Bear. The quirks of each species are woven into the daily lives and habits of the tribes but are also reflected in individual protagonists, creating unique hybrids of the human and the animal traits in a wonderful diversity of mythologies and traditions. Even the names (Quiet When Loud!) are a testament to Author’s ingenuity in this regard.

Naturally, one does not create compelling, relatable protagonists by merely naming him or her. Here comes what Mr Tchaikovsky excels at when he is not writing a space opera, that is writing multi-dimensional characters, made strong by their own flaws and at the same time vulnerable due to their inability to conform to dichotomies.

“I am both. If I was only one, I would be just half of what I am. How can I be asked to choose?”

This is important, because the main female lead is an in-between girl. And if I am not head over feet in Maniye as of yet, I cannot deny that THIS is how one creates an in-between protagonist (not like it was attempted in the awful Ten Thousand Doors). Manyie, a daughter of a murdered mother and a power-hungry father, is a sullen and closed girl. She does not have any special gifts aside of one that makes her rather a misfit than a hero potential. She is the Wolf but she is also Other, a child of three shapes with two of them at permanent war. But how to chose one over the other? A right eye over a left one?

‘A girl of talents, of significance? Has she magical powers? Or is she so beautiful that men would give their all for her? Or a great warrior perhaps? Or beloved of the gods?’
‘None of that. Just a girl.’

The above of both true and not true. As she is her own cage, Manyie needs freedom, a world where she is a tribe of one. But as she flees the only man she fears, Maniye starts a journey of self-discovery only to find out that she really is not that special (which is great after a whole life spent as a village freak). In the book things do not happen because of her but rather around her and only converge in-between what she is and what she could become (and there are many possibilities!). With my inherent aversion to special-chosen-snowflakes, I found that very refreshing.

The male protagonist, Asmander, the Champion of the Sun River Nation, is a dark-skinned River Lord youth accompanied by Venater, a deadly pirate thralled to his service. Asmander is a blade which his ambitious father wields to gain more power. Venater, a notorious but failed pirate, characterised by obnoxious habits, acerbic quips and a thirst for a bloodbath, reminded me of Nothing a bit. Asmander needs the Iron Wolves; iron is something only this tribe can carry on them when stepped which gives them incredible leverage against any foe. This prompts his suicidal journey to the North.

“He had come to treat with the heart of the north but found it had no heart.”

You think you have seen it already? A paragon of the clan who always does what is expected of him versus and outcast who constantly disappoints? You smell a romance? You see a comeback against the parallel fatherly ambitions? Do not be too hasty for Mr Tchaikovsky has surprises in abundance both of them face too many choices and have too little understanding to avoid disasters along the way but Manyie must choose or go mad and Asmander must choose and stay true to himself.

There was less Asmander than Maniye, and I hope that this will be changed in the books to come because as much as it is easier to squeeze a good tale out of a rebel, I wonder what Mr Tchaikovsky can achieve with a boring character of a good if a tad dangerous boy. Although my altogether favourite character, aside from the Broken Axe, was the Serpent priest Hesprec. In the world of tough warriors that is dictated by the survival of the fittest, a toothless elder is refreshingly out of character.

The Tiger and the Wolf is a slow-burn, and an exquisite one (the writing style! so elegant!) but after Guns of the Dawn I knew Tchaikovsky can write those like no other. What can dissuade some readers is the fact that the book could probably be shorter. Simultaneously, I was so comfortable with the pacing and didn’t have the feeling that the story is dragging or that the young protagonists are annoying, especially that there was virtually no romance (I am not disappointed, only wondering because I felt absolutely NO sparkle between the two MCs so I wonder how it is going to be born, and I assume it will). There were some very transparent things, quite easy to divine like the question of Maniye’s parentage or the fact that in the end, Venat will come to the rescue but the rest was so wonderfully entangled that I didn’t even mind violating some of the iron (ahem!) rules of fantasy bringing Hesprec back from the dead because it really does make sense that the snakes shed skins!

Definitely recommended to people of all shapes and totems.

Also in the series:

2. The Bear and the Serpent ★★★★☆
3. The Hyena and the Hawk ★★★★☆

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks goes to Netgalley!

Really a 3.5

This is my second Tchaikovsky, and it certainly won't be my last, but I'm struck by just how different his finely crafted SF is to his Fantasy. And I'm not saying that his Fantasy is poor. Not by a long shot.

But I think I might have been the wrong audience.

Iron Age tribes dominated by a whole world of humans who can shapeshift isn't a bad concept, mind you, and having a dual nature of Tiger and Wolf is a great conflict, especially since the two Great Tribes had not long ago had a war and the enmity sits heavy upon both.

All in all, the underlying story is good, focusing upon the themes of freedom, whether from a warring internal nature or the needs and expectations and failures of one's family. It's solid.

Where I have a problem with the book is its pacing. A lot of setup occurs at the beginning, with a whole lot of nothing going on and very little to keep it interesting. And then when things do start to move and our MC moves out with the help of a wise serpent, all things are fine in the world. Plenty of conflict, danger, tension, and personal growth. My second problem may be entirely a personal one, but there was a hell of a lot of fighting going on, and it tends to bore me unless there's either serious character development coming along for the ride, some seriously snappy dialog, or a MAJOR plot development, and then, it ought to be to the point and/or lyrically beautiful for me to stand up and applaud.

If you are one of those readers that loves tons and tons to battles featuring shapeshifters of tons of breeds, be it wolves, tigers, alligators, bears, horses, and a partridge in a pear tree, then ignore everything else I've written here. THIS IS A BOOK YOU'LL LOVE.

Hell, even I think it would have been a fantastic book that I'd have loved if it had come with some serious omissions (less battle filler), quicker real plot developments (less substitution of battle for the sensation of progress), or even giving us the end of the novel as the middle, and give us the REAL conflict and story progression from the point of the epilogue.

I loved what finally happened. It felt right and good and quite satisfying. I just have to wonder if this book is indicative of his other Fantasy titles, if he's trying something new, or if this was just a slip.

Either way, it was still a pretty solid read, it just had elements I didn't care for.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

Maniye belongs to the wolf clan, yet she has never really belonged, outcast as the only daughter of the sonless wolf king and a deceased mother of the tiger clan. As she struggles with the loneliness and sorrow warring inside her, so too do the split sides of her soul begin to clash. Is she a tiger or is she a wolf? Or is she just Maniye, a lost girl doomed to madness if she fails to choose a side?

This book largely focuses on Maniye's personal struggles, but this also leads into an examination of the politics that rule and also sever this unique kingdom. The clans are diversified by the animals that represent them and the differing cultures within them. As Maniye ventures beyond the confines of her home clan, these are further explored with intricate focus. Their differences lead to political strife that Maniye becomes an unwilling central figure of. Despite now finding herself surrounded by new individuals, she is still as lost and as lonely as ever, however.

I adored all aspects of this convoluted story-line, but most important for me was the close examination of emotion that went alongside the political scheming and brutal action scenes. Cruelty abounds and grief features predominately. Seeing the character overcome their emotional burdens to thrive in this harsh world was empowering to read.

This is the fourth Tchaikovsky book I have devoured this month, and so far he has yet to do me wrong! On to book two!

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

You've probably heard it all before!
Once upon a time, in a faraway land where gods still walked among men, a teenage princess (let's call her Maniye) runs away from her authorian father who wants to arrange a political marriage for her. In another country, a young prince (let's call him Asmander) is admired by everybody except his ambitious father for his integrity and his prowess in combat, so he sets out on a quest to prove himself once and for all worthy of a father's pride.

Let me guess: You think they will meet, fight a little with each other and then fall madly in love, while saving their respective kingdoms from an evil overlord! Well ... the answer is both yes and no: there are plenty fantasy tropes in the story, but Tchaikovsky manages to infuse it with his own personal style - a combination of fascination for biology and a keen interest in live-action role playing. The Young Adult flavor, the complex magic system geared towards player vs player duels and the lively pacing reminded me more of Brandon Sanderson than of the "Shadows of the Apt" series. Before I try to write a synopsis, let me say up front that I prefer Tchaikovsky to Sanderson, enough so to automatically add some stars to what is a thrilling debut for a new epic fantasy series, but not really a masterpiece by any objective metric. It's a personal favorite of 2016, but I suppose readers who are not so easy to please or are not already a fan of the author will give it a lower rating.

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Let the Eyriemen talk about the might of the open sky, its storms and keening winds. Let the Deer and Boar tribes talk of the growing earth. Wolf was winter, which meant at the same time that Wolf was fire. Fire was ever hungry, so was Wolf; fire was life and death in one, so was Wolf. Fire had secrets; fire was magic stolen from the sun by that star-coated wolf up in the heavens.

The gaming board is a world still young, something between Robert E Howard's Hyborian Age and J V Jones' frozen tribal lands from "Sword of Shadows" . People are organized in family clans, each with its own shaman and totem animal. Stone Age technology coexists with Bronze Age and with the start of the Iron Age. The technological distinction and the totem deity will establish the interactions (mostly war) between tribes. Wolves are pack animals and have the use of fire, so they have stronger swords and armour and better tactics for pack hunting. Tigers have stealth, bronze daggers and Shaolin-style training, but they hunt alone. Hyenas are opportunists, rogues with powerful muscles, but prone to run away from direct combat. Bears are the strongest clan, but they are few in numbers and anti-social. Snakes are very good at magic and political infighting. Horses are good at travel and trading, and they are very loyal to family. Boars, Deer and other herbivores are slaves or thralls who serve the predator clans.

All the clans have the ability to "Step" into the body of their totem animal - shapeshifting that transforms them into werewolves, were-tigers, were-bears ... you get the picture. In the animal form they get all the sensory and the motion advantages of the beast while maintaining the higher brain functions of the human. This is a nifty ploy when you write an action adventure, but it is also one of the breaking points for readers who find it hard to suspend disbelief, in particular when claiming that clothes and weapons shapeshift together with the person and that the process is faster than a click of your fingers. Once past this stumbling block the story gets easier to follow.

Before I get to the main characters, I have one more observation to make: all role-playing games have regular soldiers and heroes. Here the heroes are called Champions - usually one for each totem animal, but some people can control more than one shape. The were-form of the Champions is bigger, faster, stronger and closer to the primeval ancestors of each totem. Think Jurrasic Park instead of Stone Age and you get the idea.

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As I said in my introduction, the plot is not the main selling point of the series.
Maniye is the only daughter of the aging chief of one of the Wolf clans. He wanted boys to follow in his footsteps, but all he has is this frail, reclusive, taciturn 12 years old girl. a girl who is not even a full-blood Wolf, but half Tiger from her mother side. The Wolves and the Tigers are arch enemies for control of the Teeth of the World - the tundra like northern part of the continent. Maniye is not the offspring of a secret passion between enemies, but the result of the rape of her mother (none other than the Queen of the Tiger clans) after she is made a prisoner by her future father. Despite passing the rite of passage to be made a full member of the Wolf tribe, Maniye is driven into exile when she finds out her father plans to marry her to one of his accolites and then use her to attack the surviving Tigers.

The rest of the novel is mostly about Maniye running through forest and swamp and mountain, chased first by Wolves and then by Tigers, Eyriemen and other assorted were-animals. Some (few) are friendly towards the runaway, most are only seeking the best way to use her. A couple of years of running around the hostile territory will help Maniye discover her hunter name ("Many Tracks"), her true were-nature and her future destiny. This rite of passage journey may not be very original, but it is filled with battles and surprisingly poignant in the painfull lessons it must impart. I knew from earlier books that Tchaikovsky can write extremely endearing characters, and Maniye is an easy one to cheer for, even if occasionally I felt the whole point of the chase was to pack as many duels between Champions as possbile within the given timeframe.

Speaking of Champions, I almost forgot about Prince Charming, aka the Crocodile Champion named Asmander. He leads a band of travellers from the far south of the continent where his riverland empire is on the verge of civil war between the twin heirs to the throne. Asmander is on a mission to recruit the fabled Iron Wolves, reputed to be the fiercest warriors in all the lands, in support of his chosen candidate. His right hand 'man' is a pirate that he defeated in hand-to-hand combat and has as a totem a Dragon.

Maniye and Asmander meet and interact in this first volume, but the expected romantic interest between the two youngsters is delayed for a later episode. In the meantime they mostly fight - both as allies and as adversaries. No surprise here, everybody fights everybody in the Teeth of the World. It's how you find out who the survivors are, how the steel is tempered. The Gods help those who help themselves, as the Wolf Shaman Kalameshli explains:

The Wolf does not help. The Wolf wants us to be strong. We cannot be strong if we live our lives on crutches. The Wolf chases away the summer stars and brings the winter: you know this. The Wolf sends the ice and the snow, and makes the game scarce. And the other tribes grow weak, as they shiver by their fires, and only we remain strong..'

Instead of going into detail about the numerous plot twists and betrayals, I will end my review with a quote from my favorite character in the first episode, a lone wolf who chooses to live without a pack in oder to follow the voice of his conscience. I believe Broken Axe is a better role model for Maniye and Asmander than the vicious clan leaders bent on power games.

The Wolf I follow is in here.' Broken Axe tapped his chest. 'He wants no sacrifice. He needs no man to die in agony by fire. He wants the clean joy of the hunt, the fresh snow, the wide sky and the moon. He wants a simple life that isn't stained by other men's ambition and greed.'

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Recommended for fans of action oriented role-playing games and of Planet Earth documentaries. Until J V Jones manages to finish her excellent "Sword of Shadows" epic, if ever, I will look forward to the next installment in the perilous journeys of Maniye and Asmander.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... “That sound spoke of ages, great stone volumes of history that had come and gone, filled with the lives of men who thought that their 'now' was the only now that mattered. -pg 329”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Tiger and the Wolf..."

I just finished reading this first book in a trilogy by Mr. A. Tchaikovsky, and I really liked it, despite having some minor issues with it. I am fascinated by the world and even enjoyed the slow development of the story, which feels very deliberate and a good mix of emotional and storytelling elements. The shape-shifting is based on a very understandable idea and apart from the ease with which the characters "step" from one shape into another, I think I can get behind this idea of the different souls with enthusiasm.

"... “Our words are not just solitary stones thrown into the night. With our words, we build. What sways the heart is the sum of all the words that went before.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Tiger and the Wolf..."

The book is constructed as an introduction not only into this Iron Age world full of clans of humans, who also carry within them the soul of an animal typical for the regional environment, but also as a set up for a big event soon to come, most probably a war, but the adversaries are yet to be determined. This upcoming gloom and doom casts shadows over the whole continent and clans from different parts of the North, Midlands and South are looking to establish alliances. In that macro scope, the author introduces us to one of the most microscopic in influence character - a young girl who lives in her father's clan of Iron Wolves and is only trying to survive without bringing notice on herself. In her experience, notice usually comes with pain, belittlement and abuse. But being the daughter of the clan's chief, and having been born of the union between a wolf and a tiger, she is hard to ignore, as insignificant and pathetic as she might seem. Living with both animals' souls in her body, the time has come for her to choose one, or the battle within her will drive her insane and tear her apart. Also, her father has some plans of how to use her to his best advantage. Thus the story begins.

"... “It was all the world would offer her, and she had seen enough of the world by now to know its meagre generosity. -pg 350”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Tiger and the Wolf...."

It is a coming of age story, but it is also a study on human interaction told by Tchaikovsky the best way he can - by looking at it through the lense of our animal siblings... This is when he shines the most. And despite it being a tad too slow moving, the story was hypnotic and engaging. I really want to know what this whole set up was all about and am looking forward to the next book in the series. I think the book is appropriate for most readers over the age of 12... There is violence, but I found it congruent with the story development and nature of the characters. Nothing gratuitous and no sex (some veiled references to abuse)...

"... “There are things you must do, and things you must not do. We know this. You river people find it so complicated, so hard to tell one thing from another. You use so many words.'
'Loyalty. Duty. Family. These are just words to you?'
'All words are just words. They are not the things they are used for.'

-pg 472 & 473”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Tiger and the Wolf..."

Now I wish you all happy reading and may you always find what you need in the pages of a good book! 🙂

[Twila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adrian Tchaikovsky has to be one of my most welcome discoveries of 2020. One of the very few! It seems he can take any idea, any at all, and turn them into bits of treasure on a page. Whether it’s spiders in a classical fantasy, a stranded astronaut in an alien cavern of horrors, or in the case of The Tiger and the Wolf, a shapeshifter with two antipathetic souls, his books are works of brilliant imagination that I always relish reading. It’s SFF writing at its best, imaginative and fresh.

In The Tiger and the Wolf, Tchaikovsky comes at us with a complete history that we only get glimpses of, yet it feels as rich as his silky British accent sounds. It’s creative. It’s clever. It’s ingenious. And I really did not know what I was getting into when I started it. I’d say I’ve read a fair share of books about shifters, but never anything with such an intricate world, fresh-feeling atmosphere and creative backdrop.

He accomplishes an impressive zen-balance between something that is extra-quirky and weird with something more familiar and conventional. On one hand, the book is so STRANGE. The world is similar to our bronze/iron age where it’s preindustrial (iron has just been discovered), but it’s not the typical medieval setting, oh no. It’s a fantasy world built on the premise of shapeshifters where all humans are separated into different tribal groups that each have a specific animal deity—called totems—and have the ability to shift into that specific animal’s form at will through a special soul inside of them that is connected to their totem through the spiritual world. It’s complicated, to say the least, and it takes a while to get accustomed to. But once I did, it was smooth sailing from there.

The book also isn’t just about wolves and tigers, there is a plethora of animals peopling it: crocodiles, bears, snakes, horses, hyenas, deer, boar, hawks, dragons (yeah, baby) and tons more. I don’t know about you, but I love animals. I love reading about them, seeing them, petting them. I just love them! And the more they appeared, the more I found myself hungry to discover more and more that I ended up burning through the entire trilogy in just a couple of days. This was seriously an animal lover’s dream and it brought out a big old geek grin from me along with a generous dose of geek joy. Don’t even get me started on the absolute delight of this entirely entertaining jape that is the animal hand-to-hand (claw-to-claw, more precisely) combat. Crocodile combat, anyone? YES PLEASE.

This was all amazing, but also very strange. The biggest reason I believe it works is because the book has a particularly strong cast of characters that ground the more enigmatic parts of the book. We follow the tale of a 14-year-old girl (someone on the brink of adulthood in this world) named Maniye who is the daughter of the chief of the Wolf tribe and the queen of the Tiger tribe. This unique dual heritage results in there being 2 warring souls insider of her and makes her the center of constant conflict and intrigue. Her coming of age arc is marvelously done. Tchaikovsky draws us so profoundly into her suffering that her existential fears, though alien, seemed of a deeply humane sort that was quick to endear her to me. Her credible groundedness as a character and the plausible narrative of her painful maturation was written with a sharp attention that made for an engrossing read. Her escapades, alongside some unexpected but very welcome absorbing realism of the psychological truth of the nature of human and beast kept me glued to the book into the wee hours of the night.

The one issue that I have is that, at some point, there was a repetitive and circular nature to her journey. Maniye spends a LOT of the book being chased and while these scenes were really exciting the first 4 times, the following 4 felt a little excessive. It was never boring, but I do wish the book was a little tighter. Maybe 30 pages smaller.

4 stars

[Kitty G Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this one a 3.5*s overall, as although I liked bits of it (especially the world-building and the characters) a lot, I found some of the plot to be a little slow-going and I wish it could have got to the action just a little quicker. However, this is still the start to a solid series, and I think it may get better as the series goes on to. I loved the concept of a world filled with animal shifters. People who can shift into their clan animal e.g. Wolf, Tiger, Horse, etc. The idea of a world where everyone can shift shapes, and the primal animal nature is very much an every-day part of humans, is intriguing, and makes for a very odd but interesting world.

The main characters we follow here are Maniye, a young girl later known as Many Tracks who is born of the Wolf and the Tiger. Her mother is dead and she has lived with her father, chief of the Wolf clan, for her whole life, but he doesn't love her at all and in fact she starts the story as quite a lonely character. As time goes on she comes to realise that not only does she have to decide which of her Tiger or Wolf souls to rip away and which to embrace, she also has to choose whether to stay in the Wolf clan at all or to leave and search for her own destiny.
Another character we follow is Hesprec who is a snake captured by the Wolf clan in order to sacrifice him to the Wolf. Maniye is interested in him so she ends up talking to him, and through her interaction with him we learn a lot more about the Serpent religion, the way that Snakes shift and develop, and the wider world. Hesprec is a character who grew on me more as the book went on, and I think his character is vital for Maniye to learn from and develop.
Another character is Broken Axe, a lone wolf who wanders far and wide doing his own thing until the leader of the Wolves (Maniye's father) calls him to perform a task. He iw the one responsible for killing Maniye's mother and she hates him for that, but there is more to Broken Axe than initially Maniye knows.
Finally the other key character is a champion of the River people who is journeying into the lands of the Wolf to seek their help and find out more of their culture. He is a character who took a while to grow on me, but I think as the book goes on he becomes more vital to the plot too.

The world is, as I said, very original. I like the fact that each clan has their own rituals and gods and there is a lot to learn from each new person our character interact with. I think there could have been a clearer indication of the clan separations and rituals but as the story goes on we learn which clans are on top and which are more subservient.

The plot starts out pretty slow and builds up so that the second half of the book has much more action than the first. Personally I don't mind a slow build, but I feel like the slow start clashed a bit with the cray ending and I would have liked to have a little bit more of a smooth transition. Luckily the action of the second half caused a lot of intense drama and had some good twists to surprise me, so I think it kept me interested enough to try the sequel.

Overall, not a bad read at all, lots to chew over and a fun concept throughout. I would have liked a little more of a smooth plot, but it's a good read and one I think many people would enjoy.

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a bit difficult to rate.

Lets start with the things that are beyond subjectivity: Adrian Tchaikovsky is an absolute master of worldbuilding. Whenever a reader is tired of having the same kind of earthly human beings populating their Fantasy worlds it is a sure thing to reach over to AT for societies that are really different. Here we have tribes of human shapeshifters each deeply tightened to one animal species which is also their god. This means that the human ethics and morals aren't the measure of all things, but pack hierarchy and often logical brutality.

The story follows a young girl, born by a tiger mother after rape into a wolf tribe. Her mother was killed after giving birth, her only means having been to produce the precious child of two lines. That needs some swallowing for the more sensitive reader. Maniye, the girl, is coming of age now and has to decide where her loyalty lies.

The story is gripping and quite intense, but it kept me at some distance from the characters for over half of the book - which I'm not used to with AT novels. And then, when I finally allowed to get invested into one of the protagonists - that one of course got killed off. Tchaikovsky has the tendency to kill off a certain kind of Fantasy character that I can't help but always falling for. So I was not happy with the outcome. Not at all.

I was brooding over it a while and I think I have to say that objectively this is a solid 4 star read with a 5 star worldbuilding.

[Eon Windrunner]

That COVER. SOLD. *reads synopsis... DOUBLE SOLD.

[Shaitarn · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars.

Oh my gosh, that was awesome! What a superb book! FRTC, for now I'll just urge you to go and buy it!

[proxyfish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed on my blog - Books by Proxy

4.5 Stars

Bleak. Brutal. Brilliant. The Tiger and the Wolf is a unique and powerful novel, where loyalties are defined by birth and where cultures clash with spectacular frequency. Adrian Tchaikovsky has succeeded in creating a novel with incredible scope and limitless vision; a vivid depiction of a world inspired by the cultures of our past and told in a style unique to this series. This is a novel where only the strong will survive, where the weak will perish and where wars are played out both on the battlefield and within the soul.

-

The first in the Echoes of the Fall series follows the story of Maniye, a young Wolf and Tiger halfbreed of the wolf tribe, the Winter Runners. As daughter of her tribe’s Chief, Maniye struggles to put the wishes off her father and the tribe before her desires for freedom. With war threatened between the tribes and the struggle for power becoming ever apparent, Maniye must choose between the dangers within her tribe and those without. With a narrative which weaves magic, folklore and a clash of cultures, this is survival of the fittest on an epic scale.

-

The Tiger and the Wolf is a world of shapeshifters, a world where every tribe, every clan and every society worships a different animal god; their souls taking on the form of this totem allowing the individual to ‘step’ into their animal form. The narrative slowly etches out a detailed history of a world populated by a myriad of different peoples whose cultures and way of life are defined by their animal totems. From the cold brutality of the north, to the hot River Lands of the south, each setting further shapes the people who inhabit it – and their place on the food chain.

We begin this novel with the wolves, a brutal, hard and unforgiving people who’ve learned to survive in the cold northern climate, a people who glory in death and revel in war. The wolf tribes are a fascinating and terrifying society who thrive in conditions which would be the death of others, but whose harsh and brutal way of life brings something of a depressing outlook to the future of our protagonist. This bleak aspect is diverted however by the introduction of new characters and settings over the course of the novel.

The many tribes and people who inhabit this vast and impressive landscape bring a sense of depth to the narrative; the solitary bears, the graceful deer, the nomadic horse and the foe of all wolves, the dark and mysterious tiger, all bring a rich and vivid quality to the world. But whilst we get a picture of many of these people, the emphasis in this novel is on the predators, those warlike people and cultures who bring a bloody dimension to the novel, a dimension which Tchaikovsky consistently executes with skill and precision.

Whilst The Tiger and the Wolf depicts a wonderfully crafted and detailed world, the characterisation also contributes heavily to the overall feel of the novel. This is a world where each character and every society has something of their totem animal about them, creating distinctive animalistic personalities whilst, for the most part, avoiding the creation of one dimensional societal groups.

Maniye is a wonderfully innocent and conflicted protagonist whose place in the world and whose future is always less than certain. She conveys a sense of innocence and pragmatism at all times and the duality of her warring souls gives a well rounded dimensionality to her character, an aspect that can sometimes be a bit one sided in the ‘extras’ of the novel.

The supporting cast however bring diversity and excitement to the narrative with the north fielding the mysterious killer Broken Axe, the solitary Loud Thunder, and the power hungry chief of the Winter Runners, Akrit Stone River; and the south introducing the strange cultures of the snake priests, crocodile champions and Laughing Men in a landscape where pirates and warriors abound. This impressive array of characters and cultures are more than enough to capture the imagination and carry over the excitement into the next novel.

The Tiger and the Wolf is a fantastic series opener written in a wonderfully unique style, a style which almost takes you to the side of a campfire in the dead of night, listening to the shrieks of owls and tales of long forgotten ages. Tchaikovsky has created a beautiful and brutal world where the clash of cultures and tribal skirmishes are part of daily existence, and which comes across as unique in both its execution and as an addition to his impressive literary repertoire.

-

The Tiger and the Wolf is a beautiful novel which showcases the diversity that is becoming ever apparent in Tchaikovsky’s work and which I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. This long anticipated novel didn’t fail to impress and, with the publication of Spiderlight in the summer, it looks like Tchaikovsky will continue to make his presence felt in the world of genre fiction – or, at the very least, on my bookshelf.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Shadows of Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky and back then I was impressed by the originality of his world building and quite interested in a weird steampunk-ish military fantasy he created. Nevertheless, I felt that his writing was a little clunky and his characterization lacking in some ways. Overall, I gave the series 3/5 stars.

The Tiger and the Wolf is another story entirely. This novel is beautifully written - it's structure crafted to perfection, it's sentences sometimes borderline lyrical and never heavy-handed. This is a language of an A-list author who has mastered his craft.

Another thing about this novel is that this one of the rare non-eurocentric fantasies that I've enjoyed. Although we are all aware that there is more to human history and mythology than medieval Europe, and Western Europe at that, this knowledge is for some reason quite hard to translate into good fantasy story. The Tiger and the Wolf manages this feat just fine, and takes the reader to a multi-ethnic human world (I strongly suspect that experience of writing the Shadows of Apt series came handy) on the brink of Iron Age. Protagonists are of all possible skin colors - and once again we have something rarely achieved: People of color in a fantasy novel, but without anything jarring or smacking of some current political agenda. These characters feel integral to the world and the immanent conflict of world views between various characters of various skin tones is described perfectly, normally and without a hint of what would we now call racism. The novel is an anthropological marvel in this regard, since it's gifted with self-awareness that the skin tone is the source of otherness, and otherness is a source of conflict - but this conflict is born not out of prejudice but out of lack of understanding. Once again, a view point completely lacking in modern storytelling and a way to approach an extremely sensitive topic in a way that is elegant and above everything else - humane.

With the same grace Tchaikovsky takes on other issues that plague modern society, such as child abuse, patriarchal society norms and misogyny, gender issues (and even transgender issues) and a host of other topics. It's almost bewildering that he managed to cram all of that into single novel.

In a way, this one is YA novel. In a way - it's not. Let me explain.

Since the world-wide success of Hunger games, we are exposed to a flood of YA series that are quite formulistic, and more than often lackluster. The Tiger and the Wolf has all the paradigms of an YA novel: A young female protagonist, strong authoritarian figures to rebel against, somewhat dystopian society (there are hint of that throughout the novel), and personal growth and empowerment of the heroine. What this novel lacks are the cliches of YA novels: no love triangles, no cheap theatrics, no artificial drama. But it bears the message of emancipation, loud and clear, which is something that large number of more popular YA novels fails to achieve.

The Tiger and the Wolf is a perfect blend of YA with heroic fantasy. It is suitable epic and just enough grim for mature readers, but still approachable enough for the younger ones. This is really a masterpiece of fantasy literature, worthy of World Fantasy Award.

[Karina Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Struggling to review/rate this. Once again Tchaikovsky’s writing and world building is excellent, immersive and unique. It was a bit back and forth, but I did not see where the plot was going and it was a little heartbreaking! Okay a lot. The characters are incredibly vivid and Tchaikovsky really makes you have feelings for them, ranging from disgust and hatred to affection and respect. To some things inbetween. There’s a lot of moral ambiguity and toeing the line which was really interesting.

I can’t quite put my finger on what’s stopping me from giving it all 5 stars as it really is a great story. Maybe just because I had to take my time reading it, it wasn’t a quick read, but I don’t know why that would prevent a full five stars. Maybe i’m just comparing it to Guns of the Dawn which I liked a *little* better.

[hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

initially it seemed hard to hold everything in my head as an audiobook, but the picture slowly built. and the alternating chapters between the wolf people, and a couple of river people visiting the people of the plains, gave it some easy structure.

I enjoyed the book overall. I found it easy to read. I think it was well written wrt language, flow, detail...
I got a little invested in one or two of the characters, and I wanted to find out what would happen next. alot of the time the overall plot was quite predictable, but I think the detail made up for some of that.

I liked:
🌟 Maniye having at least 3 forms, human, wolf, tiger 🙂🐺🐯
🌟 the growing affection between Maniye and Hesperic 🙂🐍 I was sad when he died 😢 I'd have liked him to be around for more of the story, and to finish, or at least make more of, their journey.
🌟 I enjoyed Hesperic later returning as a girl/young woman and their relationship with Maniye continuing! 😃
🌟 all the shape shifting, and how it's described and choreographed
🌟 the world building seemed good, with the places and communities easy to visualise. it felt fairly easily mapped onto an existing sense of planet earth, perhaps making it easier to picture and be in.
🌟 Maniye as a young person growing up, learning more of the world and its inhabitants, and of herself 🙂 and working and succeeding to control/integrate her dual/multiple selves 🙂

I didn't so much like:
🤔 some potential appropriation of indigenous traditions. hard to be completely original, but some of the descriptions of some of the peoples felt abit like the author had read and lifted something about some traditions of place and people in this world. the one that maybe stood out the most to me, cos of personal connection, were some traditional craft and warrior items that sounded like they'd just been lifted from some of the Pacific Island nations (tho I'm aware they could equally be from other ocean/lake/river dwelling peoples, and/or some combination of sources). and if this was the case, was this done cos it would maybe mostly be less obvious than eg taking from Indigenous North American cultures?
😬 slavery that wasn't critiqued..!??!
🤔 so many characters died... and Maniye had to kill her father... could some have been spared?
🤔 the only real female character of any substance was Maniye... her mother, the queen of the tiger people, maybe the next, tho there was still a kinda peripheral feeling to her even. and while Hesperic returned as a girl, and was a character of substance, some of that I think is kinda founded on her having been a man, and still being the man she was in some ways (tho there is some nice exploration of gender in that shift, esp with Hesperic not being able to remember, and it clearly not mattering, what sex they'd first been born into when Maniye asked).

🐺🐯🐊🦎🐍🦅🐻🐴🐕🐾

accessed as a library audiobook, really well read by Kyla Garcia 🙂

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a stone age fantasy, the first volume of the trilogy. One of the fellow readers aptly called it ‘GoT with werewolves’ and it is accordingly full of characters and their interaction. While there are combat scenes, blood and gore, they are maybe a little less cruel than in A Game of Thrones. I have to admit, reading both fantasy and SF by Adrian Tchaikovsky, I preferred his SF, but this fantasy is strong and unusual to urge me to read more.

A lot of fantasy follows ‘classics’, where the world is a version of European middle ages (often an imaginary version of later Enlightenment historians, who coined the term Dark Ages), recently with a bit larger globe coverage, adding Indian, Chinese or pre-Columbian Americas cultures, but still, ‘Knights and Mages’. This one is a rare (but not unique) attempt to step much deeper in history, closer to earlier civilizations, and more importantly – pre-civilization (i.e. urban) cultures. As it is known, such cultures almost always had a totem animal, which was considered a progenitor of the tribe. Here it is taken literally to the next step – all humans are were-animals of their tribe, be it wolf, hyena, horse or snake.

The story has several characters and their individual lines slowly intertwine as the book progresses. The first is Maniye Many Tracks, a daughter Akrit Stone River, who is a leader of one of Wolves’ tribes, who raped and then, after her birth, ordered to kill her mother, who was captured from the enemy tribe of Tigers. Wolves may be uncouth and brute, living in the snow-covered North, next to the Crown of the World, but they are the only people in the known world who know a secret of making iron. And iron makes a huge difference in a world where others are limited by stone, wood or bronze. Maniye, as a half-blood is shunned by other teens of the tribe, the father sees her just as a tool for his promotion… but she has a rare talent to turn into both wolf and tiger.

The second line is that of Asmander, First Son of Asman, a Champion sent by his father on a mission to the inhospitable North. He is accompanied by a former pirate Venater. The one was an earth-dark River Lord youth with an easy smile, the other a burly, villainous-looking estuary man, both are expert fighters in both their human and their beast form, with Venater being a Komodo dragon and Asmander a crocodile and something more…

This is a great story with a lot of characters, who are quite ‘alive’ and not just a flat character-function. Both the world and the heroes make you want to read more.

[Booniss · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Guns of the Dawn (historical fantasy, essentially Lizzie Bennett goes to war) and Children of Time (brilliant and uplifting hard SF with TALKING SPIDERS FROM SPACE), Tchaikovsky has become one of those authors whose books I will immediately buy because I know that whatever he's written about - and he is incredibly versatile - I will enjoy.

The Tiger & The Wolf is something very different again. Set in a world where different clans of people belong to different totems and can transform or "Step" into the animal of that totem, it's essentially a coming of age tale. Maniye who lives with her father, Akrit Stone River, Chief of the Winter Runners clan, can Step into a wolf like him; but she can also Step into a tiger, like her mother. Akrit plans to use Maniye to win a war which will set him as High Chief of all the wolves. When Maniye learns this, she runs away to choose which side of her soul to keep and which side she has to cut away.

Told in turn from both her perspective and Akrit's this is also a very insightful exploration of a father-daughter relationship gone wrong. Akrit, while clearly not a great parent who makes some very questionable choices, can be over ambitious, arrogant and cruel, is not actually an evil person...but she and he are too different and they have walked different paths too long to be reconciled and what he perceives to be Maniye's continued defiance of him does certainly push him to do evil things.

This looks like it will be the first in a trilogy but please don't let that put you off as it does work as a stand-alone novel. This is a beautifully fierce, wild fantasy novel which deserves a wide readership.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful and original fantasy... full review to come.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading his Shadows of the Apt and several of his science fiction works, I was really looking forward to this series. Besides being amazingly prolific, Tchaikovsky writes some seriously good character driven fiction, albeit his characters range from giant spiders to genengineered dogs to hive AIs. I always wonder where his imagination will take us next! With the Echoes of the Fall, Tchaikovsky takes us on an adventure involving shapechangers in a brutal fantasy world.

Like the Apt series, Tchaikovsky builds a complex world, but one very different from the steampunk world of the kinden. Yet, there are shades of that epic series here as well. Rather than people being related to various forms of insects (spider kinden, ant kinden), however, here people are imbued with various 'totems' that correspond to their shapechanging abilities. The wolf clan people for instance can Step into wolf form, just like the bear clan people Step into bear form.

The world itself is not terribly novel-- we have a 'civilized' southern empire of the 'river people' ruled by a king/queen (Sun River Empire) while above them are temperate plains where various clans/tribes struggle for existence. Finally, in the colder north, we have the realm of the Wolf, the current lords of the jungle, who took it from the Tiger a few generations ago. The Wolf demands tribute from its subjects (the Boar, Deer, etc.) in the form of slaves (thralls) and kind.

The story initially follows two story arcs, the first being centered on Maniye, the young woman of the leader of a Wolf tribe, whose mother was actually the former Tiger queen. As such, she actually has two totems-- wolf and tiger-- and can step into either form. Her father has plans for her, but she is thoroughly estranged from him and his buddy the wolf priest. The second arc follows a band of travelers from the river empire, a 'champion' Asmander, who, though of the crocodile totem, can Step into an ancient lizard form (Raptor?) and his two companions, a 'dragon' man and a hyena woman they met on the great plains.

This story takes awhile before it really gets going as Tchaikovsky spends a lot of time world building, but once it reaches the tipping point, it moves with aplomb. Maniye's arc I thought was going to fall into a very tired fantasy trope, you know, the estranged princess who her father decides to marry off for political reasons against her will, but moves beyond this quickly (thankfully). You know the two story arcs will unite somewhere, but each moves along separately for most of the novel as each suffers various trials and tribulations.

While the world is interesting for sure, once again the characters steal the show. Maniye, the young wolf/tiger child is not a precocious brat, but a survivor. Asmander with his dragon man 'slave' suffers verbal torments from him and the hyena woman-- ruthless! Of course, there are a host of secondary characters to flesh out the story as well, such a the bear people, Broken Ax the 'lone wolf', Maniye's father, etc., and none are cardboard.

Finally, as the title of the series suggests, something is happening with the world, and it does not look good. Various tribal priests see omens and portents about the future, and none of them suggest an endearing status quo. So, while Tchaikovsky wraps this tale up nicely at the end, there are lots of unanswered questions leaving room for sequels. Off to the next installment! 4 howling stars!!

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

And yet she did not want to choose. She had lived the world on a wolf's swift paws, drunk the wind with its nose, seen the night through a cat's mirror eyes, danced up trees and sheer walls with a fluid grace. Each of these was equally a part of her. To choose one over the other would be like being asked to choose her left hand over her right, and then to hack the other away.

I was more excited to read this book than any new series yet this year probably. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the plot focuses entirely around people who shift into different animals. I was absolutely certain that I was going to love it, that this was the book that would fill that Redwall/Warrior/David Clement-Davies shaped hole in my heart. My love for fantasy was founded upon these types of books. And yet....sigh.

I didn't love it.

By the end I was engaged and cared enough about the characters to be on the edge of my seat, but I didn't cry. Now this is important because I will cry at the drop of a hat, and there were times that I thought, "huh, that's sad" but didn't care enough to cry. I am so disappointed. I wanted so badly for this to have been a top read of the year. But enough of my complaining, here is what I did like, but why ultimately I couldn't love it:

What is this story about?
Essentially, this story is set in a Bronze Age type time, right on the cusp of the Iron Age. The world is divided up into different tribes of people who are able to step into different animals such as Wolf, Tiger, Bear, Horse, Hawk, Boar, Deer, Crocodile, Serpent, Hyena, Lion, etc. Each people have their own culture and customs and live apart from each other but still interact. Maniye is a child born to the chieftan of a Wolf tribe who had conquered the Tiger Queen. After her Tiger mother bore her, he ordered her killed. Maniye has grown up without a real place among the Wolf because of her Tiger heritage and her ability to Step into both forms. She must choose one over the other or it will destroy her.

Maniye's childhood is very grim, and we meet her right as she is to take her place as an adult in Wolf society. However, after completing her task, her father reveals his grand plans for her in his ambitions to conquer Tiger once and for all, and she steals a Serpent prisoner, Hesprec, and runs. The rest of the novel follows Maniye as she attempts to find her place in the world and determine who exactly she is, a child with two souls. We see much of the world as she flees from her enemies and get insight into many different clans. Much of the story focuses on family, honor, duty, and remaining true to oneself.

What I liked:
- I absolutely love the concept of this world and the world building. It is so different from most fantasy and it seems to draw influence from many different places. However, disclaimer, I am not very familiar with Bronze Age societies, so I cannot say whether they were portrayed well. I felt that they were done in a believable way, and I appreciated that there were immense differences between the different clans, even those that share a similar homeland.

- The shifters. This is honestly what drew me to this novel. The Stepping between forms and between souls. I also appreciated the aspect of spirituality and religion that was instilled in this. It wasn't pushing an agenda, but rather it just highlighted that it was important to some of the peoples in this story, and really showed how that could play out.

- I was quite fond of several of the characters by the end. I wasn't crazy attached, but I liked them well enough.

What I didn't like:
- The pacing & unnecessary content. Now, I know that a lot of people will say that epic fantasy series often start out slow and that is a norm. However, I felt that the pacing on this was way off kilter, even for world-building and such. There is not much hint of a plot or direction that the book is going to take until halfway through, and even then, the true direction that it was taking was not fully evident until about 75% of the way through. I felt like there was just a LOT of content focused on Maniye and her friends running from one issue to the next that could have been cut. There were also a lot of fight scenes that all started to sound exactly the same. They were all very long and drawn out descriptions of jaws snapping, blades swinging, and the people Stepping. By the end I found my self skipping paragraphs at a time just to reach the end result because they were no longer interesting.

- The toxic masculinity. Now, I recognize that this is a fantasy world, but honestly the toxicity of the culture that was created by the author was very draining. Especially in the first half of the book when the focus of the story was on the world building. Even in the small descriptions we got at the beginning of the matriarchal societies, I felt like there were still overtones of the absolutely toxic male-dominated culture that make up the majority of these clans. The tribe of the Wolf is male-dominated with some incredibly nefarious men in power, and there are so many descriptions of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as slavery and human trafficking that it just became very disheartening to read. Once I got to about the halfway point, I noticed that the prevalence of these descriptions was lessened, but they were still very much present.

- The unnecessary content. As I said above, there was so much that could have been pared down. The flight and fight scenes in particular could have shaved about a third of this book away if they were edited down some.

- The monologues. This isn't something that I notice that often, but I found it rather frustrating that there was not much dialogue in this story. For much of it, it is description of what is happening, but then it also depends heavily on internal monologues of the characters. This also resulted in a lot of telling rather than showing. I think that there could have been more interaction and dialogue between the characters that could have led to the reader discovering some of the things that were just told to us in monologues for ourselves. It also would have helped build a better connection to the characters for myself as a reader. I felt very much distanced from the characters until the last third or so of the book.

Overall, this book didn't live up to my expectations. However, once it got going, it was interesting. I want to know what happens, but I'm not sure yet if I want to know badly enough to continue on with the series. I think I will have to sit with this for a while and see how much I think on it. I may end up changing my rating as I sit with it too. We shall see.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slow burn tale of a young girl's coming of age journey set amidst a harsh landscape and an even harder world. Young Maniye is 14 years old and lives in a world where people belong to different animal totems and, as such, are divided into clans based on whatever animal form they can shift into. She is the offspring of a non-consensual mating between the Chief of one of the wolf tribes and the Queen of the tiger tribe. As a result, Maniye can shift into both animals which is a rarity in this world. Unwilling to be a pawn in the schemes of her uncaring father - in addition to always being an outcast in her own village, Maniye decides to flee believing that any other life would be better than the one she has.

The rest of the story is pretty much Maniye running from one point of danger to another. It does feel tedious in some spots and, I'm not going to lie, the whole book probably could've been cut down by about 100 pages or so, but I still found it to be an overall enjoyable read. Maniye is much less annoying than most literary characters her age. The harsh and often violent world in which she lives has not afforded her the luxury of developing any sense of entitlement or annoying (and false) bravado so common to her peers. And it was interesting to meet some of the other clans she encounters in her journey. There are some interesting and entertaining characters along the way.

While Maniye's story is the central one, the book also offers up a second POV character in Asmander. A southern native, he has journeyed into the unfamiliar territories of Maniye's northern landscape on a mission for his father as well as his Prince. Asmander has something of his own personal journey as well though it's clear that this will be continued in the next book.

I enjoyed the author's writing style. There is a certain languid elegance about it that calls to mind the writings of Guy Gavriel Kay...and that's certainly a good thing in my opinion. Plus, what a gorgeous cover! This was my first book by this author but it certainly won't be my last.

[Daniel Garrido · Rating 5 out of 5]

En 2017 Adrian Tchaikovsky se alzó como ganador del prestigioso British Fantasy Award con The Tiger and the Wolf (El Tigre y el Lobo), inicio de su más reciente trilogía fantástica y una nueva muestra de la habilidad del escritor británico a la hora de crear historias que atrapan al lector. Con ritmo ágil, una gran dosis de imaginación, un puñado de protagonistas de lo más interesante y una odisea en pos de la supervivencia, Tchaikovsky nos entrega una primera parte de saga que se puede consumir de forma autoconclusiva pero que deja con ganas de más.
En la Corona del Mundo, las frías tierras norteñas, están habitadas por diversos clanes guerreros que luchan por la supremacía. Todos sus habitantes tienen la habilidad de convertirse en sus animales totémicos, y utilizan esta poderosa magia para enfrentarse entre ellos. Entre los belicosos guerreros del clan Lobo destaca Akrit, héroe de la última guerra y señor de los Corredores Invernales, cuya rebelde hija Maniye trata de encontrar su lugar en un clan que la desprecia y la teme a partes iguales. Y es que su conflictivo origen la tiene partida en dos: mientras que su padre es miembro de los Lobos, su madre formaba parte de sus enemigos ancestrales, los Tigres.
Este conflicto interno y la implacable presión tanto de su tiránico padre como del despiadado Kalameshi, sacerdote del clan, harán que Maniye acabe por decidir que no será nada de lo que ellos pretenden convertirla (un mero objeto que intercambiar para fortalecer sus intereses políticos) y emprenderá la huida junto con un misterioso sacerdote sureño. Perseguidos por Hacha Rota, el más despiadado de los cazadores del clan Lobo, la joven chica y su inesperado aliado se internarán en una tierra que encara el frío invierno y en la que las antiguas alianzas empiezan a resquebrajarse.
La otra trama argumental de la obra nos presenta a un noble sureño, Asmander, que acude desde la tierras del Río del Sol en busca de ayuda militar con la que apoyar a su joven y nuevo emperador. Su viaje hacia el Norte le hará ir descubriendo los misterios de una tierra muy diferente de su mundo natal, y le obligará a tomar partido en una lucha por la supervivencia que parece muy lejos de sus intereses, pero que acabará por demostar ser vital para decidir en que tipo de persona quiere convertirse.
A través de una galería de personajes sumamente interesantes (es muy difícil elegir entre la luchadora Maniye, el misterioso Hesprec, el noble Asmander, el incansable Hacha Rota o el pausado Trueno Fuerte), la novela nos introduce en esta ágil aventura, plagada de luchas y enfrentamientos, de cacerías, huidas, revelaciones y mucha emoción, y que funciona a la perfección como lectura independiente. Aunque Tchaikovsky siembra algunas pistas de los que está por venir, The Tiger and the Wolf se puede leer de forma completamente autoconclusiva sin problemas.
Por supuesto la novela nos trae su dosis de magia a través de la habilidad de todos sus personajes para transformarse en animales. Aunque no es muy original el autor si que logra atrapar al lector por lo bien que aprovecha sus muchas posibilidades, tanto en las escenas de acción como con las diversas revelaciones relacionadas con este poder (a destacar la habilidad de convertirse en 'campeones', que permite a unos pocos elegidos convertirse en luchadores mucho más poderosos al tomar la forma de bestias extintas. Y son bestias con muy mala leche, os lo aseguro).
También es muy de agradecer que Tchaikovsky se aleje de los típicos mundos fantásticos de estilo medieval para apostar por unas sociedades que recrean el mundo de la edad del Bronce. Diversos clanes guerreros luchan por el dominio, y entre ellos descollan ahora los miembros del clan Lobo gracias a la ventaja decisiva de que son los únicos capaces de forjar el acero. Además, el británico nos presenta un imperio sureño de evidente inspiración mesoamericana (¡¡luchan con macanas de filo de obsidiana, ya era hora de que alguien aprovechara en la fantasía unas armas tan magníficas!!), del que espero que conozcamos muchos más detalles en las próximas entregas de la trilogía. Gracias a esto el británico nos ofrece un refrescante plantel de protagonistas multiétnico y multicultural, alejado de las típicas sociedades blancas occidentales que pueblan muchas de las fantasías que siguen publicándose hoy día, y por lo tanto mucho más acorde con una historia que nos muestra la interacción entre distintas sociedades.
Con The Tiger and the Wolf el británico Tchaikovsky nos entrega una dinámica y ágil aventura fantástica, con una protagonista que se gana el corazón del lector en su lucha de autodescubrimiento. Maniye decide romper las cadenas (tanto personales como socioculturales) con la que la ha atado su tiránico padre, que pretende usarla como un mero objeto para lograr sus ambiciones políticas, y luchará porque nadie decida que es lo que hará con su vida. La chica descubrirá que el mundo exterior no es tan sencillo como había pensado y con la ayuda de diversos aliados tendrá que abrirse camino por un mundo que se lanza hacia una nueva guerra, mientras trata de dominar los poderes que se enfrentan en su mismo interior. Una lectura sumamente interesante, que vuelve a demostrar que Tchaikovsky sabe como meterse al lector en el bolsillo y ofrecerle una historia plagada de emociones y con un poso final muy claro: lucha por tu libertad, rompe tus cadenas.

http://caballerodelarbolsonriente.blo...

[David Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world of where humans can shapeshift into the animal of their tribe, young Maniye is unhappy in the Wolf village. Her father is the Wolf clan’s chieftain and her mother was queen of their enemy, the Tiger clan. When her father Akrit tells of his plans for her future, Maniye runs…

Author Adrian Tchaikovsky brings us an epic fantasy with a young female protagonist at its heart struggling to find herself and discover her destiny. The Tiger and the Wolf is the first book of a trilogy and rolls out a world of tribes, scheming factions, ancient magic and spirits.

Maniye can ‘step’ into a wolf or a tiger form almost at will, but this is a secret she has kept from the Wolves as they expect only the wolf form to be possible. It has many advantages but also a conflict that troubles her deeply. She is torn between the two, and both tiger and wolf within her fight to be dominant. If she can’t choose between them they will drive her mad.

The killer Broken Axe is sent by her father to pursue her and return Maniye back to him. She is the key to his grand future plans. But the chase leads her to meet some wonderful characters along the way and she fights defiantly with her allies as she tries to stay free. There is talk of change and war coming among the priests in the land. How may this affect Maniye and what part will she play. The book comes to a fascinating finale and leaves plenty of scope for the story to develop in future books. This is a long and satisfying read, with an eye-catching cover, which I hope you will enjoy as much as I did. (ARC Received)

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feral and expansive, this coming-of-age story takes place in a wonderful rich and expansive world filled with amazing characters. The world-building is top notch, as usual, with a setting that is teetering on the cusp of the iron-age, where life and spirituality and nature are indivisible. The aesthetics and atmosphere are reminiscent of indigenous spiritualities, but Tchaikovsky has created his own world, not repurposing or appropriating existing mythologies or cultures, and the result is a world of great depth, and secrets even yet unexplored. The characters are also incredible, the numerous POV characters and ancillary characters all feel vivid and complicated, and they are all so much fun to spend time with, it is clear the care that goes into all of them. The story is constantly moving, it doesn’t ever read as slow or lingering; our characters feel like they are moving from one peril to another. However, there is a lot of (literal) wandering in the story, our characters literally running in circles around this particular part of the continent, and there is a bit of weariness to that. It doesn’t repeat itself, our characters are growing and evolving every step of the way, but there is a sense of perpetual, restless wandering that occupies a lot of the story. Given the narrative I don’t know if there is anything for it besides that restless, constant movement, the constant seeking of safety and only finding more reason to run; still, it was a lot of running. This is interspersed with some wonderful action scenes though, cinematic and bloody and all of them contributing to the character work. Everything in the story contributes to the characters, which makes everything feel more resonant and ties the plotting, the writing, the world-building, and the action set pieces all together. The writing itself is emotional and raw, a young girl learning to understand and love herself while navigating the burdens of tradition and the expectations (and abuses) of parents and elders. There is a strong sense of yearning in this story; not for riches or fame but for autonomy, to know yourself inside and out, and to develop contentment, and maybe even happiness, with what you find there.


(Rounded from 4.5)

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m sure that the cover of The Tiger and the Wolf has somehow bewitched me until I finally gave in and bought this book. What’s it about? Of course, I had no idea and unfortunately, it became not really apparent for a long time. A pity, because while I loved the world, the magic, Many Tracks or Broken Axe and the many different tribes, I never really found the story. Our main protagonist is driven by external forces, always reacting, always running, though fighting fiercely for her right to choose her own destiny.

I wished it had a bit more bite than just another growing-up story with cool fights. Still, the awesome magic system animal-shifting tribes, souls coming back made this a worthwhile read. The book works very well as a standalone, so I think my journey will end here.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tchaikovsky has built a unique fantasy world which is similar to our world set in an "iron age" time. The Crown of the World, is very similar to Russia and is the home to Wolf, Tiger, and Bear. The Plains is home to Horse and Eyrie (crow, eagle, and other carrion birds). The River Lands is reminiscent of Africa with Hyena and Crocodile.

He presents shape shifters like no other. These are not your usual urban fantasy werewolves. The people are not called werewolves or weretigers. This is a world where the animal soul melds with the human at birth. They are able to "step" quickly and easily between forms.

Characters are well developed. I read eagerly as Maniye Many Tracks, she who was born of Tiger and Wolf, try to find her way in this harsh world.

I'm eager to read more of the series.

[Marc Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well bought this solely on the cover !! Which is incredible one best I seen lately... Next synopsis double sold .... Then I just fell in love with the whole idea and story , characters were really well constructed and felt so real my favourite was broken axe , I stopped giving 5* to new authors / series as felt first book spent a lot of time building up the world and characters but after first few chapters I knew this was going to be the exception and bought the 2nd straight away .

[Liviu]

while I am a big fan of the author's kinden books and I loved Children of Time and read the other two novels of his also which were ok, I will pass on this series as shape-shifters kind of bore me badly (not as bad as zombies or vampires true, but close enough that not even having a favorite author write a story about them can make it work for me)