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Elfhome #2
Wolf Who Rules
A New Breed of Adventure!
Tinker: just a quick-witted girl from Pittsburgh - who happens to be responsible for depositing high elves and her hometown humans into a melting pot of magic. Now the draconian oni seek to destroy the elves by breeding human git to do their evil bidding. But half-breeds who are half-human may not be the slaves the oni imagined. The revolt is on! Its leader A certain newly-minted elven princess from Pittsburgh, PA, by the name of Tinker.
The thrilling sequel to Tinker by Wen Spencer, winner of the 2003 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).
Tinker: just a quick-witted girl from Pittsburgh - who happens to be responsible for depositing high elves and her hometown humans into a melting pot of magic. Now the draconian oni seek to destroy the elves by breeding human git to do their evil bidding. But half-breeds who are half-human may not be the slaves the oni imagined. The revolt is on! Its leader A certain newly-minted elven princess from Pittsburgh, PA, by the name of Tinker.
The thrilling sequel to Tinker by Wen Spencer, winner of the 2003 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).
368 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2006
111 people are currently reading
757 people want to read
About the author
Wen Spencer
41 books892 followersJohn W. Campbell Award Winner Wen Spencer resides in paradise in Hilo, Hawaii with two volcanoes overlooking her home. Spencer says that she often wakes up and exclaims "Oh my god, I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific!" This, says Spencer, is a far cry from her twenty years of living in land-locked Pittsburgh.
The Elfhome series opener, Tinker, won the 2003 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and was a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Fantasy Novel. Wolf Who Rules, the sequel to Tinker, was chosen as a Top Pick by Romantic Times and given their top rating of four and a half stars. Other Baen books include space opera thriller Endless Blue and Eight Million Gods.
The Elfhome series opener, Tinker, won the 2003 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and was a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Fantasy Novel. Wolf Who Rules, the sequel to Tinker, was chosen as a Top Pick by Romantic Times and given their top rating of four and a half stars. Other Baen books include space opera thriller Endless Blue and Eight Million Gods.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
January 25, 2010
What a tease! To come SO close to dealing with polyamory, then skip back!
I guess it's just been too long since I read Tinker, but I don't really remember any hints of polyamory there at all. In this book, though, it's made very clear that elven society has found monogamy to be an unreasonable model for people who normally live thousands of years. Anybody who hasn't read Tinker shouldn't read this review, because there are spoilers for that book - but hey, that's to be expected in the review for a sequel. Just knowing that certain characters live and marry is a spoiler!
Anyway, Tinker may be an elf now, but she was raised as a human, and apparently the half-elven quasi-nursemaid Tooloo who has always been part of her life either doesn't know about the difference in societal expectations, or never saw fit to mention it. That isn't so surprising, as Tooloo is depicted as several tacos short of a combo plate. But why, when some of the elves (especially Stormsong) are shown to be familiar with human culture, haven't any of them anticipated this as a source of trouble in Tinker and Wolf's marriage? Why doesn't anybody ever just sit down and say, "Look, honey, the rulers only choose guards with whom they get along well, and with opposite-sex guards, that can mean getting along with sexually. Your new husband has had sex with all of his female bodyguards in the past, and it's expected that you'll eventually take your own male Sekasha as lovers, too. Deal." (I'm not even starting on how very heteronormative everything is. You're telling me there's all that lucious pretty and thousands of years in which to experiment, and nobody ever crosses those streams, so to speak? Yeah, right.) There's a perfect opening for such a speech in the book, a point when the need for it is made very, very obvious--but I suppose having it all out in the open would remove a source of conflict.
Why are so many authors so bloody timid about laying things out like that, about showing healthy communication between people? Yes, we can imagine the most amazing advances in technology, and societies very different from our current ones, but by Goddess we must continue to show people screwing up their relationships in exactly the same way as in Shakespeare's day or nobody could relate to them!
I guess it's just been too long since I read Tinker, but I don't really remember any hints of polyamory there at all. In this book, though, it's made very clear that elven society has found monogamy to be an unreasonable model for people who normally live thousands of years. Anybody who hasn't read Tinker shouldn't read this review, because there are spoilers for that book - but hey, that's to be expected in the review for a sequel. Just knowing that certain characters live and marry is a spoiler!
Anyway, Tinker may be an elf now, but she was raised as a human, and apparently the half-elven quasi-nursemaid Tooloo who has always been part of her life either doesn't know about the difference in societal expectations, or never saw fit to mention it. That isn't so surprising, as Tooloo is depicted as several tacos short of a combo plate. But why, when some of the elves (especially Stormsong) are shown to be familiar with human culture, haven't any of them anticipated this as a source of trouble in Tinker and Wolf's marriage? Why doesn't anybody ever just sit down and say, "Look, honey, the rulers only choose guards with whom they get along well, and with opposite-sex guards, that can mean getting along with sexually. Your new husband has had sex with all of his female bodyguards in the past, and it's expected that you'll eventually take your own male Sekasha as lovers, too. Deal." (I'm not even starting on how very heteronormative everything is. You're telling me there's all that lucious pretty and thousands of years in which to experiment, and nobody ever crosses those streams, so to speak? Yeah, right.) There's a perfect opening for such a speech in the book, a point when the need for it is made very, very obvious--but I suppose having it all out in the open would remove a source of conflict.
Why are so many authors so bloody timid about laying things out like that, about showing healthy communication between people? Yes, we can imagine the most amazing advances in technology, and societies very different from our current ones, but by Goddess we must continue to show people screwing up their relationships in exactly the same way as in Shakespeare's day or nobody could relate to them!
January 9, 2017
Any book that has me awake until after 2 am to finish it gets an automatic five-star rating. Will be rereading this one.
March 25, 2019
7/2/16 re-read. Really, really good, this whole series is fantastic, you will love it!
January 10, 2012
From an omnibus put out by SFBC, this hardcover has Tinker and Wolf Who Rules and is called Steel City Magic. The gates between Elfhome, Pittsburgh, space, and the evil oni have gone all wonky and it is up mostly to Tinker to fix them. This blend of fantasy, plus ten minutes into the future sf, plus Tinker who finds a way to get science and magic to work together is quite an enjoyable mix. Also, Wolf and Tinker are possibly as likeable and wonderful a couple as Cordelia and Aral (Vorkosigan, from the series by Lois McMaster Bujold.) In the years to come I hope Wen Spencer writes many more of these books.
“You do realize that Pittsburgh’s treaty with the elves is now null and void?”
“No. Why would it be void?”
“The basic underlying principle of the treaty is that Pittsburgh was a city of Earth only temporarily visiting Elfhome. Every article was written with the idea that humans would and could return to Earth.”
“Shit! Okay, I didn’t realize that.” She frowned at him, wishing she wasn’t so tired.
“Little one,” Stormsong took out a pack of Juicy Fruit gum and offered Tinker a piece. “He wants to know how human you are after everyone had had a chance to fuck your brain over for the last few months. He needs your help but he doesn’t know if he can trust you.”
Ooooh. Tinker took the gum to give herself a moment to think.
“Succinct as ever, Stormsong,” Maynard also accepted a piece.
“That’s why you love me.” Stormsong stepped back out of the conversation, becoming elfin again.
“You do realize that Pittsburgh’s treaty with the elves is now null and void?”
“No. Why would it be void?”
“The basic underlying principle of the treaty is that Pittsburgh was a city of Earth only temporarily visiting Elfhome. Every article was written with the idea that humans would and could return to Earth.”
“Shit! Okay, I didn’t realize that.” She frowned at him, wishing she wasn’t so tired.
“Little one,” Stormsong took out a pack of Juicy Fruit gum and offered Tinker a piece. “He wants to know how human you are after everyone had had a chance to fuck your brain over for the last few months. He needs your help but he doesn’t know if he can trust you.”
Ooooh. Tinker took the gum to give herself a moment to think.
“Succinct as ever, Stormsong,” Maynard also accepted a piece.
“That’s why you love me.” Stormsong stepped back out of the conversation, becoming elfin again.
July 31, 2012
*Loved* this book. It's so refreshing to read a sequel that's even better than the first book.
Take a fantasy world, invade it with science fiction, add a little romance, and throw in some theoretical magic and physics, and you have the "Tinker" series. Wen Spencer is fantastic--I really hope she writes another.
Take a fantasy world, invade it with science fiction, add a little romance, and throw in some theoretical magic and physics, and you have the "Tinker" series. Wen Spencer is fantastic--I really hope she writes another.
February 5, 2020
Just a continuation of the story. Not as good as the first but still a great book.
November 6, 2013
Yeah, so I am a little ashamed of even giving this three stars. It is seriously flawed, even more so than its predecessor. It looks at first as if Wolf is going to get a little more screen-time and possibly something of a personality, but in reality it's still all Tinker all the time. Yeah, yeah, he's busy ruling and doing politics and fighting dragons and stuff, but seriously!
Anyway, the plot really gets away from the author as far as I can tell. I know we're dealing with at least three dimensions, but this in itself isn't the bulk of the problem. Tinker herself seems to wander around poking at things, never sure when she gets up in the morning what her priorities are, what she ought to be working on, or why. She just seems to show up at places, work a few technological miracles, and have things happen. (In fairness, my electronic and possibly illicit copy of the book had been transferred into two or three formats by the time it reached my nook, and among the things lost were any sort of scene markers - i.e. the triple star - in the middle of a chapter. This made it seem even choppier than it was, I suppose.) The dialog also started getting corny, and the various Elf political characters that showed up to muddy the waters did a great job, primarily by being so utterly two dimensional you couldn't remember from scene to scene who they were and what their presumed goals were.
Still and all, I will be seeking out the third chapter. It Is in an interesting universe, there are at least a couple of good characters, and it'd be nice to find out how it plays out.
Anyway, the plot really gets away from the author as far as I can tell. I know we're dealing with at least three dimensions, but this in itself isn't the bulk of the problem. Tinker herself seems to wander around poking at things, never sure when she gets up in the morning what her priorities are, what she ought to be working on, or why. She just seems to show up at places, work a few technological miracles, and have things happen. (In fairness, my electronic and possibly illicit copy of the book had been transferred into two or three formats by the time it reached my nook, and among the things lost were any sort of scene markers - i.e. the triple star - in the middle of a chapter. This made it seem even choppier than it was, I suppose.) The dialog also started getting corny, and the various Elf political characters that showed up to muddy the waters did a great job, primarily by being so utterly two dimensional you couldn't remember from scene to scene who they were and what their presumed goals were.
Still and all, I will be seeking out the third chapter. It Is in an interesting universe, there are at least a couple of good characters, and it'd be nice to find out how it plays out.
December 31, 2015
"Wolf Who Rules" was as fun of a ride as "Tinker". Very fast paced, both in how it felt, and the actual time that has passed since the beginning of "Tinker". I'm so bummed that there isn't a book #3 waiting for me. This series has great potential to be a long unending series. (By these two books, this is a continuing read-in-order type of series, rather than a series of stand-alone stories in the same universe.)
There are characters that are clearly evil, those that are clearly good, and a lot of grey hats in the middle just trying to survive. Friends can become enemies, and enemies become allies.
In the first book, we followed Tinker's perspective, even though the book was written in third person. In this book, we alternately follow Tinker and Windwolf, still in third person, the differences being highlighted by the names that are used for individuals around them.
Lots of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Wizard of Oz" references in this one. Tinker and some of the other characters start having prophetic dreams that must be sorted out.
I love how we learn about Elvin politics and morals as Tinker does. The relationship between Tinker and her hand, her bodyguards, is especially intriguing.
Can't think of a single complaint except there isn't a pile of books in this series waiting for me to read. Write faster, Wen.
There are characters that are clearly evil, those that are clearly good, and a lot of grey hats in the middle just trying to survive. Friends can become enemies, and enemies become allies.
In the first book, we followed Tinker's perspective, even though the book was written in third person. In this book, we alternately follow Tinker and Windwolf, still in third person, the differences being highlighted by the names that are used for individuals around them.
Lots of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Wizard of Oz" references in this one. Tinker and some of the other characters start having prophetic dreams that must be sorted out.
I love how we learn about Elvin politics and morals as Tinker does. The relationship between Tinker and her hand, her bodyguards, is especially intriguing.
Can't think of a single complaint except there isn't a pile of books in this series waiting for me to read. Write faster, Wen.
January 12, 2011
I loved the first novel in this series so I had high hopes for this one. I was hoping to see more elven culture and more oni, but got neither. Most of the novel is Tinker continuing to mess things up, creating projects she doesn't finish, and being childish. She doesn't take some things seriously, and takes other things way too seriously. Tinker was flawed in the first novel, but still likable. In Wolf Who Rules, I felt that she took a turn for the worse. She is constantly cheating on her husband, though I guess he's not fully innocent. She runs from one thing from another not really thinking too much. And the Wizard of Oz theme? That definitely didn't sit too well with me. That being said, I soaked the novel up pretty quickly and enjoyed myself throughout. I was a bit irritated at the characters at times, and felt the novel lacked depth, but it was still enjoyable. I couldn't maintain my interest in the action sequences at the end because it just didn't feel important to me, and that took away a possible 3.5 rating. I wished I liked the novel more, and I would have liked to see Tinker improve as a character, but just an ok book to me.
August 29, 2024
5 fabulous stars! (I am so enjoying this series reread!)
Read Tinker Elfhome 1 first. Don't come to this series and skip about like a fairy, read them in order, it's the best way.
Is there even a way to describe the incredible world building done by Wen Spencer? Everything feels real, the magic system, the history, the cultural background, the character responses, even the silly, tragic, accidental deaths. (You know what I mean, and if you don't you should read it and find out).
It carries you along with the story like a stream that turns into a river and rushes to a waterfall. The twisty, that makes-so-much-sense revelations about Tinker's parenthood. The "duh" click that somehow makes you feel you know quantum physics when the spaceship plot appears and makes sense to your barely mathematical brain. The POV from Wolf Who Rules lending a faintly foreign feel - as if you're reading the translation but know it's just that - an approximation of concepts alien to yourself.
Read Tinker Elfhome 1 first. Don't come to this series and skip about like a fairy, read them in order, it's the best way.
Is there even a way to describe the incredible world building done by Wen Spencer? Everything feels real, the magic system, the history, the cultural background, the character responses, even the silly, tragic, accidental deaths. (You know what I mean, and if you don't you should read it and find out).
It carries you along with the story like a stream that turns into a river and rushes to a waterfall. The twisty, that makes-so-much-sense revelations about Tinker's parenthood. The "duh" click that somehow makes you feel you know quantum physics when the spaceship plot appears and makes sense to your barely mathematical brain. The POV from Wolf Who Rules lending a faintly foreign feel - as if you're reading the translation but know it's just that - an approximation of concepts alien to yourself.
June 25, 2020
It's nice to see some of the story from an elf P.O.V. -- not just Tinker & co.
:)
Last Read: May 05/14
:)
Last Read: May 05/14
July 14, 2016
Re-read 2016. Still loving this series.
November 18, 2024
I liked this one better than the first, I felt like ... I don't know, now that the big work of setting up the world is over, there was more time to let the characters settle in. Tinker also felt a bit less socially inept. She's still definitely a Mary Sue, but it isn't way over the line for me, I'm enjoying the story.
September 4, 2014
Picking up right where its predecessor left off, Wolf Who Rules immediately draws you back into the world of Elfhome. I would have to say that this book is even better than the first, and that's saying something.
At the end of Tinker, the citizens of Pittsburgh are stranded when she is forced to destroy their gate to Earth. In the aftermath, there is a huge 'deadzone' where everything is distorted. Unsure what exactly is going on in these so called Ghostlands, it's up to Tinker to figure it out. For spunky genius Tinker that should be easy to fix right? But all isn’t as it seems. Plagued with weird dreams about Alice and Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, Tinker feels off balance and not herself. To make matters worse, after learning about the Oni's planned invasion, they must root out all the hiding Oni spies and make sure that their massive army can't find a way to cross over to Elfhome. Without the resources to take care of the problem himself, Wolf Who Rules, Tinker's husband and the elf lord of the western lands, must call for help from the other clans. This sets up an uneasy alliance with the Stone clan who will do anything to make sure Tinker does not survive. With 'friends' that are more like enemies, Oni dragons bent on destruction and a slowly expanding deadzone threatening to overrun Pittsburg, Tinker has her hands full.
What an adventure! Every page is action-packed. In the first book, Tinker is a pint-sized genius who meets her soulmate, the elf Wolf Who Rules Wind, and is thrown headlong into elf-life. In Wolf Who Rules she grows and starts to become accustomed to her new life. The great character interactions between Tinker and her 'beholden' continue with lots of strong secondary characters. Spencer also takes care of a couple of loose ends left dangling in Tinker. My one complaint is that there is not enough scenes where Wolf and Tinker work together. Like the first book, both are so busy doing their own thing that they hardly ever see each other. It's a shame. Wolf is such a great character but even in the book named for him, you don't get to see enough of him.
Adventure, fabulous characters, mythical characters - this book has it all. A great mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy with a healthy dose of humour. I laughed out loud when Tinker sees the movie The Wizard of Oz for the first time. It was hilarious to see this timeless movie classic described by someone living so far in the future from when the movie was made.
All in all, I loved Wolf Who Rules.
At the end of Tinker, the citizens of Pittsburgh are stranded when she is forced to destroy their gate to Earth. In the aftermath, there is a huge 'deadzone' where everything is distorted. Unsure what exactly is going on in these so called Ghostlands, it's up to Tinker to figure it out. For spunky genius Tinker that should be easy to fix right? But all isn’t as it seems. Plagued with weird dreams about Alice and Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, Tinker feels off balance and not herself. To make matters worse, after learning about the Oni's planned invasion, they must root out all the hiding Oni spies and make sure that their massive army can't find a way to cross over to Elfhome. Without the resources to take care of the problem himself, Wolf Who Rules, Tinker's husband and the elf lord of the western lands, must call for help from the other clans. This sets up an uneasy alliance with the Stone clan who will do anything to make sure Tinker does not survive. With 'friends' that are more like enemies, Oni dragons bent on destruction and a slowly expanding deadzone threatening to overrun Pittsburg, Tinker has her hands full.
What an adventure! Every page is action-packed. In the first book, Tinker is a pint-sized genius who meets her soulmate, the elf Wolf Who Rules Wind, and is thrown headlong into elf-life. In Wolf Who Rules she grows and starts to become accustomed to her new life. The great character interactions between Tinker and her 'beholden' continue with lots of strong secondary characters. Spencer also takes care of a couple of loose ends left dangling in Tinker. My one complaint is that there is not enough scenes where Wolf and Tinker work together. Like the first book, both are so busy doing their own thing that they hardly ever see each other. It's a shame. Wolf is such a great character but even in the book named for him, you don't get to see enough of him.
Adventure, fabulous characters, mythical characters - this book has it all. A great mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy with a healthy dose of humour. I laughed out loud when Tinker sees the movie The Wizard of Oz for the first time. It was hilarious to see this timeless movie classic described by someone living so far in the future from when the movie was made.
All in all, I loved Wolf Who Rules.
November 28, 2019
2.5 stars
A so-so novel, probably this author’s worst. At least, it is the only one of hers I didn’t like and don’t own. The plot is your average fantasy. Elves fight against the evil oni warlords in the human city of Pittsburgh, which was dropped into the Elven world by mistake. Elves act arrogant and bitchy, most of them do anyway, and they don’t respect human rights (ha!) There are a couple of dragons here as well and some spaceships, but even they don’t liven the plot well enough to be engaging.
Tinker, the protagonist, is her usual charming self, a human girl genius in an elven body, solving everyone’s problems all the time. Her line continues practically unbroken from the first book of this series, Tinker. If she was the only POV character, the novel would’ve read much better.
Unfortunately, Spencer included Windwolf’s POV in this book. Windwolf is Tinker’s husband and an elven viceroy of all Americas. His POV should’ve enriched the story, but it didn’t. Instead, it muddled it. Of course, I don’t know how the elves think, but the author doesn’t know either. She tried to make it different, tried to throw human logic out of the window, which might reflect the elves’ alien mentality, but for me, all the scenes with Windwolf’s elven POV felt a bit off.
Furthermore, the elves fumble throughout the novel, always reacting to the bad guys’ attacks instead of gathering their brains and developing their own strategy. They seem so clueless, I wanted to bang their stupid pretty heads against the walls, to pound some sense into them. As I couldn’t do that, Windwolf and Co. are running all over the place in this book, without focus or purpose, so the story doesn’t seem to have one uniform direction. The plot meanders, blurry and unstructured, while the elven lords all behave like self-involved jackasses.
Overall: meh.
A so-so novel, probably this author’s worst. At least, it is the only one of hers I didn’t like and don’t own. The plot is your average fantasy. Elves fight against the evil oni warlords in the human city of Pittsburgh, which was dropped into the Elven world by mistake. Elves act arrogant and bitchy, most of them do anyway, and they don’t respect human rights (ha!) There are a couple of dragons here as well and some spaceships, but even they don’t liven the plot well enough to be engaging.
Tinker, the protagonist, is her usual charming self, a human girl genius in an elven body, solving everyone’s problems all the time. Her line continues practically unbroken from the first book of this series, Tinker. If she was the only POV character, the novel would’ve read much better.
Unfortunately, Spencer included Windwolf’s POV in this book. Windwolf is Tinker’s husband and an elven viceroy of all Americas. His POV should’ve enriched the story, but it didn’t. Instead, it muddled it. Of course, I don’t know how the elves think, but the author doesn’t know either. She tried to make it different, tried to throw human logic out of the window, which might reflect the elves’ alien mentality, but for me, all the scenes with Windwolf’s elven POV felt a bit off.
Furthermore, the elves fumble throughout the novel, always reacting to the bad guys’ attacks instead of gathering their brains and developing their own strategy. They seem so clueless, I wanted to bang their stupid pretty heads against the walls, to pound some sense into them. As I couldn’t do that, Windwolf and Co. are running all over the place in this book, without focus or purpose, so the story doesn’t seem to have one uniform direction. The plot meanders, blurry and unstructured, while the elven lords all behave like self-involved jackasses.
Overall: meh.
March 23, 2009
This is Part 2 of the book named "Tinker" by the same author. It starts pretty much the day after "Tinker" ends. A big difference between this book and Tinker is that this one includes lots of passages from Windwolf's point of view, thus the title.
The plot is so complicated that I don't know how to sum it up, but I'll try. Tinker survives the end of book 1 to discover that she's ripped up dimensions and created a freaky area dubbed the Ghostlands. A couple dragons have come through the dimensional hole from Ohnida, as well as some frozen dudes that probably didn't start out that way. Also, Pittsburg is stuck on Elf now. There's a very complicated plot that eventually leads to getting rid of the Ghostlands.
The most interesting parts, though, were the fleshing out of so many characters. For example, learning about Elf culture from the Elf perspective, or understanding Riki's motives for cooperating with the Oni, or learning about the half Oni humans that have been tortured and abused by the Oni, or seeing Tinker begin to accept being Elf, or relationships with Tinker's newfound relatives. There is so much about this book that BEGS for expansion. Ms. Spencer could have made these two books into a huge series and I would have loved every one of them - I'm very sad that there are only two. This is the kind of series that plants itself in my imagination and doesn't let go. The characters feel that real. What a fantastic author!
The plot is so complicated that I don't know how to sum it up, but I'll try. Tinker survives the end of book 1 to discover that she's ripped up dimensions and created a freaky area dubbed the Ghostlands. A couple dragons have come through the dimensional hole from Ohnida, as well as some frozen dudes that probably didn't start out that way. Also, Pittsburg is stuck on Elf now. There's a very complicated plot that eventually leads to getting rid of the Ghostlands.
The most interesting parts, though, were the fleshing out of so many characters. For example, learning about Elf culture from the Elf perspective, or understanding Riki's motives for cooperating with the Oni, or learning about the half Oni humans that have been tortured and abused by the Oni, or seeing Tinker begin to accept being Elf, or relationships with Tinker's newfound relatives. There is so much about this book that BEGS for expansion. Ms. Spencer could have made these two books into a huge series and I would have loved every one of them - I'm very sad that there are only two. This is the kind of series that plants itself in my imagination and doesn't let go. The characters feel that real. What a fantastic author!
April 25, 2017
I did not like this story quite as much as I liked the first one in the series. It was still an interesting world with science and mythological creatures and enough to keep me reading until the end. I felt like this story was a little more forced than the first one with references to Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. I'm not one that's bothered by profanity, but there were a lot of F****s in this story that made me think the author was trying too hard to make the characters cool. There were no F words in the first book, so it just seemed inconsistent to me.
July 19, 2008
Sequel to Tinker...the adventure continues with even more science and math....I really wish there was a third book because it feels like the "middle", but I am told there isn't/won't be anymore in this series...I'll take what I can get.....
July 3, 2010
An extremely satisfying return to Tinker's world. I hope Wen Spencer treats us to a third Tinker adventure soon!
July 19, 2019
2019 re-read! I think I enjoy it more each time I reread it!
February 21, 2017
super fast-paced story. Tinker and Wolf are married, and the adventure continues.
Tinker has to save the world, and she has to do it with a broken arm and attacks on her dreams while she's sleeping. Apparently 'see the future' and 'share dreams' have a downside.
Exhaustion is even worse than broken bones. A former friend who has delusions of marrying Tinker adds plenty of aggravation to the mix.
Meanwhile Wolf has to save the world while dealing with an ex-girlfriend who thinks Wolf would make a great widower, a cousin jealous of his Viceroy status, and a powerful warrior who had been tortured to insanity. With help like this, who needs enemies?
Tinker gets so tangled up that mid-book, she has to stop and count on her fingers: Sunday I saved the world, Monday I did this, Tuesday I did that, Wednesday is today - is today Wednesday? Does the world need saving again?
Tinker's biggest complaint is that her husband has no time to talk to her, and she has to get information about his doings from newspapers. Almost as bad - she finds out about her -own- actions in the papers, or at least the public view of it. It really weirds her out, since before this the only time she was in the papers was as the racetrack driver for Team Tinker.
Tinker has to save the world, and she has to do it with a broken arm and attacks on her dreams while she's sleeping. Apparently 'see the future' and 'share dreams' have a downside.
Exhaustion is even worse than broken bones. A former friend who has delusions of marrying Tinker adds plenty of aggravation to the mix.
Meanwhile Wolf has to save the world while dealing with an ex-girlfriend who thinks Wolf would make a great widower, a cousin jealous of his Viceroy status, and a powerful warrior who had been tortured to insanity. With help like this, who needs enemies?
Tinker gets so tangled up that mid-book, she has to stop and count on her fingers: Sunday I saved the world, Monday I did this, Tuesday I did that, Wednesday is today - is today Wednesday? Does the world need saving again?
Tinker's biggest complaint is that her husband has no time to talk to her, and she has to get information about his doings from newspapers. Almost as bad - she finds out about her -own- actions in the papers, or at least the public view of it. It really weirds her out, since before this the only time she was in the papers was as the racetrack driver for Team Tinker.
November 3, 2022
I liked it better than the first. Still waiting for tinker to get the basics of elf culture.
December 24, 2007
Not as good as its predecessor Tinker, Wolf Who Rules is still a decent read. Although the book is named for Tinker's husband (Wolf-Who-Rules-the-Wind, or WindWolf to humans), the book is at least as much about Tinker herself as was the book named for her. Which is good. WindWolf is an interesting character, but probably couldn't hold a novel up on his own; he's a little too perfect to be truly compelling and his status as an elf isn't enough given his fascination with human culture and technology.
In Wolf Who Rules we get to see Tinker move from her fascination with machines to a fascination with magic. We know from the first book that the two are closely related; this book gives Tinker a mentor who begins to teach her about the similarities between magic and quantum physics. As expected, she eats it up. It leaves many open questions about how powerful she can be and how she can combine magic and technology (as she learns her family has done before) in ways that would surprise the elves and the humans equally.
The book also brings back the tengu/oni conflict and introduces the elves to some simple moral questions around their intended genocide. The tengu plotline is not especially exciting or unexpected, but it does provide some good pace transitions and the final resolution is unexpected as well as shows a new level of subtlety in Tinker's understanding of elf culture.
The mail plot of the book is an action story, once again. The Oni are using the Ghostlands (the area where Tinker's world-gate from the first book has left a murky and dangerous cross-world zone) to prepare to assault Elfhome (and possibly Earth). In doing so they've driven two Oni dragons into Elfhome. Oni dragons scare even elf domana--they're immune to most magic, produce Oni magic shields that gain power from kinetic attacks, and can phase through matter at will.
WindWolf has asked the queen to send aid against the combined Oni and dragon threat. The elf law is that a house can only keep what it can defend--his asking for help allows other houses to offer aid in exchange for portions of his holdings. The other houses want political control of Pittsburgh and the humans trapped on Elfhome. Plus they'd like to kill Tinker or WindWolf or both for reasons varying from personal to political to prejudicial. Within Wolf's own Wind clan, even trusted sekasha--the bodyguards--begin jockeying to use Tinker's political inexperience against her. You know things are bad when he turns to the NSA agents who tried to kidnap Tinker for aid.
Tinker, meanwhile, is trying to analyze the dragons defenses, fill out her pick of bodyguards (a very political decision, and therefore one she's unprepared for), deal with persistent rumors that she isn't married to WindWolf (which leads to some uncomfortable revelations about elf customs), and overcome lots of guilt about how the first book ended and the (many) people who have died around her. During all of this, she begins having semi-prophetic dreams based on human and tengu symbolism that relate to the lost colonists, her friend Lain's missing sister, her role in the building conflicts, and coming revelations about Tinker's own past.
It's a fun read, but not nearly as good as the first. The story doesn't go anywhere truly unexpected, the characters don't grow as much as you'd like, and the world isn't expanded as much as it seems at first glance. It would make a decent transitional book if there is/were/is to be a third, but without that it's just a fine way to while away a few hours.
Having said that, the world and the basic characters are interesting enough that I did miss it when I left it at work one night. It's a great world to speculate about.
In Wolf Who Rules we get to see Tinker move from her fascination with machines to a fascination with magic. We know from the first book that the two are closely related; this book gives Tinker a mentor who begins to teach her about the similarities between magic and quantum physics. As expected, she eats it up. It leaves many open questions about how powerful she can be and how she can combine magic and technology (as she learns her family has done before) in ways that would surprise the elves and the humans equally.
The book also brings back the tengu/oni conflict and introduces the elves to some simple moral questions around their intended genocide. The tengu plotline is not especially exciting or unexpected, but it does provide some good pace transitions and the final resolution is unexpected as well as shows a new level of subtlety in Tinker's understanding of elf culture.
The mail plot of the book is an action story, once again. The Oni are using the Ghostlands (the area where Tinker's world-gate from the first book has left a murky and dangerous cross-world zone) to prepare to assault Elfhome (and possibly Earth). In doing so they've driven two Oni dragons into Elfhome. Oni dragons scare even elf domana--they're immune to most magic, produce Oni magic shields that gain power from kinetic attacks, and can phase through matter at will.
WindWolf has asked the queen to send aid against the combined Oni and dragon threat. The elf law is that a house can only keep what it can defend--his asking for help allows other houses to offer aid in exchange for portions of his holdings. The other houses want political control of Pittsburgh and the humans trapped on Elfhome. Plus they'd like to kill Tinker or WindWolf or both for reasons varying from personal to political to prejudicial. Within Wolf's own Wind clan, even trusted sekasha--the bodyguards--begin jockeying to use Tinker's political inexperience against her. You know things are bad when he turns to the NSA agents who tried to kidnap Tinker for aid.
Tinker, meanwhile, is trying to analyze the dragons defenses, fill out her pick of bodyguards (a very political decision, and therefore one she's unprepared for), deal with persistent rumors that she isn't married to WindWolf (which leads to some uncomfortable revelations about elf customs), and overcome lots of guilt about how the first book ended and the (many) people who have died around her. During all of this, she begins having semi-prophetic dreams based on human and tengu symbolism that relate to the lost colonists, her friend Lain's missing sister, her role in the building conflicts, and coming revelations about Tinker's own past.
It's a fun read, but not nearly as good as the first. The story doesn't go anywhere truly unexpected, the characters don't grow as much as you'd like, and the world isn't expanded as much as it seems at first glance. It would make a decent transitional book if there is/were/is to be a third, but without that it's just a fine way to while away a few hours.
Having said that, the world and the basic characters are interesting enough that I did miss it when I left it at work one night. It's a great world to speculate about.
July 8, 2015
Wolf Who Rules is the second novel in a human/elven crossover series set in Pittsburgh, though not exactly in Pennsylvania. This is a high fantasy/science fiction novel, a balance that works and makes me enjoy it all the more.
The premise of the series is that there’s a gate which can teleport Pittsburgh between dimensions, one of which is human norm and the other is elven with magic. The series focuses around Tinker, who has a knack for machinery that crosses both mechanical and magical barriers. She also has a kind heart and is blind to social differences.
As such, in the first book Tinker, she falls in love with and wins an elven lord, Wolf Who Rules, while being kidnapped, forced to help a third dimension’s beings, the Oni, who have no compassion and breed like rabbits. She commits mechanical/magical genius to save both elves and humans from the Oni, with the consequence that she’s transformed into an elf when her injuries are too much. Wolf Who Rules is a continuation of Tinker’s story, dealing with the aftereffects of her solution to the Oni, and both her relationship with Wolf Who Rules and her transformation.
I read Tinker a good number of years ago. I’d meant to read Wolf Who Rules pretty quickly, but I gave my copy to my son who had just finished the Ukiah Oregon series and was thrilled to read another Wen Spencer. By the time he gave it back, life had happened and it went on to the TBR pile with everything else.
When I heard a new book in the series was coming out, I planned to reread both of these, but somehow I ended up reading Wolf Who Rules first. It’s the mark of a good series that I wasn’t disoriented at all. Not only is the Tinker world complex, interesting, and colorful enough to have stuck in my memory despite the time between, but Wen also provides little reminders so that I didn’t have to struggle to remember who was in the previous book, and how those tangled relationships and betrayals should be influencing this one.
Since Tinker is my favorite of all the characters, the beginning seemed a little off with its focus on elven politics and social codes, but I didn’t have to wait long before Tinker shakes off the medicines given to help her heal and adjust to her transformation. She runs off to see what’s going on, and dumps herself in the middle of trouble, of course, right back to the Tinker I love.
The beginning politics and such were not a loss in any way, though. They have an immediate impact and put Tinker in an awkward position on many levels. Add in questions raised by prophetic dreams, a puzzle in the form of consequences from her desperate gamble in Tinker when a prisoner of the Oni, and the discovery that what the elves see as true might not be, and you have a fun, complex novel that makes you look at social and cultural situations in a different light. I regret that it took me so long to read my copy, but at the same time, now I’m psyched to read the new novel.
So if you haven’t read Wolf Who Rules, what are you waiting for? And if you have, what did you think of it?
The premise of the series is that there’s a gate which can teleport Pittsburgh between dimensions, one of which is human norm and the other is elven with magic. The series focuses around Tinker, who has a knack for machinery that crosses both mechanical and magical barriers. She also has a kind heart and is blind to social differences.
As such, in the first book Tinker, she falls in love with and wins an elven lord, Wolf Who Rules, while being kidnapped, forced to help a third dimension’s beings, the Oni, who have no compassion and breed like rabbits. She commits mechanical/magical genius to save both elves and humans from the Oni, with the consequence that she’s transformed into an elf when her injuries are too much. Wolf Who Rules is a continuation of Tinker’s story, dealing with the aftereffects of her solution to the Oni, and both her relationship with Wolf Who Rules and her transformation.
I read Tinker a good number of years ago. I’d meant to read Wolf Who Rules pretty quickly, but I gave my copy to my son who had just finished the Ukiah Oregon series and was thrilled to read another Wen Spencer. By the time he gave it back, life had happened and it went on to the TBR pile with everything else.
When I heard a new book in the series was coming out, I planned to reread both of these, but somehow I ended up reading Wolf Who Rules first. It’s the mark of a good series that I wasn’t disoriented at all. Not only is the Tinker world complex, interesting, and colorful enough to have stuck in my memory despite the time between, but Wen also provides little reminders so that I didn’t have to struggle to remember who was in the previous book, and how those tangled relationships and betrayals should be influencing this one.
Since Tinker is my favorite of all the characters, the beginning seemed a little off with its focus on elven politics and social codes, but I didn’t have to wait long before Tinker shakes off the medicines given to help her heal and adjust to her transformation. She runs off to see what’s going on, and dumps herself in the middle of trouble, of course, right back to the Tinker I love.
The beginning politics and such were not a loss in any way, though. They have an immediate impact and put Tinker in an awkward position on many levels. Add in questions raised by prophetic dreams, a puzzle in the form of consequences from her desperate gamble in Tinker when a prisoner of the Oni, and the discovery that what the elves see as true might not be, and you have a fun, complex novel that makes you look at social and cultural situations in a different light. I regret that it took me so long to read my copy, but at the same time, now I’m psyched to read the new novel.
So if you haven’t read Wolf Who Rules, what are you waiting for? And if you have, what did you think of it?
April 28, 2025
Reviewed for THC Reviews
"4.5 stars" Wolf Who Rules is the second full-length novel in Wen Spencer’s Elfhome series. It takes place on the planet of Elfhome, which, as its name suggests, is the home-world of the elves, but thanks to a special inter-dimensional gate, the city of Pittsburgh has been transported there, only returning to Earth one day out of the month. That all changed, though, at the end of Tinker, the first book of the series, when Tinker, girl genius and now princess of the elves thanks to her marriage to Wolf Who Rules, viceroy and leader of the Wind Clan, built a second gate and created a resonance between them that destroyed them. This resulted in the human inhabitants of Pittsburgh now being stranded on Elfhome, as well as an anomaly they call the Ghostlands. Tinker is worried that somewhere in that anomaly enough of a gate may be left to make it possible for the brutal, sadistic oni to launch an incursion. Her theory seems to be borne out when an oni dragon attacks Tinker and her sekasha (guards) while she’s trying to ascertain the exact nature of the anomaly. As she puzzles out both its scientific and magical origins, she comes across information that reveals more about her parents, and she also begins having nightmares that seem to be trying to tell her something, which requires careful interpretation. Meanwhile, knowing that they might be attacked by the oni at any moment, Windwolf must ask for the help of the other elf clans, which leads to arguments and calculated political negotiations over the future of Pittsburgh and its inhabitants. Through it all, he must try to find a careful balance between his duty to his people, and keeping the peace between them and the humans, the half-oni who view themselves as humans, the tengu who are trying to escape slavery at the hands of the oni, and a pair of oni dragons.
In the first book, Tinker went from the human girl genius who owned the local junkyard and created fun inventions to being turned into an elf by Windwolf and elevated to princess status when she went through the elven mating ritual. In this second installment, she has still retained most of her human mentality and struggles to adapt to elven culture, learn how to control her magical powers, and find a balance between the new expectations that are being placed on her and still wanting to be just plain Tinker. In the midst of this existential crisis, she’s also faced with the knowledge that because of her previous actions, many humans are now stranded on Elfhome. Additionally her destruction of the gate created a mysterious anomaly, which could pose a grave threat to all people who live on the planet if the oni manage to use it to muster an attack. Then there are the dreams, most of which are nightmares, that seem to be trying to tell her something, the new revelations regarding her family, the need to choose her sekasha, and her growing feelings for her first Hand, Pony. It’s a lot of responsibility for a young new princess to deal with, but most of the time, Tinker manages admirably. Sometimes, she loses it a little, which is understandable given the circumstances, but Windwolf is there to comfort her when he can be, and when he can’t, she has Pony, although as a former human, she finds it strange and confusing to be having feelings for two men at once, even though the elves don’t blink an eye at it. Mostly though, we get to see the brainiac in action, trying to figure out the anomaly and what her dreams are trying to tell her, and later, saving a spaceship full of people and the entire city of Pittsburgh.
As viceroy of the Westernlands, which include Pittsburgh, and leader of the Wind Clan, Windwolf must figure out how to best serve the people, both elf and human who are counting on his leadership. With the threat of oni attack a very real possibility, he must call for help from the other elf clans. However, some of them, especially the leaders of the Stone Clan, expect a steep price for their help while also having a strong difference of opinion on how things should be handled. While Windwolf trusts Tinker implicitly, the other clans view her as an outsider because of her formerly human status. Then there are the half-oni who consider themselves to be human and the tengu who are fighting for their freedom from oni oppression. The elves mostly lump them all in with the oni, seeing them as a threat that must be eliminated, but as the story progresses, Windwolf begins to see them through new eyes and must find a way to handle their needs as well. Since the first book was entirely from Tinker’s perspective, I enjoyed getting Windwolf’s POV as well, and getting to know him a little better. He’s a strong leader who understands the power of negotiation and diplomacy. While he, too, initially views the half-oni and tengu as threats, I like that he was open-minded enough to see the truth of the matter and change his mind. Even though he struggles with finding a balance between his duties as a clan leader and those to his new wife, I appreciated that he still loves Tinker and trusts her, not hesitating to place lives in her hands when necessary. I love that he treated her as his equal and never hesitated to stand up to others who would put her down for her origins.
I felt that Wolf Who Rules got off to a somewhat sluggish start. I was liking the story, but it wasn’t drawing me in as much as I wanted it to. It was a little slow-paced, as the author spends a lot of time setting up for the big reveals later in the story and the showdown at the end. There’s also a great deal happening in many different areas. There’s Tinker’s struggles in her new life as an elf, her trying to interpret her dreams, and her figuring out what went wrong to have created the anomaly and trying to fix it before the oni can strike. Then we have Windwolf’s political maneuvering and fighting a few battles of his own, both physical and diplomatic. It takes a bit of brainpower to keep up with all of it. However, I’d say about two-thirds of the way into the story, the pace picks up quite a bit, events start meshing together, and the story became really engaging. From there, it was a very exciting read, as new things are revealed, Tinker finds herself in a race against time to save people, both in space and in Pittsburgh, and battles are waged against powerful foes. In the end, I loved how Tinker belies her youth by becoming a strong leader in her own right and how Windwolf stands firm beside her. There’s a touch of romance in Tinker’s ongoing relationship with Windwolf, and also in her evolving relationship with Pony. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this initially since she’d just mated Windwolf, but when it became clear that the elves in this universe are more fluid in their sexuality and don’t really think anything of having more than one lover, it didn’t bother me as much, seeming more like consensual polyamory. There are many intriguing elements to the story, a colorful supporting cast, and plenty of excitement in the end, so overall, Wolf Who Rules ended up being another enjoyable read in this series that has left me interested to see where the story goes next.
Note: This book contains a scene in which a supporting character relates the story of his mother being repeatedly raped, which could distress sensitive readers.
"4.5 stars" Wolf Who Rules is the second full-length novel in Wen Spencer’s Elfhome series. It takes place on the planet of Elfhome, which, as its name suggests, is the home-world of the elves, but thanks to a special inter-dimensional gate, the city of Pittsburgh has been transported there, only returning to Earth one day out of the month. That all changed, though, at the end of Tinker, the first book of the series, when Tinker, girl genius and now princess of the elves thanks to her marriage to Wolf Who Rules, viceroy and leader of the Wind Clan, built a second gate and created a resonance between them that destroyed them. This resulted in the human inhabitants of Pittsburgh now being stranded on Elfhome, as well as an anomaly they call the Ghostlands. Tinker is worried that somewhere in that anomaly enough of a gate may be left to make it possible for the brutal, sadistic oni to launch an incursion. Her theory seems to be borne out when an oni dragon attacks Tinker and her sekasha (guards) while she’s trying to ascertain the exact nature of the anomaly. As she puzzles out both its scientific and magical origins, she comes across information that reveals more about her parents, and she also begins having nightmares that seem to be trying to tell her something, which requires careful interpretation. Meanwhile, knowing that they might be attacked by the oni at any moment, Windwolf must ask for the help of the other elf clans, which leads to arguments and calculated political negotiations over the future of Pittsburgh and its inhabitants. Through it all, he must try to find a careful balance between his duty to his people, and keeping the peace between them and the humans, the half-oni who view themselves as humans, the tengu who are trying to escape slavery at the hands of the oni, and a pair of oni dragons.
In the first book, Tinker went from the human girl genius who owned the local junkyard and created fun inventions to being turned into an elf by Windwolf and elevated to princess status when she went through the elven mating ritual. In this second installment, she has still retained most of her human mentality and struggles to adapt to elven culture, learn how to control her magical powers, and find a balance between the new expectations that are being placed on her and still wanting to be just plain Tinker. In the midst of this existential crisis, she’s also faced with the knowledge that because of her previous actions, many humans are now stranded on Elfhome. Additionally her destruction of the gate created a mysterious anomaly, which could pose a grave threat to all people who live on the planet if the oni manage to use it to muster an attack. Then there are the dreams, most of which are nightmares, that seem to be trying to tell her something, the new revelations regarding her family, the need to choose her sekasha, and her growing feelings for her first Hand, Pony. It’s a lot of responsibility for a young new princess to deal with, but most of the time, Tinker manages admirably. Sometimes, she loses it a little, which is understandable given the circumstances, but Windwolf is there to comfort her when he can be, and when he can’t, she has Pony, although as a former human, she finds it strange and confusing to be having feelings for two men at once, even though the elves don’t blink an eye at it. Mostly though, we get to see the brainiac in action, trying to figure out the anomaly and what her dreams are trying to tell her, and later, saving a spaceship full of people and the entire city of Pittsburgh.
As viceroy of the Westernlands, which include Pittsburgh, and leader of the Wind Clan, Windwolf must figure out how to best serve the people, both elf and human who are counting on his leadership. With the threat of oni attack a very real possibility, he must call for help from the other elf clans. However, some of them, especially the leaders of the Stone Clan, expect a steep price for their help while also having a strong difference of opinion on how things should be handled. While Windwolf trusts Tinker implicitly, the other clans view her as an outsider because of her formerly human status. Then there are the half-oni who consider themselves to be human and the tengu who are fighting for their freedom from oni oppression. The elves mostly lump them all in with the oni, seeing them as a threat that must be eliminated, but as the story progresses, Windwolf begins to see them through new eyes and must find a way to handle their needs as well. Since the first book was entirely from Tinker’s perspective, I enjoyed getting Windwolf’s POV as well, and getting to know him a little better. He’s a strong leader who understands the power of negotiation and diplomacy. While he, too, initially views the half-oni and tengu as threats, I like that he was open-minded enough to see the truth of the matter and change his mind. Even though he struggles with finding a balance between his duties as a clan leader and those to his new wife, I appreciated that he still loves Tinker and trusts her, not hesitating to place lives in her hands when necessary. I love that he treated her as his equal and never hesitated to stand up to others who would put her down for her origins.
I felt that Wolf Who Rules got off to a somewhat sluggish start. I was liking the story, but it wasn’t drawing me in as much as I wanted it to. It was a little slow-paced, as the author spends a lot of time setting up for the big reveals later in the story and the showdown at the end. There’s also a great deal happening in many different areas. There’s Tinker’s struggles in her new life as an elf, her trying to interpret her dreams, and her figuring out what went wrong to have created the anomaly and trying to fix it before the oni can strike. Then we have Windwolf’s political maneuvering and fighting a few battles of his own, both physical and diplomatic. It takes a bit of brainpower to keep up with all of it. However, I’d say about two-thirds of the way into the story, the pace picks up quite a bit, events start meshing together, and the story became really engaging. From there, it was a very exciting read, as new things are revealed, Tinker finds herself in a race against time to save people, both in space and in Pittsburgh, and battles are waged against powerful foes. In the end, I loved how Tinker belies her youth by becoming a strong leader in her own right and how Windwolf stands firm beside her. There’s a touch of romance in Tinker’s ongoing relationship with Windwolf, and also in her evolving relationship with Pony. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this initially since she’d just mated Windwolf, but when it became clear that the elves in this universe are more fluid in their sexuality and don’t really think anything of having more than one lover, it didn’t bother me as much, seeming more like consensual polyamory. There are many intriguing elements to the story, a colorful supporting cast, and plenty of excitement in the end, so overall, Wolf Who Rules ended up being another enjoyable read in this series that has left me interested to see where the story goes next.
Note: This book contains a scene in which a supporting character relates the story of his mother being repeatedly raped, which could distress sensitive readers.
March 7, 2008
I love Wen Spencer's stuff. I really do. Her Ukiah Oregon books make me happy, and I reread Tinker until it fell apart. She's intelligent, and she has a way of taking all of these shining elements and binding them into an internally consistent whole that's hard to explain to someone else.
But this book made me really mad.
You can't present a character as a good guy, and have him commit genocide, and still expect your readers to view him as good. Even if at the end he realises the error of his ways, the murders committed at his command can't be undone, you can't just *fix* things like that. If he'd realised he'd made a long series of stupid, fatal mistakes, and then decided to don mourning and spend the rest of his overlong life atoning for them, that'd be one thing--but just because you've *realised* you're making a mistake, doesn't undo what damage has been done. Atonement is necessary, not just an "oh, well! Won't do THAT again."
But this book made me really mad.
You can't present a character as a good guy, and have him commit genocide, and still expect your readers to view him as good. Even if at the end he realises the error of his ways, the murders committed at his command can't be undone, you can't just *fix* things like that. If he'd realised he'd made a long series of stupid, fatal mistakes, and then decided to don mourning and spend the rest of his overlong life atoning for them, that'd be one thing--but just because you've *realised* you're making a mistake, doesn't undo what damage has been done. Atonement is necessary, not just an "oh, well! Won't do THAT again."
July 25, 2010
The sequel to
Tinker
, which I hadn't read, and may be one reason it didn't click with me. The style is decent, but nothing sets it apart. (Other than dropping the f-bomb early and often.)
Set in a future Pittsburgh transported to the planet Elfhome, the heroine, Tinker, once human, was made into an elf by her lover, Wolf-Who-Rules, to be his queen. (Tinker is both Mary Sue and TSTL--amazing how often those traits go together in fictional characters.) Oh, and there be Significant Dreams(tm) based on Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz.
But you know the real deal-breaker with me? Dear Wolf, our hero, is planning genocide for an evil race that breeds like vermin ("like mice.") What does that remind you of? Yes, I know, it's fantasy. Maybe the "oni" really are evil. This is also fiction though, where the author makes it so. And given human history that was a choice I found repellent.
Set in a future Pittsburgh transported to the planet Elfhome, the heroine, Tinker, once human, was made into an elf by her lover, Wolf-Who-Rules, to be his queen. (Tinker is both Mary Sue and TSTL--amazing how often those traits go together in fictional characters.) Oh, and there be Significant Dreams(tm) based on Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz.
But you know the real deal-breaker with me? Dear Wolf, our hero, is planning genocide for an evil race that breeds like vermin ("like mice.") What does that remind you of? Yes, I know, it's fantasy. Maybe the "oni" really are evil. This is also fiction though, where the author makes it so. And given human history that was a choice I found repellent.
October 23, 2016
Something about this concept/world that enthrals me. Yes, I could have done with a fewer info dumps when it comes to the tech/science of it all. And there are quite a few threads that the author introduces and then fails to deliver upon - often making me feel like I skipped something.
Enjoy this world, and Tinker the H, is pretty darn awesome - though I though the author was little unfair to her in this book - all those dreams/hallucinations. Wolf even thinks she is going mad - and then kind of never says anything about it ever again.
Improbable events happen - but they seem to fit this world.
Enjoy this world, and Tinker the H, is pretty darn awesome - though I though the author was little unfair to her in this book - all those dreams/hallucinations. Wolf even thinks she is going mad - and then kind of never says anything about it ever again.
Improbable events happen - but they seem to fit this world.
October 6, 2016
I liked this book/series, even though it has some glaring issues. The H, is rarely around. The author has continuity problems, often dropping threads/characters when a set up has been created. So we get no resolution on small issues - and they do begin to add up to annoying levels.
Still, there is something about Tinker that is magnetic - even though the author insisted upon making her a bit wacky crazy this book - with the whole dreaming Oz/Alice elements, the crying, the self-doubt, the crazy projects that often went no where.
Still, there is something about Tinker that is magnetic - even though the author insisted upon making her a bit wacky crazy this book - with the whole dreaming Oz/Alice elements, the crying, the self-doubt, the crazy projects that often went no where.
February 5, 2017
As a read more and more books by Wen Spencer I think back to my early reading days and she would have been the perfect jumping off point into fantasy/scifi. A little romance, a little action, and an incredibly strong female character. I enjoy her books now, don't get me wrong, I just know I would have LOVED her books when I was younger. These books are solid beach blanket reads for the slightly geeky.
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