Rhamin

Rhamin #1

by Bryce Thomas

Rhamin is the leader of a pack. His rival, who cannot depose him, resorts to doing bad things to try, which results in a young boy, his sister and their parents entering the story.
At a time when some wolves are in need of help to survive, one of the pack discovers that it can communicate with the boy and it is the relationship that builds between the wolves and the family that leads to a dangerous and exciting adventure for them all.
With a good element of the paranormal and a couple of humourous characters as well, the story is told from the wolves' perspective, taking readers inside the pack so that they see everything through a wolf's eyes.
Rhamin is a bestselling light, fantasy adventure with lots of danger, drama and suspense. It has an unusual twist and a knife edge climax that keeps you turning the pages to the very last page.

Genres: Fantasy, Wolves, Fiction, Paranormal

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

When the author was about six years old, his mother and father received a visit from a cousin whose grandparents had emigrated from England to Minnesota in the USA. His father had gone out to do some jobs on the farm and whilst his mother prepared a meal, to keep young Bryce entertained the visitor told him a tale about a wolf that had stolen a dog puppy and about how that puppy when grown up had been seen a year or more later running with a small pack of wolves. Bryce had no idea if the story was true. He never saw the distant relative again after that visit, and no member of his family was ever able to recall much about him.
But the story had been so vividly told that it remained firmly fixed in the young boy’s mind and over the years it became expanded and embroidered in daydreams and fantasies. And so, the story of Rhamin was born.
With a degree in law, Bryce chose not to become a lawyer but instead, became a farmer, living and raising his family in Llanelli, Wales. With his deep love of nature, he has produced a story so full of social comparisons between wolves and men, and he brings their shared paranormal and social elements together so realistically, that they are believable.

Reviews

[Aicha Jwz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's not as simple as that Ben. Freedom is precious. Neither wolf not men were put on this earth to be kept prison against their will."

Being a animal lover, and wolves being my absolute favourite animal, I was interested in this book. I lived in a country where they went extinct and are finally, but very slowly, returning. Yay!

I was always fascinated by how the wolves lived in packs.

This book had a lot of things going on with the Rhamin's pack, it being the target of other wolves wanting it to rule for their own, and of course, their worst enemies, being us, the humans.

The writing was good, easy to understand. And I loved the spiritual aspect that the author added.

The plot was going in a very good pace, for me at the least. It's like sweet animal adventure. I also liked how the author added bits of information about the the way that the forest animal lived.

The characters were also likeable. My favourite being Rasci and Lexa. I, for some reason, hope that they end up together in their own little pack. Even though, I don't think it's common for wolves to mate with dogs, even if that dog grew up as one of them. Or do they?


Overall, I enjoyed this book and I recommend it, hoping that you would too

[Lone Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of a wolf pack, led by the eponymous Rhamin, as they struggle to survive in difficult times. It started out well. I particularly liked the idea of a dog puppy being adopted into the pack and was looking forward to reading about her growing up with them and learning to be a wolf – how she fits in, how she doesn’t, and so on. Unfortunately, this is skipped over pretty much entirely.

About halfway through the book, Rhamin disappears, and the focus shifts to another character, Rasci. At this point the story veers off into fantastical territory, with wolves experiencing visions and talking to humans. I disliked this, but to be fair the book did put a more original spin on it than most similar books – the communication is not by direct speech, but by astral projection during dreams.

The animal characters use human terms and gestures, and there were some factual errors. The author does seem to have done some research into wolves, but has clearly misunderstood some of what he’s read – for example, one line reads: “The pups, or cubs as they are called as they become a little older ...” (Pups and cubs are just alternative names for young wolves, and do not refer to different stages in development). There were also a number of spelling and grammatical mistakes, and not all the loose ends are tied up, meaning you’re left feeling as though you haven’t quite read a complete story.

[Sadie Forsythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rhamin is refreshing. The Paranormal genre is flooded with hot-blooded males, and while I like that too, I greatly appreciated the change Rhamin presents. The alpha male here is just that, an alpha in a wolf pack. Not a werewolf pack, but honest to goodness timber wolves. (Well it never clarifies that they are timber wolves, but as large wolves residing in North America they probably are supposed to be.) Granted they are heavily anthropomorphized, possessing humanlike intellect, speech, the concept of numerics, etc, but they're still just wolves.

There were quite a few wolf related info-drops that slowed things down a little and some of the speech, especially between Rasci and Ben, seemed a little stilted and un-natural. Though to be fair so is their whole situation, so it might not be inappropriate for their communication to be awkward. But on the whole I really enjoyed the book.

Because I recently had a conversation with someone about the messages that books present to readers, young readers in particular, I stopped to appraise Rhamin's messages. The wolves of Rhamin's pack are fabulous role models and we could all learn a little bit from them about extended familial love and loyalty, accepting ourselves and our own skills and limitations, accepting others despite their differences, forgiving your enemies, and the importance of dedication to a task.

If you are expecting a heavy hitting PNR go elsewhere, but it you'd like a sweet paranormal adventure this is the book for you. You'll also learn a little bit of history if you read the afterward, which I always a like.

[WolfLover · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rhamin, a huge black wolf, is the leader of a pack facing various difficulties. A drought means food is scarce, and he must decide whether to risk raiding a farm. Meanwhile, another pack member resents his leadership and is plotting against him.

There were some factual errors, like the claim that a single wolf can kill a buffalo, bears living in groups, and the wolves seeming to have no fear of humans and being able to fight off much stronger animals like bears and mountain lions. Despite this, the first half of the book wasn’t bad, but then any semblance of realism abruptly vanishes and it falls back on the hackneyed old wolves-talking-to-humans plot-line. I found this disappointing as it’s so over-used in wolf novels.

There were some spelling and grammatical errors (for example, constant use of “barring” instead of “baring”, and numerous missing commas). The wolves use human measurements like miles and seconds, and a couple of them have human names. I also wasn’t crazy about the name Rhamin, which I continually heard as “ramen”, like the noodles!

[Broganne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this read ~ it has multiple climax points throughout that keep you on your toes and make you want to keep reading!
I also love how accurate the wolf and animal behaviour is ~ evidently the author has gone through a lot of trouble to ensure that despite being fiction, there is fact driving the explanations of the characters used.

I especially loved the depth of the character development throughout and even after you think you know all there is about a character, the author finds a way to continue building and developing so that the read becomes truly captivating!

[Alex T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent attempt at a wolf xenofiction, however it failed to truly hook me. I personally found Rhamin to be an uninteresting character (and he does have a POV in the first third of the book). Things got marginally more interesting when Rasci took over as a protagonist but again I don't think he's amazing or anything and I could've done without the "wolf talks to human child" cliché.

Some of the moments in this book also lack an emotional impact (e.g. Lexa finding out she was stolen from her mother as a pup, or Rasci coming across a she-wolf who killed his kin). And there's quite a few errors like bad punctuation (a lot of missing commas) and for whatever reason the author uses the word "barred" instead of "bared" when talking about baring teeth.

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...

[Emma Radford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the way that 'Rhamin' takes you straight into the centre of a wolf pack; I immediately loved almost becoming a part of the pack and uniquely witnessing the dynamics and relationships of the different characters. There are a whole range of characters present in this novel and it became easy to identify and empathise on many different levels. Family relationships - both nurturing and sinister - are explored alongside the realities of life for a wild wolf pack. Although Rhamin is the alpha male of the pack, I increasingly (as I am sure others too) fell in love with Rasci - the 'class clown' that possesses many hidden and heroic depths. The novel reveals an intriguing and absorbing paranormal insight that eventually allows a connection between wolf and man to develop. The little boy's psychic connection to Rasci and the parent-child bond across different species are dealt with fairly sensitively and poignantly, building the plot to a suspenseful climax. There are moments of beautiful and almost haunting description during the wolves' journey and life in the sanctuary of the Darin, that for me managed to out-weigh the annoying typos that were also present. I am definitely intrigued to read on in 'Blue Tooth' to further track these wolves' stories. I also feel inspired to retread 'Wolf Brother' by Michelle Paver - which I read many years ago, to reflect further on the two novels.

[Eleanor Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn't normally pick this type of book , but what a brilliant read

[Francesca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really really struggled with the first half of this book. There's a lot of description and explanation for things that don't need it, there are a lot of wolves to try and remember and nothing interesting happened until the very end of part one.

I only really became interested in the very last leg of the the story, once Rasci figured out what he was doing and the humans were there to speak plainly and move the dialogue along quicker. But then it ended very abruptly with a quick skirmish and not a lot after. I get which part of the story Bryce Thomas was trying to tell, but it took him bloody ages to get there.

I've read books with all-animal casts before and enjoyed them so it's not that. I did like the characters eventually but the story needed a lot of work and I just didn't like the way it was told. This book felt like a lot of effort to get through with very little reward.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed Rhamin, it's just good old storytelling with a great variety of characters that all add something interesting to the tale.

I picked this up because I rarely see fiction about wolves and I was intrigued. I definitely wasn't let down even though the anthropomorphism was a little overdone, but this is aimed at a younger audience than myself so I can easily forgive that.

It's a little unfair for me to give it 4 stars instead of 5, but with a couple of editorial errors sneaking in and it being aimed at a younger audience, I feel 4 stars is a good indication for older readers.

That said, I would most definitely recommend this with enthusiasm to anyone. I think the major strengths of this book have been nicely covered in other reviews, so no point in repeating them here except to say that Rhamin will remain fondly in my mind for a long time.

[Nádasi Gábor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update: I realized that unfortunately the story contains some occult elements that can be harmful both for children and adults.

Old review:
This book did surprise me while reading and here I mean it in the right way. There were turns both predictable and unpredictable, but in general I really liked the story and the characters, even if the most of them weren't detailed, just mentioned.
It was my first book that was told from the wolves' point of view and I loved it! They were funny, nice, fierce, evil and cute at the same time.
The one thing I didn't like is that there were the good and the bad wolves and humans, and that's all. No mixed characters.
...but one thing can be stated for sure: the book is much better than its summary. I recommend it!

[Dominique Goodall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow! That's about all I can say for this book. Read in one sitting, no pausing! I'd read not just once, or twice, but a thousand times! WOW! I have never enjoyed a book as much as I did this one! It reminds me of The Sight and Fell, with the accurate portrayal of wolves enhanced by the human characteristics they are shown to have.

[Toni L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good book. The wolves are really telling the story
and their adventures with the pack and also the humans.
How they get along. Started the second book. Hope it is
as good as the first. Will let you know when I finish it.

[Kayleigh Greory · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book ever.

That is all.