Wolf's Bane: Tales of the Wolves, Book 4

As a fan of the rest of the series as well as the author's other books, I wish I had skipped this one. It's "beyond the trials of Job" story line is not only depressing but detrimental to the rest of the series. Some characters and story lines are poorly developed and created only for subsequent shock value. New characters are introduced, in the epilogue no less. Major series threads are left unaddressed or disappear completely with only superficial explanation. All that which has defined Dion, made her strong and admirable, and the world she lives in is either ripped away or arbitrarily abandons her. Apparently this is done so that she can pursue some nebulous goal which remains just that - nebulous. It could have been the jewel of the series, instead, Wolf's Bane tarnishes all that has gone before. I can only hope that the author plans to remedy this with a sequel or the series will be irreparably harmed.

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Tara K. Harper's Wolfwalker series is among the best science fiction I've ever read. I love her characters, the unique world she's created, and the story lines she's developed. Wolf's Bane, however, does not at all live up to the rest of the books in the series.I found this book to be unnecessarily brutal. Bad things kept happening one after another, to the point that I felt it was put in more for shock value than anything else. Had there been longer breaks in between the horrible parts, it might have been better.Most of the book is spent on how depressed Dion is because of the tragedies she's had to go through. This is completely understandable, but it makes for a boring story. Instead of the adventure I was expecting, it was flat. Either Dion is immersing herself in the wolves or her friends are griping to each other about who should snap her out of her unhealthy depression.The ending is the worst, though. The entire book might have been redeemed if the ending had been better. However, after 300 pages of set-up, the last 50 pages weren't enough. There was hardly a resolution. Dion ends up feeling better about her life and where it's headed, but after wanting concrete answers for the entire novel, she settles for something far less than that.Despite all this, I did get some enjoyment out of it. It was nice to revisit the world and the characters. Harper does a great job in giving them different traits as they all age. Dion is no longer than infallible wolfwalker, and Aranur is even beginning to slow down a bit. This novel does shed a bit more light on Grayheart and the other books set in the future, but I don't think that the time spent getting through it is worth the bits of enlightenment we get.If you're reading the series, I would say skip this one entirely. You can pretty much figure out its content from her other novels set in the future and you will save yourself some time and a lot of frustration.

If you have read the first three novels in the Wolfwalker series (and if you haven't, I suggest that you do) do not, I repeat, DO NOT read Grayheart or Wolf's Bane. Ember Dione maMarin was my favorite character, and Harper destroyed her life. I don't ask for sugar plum fairies and sprites dancing under the pale moon light, but I do expect to be able to read a story without feeling sick to my stomach over the non-stop agony my character is experiencing. Wolfwalker, Shadow Leader, and Storm Runner had plenty of pain and fear, but those emotions were at least balanced by excitement and joy. I don't know what Tara Harper was thinking...maybe she was having a bad year, or maybe she has every intention of making up for it in future novels, but unless she redeems herself, my advice is to stay away from these novels.

I have read this series twice now and I'm sure it will be a future read-over. First few books were from a friend at the time, used - and I was hooked. They weren't in order though, and of course I wanted to read the whole series once I started. Good things can come from anywhere.A long series, loved having the continuation and great stroylines.Highly addictive. Not a hard read either!

I LOVED this book! But I also think that I was "ready" for it since my father passed away this year. Like they say, no one can understand grief until it is experienced. The end was a little confusing but I'm hoping that Aranur's story helps to clear some of that up. Like the critic says, the book is NOT an escapist novel, if you are looking for a book that has a solid happy ending, this is not it. Instead it will rip-away everything that you knew and show you that "the future is all that holds us together (Gamon)".

Love Tara Harper. Love the world she's created.

Let me preface this by saying that I hate it when major characters get whacked in the middle of a book. I was more than slightly disappointed in this one. Harper seems to have confused overpsychologizing with actual depth. There's almost no plot in this, very little real character development, and way to much verbage wasted on navel-examination. The first two books were awesome, but the third shallowed out, and I'm sorry I bought the forth one at all.