I call this my favorite trilogy for a reason. Book 1 and 2 got very positive review from me, so let's see how book three does, shall we? Spoilers ahead.
Kaala, Azzuen and TaLi return. Now that the wolves have failed in the Wide Valley, it is time to leave said place behind. The wolves and their humans enter the village of Kaar, where many human tribes live together, in hopes of finding their luck over there. However, DavRian is set on destroying all that the wolves have worked for. And Kaala discovers a mysterious subspecies of wolves that may just impact the future of wolfkind forever.
Everything book one and and two did well carried over to this book. The world building, the mysteries and secrets, the endless twists and turns one doesn't see coming, the characters. It's all here, and it's all great.
Kaala truly matures by this book. You just feel so bad for her: she's not even a year old and yet already is forced to make decisions that impact not only her and her friends, but all of wolfkind, as well as nature itself by extension. When in book one she was an irrational hothead, she truly feels like a rounded and mature wolf by this book. She still makes mistakes, but she feels real. You got to experience her growing up, which is one of the things that makes her one of my favorite protagonists.
The other characters are great still, too. Azzuen sticks by Kaala's side, wherever she goes. Marra sees the safety of her human as her number one priority. TaLi wants to do everything to prove that the wolves are good and beneficial for mankind. Heck, even Pell, who I don't fully like, shows that he is willing to do more than just keep the Promise for Kaala's sake because he has a crush on her. We're also introduced to new human characters, such as RalZun the human-raven shapeshifter; HesMi, the female leader of Kaar; IniMin, another antagonist, and more. We also meet another pack outside of the valley: the Sentinels, with their mixed Greatwolf-smallwolf population. They pose an interesting threat, and it's rather engaging to see that Neesa, Kaala's mother, ended up with them. And of course we get the reveal that there's actual dogs and wolfdogs already. That surprised me, and I don't really like Gaanin, the leader of the wolfdogs, but at the same time, it was really interesting to see. I at first really thought that this took place before dogs existed, so this made for a nice twist. It also is a good hint to the cover my edition has, which depicts a white wolfdog on it.
The world building is once more expanded as we finally get a glimpse of what lies outside of the Wide Valley. More wolves with different pack structures, a huge village where all kinds of tribefolk live together, new threats such as woolly rhinos. It's all there and I enjoyed every minute of reading it.
The pacing was, much like the second book, great. I never wanted to stop reading, even though I knew what was coming. It's just a great and well-told story.
Now, there is one point I have to bring up with this book that I didn't with the others because they didn't impact the plot all that much: the love triangle. This kind of always rubbed me the wrong way, since Kaala is basically still a kid (granted, she's forced to mature, but she's still far below the age of two years). The first candidate to show romantic interest in her from the first time they met is Pell, one of the Stone Peaks. At first I thought it was okay, but then I came to realize he's about three years old, when she's roughly half a year old when they first meet. So, yeah, that's a very uncomfortable age gap. Male wolves are considered sexually mature at three years old, females at two. So Pell never felt right to me. He also shows interest in wanting pups with her when she's not a year old yet, so, yikes.
The second wolf to be into her is Azzuen, her best friend she grew up with. For the longest time, I thought this was the much better option of the two. But then I came to realize something else that is brought up in books two and three: they're related. Azzuen is related to Kaala through his mother's side, and it's not distant, either (his mother Rissa is Neesa's sister). At first I read past this, thinking it may have been an oversight on the author's part, but it's actually brought up various times that they're related, yet they never address it as weird. I guess you could keep the argument that maybe incest is a bit more common in the Wide Valley as they're pretty much isolated by the Greatwolves, but still, from the same pack, when Azzuen is practically her adopted brother, that's just wrong. And I don't fall for the "they're animals" argument, either. They're anthropomorphized and to the point their thought patterns and standards are very close to actual humans, and it doesn't fly for our kind, either. This does make me a bit uncomfortable when reading this book, especially once Kaala actually shows interest in Azzuen becoming her mate. I never even read their relationship as romantic, more as siblings/best friends than lovers. Honestly, Kaala didn't need to end up with anyone, she's so busy and young in the entire trilogy.
Then there's the ending. Man, I think that to this day a book's ending hasn't had such a big impact on me. I won't spoil it here, but it just really was something I never saw coming. It also holds an important environmental message.
Safe for the love triangle, I absolutely love everything about this book, from the characters to the world building to the ending and pacing. I cannot recommend this trilogy enough for historical fiction fans or xenofiction fans. I'd only not recommend this book to you if the incestuous hypothetical relationship between the protagonists really rubs you the wrong way. It kinda did for me, but not to the point of me deducting any stars for it due to how much I love the rest.
Rating: 5/5
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