Book Review: Callanish by William Horwood

 

I don't think I've read much if any bird xenofiction before. So let's check out Callanish by William Horwood, a book about golden eagles.

Spoilers ahead.

Creggan is a young eagle caught from the wild and brought to London Zoo. Here, he grows up under the watchful eye of Minch, an elderly eagle from a mystical place called Callanish. Creggan promises Minch that, should the opportunity ever present itself to escape, he'll go to Callanish. Once the opportunity to escape the zoo presents itself, Creggan will now have to look after himself and use all of Minch's lessons in order to survive. 

This one was definitely a shorter book, at least by Horwood standards, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. I honestly quite found myself enjoying it. Even if this one has a rather simple and straightforward premise and isn't overly complicated story-wise (like some of Horwood's other works such as Duncton Wood, The Book of Silence or The Wolves of Time), it still does its job very well in being a neat and contained story. 

The plot kept me engaged throughout the book, but what really made the book for me were the characters. Creggan himself is fine, but honestly not the most amazing character or anything. I did like him and did enjoy following his journey, but for me the side characters made this story. Minch was probably my favorite due to her big presence in the story, but I also liked Creggan's mate and the other birds of prey we meet at the zoo. There's also a human character named Helmut Wolski, whom I also found enjoyable to follow. His arc was especially beautiful and is nicely somewhat parallel to that of the eagles. Whereas the eagles literally escape their cages, Wolski becomes more free of his mental chains over the course of the story.

The world-building in this one is a bit light compared to Horwood's other works, which usually have tons of lore to them, but there still is enough here to make Callanish feel like an important and mythical place for the eagles, which really is one of the more important aspects of the story. This isn't just some case of "eagle escapes a zoo and goes to Scotland". There seems to be an actual mythical power over Callanish, at least somewhat. So seeing Creggan and Minch go there in the end was really nice, to make the story come full-circle.

Overall this was a short and neat read. Even if simpler than Horwood's other books that I've read, it still has enough depth and the characters are handled very nicely.

Rating: 4/5