K.S. Villoso's The Wolf of Oren Yaro, is one of those books that sneaks up on you, narratively. You’re reading along, and think you have a handle on where it’s going, and suddenly the game changes. The understanding of the world, of the characters, of the situations they’re in...pivots, and suddenly everything is different. It also sneaks up on you in the sense that you start reading it, and suddenly it’s two in the morning and you remember that you have to go to work in a few hours, but also you kind of want to read just one more chapter. The Wolf of Oren Yaro is one of those books.
It’s also a story that I want to call startlingly innovative; perhaps that’s my own narrowness of vision. In a world torn apart by conflict, the queen of Oren Yaro is trapped by a sense of duty, trying to hold disparate parts of a kingdom together after a civil war. Talyien is a hermit crab, desperately trapped in a citadel where everyone pretends to defer to her, whilst secretly - or openly - looking to subvert her will, or work it to their own ends, or ignore her and do what they were going to do anyway, short of outright killing each other. In this, she is not helped by the sudden disappearance of her husband, the other side of an arranged marriage to hold a kingdom together, or by long memories of her father, a man who apparently loved his daughter, but was perfectly willing to commit atrocities to close down a civil war. The survivors of that war, and those atrocities, have long memories, even as they bend the knee.
But Talis journey is one that works both personally and on a broader level - finding her husband to attempt to preserve her political and social position, as well as their kingdom, yes. But also Tali is trying to find out who she is, and what she needs or wants. She may be a fierce queen, hamstrung by circumstance. Or a hopeless despot. Or a woman who needs to be fragile and affectionate and human sometimes. Or maybe all of these, though history won’t say for sure just yet. But that’s the journey we’re on with her. And Tali is a beautiful character, crafted with a warmth of human empathy and an understanding of the depths of despair and the horrors of duty and the acceptance of obligation. Tali limits herself, makes herself the queen she needs to be - and sometimes she doesn’t And that has consequences of its own. Who Tali is, who she will decide to be, is a central path through this story, I think. It’s exploring her hurt and her shame and what in her pats has shaped her into the queen shaped mould she never quite seems to want to put herself in. The sorrowful queen, on the edge of acceptability, at the centre which cannot hold, is also a woman determined to strike out on her own, to do what needs to be done, to know and understand her world, to carve her own path in it, not the path of expectation. And the way that feels, reading it, is breathtaking. We can see the Queen of Oren-Yaro grow and change, and shift - and maybe not always in the way we might like or the way we might expect, but in a way which feels real and true.
And hers is a dangerous world. Court politics are one thing, but outside the broken kingdom of Oren-Yaro are worse things. Things she may yet meet with a sword in hand, or run away from. There are cities which seem like magic, and there’s magic that feels like hell itself. There are wonders and terrors here, and they’re not quite like anything else you’ve seen. The world is organic, drawn with an eye for detail, a precision and a grime and a patina of veracity that means the world feels lived in and real at the same time as it feels wonderful and terrifying in equal measure.
I won’t get into the story here, because it really does want to surprise you. But I will say that there’s enough politics and murders and love and heartbreak and, well, occasional stabbings to make you sit up and take notice. This is a story of a journey, and it’s not so much an adventure as a woman trying to shape herself and shape her understanding of her world, as others try and do the same around her, with her, to her - with varying degrees of success.
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is a fascinating book. It’s one I couldn’t put down. It’s something I think you ought to give a try.
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