In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen

Successfully conjuring up convincing new civilisations with their own past histories and current threats demands a lot from a fantasy writer, and initially this story achieves these goals well. Descriptions of the woods, bogs and lakes where young Ysolde and her pet sea-eagle Nara live come vividly off the page. Surrounding trees communicate with local human inhabitants, offering timely warnings when necessary. Ysolde herself is an authentically bright but stroppy child, living with her more mature and frequently disapproving sister Hari after both parents had died.

But one day their rural tranquillity is invaded by ruthless armed guards known and feared by the name of Ryders. Wearing red cloaks and thundering by on their horses, they are in search of any local inhabitants thought to possess any sort of sixth sense. Hari is captured and so too is Ysolde after trying to rescue her. They all meet at the court of the Wolf Queen, the ultimate villain, happy to give the order, only withdrawn at the last moment, to have Ysolde killed.

She survives only because she is thought to know the whereabouts of End-World Wood, where a reputed Anchorite may help the queen restore her surrounding environment that is slowly dying.  A journey follows, but at this stage the plot begins to unravel. The queen turns out to have a human side after all as do her murderous sea-wolves. Re-casting initial villains eventually into something more benign can have a tonic effect in any fiction, but here it becomes increasingly unclear what exactly is happening. Given that two more instalments are still to come completing what will be known as The Geomancer Trilogy, there may still be ample time finally to explain everything. But meanwhile what begins here as a tightly-written and highly imagined story rather loses its way.