Promise of the Wolves

The debut of former Jossey-Bass senior editor Hayes is a crackling foray into a dangerous past, the first of a projected trilogy. On Wide Valley plain 14,000 years ago, wolf Kaala is born into the Swift River pack—a half-breed outcast with Outsider blood. As she grows into adulthood, the spirited pup continues to come into conflict with pack leader Ruuqo. She also sneaks off to be with humans, who are encroaching on wolf territory and who often drive the wolves from their kills. Fraternization is strictly forbidden, but as Kaala’s mother has foreseen in dreams, it may also be the key to saving every wolf and human in the valley. Hayes’s remarkable fluency when writing in Kaala’s voice is immediately absorbing. The mythologies of the societies she invents are underdeveloped, but the relationships between the human characters and the wolf characters are keenly felt, and the conflicts sharply imagined. Hayes’s keen interpretations of wolf behavior, senses and sensibilities will enchant paranormal fans and animal lovers alike. (June)