 | The Book of Atrix Wolfe begins with a powerful mage trying to stop a war: “The formless fury took shape in his mind then, into a vision more terrible than war or winter: something that both armies would end their war to flee from. He fashioned his making out of black, endless winter night, the fire from burning arrows, the last words of the dying, the cries of the dreamers, the images in their nightmares. He made it out of the bloody claw-print of a raven in the snow, out of the reflection in the eye of a warrior staring into the raven’s eye, out of the hunger and cold and hopeless fury of those trapped within the castle walls, the cries of children wearing themselves to sleep . . . ” |
One theme of the story is how the powerful summoning in the opening, which took the form of a death-wielding Hunter, continues to resonate: two heirs of the opposing armies from that war are students at a famous mage’s school. Both believe the other’s family is responsible for summoning the dark rider, though both families suffered greatly in the ensuing mayhem.
Their teachers maintain the summoning mage’s identity remains a mystery.
Their teachers maintain the summoning mage’s identity remains a mystery.
 | During a magical game of hide and seek, one of the two heirs, bespeckled Talis, prince of Pelucir, hides in the pages of a book. Which turns out to have been written by Atrix Wolfe, the most famous graduate of the school. When he is subsequently summoned home, Talis takes the inexplicable book with him. |
Meanwhile, at Castle Pelucir, we meet a kitchen drudge named Saro, who mindlessly scrubs pots and grills all day. “She was dependable, like fire; if she was fed, she worked. She never cried, she rarely smiled. She never spoke.”
At night, when everyone else sleeps, she scries in the wash cauldron and sees beautiful riders on white horses in a golden forest and a castle made of ivy and rose vines.
We also meet Atrix Wolfe, who lives alone in the mountains. He’s the local Wild Man who heals animals with herbs and poultices—but never magic. He dreams of riders on white horses in a beautiful forest, one of whom shoots him with an arrow: “He woke, astonished.”
At night, when everyone else sleeps, she scries in the wash cauldron and sees beautiful riders on white horses in a golden forest and a castle made of ivy and rose vines.
We also meet Atrix Wolfe, who lives alone in the mountains. He’s the local Wild Man who heals animals with herbs and poultices—but never magic. He dreams of riders on white horses in a beautiful forest, one of whom shoots him with an arrow: “He woke, astonished.”
 | The author slowly braids these three characters together: Saro the kitchen drudge hears gossip about the return of Prince Talis. The prince locks himself in a haunted tower to study Atrix Wolfe’s book. While on a hunt with his brother, he meets the Queen of the Wood and her entourage mounted on “Three white horses with eyes of bone and shadows of hoarfrost.” He immediately falls under the queen’s spell: “Her eyes were gold and dark, troubled, in a face at one imperious and vulnerable and so beautiful there seemed no word, in human language, for what he saw.” |
When no one else will take lunch to the prince into the haunted keep, they send Saro. She is sensitive to the magic of the tower, seeing an overlay of the vine castle of her scrying.
Prince Talis is the first person who sees her as a person (more than a useful drudge) and is kind to her: “No one ever saw me [as you did]. They saw a dirty pot, or a clean pot.”
Atrix Wolfe dreams of his hidden book and searches for it: “He thought of stone, and, for an instant, became stone, crossing distance as if it were not time and place but simply memory.” He learns Talis has taken it to Pelicur and sets off to find it.
Prince Talis is the first person who sees her as a person (more than a useful drudge) and is kind to her: “No one ever saw me [as you did]. They saw a dirty pot, or a clean pot.”
Atrix Wolfe dreams of his hidden book and searches for it: “He thought of stone, and, for an instant, became stone, crossing distance as if it were not time and place but simply memory.” He learns Talis has taken it to Pelicur and sets off to find it.
 | The dark Hunter begins to stalk all three human characters: Talis in his haunted tower, Saro in her kitchen, and a desperate, shapeshifting Atrix Wolfe: “He melted deep into the rock, stayed there, hearing the Hunter’s hounds howling in fury, and feeling the wild wind shake the face of the mountain as it searched for him.” And the Queen of the Wood draws Talis back into her realm, charging him to bring Atrix Wolfe to her. |
Meanwhile, Saro finds the book and tries to read it alone that night:
“The fire spoke; wood snapped, pitch hissed. A spit-boy snored. Someone under the table whimpered with dreams. A dog barked in the yard. . . . She held the writing up to her ear and listened; she stroked it with her fingertips. It remained as mute as she.”
“The fire spoke; wood snapped, pitch hissed. A spit-boy snored. Someone under the table whimpered with dreams. A dog barked in the yard. . . . She held the writing up to her ear and listened; she stroked it with her fingertips. It remained as mute as she.”
 | Talis has grown up listening to tales of the day the Hunter killed his father and feels surrounded by ghosts of a war kept alive by others’ memories. He bears this ancestral legacy as long as he can, until he can’t. He tells his brother, the king: “This war has never ended--Atrix kept it alive, and you, and everyone in this house.” |
The book deftly explores the nature of power, and the belief that powerful mages “must involve themselves in a continuing flow of power, for power unused, power neglected or refused, will find its own shape, its own destructive path in the world.”
Another moving theme is the nature of forgiveness. Talis says: “I have to hate him. Otherwise I might forgive him.”
And nature plays a powerful role throughout, personified by Atrix's shapeshifting and the Queen of the Wood. Her face “seemed to belong to the places he loved most, among the elegant, wild faces of wolf and hawk and snow leopard, the faces in mountains, in amber, in blue running water so cold it burned.”
Another moving theme is the nature of forgiveness. Talis says: “I have to hate him. Otherwise I might forgive him.”
And nature plays a powerful role throughout, personified by Atrix's shapeshifting and the Queen of the Wood. Her face “seemed to belong to the places he loved most, among the elegant, wild faces of wolf and hawk and snow leopard, the faces in mountains, in amber, in blue running water so cold it burned.”
The Book of Atrix Wolfe is an Otherworldly tale of a magical wood told in lyrical, enchanting language. It’s a story of the use and abuse of magic. A terrifying version of the Wild Hunt. A sly account of the imbalances of power and status in a quasi-medieval world. A reimagining of The Ballad of Tam Lin. A deft description of shapeshifting. A beautiful incorporation of Land Magic.
And a lovely romance: “He opened his mouth to answer. Then he answered her without words.”
And a lovely romance: “He opened his mouth to answer. Then he answered her without words.”
Read more immersive magic: Spear, Song of the Huntress, Sistersong, The Queens of Innis Lear,
The Wild Hunt, Land Magic, The Green Man
The Wild Hunt, Land Magic, The Green Man
