Wolf in Shadow - discussion (may contain spoilers)

[kezabelle]

So girls, what did you think? I think many of you realise I couldn't get hold of the novel and only managed the comic book version :P Have to say - I could have done without the graphics! Obviously aimed at teenage boys - gratuitous violence and half naked women :hehe:

What was the novel like though? Will you go on to read the sequel?

The religious theme was interesting. Only had it in short form but it was certainly dominant!

[Night Crawler]

Okay, I know I bowed out of August's book, but am curious, how can you start the discussion on the first of the month?

[kezabelle]

Can't I do that? Ooops :D Had no idea - figured it was August and I've been waiting ever so patiently to discuss this book! No-one has to join in if they don't want to, I'll just sit here and wait......

[Night Crawler]

Honestly, I dunno. Was just curious! :D

[zen]

some of us might not have read the book yet, altho i have..

yes, i thought i might read the next two books, and even the first two, altho on a quick look, they are different, and do not feature Jon Shannow at all.. and i will eventually, but thought i'd leave it at the one until the discussion was over, in case they all just ran into one book in my mind.. (actually interested in the first two as i like Arthurian legends, and what i looked at of the second featured Uther Pendragon, and the Sword)

this book was nothing like what i had read of David Gemmel previously.. i'd always thought of him as a swords guy, barbarians and greeks.. kings and warriors.. this was almost a western, and it surprised me.

the religious theme was not too annoying for me, originally i wondered at this, as religion usually annoys the heck out of me.. in fact, i laughed a few times through the book, thinking on whether the author was actually an atheist like me.. i did mark a few bits that amused me the most.. here's one of them:

I am more worried about you. What will you tell them when things go wrong? How will you explain when God lies to you?'
Cade chuckled. That was all in the Bible too, Lisa. It's a smart book. When things go right, God did it. When they go wrong, it was because he was disobeyed, or the people were unholy, or it was a punishment. He never loses and neither will I.

ok, another one, cos i can't resist it..

Strange religion you have, Shannow.'
'No, Archer. Just that some very strange people are attracted to it.'

seemed to me, the author had a fairly dim view of religion himself. i haven't yet wandered the internet to find out.

apart from the slightly religious cast to it, i was reminded of early Clint Eastwood movies, Pale Rider perhaps, or High Plains Drifter.. i dubbed the book a 'spaghetti scifi' in honour of those spaghetti westerns.. it wasn't really what i would call fantasy, or scifi, altho it was alike to some scifi with it's post-apocalyptic theme..

good and bad seemed intertwined in this book... the hero (anti-hero?) seemed torn doing bad things for good purposes, and he was good at it too.. especially when his bible was so contradictory.. well, it is contradictory in many ways, when we think on 'thou shalt not kill' being a commandment, yet quotes like 'an eye for eye' work against that.. this guy forever worked towards his dream of Jerusalem all the same. i thought he was a sad sort of character, he never did gain anything for himself, despite his good works..

[kezabelle]

i figure if people haven't read it yet they won't participate in the discussion yet...

Have bub in my lap ATM and not the comic, but i found the religious theme quite strong - and i felt it was actually quite pro-God even with the odd amusing comment. That one stood out for me as well Zen :D

[zen]

hmm... apparently David Gemmel was a christian, and thought his books promoted his belief.. strange then that i should have thought the opposite reading this book..

[kezabelle]

That would match with the comic then - there wasn't a huge amount of dialogue but that was the gist. I remember reading a book years ago that I took to be quite atheistic, but a friend studying to be a priest took it to be Christian. Funny how we read different things in to the one story.

[zen]

i suppose it's all too easy to overlay our own thoughts onto things like this.. altho i thought this book brought out the dangers in old belief systems that are long out of their own times..

[kezabelle]

i thought so too at first, but then it became very much 'the glory of god'

[zen]

i thought more along the lines of the fallibility of man... having an outdated belief system being one of those failings..

[jaideii]

Okay, I know I bowed out of August's book, but am curious, how can you start the discussion on the first of the month?

That's what i was wondering tooooo!!!!!!! :hehe: Glad you brought that up NC!!!!:)

[kezabelle]

okay - I'm wondering why I can't?

[jaideii]

okay - I'm wondering why I can't?

I guess there's no reason why not keza !!!!!:P

I don't think we actually chose a date for discussion did we? :hehe:

But i don't know how the Book Club works in here? Maybe we can just not come in here, to read all about it, until we've read it?:)

But usually, what happens in a bookclub is....a book is chosen for a certain month, which gives the people time to read it...and a time is set, to discuss it!

[kezabelle]

ahhh - but we're not usual LMAO

[zen]

and i read it so long ago, it's all starting to fade from my memory... i started reading it before i knew it would be chosen.. so i might have to do some re-reading of parts of it by the time this actually gets off the ground.. :)

[jaideii]

ahhh - but we're not usual LMAO

:P:P:P

[jillybeanz]

Big boohoo! I still haven't got my copy!!! Everyday i check my post box for that cheery little red and white striped card ... but I got nutting!!!

Can you please wait a little while longer?

[kezabelle]

apparently we have to.... :( Oh well, by then I'll have well and truly moved on :hehe:

[Stormy]

There's nothing stopping people coming back to the thread after they've finished reading the book. :)

It reminds me a lot of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Just with the western feel of it and it was set in a post apocalyptic period as well....only in another world. I found the religious theme carrying through a bit annoying....mostly glossed over those bits which amounted to a fair bit really. :hehe:

[zen]

yes.. nothing like religion when it comes to spoiling things hey? :D

[Stormy]

Well in a fiction book anyway :hehe:

[ezmay]

I just finished reading it.
I liked it and yes it had religous undertones i saw it as those who choose to believe on God or something else or nothing else were quite free to do so.
What i found more interesting was the idea of our world ending and this new world evolving out of it. The idea that what was undersea for us has become land for the new world.
I think the underlying meaning of the religous theme is that even in the new world people will do what the want in the name of whom or what they believe. No matter how primitive or advance a civilisation is free will and personal beliefs will always reign supreme and people will always be willing to kill for what they believe.

[kezabelle]

Well said ez! I really need to get hold of the novel to see how it differed from the comic....