Subject: Review: 'Walking Wolf' by Nancy A. Collins

From: [email-masked] (Rick Kleffel)
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 20:22:11 GMT

Walking Wolf
		Nancy A. Collins

	One of the most entertaining ways to read history is to do so in a
novel where a supernatural protagonist lives on through generations, and
weathers changes over a period of time which would kill the average
narrator.  Sure, you can have a long-lived narrator, like Little Big Man.
But why settle for the long-lived, when you can go for immortal, or nearly
so?  'Walking Wolf' is Nancy Collins' take on American Indian history, seen
through the eyes of Walking Wolf, the title character, a white man raised by
Indians who happens to be a werewolf.  Call it Little Big Wolf.
	Collins sets the tone of her tale quickly, having Billy Skillet tell
his tale in a terse, conversational first-person voice.  This device could
wear thin, but doesn't, partially because the book is so short, but more
importantly because the prose is entertaining, funny and well-written.  Her
characters are more than flat images lifted out of her obvious research,
brought alive by her writing skill.
	The supernatural aspects of this novel are excellently woven into
the fabric of reality, as well as impressively cohesive.  Collins' 'system
of the supernatural' is slick and unobtrusive.  Unfortunately, the length of
this novel does at times act against it.  Sometimes it seems as if we are
only getting the fruits of Collins research, with the barest shreds of her
characters and their story shoe-horned in to keep the narrative flowing.
It's an impressive amount of research, and this history in itself is
entertaining, but it does tend to distract from the novelistic aspects of
the story, as do some of the more startlingly violent scenes.
	Collins' Sonya Blue character is the subject of three immensely
popular novels, and in 'Walking Wolf' she keeps her options open for any
number of sequels.  It's a tribute to her skill that the reader is likely to
want to read them.

%T Walking Wolf
%A Nancy A. Collins
%G ISBN 0-929480-42-2
%I Mark V. Ziesing
%O $25.00; US trade hard cover edition
%P 181 pages