4 Star Book Review – Wolf’s Bane by Dyane Forde
- By Michael Smart
- April 6, 2015
- 6 Comments
An Enjoyable Read
Wolf’s Bane, book 2 in the Rise of the Papilion Trilogy, moves the Papilion lore forward, transporting the reader on a fabulous journey with characters introduced in The Purple Morrow, and an intimate exploration of evil, sacrifice, and destiny. Author Dyane Forde once again makes delightful use of poetic-like prose to paint colorful scenes, vivid characters, and the fantastical world of Marathana.
All the more reason to lament Wolf’s Bane frequent lapses into weak verb and word choices, and passive voice, since this creates an unfortunate distraction from an otherwise cunningly crafted saga, captivating characters, and intricate world building. This type of mythical storytelling is well served by Dyane’s wonderful prose, and might have been an even more pleasurable read, had the author stretched the boundaries of normal compositional grammar and sentence structure. Dyane Forde certainly has the talent to bend grammar to her will, and the Papilion saga not only requires it, but deserves it.
Despite this, I enjoyed Wolf’s Bane, as I did The Purple Morrow. And I await Berserker, the final installment, with eager anticipation for how this fascinating tale will end.
Visit Dyane’s Dropped Pebbles Blog

That’s what we writers do, innit–get caught in the writing skill of the author. I can’t avoid it anymore! This does sound like an interesting read, Michael.
I don’t see how it can be avoided. How do you discuss a chocolate layer cake without mentioning ingredients and flavor?
Just in case the ‘chocolate’ is actually ‘carob’. Of course!
LOL!
Thanks for reading the review. 🙂
Thanks for the review, Michael! I always appreciate honest and well-thought out reviews. 🙂