{"id":3586,"date":"2025-07-17T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3586"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:45:00","slug":"book-review-of-wind-and-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3586","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Of Wind and Wolves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Of Wind and Wolves<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by J.M. Elliott<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Historical Fiction<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>978-1966394013<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 502 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Warden Tree Press<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Erin Britton<\/em><\/p>\n

At the intersection of history and mythology, Anaiti encounters both human dangers and otherworldly foes.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Set in the fifth century BCE and unfolding against the immense and unforgiving backdrop of the Ukrainian steppe, Of Wind and Wolves<\/em> is the first epic installment in J.M. Elliott\u2019s The Steppe Saga.<\/p>\n

Drawing inspiration from a passage concerning Heracles in The Histories by Herodotus, Elliott crafts a richly detailed and immersive tale that blends historical fact and fiction, as well as cultural records, with mythical aspects and a timeless coming-of-age story.<\/p>\n

Anaiti\u2019s fate is ominously reflected in a gift from Ariapaithi, the Skythian king. \u201cGifts are uninvited guests. They bear expectations and impose obligations. They establish bonds as strong as any shackle, which cannot be broken by any hammer but war.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To foster peace between the tribes and unite against a common enemy, Anaiti\u2019s father has agreed that she will marry the geriatric Ariapaithi\u2014becoming his third wife\u2014and so leave her people to join the Skythai.<\/p>\n

However, the amphora sent by Ariapaithi is illustrated with a nameless hero killing an Amazon woman. Given that her mother was a fearsome Amazon warrior who \u201csurrendered her honor along with her arms\u201d when she married Anaiti\u2019s father, king of the rival Bastarnai, the imagery doesn\u2019t bode well for Anaiti\u2019s future. \u201cThe vessel\u2019s art masked something malicious, something vile, as beauty so often did.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Anaiti quickly discovers that her concerns are well founded, for the nomadic court of Ariapaithi is like an alien world to her\u2014the customs and language are peculiar, and she by no means fits in. \u201cWhat I knew of Skythia came mainly from stories. Huddled around the hearth at night, the people whispered of a wilderness with no towns nor even huts, but only endless, empty plains.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Still, despite the wild terrain, her training with a bow and her horse-riding skill seem ill-suited to the new life she has agreed to.<\/p>\n

Ariapaithi is far too old for her and a life confined to a royal tent is not one she can bear to think about, and now, \u201csurrounded by the world\u2019s broadest plains, its richest pastures, and its finest horses, it finally struck home that I would never ride again. Like a fool, I\u2019d rashly traded it all away.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> But there is a major surprise in store for Anaiti, as Ariapaithi tasks her with killing an enemy in battle\u2014and returning with her victim\u2019s scalp\u2014before their marriage can be performed.<\/p>\n

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As the king dictates, \u201cShe\u2019ll ride with our men as they patrol the marches and return when she has a scalp. When she makes her kill, I\u2019ll make her my wife.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> And so begins Anaiti\u2019s time with Aric, \u201cWarden of the East March and Kara-Daranaka of the kingdom\u2019s most sacred warband,\u201d and his band of warriors. It\u2019s a brutal life, but Anaiti much prefers it to the idea of marrying Ariapaithi and so seeks ways to remain with the warband.<\/p>\n

Told through the first-person narrative of Anaiti, Of Wind and Wolves<\/em> is a story of truly epic proportions, spanning vast distances both geographically and metaphorically. Having learned some of the ways of her mother\u2019s Suramatai people but been forced to give up her training before its completion and return to her father\u2019s kingdom, Anaiti has always been something of an outsider. What\u2019s more, she has long kept a secret that Ariapaithi\u2019s anarei\u2014a sorcerer and rumored necromancer\u2014seems to quickly discover:<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe I have ever writhed upon the ground, and I knew better than to tell anyone about the other signs that plagued me. When I smelled the unearthly odor or felt the terrible presence of darkness approach, when time pulled the earth from beneath my feet, I fled far from the eyes of others. I hid for my life.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As such, her outsider status is firmly entrenched even before she is dispatched on her marriage mission, and it has prepared her well for life with the warband. She is used to facing danger and keeping secrets, and she is willing to defend herself when required. The trials and tribulations she faces while apparently searching for her first scalp\u2014to say nothing of the depravations and savagery\u2014are narrated viscerally.<\/p>\n

Indeed, J.M. Elliott excels at describing the brutal circumstances and situations that the warband face, even the honorary member who is one day expected to marry the king. The lives are difficult and often bloody, but the warband have a strange nobility and an undeniable sense of purpose. \u201cMore beasts than men they seemed at times, and their unbound world, their feral lives, reminded me of my youth\u2014stirred something buried but not dead within me.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Elliott makes clear the contradictions that Anaiti faces when embracing the freedom offered by a life in the wilderness while remaining under the control\/protection of Aric, a complex character who knows and sees more than he lets on. It is through Aric that Anaiti learns the customs, rites, and legends of the Skythia. As she grows accustomed to it all, confronting both external threats and internal conflicts, Anaiti learns to trust in herself and her ability to protect her people.<\/p>\n

Equally well described is the expansive environment of the steppe, a wild and forbidding land that is nevertheless majestic and compelling. \u201cThe steppe was an unbreakable horse\u2014it could not be tamed or enclosed behind walls.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The worldbuilding during Anaiti\u2019s travels and travails with the warband is excellent, providing a fascinating and sometimes perilous background to her journey of self-discovery. The flora and fauna really come to life, as do the dangers lying over seemingly ever horizon.<\/p>\n

While Of Wind and Wolves<\/em> is inspired by Herodotus\u2019s account of Heracles, his union with a \u201ctwofold creature formed by the union of a maiden and a serpent,\u201d their three sons, and their shaping of Scythian society, Elliott has taken a fable and crafted an epic. At the intersection of history and mythology, Anaiti encounters both human dangers and strangely otherworldly foes such as the Man-Eaters, which adds tension and mystique to the story, with the bounds of reality never quite clear.<\/p>\n

To help navigate the expansive and intricate world that Anaiti inhabits, in addition to the detail of the story, Elliott provides a partial glossary and a map, which enhances the immersion of the tale.<\/p>\n

For an epic tome, the well-crafted action and engaging intrigue ensure that things progress at a good pace, and as Of Wind and Wolves<\/em> is the first book in Elliott\u2019s The Steppe Saga, there seems to be much more for Anaiti to face.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Erin Britton\u2019s book review of Of Wind and Wolves<\/em> by J.M. Elliott! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Of Wind and Wolves<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of Wind and Wolves by J.M. Elliott Genre: Historical Fiction ISBN: 978-1966394013 Print Length: 502 pages Publisher: Warden Tree Press Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Erin Britton At the intersection of history and mythology, Anaiti encounters both human dangers and otherworldly foes. Set in the fifth century BCE and unfolding against the immense and unforgiving backdrop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}