The Wolf of Winter [Paperback]

Varis returns to court, having gained some confidence, and triumphantly wins the government post he'd been denied before. And so far the reader is cheering for him all the way. It's a classic triumph of the underdog tale. But then funny things begin happening. Whispers of strange crimes run through the city. Varis begins having blackouts, and will wake up hours later unable to remember where he had been or what he'd been doing. And he starts to develop a cruel streak as he sets out to pay back all of the people who had ill-treated him before. But hey, they'd made his life miserable, and they deserved what they had coming, right?

Varis eventually decides that he can rule the kingdom better than his amiable fool of a brother, and stages a palace coup. And would he be a better ruler? Yes, probably. Too bad he's become a ruthless, drug-addicted homicidal tyrant in the meantime. What is marvelous about this book is the way in which Varis very gradually edges closer and closer to the role of villian. He doesn't just wake up one morning and say, "Gee, I don't have anything better to do today, I think I'll usurp the throne." Because he did start out as the sympathetic character, the reader is willing to overlook his increasingly disturbing actions for much longer than would have been the case if he had been portrayed as the villian from the beginning of the book. Because we like Varis, we're able to accept his rationalizations for his actions, many of which do make sense. Far too often in fiction are we presented with a cardboard cutout villian, whose actions are never fully explained. By this fascinating look at the situation from the other side of the fence, the reader is brought to consider that situations are never black and white.

The second half of the book focuses on the children of the previous king. Smuggled out of the palace by their mother during the coup, the children are sent to a neighboring country for asylum, where they are eventually used as the figureheads in a movement to overthrow Varis. This half of the book is a bit of a disappointment after the first half, detailing Varis' rise to power. The viewpoint character switches from Varis to his niece, who isn't nearly as compelling a character. The plot becomes a fairly standard oust-the-evil-usurper. The emotional intensity drops off severely. In short, these people aren't nearly as interesting as Varis. But despite the slight let-down of the second half of the book, this still rates five stars for the masterly look at what causes one villian to become a villian.

I enjoyed the story, though, in retrospect, there was something about it that seemed a little hollow to me. Upon reflection I realized that the story seems to lack a strong transcendant moral or spiritual element which for me detracts from its overall value unlike, say, Lord of the Rings. There doesn't seem to be any real heros here and often there doesn't seem to be a lot of noticable difference between the two factions in the story. This is probably because the story is more heavily rooted in historical narrative than in mythical narrative. That said, Volsky is an excellent writer, excelling in detailed description, sympathetic characters, and a good plot hook that immediately grabs your interest and keeps you reading.