Howling at Two Moons

When I was growing up, shortly after being introduced to Dungeons and Dragons (yes, I did play a little of that before taking up Advanced Dungeons and Dragons), I started reading fantasy novels.  The first ones I remember were The Lord of the Rings and The Elfstones of Shannara (I later read The Sword of... and The Wishsong of..., but never any of the later volumes.  As a side note, I'm just seeing the current covers for the first time, and they are lame.  Show people, not buildings!  Good books, though; especially the first two).  Probably a fair bit of each went over my head; I might have known the words, but, at eight, the concepts weren't all there.

The point I'm heading toward is that I was shortly introduced to Elfquest by the first novelization of the series.  I later bought, and read (many, many times), the graphic novels, and enjoyed them, but more because of the way they completed the story than the method of telling.

The story certainly stuck with me, though; for a long, long time, I really wished that I was Cutter.  When I found the RPG, I was all over that, although I didn't end up playing it much.  I just couldn't find others who were interested (unlike many of the other systems I played; heck I played a couple of campaigns of bleedin' Top Secret, but not even one campaign of Elfquest).  Too bad the web didn't exist back then.

I haven't thought about it a huge amount recently, though.  Other than my first discovery of that first link, above, when I realized that all the comics were available (and immediately read through at least the first twenty), I haven't given the series a whole lot of thought.

But, a couple of days ago, I was looking through my shelves, and that novel caught my eye.  So, of course, I needed to read it again.

It was interesting, coming at it from a very different perspective.  Not just being older, but less hurried.  I appreciated a lot more of the imagery and danger of what was going on.  Never gave any thought to how wolves might howl differently with two moons overhead, either.  Or about the geologic timeframe where sabretoothed tigers and mammoths exist.  Or the activity of a "smoking mountain".  Or what the Wolfrider's unfamiliarity with bread (as seen in their first arrival at Sorrow's End) says about them.  As I said, a different experience.

It was still a very powerful book.  It isn't going to get me spending nights wishing I was there anymore, but it is still beautiful and compelling.  I missed the second volume novelization coming out, and just became aware of its existence today.  I'm anxiously awaiting my copy arriving.  I can't find any evidence of a third or fourth volume, though.  Alas; I would certainly be all over those, as well.