Somtow also demonstrates some genuine skill with his prose many phrases are compellingly evocative or haunting or strange or mordantly playful. I enjoyed its fast pacing and dense plotting and respect for shamanism and native culture. I appreciated the differentiation between the wolf tribes, European and native. Certainly the subject matter is of much interest to me. It is about a modern day woman, solving a riddle and learning this history. It is about shamanism and magic, a multiple personality, a human woman caught between wolves, old traditions dying and new traditions being born. It is a novel about a war between wolves, and the battles between the human kind and our early brothers and sisters.

Moon Dance is an epic novel of the American Old West and purports to be a history of how the decadent European werewolves came to settle the land, only to find that a tribe of the native species have already claimed that land.

O hark, my brethren! The night comes quickly! Mere humans will never know such things they know only how to be prey. the thrill of the hunt and the long races in the dark as we track and chase and toy with our human prey… the joy of the slaughter as we leap and then bite and tear and devour… the warm, salty tang of blood and the sweet, rich taste of flesh on our tongues. the glorious howling, as we sing to each other and to our mistress in the sky. They will never know the wonder of our nature: the fearful pain as our furry true selves burst through our human guises, bones reshaping and pelts and muzzles and hard nails and sharp fangs coming forth. ‘Tis better for our prey, the human kind, at least! Pathetic, limited humans. But perhaps such pleasures should only be given in brief amounts. The great change shall come and so our true selves will arise – if only briefly. Soon our pale mistress will quicken our blood and command our souls. O my brothers and sisters, hark! The full moon is nigh.

Moon Dance by S.P. Somtow