Lore of the tribes

We're back in Werewolf as we tackle Children of Gaia by Richard Lee Byers and Uktena by Stefan Petrucha, packaged again in one volume.

Mainly though, we're exploring the two of the major plot lines in the Tribe Novels, as Cries Havoc seeks the Record Keeper and access to his own memories and Arkady's trip to Malfeas and how it impacts Amy Hundred Voices in Nebraska.

Cries Havoc and the Silver River Pack start us off, having been sent by Antoine Teardrop to go find the Record Keeper. Whom they don't exactly find in this volume, although they do find what they're looking for. While in North Carolina, being stalked by the Bane that ate Cries Havoc's memory in the first place, they follow a glow through the mountains that eventually leads to a Caern dedicated to memory. In here, Cries Havoc finds his memories even as his pack wards off the attacking banes trying to break into the underwater grove.

Then we pick up Amy Hundred Voices as she makes her way to an Uktena meeting in Nebraska after a large failure of her pack in Alaska. That she also possesses a relic that draws Arkady nears as he traverses the Silver Spiral is almost secondary. Mainly, the Elders of her tribe challenge her to find her voice, which ends in a big battle against a bound Nexus Crawler, which Arkady joins in at the very end, trying to steal the bone orb that plays music. He doesn't succeed.

There isn't a heck of a lot of story meat in this one, focusing more on developing characters who may or may not appear later on. It also introduces the up until now shadowy Lore Banes, vulture like spirits that actually eat the spirits of the stories the Garou tell.

So, while not the most exciting book, and indeed Uktena really doesn't add much to the overall plot, it's still readable, a bit like a tub of popcorn during some middle exposition.