I see a bad moon a rising.

So, as we near the end of the Tribe novels, the steam really picks up, as does the writing.

We start with Carl Bowen's Silver Fangs, which focuses on long time center of the Werewolf universe, Jonas Albrecht. Jonas, who bears the Silver Crown, is theoretically King of the Werewolves. Not that this particularly earns him respect among the other tribes, particularly those not from his North American protectorate. As such, his decision to leave his packmate's (Mari Cabrah, still in a coma after the events in Black Furies), side to join the fight in Eastern Europe, which means dealing with Margrave Konietzko and his European factions. Most of whom hate him. On the other hand, this does introduce Queen Tamara Tvarivich, the Russian Silver Fang who takes Arkady's word over Albrecht.

What ends up happening is Albrecht challenges the European leaders and winds up leading the faction leaders into battle in the Balkans where the Black Spiral Dancers are having a ritual to free Jo'cllath'mattric from the bonds that hold him. A lot of dead werewolves later, the rite is stopped with only a few bonds broken, the Europeans mostly respecting Albrect, and a worried phone call from Evan leaving us on a cliffhanger about Mari.

Then we start into Tim Dedopulos's Glass Walkers, which centers around Julia of the Silver River Pack, and picks up right after they recovered Cries Havoc's memories. The pack winds up traveling back to London (through a Moon Bridge this time, since Storm Eye has no desire to travel in a metal tube ever again) where we get to see the inner workings of an urban caern. It also allows us to see how far Julia has come, since she's now much more a pack member than a Glass Walker. However, she's still a technoshaman, which helps them track down a pack of Lore Banes hiding out in London, since they contain information on Jo'cllath'mattric. Mind you, Julia does a summoning that winds up with her meeting her Tribe's totem, Cockroach.

The fight with the Lore Banes doesn't go well until Julia invokes the trapped Story Spirits within them. (This is likely why I love this series. The idea of stories being spirits that grow in power as they're told makes me happy on some level.) This stuns the Banes, and they're defeated, releasing a bunch of stories across the universe.

Including on that gives them an idea on how to help Mari. So, we go back to the Finger Lakes, where Evan and Julia do the ritual, where the Black Spiral whom the pack dealt with back in Bone Gnawers comes back and tries to kill them all. He doesn't succeed, but Mari is now recovering. Jo'cllath'mattric is now mostly awake and thrashing at his weakened bonds, this setting up the final books in the series.

While some of these have been mediocre  at best, both of these are well written and well plotted.

Werewolf? There wolf! There castle!

We're back in Werewolf as we explore the wonderful world of Silent Striders and Black Furies by Carl Bowen and Gherbod Fleming, respectively.

We start Silent Striders by being reintroduced to Mephi Faster-Than-Death, who's been in Scandinavia since the first two volumes and has been asked to join the Umbral pack heading off to Huingary to investigate what's wrong in the Balkans. This involves joiningg up with the Roving Winds pack, who have a mixed line up of tribes, including a Shadow Lord whom Mephi knew from her first change. Their goal is a Caern on the Tiza dedicated to memory that has been overrun by the Wyrm. In the meantime, a pack of Black Spiral Dancers is also headed to the caern to perform a rite one saw in a vision.

Along the journey, we learn bits of Mephi's past, and his lack of a pack. (Typical of the Striders, who've been wandering alone since Set exiled them from Egypt in antiquity.)  In the end, the Spirals and the Roving winds wind up in a showdown straight out of bad anime as everyone must first announce thier name and purpose before launching an attack. While Mephi winds up being the last one standing, he also bears witness to new spiritual monsters being born and raced back to Spearsreach to warn the other pack.

Sadly, he doesn't make it back before Mari Cabrah and the Ice Wind pack take off for Bosnia via Crete in Black Furies, nor do his warning reach them before trouble starts later on. Mari, who's been around since at least Werewolf Second Edition (the forming of her pack was the focus of the introduction to that book), is surrounded by a bunch of Get of Fenris Warriors and one other of the mostly female Black Furies. The side trip to Crete to the Furies major Sept allows the eldest Fury to explain the politics of the situation, which mainly suggests that this is a doomed mission designed to get the other tribes involved in Balkan politics. (As we will find later on, it works almost too well.) Anyway, with several Umbral storms passing through, we start losing pack mates and a new type of Bane (spirits with not nice intentions appear, draining the memories of those they touch.) Mari is the only one to make it back to Spearsreach, and able to only utter one word, "Jo'cllath'matric".

So now the stage is set for the formation of the Silver River pack and the bulk of the story expressed in the Tribe Novels.

Other than the silliness in the final fight of Silent Striders, it's a fun read. Mephi and Mari are fun characters who play parts later on in Apocalypse. And now, onwards to the next.