The Wolf of Tebron - #1 in The Gates of Heaven series by C. S. (Susanne) Lakin Reviewed by Jeanette Morris   The invitation used as the frontispiece in C. S. Lakin’s allegorical fantasy, The Wolf of Tebron, was surely included just for my benefit. Susanne quotes C. S. Lewis: “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” Having abandoned reading that genre some thirty years ago, I admit I hesitated to reenter that world, even for a friend and fellow PEN member.   But how could I resist? The cover art alone promises adventure as a barefooted young hero attempts to scale a castle with walls of sand, a weird-looking moon laughs from high above him, and a huge wolf lurks nearby.   Lakin takes her readers on an intriguing “hero’s journey” to the four corners of the earth with Joran, an angry, misguided blacksmith, and his unlikely companion, a silver wolf. The quest is allegedly to find Joran’s young wife, whom he sends away one day in a fit of jealousy. But she keeps haunting his dreams in her struggles as a captive in a castle near the sea—a place neither of them had ever seen. The journey’s true purpose is for Joran to discover his true identity and redeem the love he needlessly threw away.   I found Lakin’s narrative in keeping with the story-telling style of a classic fairy tale. Some have compared her style to C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series. In any case, you won’t find the snappy dialogue or page-turning action one finds in a modern legal thriller, for instance. Rather, you will be drawn in as you might have been drawn in to a tale by Anderson or Grimm—as a child listening to an adventure of “once upon a time.” You always wonder, what happens next? And something always does, to Lakin’s credit. In addition, her use of allegory and allusions to classical and biblical sources enriches the storyline and makes the book appealing to more discerning readers of fantasy.   A word about the prologue—I really liked it. I wanted the story that began to unfold there to continue—well (without giving anything away), more obviously. I was more intrigued by wizards, dark forces, and brown bears called Anya than I was by a sulking blacksmith in a rural village. Eventually, though, Joran won me over, and I cared about what happened to him.   I’m not yet convinced that I’m ready to plunge back into reading fantasy. But I’m glad I took the time to read C. S. Lakin’s The Wolf of Tebron, and I applaud her efforts to reclaim this genre for “grown-ups” like me.