Kine

The Kine Saga #1

by A.R. Lloyd

A peaceful valley of woodland and marsh, little changed for centuries...

Until a ferocious invader appears - wild mink, savage and unstoppable.

It is left to a brave but tiny hunter, Kine the weasel, to fight back against Gru and her dark followers. So with Kine and his motley allies we spend one glorious, unforgettable summer in another world - a world where solitary creatures prowl secret paths and hedgerows, and whiskered legions gather for battle as autumn draws near...

Bewitching, cruel, fresh, poetic, sad - here is all the magic of the hidden coutryside.

Genres: Fantasy, Animals, Adventure, Fiction, Childrens, Animal Fiction, Classics

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Elena Meneses · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quién iba a pensar que un libro sobre comadrejas viviendo en el campo sería tan épico.

Al principio me costó adentrarme en el libro, sobre todo por la dificultad del inglés y por los cambios entre la comadreja protagonista, Kine, y el dueño de la casa de campo que se encuentra en el territorio de Kine, Poacher. Me confundía demasiado que hubiese personajes personas, y no sé por qué me sacaba tanto de onda, no quería leer nada apenas veía que aparecía Poacher porque no me parecía que tenía que ver con las comadrejas, que es lo que me interesaba.

El conflicto es bastante simple: Kine, la comadreja que lideraba ese terreno, se debe enfrentar a una infestación de visones. Gru, la líder malvada de los visones, ataca a los seres queridos de Kine, por lo que éste decide tomar venganza y además demostrarle a estos animales invasores quién manda. Lo increíble es cómo uno se ve envuelto en este mundo tan salvaje, y la intensidad de las escenas de pelea y de rabia del protagonista.

Me encantaron los personajes, creo que es lo que hizo que me encantara el libro. Kine es un buen protagonista, fuerte y orgulloso, pero al mismo tiempo no es invencible. Pero lo que más destaco son los personajes femeninos. No sé por qué me esperaba que iba a ser una visión machista, en donde las comadrejas macho solo verían a las hembras como objeto de protección o reproducción, pero no pude estar más equivocada. Kia, y posteriormente Wonder, son dos comadrejas hembra que luchan y tienen una increíble fortaleza que a momentos opaca al protagonista. Son tan choras que apenas aparecen las amé. Y para qué hablar de Gru, es fuerte y despiadada y me encanta como villana. Me faltó si una escena de pelea final entre ella y Kine más potente.
Me encariñé mucho con los personajes (algunos de ellos murieron y me dio mucha pena) y quedé cautivada por la historia y las comadrejas.

También destaco como se nota la admiración del autor por los animales que aparecen en este libro, incluso por los visones. En las notas del autor describe un poco su proceso de escritura y cómo estudió a los animales para poder escribir la obra, y me encanta que haya elegido a las comadrejas como protagonistas, ya que generalmente las pintan como animales malos.

Quedé muy contenta por este libro, me emocioné con las escenas épicas y con las emotivas, y sin dudas recomiendo esta lectura si les gustan los libros sobre animales.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little story in which animals are given human characters and a huge, epic-style quest to fill the pages. Yes, KINE has much in common with WATERSHIP DOWN, the novel that popularised the whole sub-genre of anthropomorphised animals, yet it stands alone as an entirely separate style of work. The author comes across as a poet, a man with a love of nature who captures the passage of the seasons and the beauty of Britain's countryside in lyrical prose.

The narrative is relatively small-scale and yet it packs a whole raft of memorable characters and situations into the narrative. Kine is an initially arrogant weasel who quickly grows on you and becomes a hero to root for, while the villains of the story are a band of minks who would be at home in a tale of horror. And be warned, this is a grisly book indeed: far worse than WATERSHIP, I think I would have had nightmares had I read this as a child.

Read it for the humour (the shrew is a particularly well-written and amusing character), the drama, the vivid descriptions of the flora and fauna, and the sheer un-putdownable nature of the adventure. I loved it, and I hope to track down the sequels.

[C.A. A. Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely anthropomorphic animal society invented story. I often used to be reminded of this novel when I saw a weasel on a regular basis. It was in the fens where I live and work. I would pull into a regular layby along a country drove for a morning coffee out of the way of things. The same weasel would often come out of the long grass and scurry of along the lane to turn off into the fields opposite. One morning I saw him coming along the drove with a small wild rabbit kitten in its jaws. The kitten was dead and the weasel turned off where I normally see it emerge to go, presumably, hunting. It remind me of reading this wonderful story (Kine) when it first came out.

I read this when it first come out in about 1982. I had not long read Watership Down and Duncton Wood. Therefore, I was on a little roll with anthropomorphic animal stories. If my memory serves me correctly, I think it is set in Kent. Kine is a Weasel living happily until a group of vicious mink invade the territory of the weasels. There are a lot of other interesting character animals, including Kia - the female love interest of Kine. If you enjoyed Watership Down, Duncton Wood or Tarka the Otter, I think you would enjoy this colourful tale too. I certainly enjoyed reading it.

I have only recently learnt that this story became part of a trilogy. Two more adventures would follow on. These will have to be visited in my retirement years. That is still just under two years away.

Anyways - fans of beautiful anthropomorphic stories will enjoy this. Wonderful escapism from start to finish.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 st*rs.

I picked this up because I couldn't find my copy of "The Last Unicorn"...and somehow...this was my idea of making up for it. #unicornsarereal

This has some mad "Watership Down" vibes in that it's not the most kid-friendly kids' book.

Like "Watership Down" - it's gory.

Unlike "Watership Down" - it's kind of a struggle to get through the overly-long descriptive passages. Unfortunately, it becomes redundant writing. Honestly, it was painful at times.
I found (half-way through) that the best way to read this is to mostly skim it. Even the story makes more sense that way.

Kine, the weasel protagonist himself, is also kinda unlikable. He's beyond arrogant, and it grates my delicate nerves.

The other characters don't have the charm of anyone from "Animals of Farthing Wood", but they aren't all entirely bland. Kia, the female weasel, is decent. The Watcher, an old rook, is cool.
There's also a cantankerous adder in this, so that makes me happy.

Overall, it's good … in that it was affective in its violence. Definitely. Like...I'm not a fur-coat wearer, by any means; but I've never so much wished for the death of a mink. Vicious bastards.

Final point: Over-arching story is good, but execution a bit painful. Sadly, most likely will not continue the series.

[Lone Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Kine the weasel, whose home is invaded by a group of mink, the descendants of escapees from fur-farms. The mink are ferocious predators, and when they attack those Kine holds dear, he is determined to get his revenge. It’s an entertaining story, particularly since weasels are rarely featured in fiction except as antagonists. Kine himself is a rather arrogant and boastful hero, but you can’t help rooting for him against his much larger opponents.

One thing I did dislike about this book was the negative portrayal of rats, animals which constantly get bad press that they largely don’t deserve. There are also a few factual errors regarding weasels, such as the implication that they commonly feed on rabbits, a popular misconception (weasels are much smaller than many people imagine, and though they may take young rabbits on occasion, their typical prey is mice and voles). That aside, though, ‘Kine’ is an enjoyable read for animal lovers.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author focuses so much on grabbing long words from the dictionary and it doesn't suit the story at all. It would have been better to write a nonfiction about the beatiful countryside or the biology and territorial habits of minks. Honestly, the writing style is painful and exhausting to get through. It's also redundant. It represents when writers try to look smart but lose the point of the story. The frequent loss of life in the story is shocking, but the author doesn't use these incidents very well to propell Kine's emotions, or maybe it is lost throughout all the academic jargon. The much set up confrontation between Kine and Gru is always hinted at but the blurry focus emphasizes random insignificant characters, not to mention Kine and his friends always getting set back in nearly comedic ways, ruining tension. The final battle is a bit short and not very satisfying. The reveal involving Kine's daughter, Wonder, however is one of the most heartwarming scenes of the book.

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you have to read the blurb to know what's going on, you know its not going to be the most enjoying read. I literally have no idea what the point was to some characters, for instance: the old man who dies at the end, like he didn't have much purpose. I mean, I guess he raised kine's daughter and whatnot, but still, it was weird. And some other characters I felt like had no purpose was this girl and her boyfriend. The book doesn't say what their names are and the whole thing just annoyed me. On the plus side I liked the story and the animal characters, which was why I read this, though I wish the villains had more character and appeared more and I will admit I did drift off at times but hopefully the next books will be better.

[Germaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice that Kine had a character arc. Also Kia and Wonder are best weasels (even if they are not like other girls) :)

[Mythical Mishmash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating 2.5 out of 5

It’s one of those rare occurrences where I actually cared more about the humans than I did the animals, which made most of Kine’s scenes a trudge to get through.

[Jacquary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful world it be

[beaf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun enough, but also trite and predictable.

[Gril · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for weasel fiction books on Amazon and happened to come across this along with Welkin weasels. I ended up buying both of them. I was expecting this book to be poetic and heavily descriptive, witch it was, but that is not the type of writing style I like to read. Despite this I enjoyed the book.

What I really liked was Kine's character ark. He started off as a cocky weasel thinking he is unstoppable and nothing could hurt him. Then, after some events thought him lessons, he became a smart, mature, respectable warrior. There was this young heath weasel at the end who was much like Kine's younger self. Having Kine reflect on this young weasel was a nice touch.

Another thing I liked was all the plot-twist that occurred throughout the book. They were surprising and fulfilling.

The reason why I took off two stars was that I did not like the writing style. It was too descriptive and poetic for me. This is a personal preference, not a problem in the actual story and writing. It was written quite well actually.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely adventurous story, written for rather intelligent children, it seems. I made a long list of words to look up, although the general meaning of most is evident. Many words not in common use in the US. The story is excellent, full of biology and botany, and the reader learns much about the wildlife in this area of the English countryside. The author lives here, or did, but the story is fictional, based on observed facts. A map is provided on the back cover of the jacket, which I found helpful. Young readers should enjoy this story, and adults should as well. I don't know the age range this was meant to include, but I would have loved the book in grade school. It's novel size so not for very young children. A literary book for kids.

[Leila]

A fascinating book if you like animal stories. A quiet valley has remained unchanged for many years. One day calamity came to the valley. A savage invader arrived to terrorise and kill the residents. The hero is young Kine the weasel. A beautiful, bewitching and haunting story which has its sad and cruel side. Magical. I absolutely loved it when I first bought it in the late eighties and have read it more than once previously. Finding it again among a pile of long forgotten books I was keen to once more enjoy this special book, so at the beginning of May I ddid so with no regrets. It's an awesome and powerful story aimed at all ages from young adult to the oldest reader.

[Mara Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I went into this book with high hopes.... and for once I was not disappointed.

The wording of the book was a little strange, as it is a older novel, however it was still easy to follow. I found myself both raging and loving Kine, and I indeed almost shed a tear at his loss. I wouldn't recommend it for anything less than say, a 14 year old.

[Elliott Eastwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptions of nature really stood out to me; I thought it was beautiful.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really wonderful book. A story of a weasel and a war among the animals. A kind of Lord of the Rings for critters.

[Joanna Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, very descriptive of the countryside and and animals that inhabit it. Worth reading if you like tales involving animals.

[Mr. Mustela frenata · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.44