MARCH 30, 2017 // 19
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BOOKMONGER
Trilogy wraps up just in time
By BARBARA LLOYD
MCMICHAEL
Genus: Lepus americanus
Snowshoe hare
By LYNETTE RAE MCADAMS
Found throughout
Canada and the northern
United States, as well as
at high elevations in all
three primary American
mountain ranges (the Ap-
palachians, the Rockies,
and the Sierra Nevadas),
the snowshoe hare is a
true lover of a cold winter
climate.
Named for its large
hind feet, which allow it
to hop atop deep snow
without sinking, this
handsome hare can grow
to be 16 inches tall and
weigh up to 4 pounds.
Though it clearly favors
habitats marked by
extreme-low tempera-
tures, it makes exceptions
for the Washington and
Oregon coastlines, illus-
trating a fact well-known
to all the best creatures
of the animal kingdom:
life is simply better at the
beach.
Lightning quick and
very nimble, L. americanus
can leap up to 10 feet
and run (or hop quickly)
at speeds approaching
30 mph — a useful skill
when just about every-
thing wants to have you
for dinner. The predator
list for this small, furry
herbivore is a lengthy
one, and includes coy-
otes, eagles, hawks, owls,
wolves, foxes, mountain
lions, weasels, domes-
tic dogs and, of course,
humans.
As a defense, hares
have the uncanny ability
to hold as still as a statue,
the only visible motion
being the rapid twitching
of the nose. Additionally,
the Snowshoe’s unique
coat gives it the advan-
tage of camouflage —
the dense, insulating fur
turns white in the winter,
masking against a snowy
backdrop, then switch-
es to a ruddy brown for
spring and summer.
Here in the Colum-
bia-Pacific region, where
it seldom snows, the
hare’s fur remains russet
— a nice match for the
year-round temperate
climate.
Like rabbits, hares are
incredible breeders, with
females bearing up to
three litters per year, each
one with as many as eight
young, called leverets.
Having twin uteri, a
mother hare is able to
become pregnant with a
second litter even before
giving birth to the first.
Unlike rabbits, which are
born blind and furless,
hares can hop within a
day of their arrival, and
survive on their own in as
little as a month.
The phrase, “mad as a
March hare,” was coined
in English literature dat-
ing from the 16th century
and further popularized
by works like Lewis Car-
roll’s, “Alice in Wonder-
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Lepus americanus, the Snow-
shoe hare, is a common sight
throughout the forests and
grasslands of the Colum-
bia-Pacific region. In snowy
environments, its signature
fur coat turns a brilliant white;
but here along the coast, it re-
mains brown year-round.
land.” It was derived from
observation of a hare’s
bizarre behavior during
the month of March,
when breeding season is
in full force.
CARRUTHERS
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Astoria, Oregon 97103
503.975.5305
Fans of Randy Hender-
son’s brand of urban fantasy
need wait no longer — the
third volume of his Familia
Arcana trilogy has just arrived
in bookstores. Readers who
became acquainted with
necromancer Finn Gramaraye
in the previous books, “Finn
Fancy Necromancy” and
“Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy
Free,” can get their final dose
of Henderson’s unique mash-
up of action-oriented fantasy,
puns and family dysfunction in
“Smells Like Finn Spirit.”
In the first two installments
of this series, after getting
framed for a crime he didn’t
commit and being exiled to
the Fey Realms for a quarter
century, Finn returns to his
family and hopes to pick up
normal life where he left off.
That means learning how to
navigate the internet, bingeing
on 25 years of missed pop
culture, and eating his fill of
pizza. But there are a few com-
plications that get in the way
Happy Hour
Tuesday-Friday
4pm-6pm and
8:30-Close
Smells Like Finn Spirit
— Randy Henderson
Tor Books — 448 pp
— $29.99
of his readjustment to life in
the “mundie” (human) world.
Finn’s own family is
arcana, each member endowed
with some sort of supernatural
power. But they’ve been going
through a rough patch lately:
his father is insane, his young-
er brother has just become a
werewolf, his other siblings
are emotional basket cases,
and his grandfather turns out
to be evil.
To top it off — literally
— the disembodied conscious-
ness of a fey prince is trapped
inside Finn’s head through
an unfortunate stroke of dark
magic.
This, understandably,
intrudes upon Finn’s budding
romance with Dawn, the
mundie girl-next-door from
his childhood who has grown
up to become a free-spirited
musician.
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Now, in “Smells Like Teen
Spirit,” Finn realizes that his
grandfather is plotting once
again to use him as a conduit
for a devastating brand of
magic that will trigger a war
between worlds — unless Finn
can patch together an alliance
of dryads, druids, Sasquatches,
gnomes, family members, and
the obnoxious fellow in his
head — and figure out a way
to ward off Armageddon.
Henderson sets this story in
a Cascadia brushed with a bit
of enchanted dust. Not unlike
pinballs, his characters carom
around real-life landmarks :
the Seattle Center and Seattle
Public Library, Maryhill’s
Stonehenge, The Dalles Dam
and the Elwha River serve as
rendezvous points and portals
to other worlds.
Even for those of us who
have read the previous books,
the madcap pace of this one is
unforgiving — there are too
many names and shifting rela-
tionships to be able to follow
along coherently. Individual
scenes are talky, violent and
complex.