Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

the wolf (Leo Carew)
Title: the wolf
Author: Leo Carew
Publisher: Orbit Books
Publication Date: TODAY!! (paperback/e-book)
ISBN: 978031652137
Source: NetGalley

While I enjoyed this book while reading, I find that overall my impression is that it is just an okay read. The book has a very Norse feel to it (in me limited experience) and is about two cultures at war.

The Anakim are the Northerners who have a culture of battle and a deep-seated love of nature. They are long-lived, have an oral tradition, and have very little art. The Suthern folk are more like medieval humans. Both sides dislike the other but have been at a limited peace. Then an upstart Suthern commoner, Bellamus, has a plan to use the Anakim in a plot to gain power and fame. The Northerner, Roper, is suddenly thrust into a position of power when his father is killed. Can he keep the Anakim intact with also fighting a civil war from within?

I felt that the characters, battles, and politics were a little flat. Me favourite sections were the discussions of the culture of the Anakim and particularly their relationship with nature and hardship. I also liked the civil war elements of the Anakim sections and the parts that took place at the Northern keep. Roper's wife was awesome and I wish she would have played a bigger part. While in general I cheered for the Anakim side, I did occasionally find Roper to be a ineffectual leader whose successes seemed more lucky than skillful. Also the set-up for the next book was a bit abrupt in the end. I will potentially be reading the next book in the series but will wait for me crew's reviews before making that decision.

Side note: I wish that fantasy authors would stop using the North as lands of ice, snow, and barbarians and the South as lands of heat, culture, and learning. There be other cardinal points, folks!

So lastly . . .
Thank ye Orbit Books!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

Violence and death have come to the land under the Northern Sky.
The Anakim dwell in the desolate forests and mountains beyond the black river, the land under the Northern Sky. Their ancient ways are forged in Unthank silver and carved in the grey stone of their heartland, their lives measured out in the turning of centuries, not years. By contrast, the Sutherners live in the moment, their vitality much more immediate and ephemeral than their Anakim neighbors. Fragile is the peace that has existed between these very different races - and that peace is shattered when the Suthern armies flood the lands to the north. These two races revive their age-old hatred and fear of each other. Within the maelstrom of war, two leaders will rise to lead their people to victory. Only one will succeed.

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My luck with debut novels seems to keep holding strong, and Leo Carew’s The Wolf is the latest in this string of fortunate encounters, an epic fantasy story set in what looks like an alternate version of Britain, called Albion, where baseline humans and outlandish warrior races compete for primacy through bloody wars.

Readers are plunged straight into the midst of one of these wars, pitting the Sutherners against the Anakim, a northern tribe of veritable giants, long-lived and quite strong thanks to the inner bone plates that armor their chests: knowing that superior numbers will not be enough against the Anakim’s battle prowess, the Sutherners devise a trap that works successfully, forcing their foes into an unheard-of retreat after their leader, the Black Lord, is killed in action leaving his 18-year old son Roper in command of the army. The defeat weighs heavily on the Anakim’s morale and gives Uvoren, the highest-placed general and a renowned hero, the opportunity to lay the blame on Roper and seize the leadership: Roper will have to learn the subtleties of politics and authority very quickly as he fights a war on two fronts – the inner one, where his clash with Uvoren fast escalates into deadly territory, and the outward one, as the Sutherners, emboldened by the recent victory, rekindle their expansionist plans.

The Wolf is a novel that satisfies both in world-building and in characterization: in the island of Albion the river Abus works as a demarcation between the Sutherners and the Anakim, the former viewing the latter as monsters, fallen angels, barbarous savages, while the Anakim see their historical opponents as weak and lacking in honor. Both are wrong, of course, mostly because of ignorance on either side: we readers instead enjoy the opportunity to get to know them better, and to see how land and living conditions can shape a people and forge their mindset.

The South enjoys a more agreeable climate, fertile lands, and therefore its inhabitants have created a more laid-back society, but also one in need of demographics-related expansion, so they inevitably turn their gaze toward the territory of their long-time enemy and, through the old strategy of demonizing the adversary, mount a campaign of invasion, plunder and destruction with the goal of beating the Anakim into submission. The northern warriors, on the other hand, have built their society on military prowess and on a strong link with the land they dwell in, a symbiotic bond that in some cases prevents them from giving in to the invading army, choosing death rather than relinquishing their foothold.

A the heart of the Black Lands, the Anakim territory, lies the Hindrunn fortress, a massive construct of stone that no enemy could breach and inside which the Anakim seek not so much a form of security as a way of isolating themselves from the rest of the world, the microcosm in which they feel truly attuned to the land in which they live. The glimpses we are afforded inside the Hindrunn’s walls speak of a complex, lively society that belies the Sutherners’ prejudice about the Anakim’s savagery.

On this fascinating background move some interesting figures, drawn with such skill that the main antagonists – Roper the fledgling Black Lord and Bellamus, the upstart who gained command of the Sutherner army – come across as equally sympathetic so that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to pick a favorite. Roper is young and quite inexperienced: his father enjoys little narrative space before his demise in battle, but he seems like a harsh, unforgiving man and one not too prone on passing on some wisdom to his son. So being both inexperienced and young, Roper initially flounders in his role as ruler of the Black Lands and risks to be easy prey to Uvoren’s power play; he rebounds quite easily though, finding a few allies and heeding any sensible advice that his directed his way. He learns on the fly, and he’s as ready to treasure what he learns just as he’s ready to acknowledge his mistakes: as ruthless as he needs to be, he remains able to elicit the reader’s sympathy all throughout the book, growing in depth and complexity as the story progresses.

Bellamus, for his part, must struggle against his humble origins to emerge in a society that pays more attention to circumstances of birth rather than skills: his liaison with Queen Aramilla plays an important part in his ascent toward command of the Sutherner army, but he reaches the goal through sheer determination and a years-long study of the Anakim, for whom he harbors more than the interest of a military commander analyzing his adversary. There is an uncommon form of respect, almost fascination, in Bellamus’ keen interest in all things Anakim, so that, once he realizes than despite the long years of study he only scratched the surface of this adversaries' culture, and did not understand what the Anakim soul truly is, the ensuing frustration weighs more heavily than any defeat.

With such focus on battles and military prowess one might think there is little or no space for women in The Wolf, but although they are not exactly prominent, what we see of them in Anakim society makes for intriguing glimpses I hope will be given more space in the next novels. While Sutherner women seem relegated in the traditional roles this medieval-like milieu allows them, Anakim women, though apparently enjoying only a supporting position in their society, are afforded more freedom and are shown repeatedly as its backbone: one of the glimpses I was talking about concerns the office of Historian, the women to whom the totally oral traditions and past of the Anakim are entrusted, since they have no written language worthy of that name; they are the holders of their people’s collective memory and so the custodians of all that makes the Anakim what they are.

And then there is Keturah, the woman Roper marries to sign a political pact and who quickly becomes his partner, his confidante and his best ally: when we first meet her we see her as quite outspoken and bold, then we slowly learn about her cunning political sense and her ability to create a web of useful relationships. The fact that she’s universally treated with respect and even affection by her peers speaks loudly about this side of Anakim society, and is another detail that begs a deeper look.

All of the above might seem like scattered notions, and in a way they are because it’s difficult to take in all of the complexities of this novel and the story it tells, but I believe that The Wolf must be enjoyed as I did, with as little information – or preconceptions – as possible: this way it will be easier to get happily lost in this fascinating world. And to come out of it with a strong desire to know more.

If this wasn't a net galley book I would have dnf'ed the book. The characters in this book were so poorly drawn I didn't care at all for them. What interest do I have in seeing a war if I don't care about the people fighting it. I didn't have a side I liked better then the other. I didn't care when people died because they had no interest in the story because they were drawn so poorly. I just was reading war war kill kill scheme plot without any interest in the outcome. In other words I can't recommend this book

In a land were loyalties make all the difference, houses are tested, war looms on the horizon, and assassins lurk in every dark corner, Roper of the Black Kingdom must face his destiny after his father was slain in battle. In this epic high fantasy story, Northerners from the Black Kingdom who are steeped in the ways that have been handed down for generations face a modernized Southern army led by Bellamus.
I couldn’t help but think of the parallels between The Wolf and Game of Thrones; however, The Wolf was just that-a parallel- and held its own! I really enjoyed this historical fantasy and political intrigues that lay within its well thought out pages! The characters are highly developed and depicted in a human was by their vulnerabilities and inexperience.
The author did a fantastic job building new worlds in vivid detail with their inhabitants immersed in their cultures and unique régimes. I loved how vivid the wastelands of the North were described and how the Anakim were like elementals with their connections to their environments.
My favorite aspect of The Wolf was the fantastic battle scenes that left me breathless from the unknown outcomes! Roper and Bellamus both are expert strategists and this war could easily sway in either direction! Which the ending easily sets up the second book for new endeavors and new characters in future installments to this successful series!
Now I only hope that Carew does not parallel George RR Martin in the huge lags between fantastic books! As I look forward to reading each one and do not want to wait any longer than necessary!
Thanks, Netgalley and Orbit Books for allowing me to read this ARC!

This one is really dull, and the characters are too poorly defined for me to really get engaged in the story. I can understand the bits about ancient kingdoms going to war, palace intrigue, rogue advisors attempting to position themselves on the throne, and other soap opera elements of medieval politics, but the characters themselves are so underdeveloped that I frequently have to click back several chapters just to remember who someone is and what his motivations are.

I think there's the gem of a good story here (the worldbuilding is fantastic, as are the descriptions of the distinct races and classes of warriors), but the characters all bleed together (literally and figuratively) in a way that makes it hard to see any distinctions.

If you thought A Song of Ice and Fire had too many similar characters that were difficult to distinguish, this one will be nothing but frustration for you.

I received a free copy of this for review from NetGalley **

The Wolf warrants a solid 3.5 for me. I really enjoyed this book and the characters but I had some issues with the pacing and lack of depth in some of the scenes and situations.

First off I LOVE the Anakim. I love Roper and how he was thrust into power at the beginning of the book. I wasn't expecting it and I had a complete mouth drop moment and started yelling at the book. (Kynortas I was rooting for you! You let me down Black Lord!!) However with that being said I didn't find that I got enough of Rogers character and his growth into this incredible leader that he became at the end of the book. While he had amazing support and a great group of leaders and warriors around him I would have liked his progress to be more slow and earned. And I need more Keturah, there is a woman I could get behind and just need more from!

As for Bellamus and the Sutheners I couldn't care for them. I found myself skimming over their parts and chapters though I can acknowledge that it was needed to drive the plot forward but I personally am way more invested in the Anakim.

Overall I enjoyed the book, quite a lot actually and will be continuing on with the series and am excited to see how Roper grows and his band of warriors handle their coming plans. I also look forward to see the haskoli maybe.

One-Line Summary:

A massive battle of wits, one within a kingdom and one between kingdoms, where the loser forfeits their life and no one truly wins.

Summary:

The Anakim to the north are known as monsters, demons, and fallen angels by their southern opponents, so when what looks like a green snake appears in the sky, the Suthern king is convinced it’s an omen that they should invade in order to please God. So sure of their victory, the Anakim are taken by surprise to find the Sutherners have laid a trapped, one that wipes out many of their soldiers and results in the death of their king, the Black Lord. For the first time in centuries, they’re forced to retreat, under order of the new Black Lord, Roper, who suddenly inherited the position upon his father’s death.

Not everyone is so thrilled with the young, inexperienced upstart, though. Uvoren, Master of the Guard, sees his chance to supplant the rule. After all, he’s popular among the Anakim, and Roper is an upstart with no experience in battle, where favor is won and lost among the Anakim. If Roper intends to take his rightful place as Black Lord, he’ll have to earn it—and fast. And it won’t be easy.

But civil war isn’t the only threat on the horizon for the Anakim. The Sutherners have their own upstart. Not exactly young, but from a lowly and ignoble birth, Bellamus intends to do whatever it takes to earn his status in society. His specialty is information, and as he’s made himself the expert on Anakim, it seems only fitting that he should be the one to lead the Sutherners to victory over the northern tribe once and for all.

Only one person can win this battle of wits, but at what cost?

The Positives:

- Strategy and sabotage and stabbiness and supplanting and all the other great S words (and other letters, probably, too). I’m not into high fantasy in general as a whole, but I do love me some political games, and this book is just rife with it. Everyone has an angle they’re working, and brute force won’t win it for them. They have to be cunning and always one step ahead. Sure, some of the tactics used weren’t all that surprising and I had predicted them, but they were smart and effective. The game of one-upmanship is everything I could have hoped for and then some.

- Keturah and Roper make one heck of a power couple. While women aren’t allowed to fight in the army, it’s clear that they’re not just passive bystanders, either, or not in this case. Keturah has her own game going on behind the scenes. She’s cunning and manipulative and knows just the right strings to pull. She takes her role seriously, and she’s damn good at it. I actually really liked the way this worked out, because despite the Anakim society having traditional male/female roles, there are strong women in this that for sure aren’t just innocent bystanders.

- I’m just a teensy bit in love with Pryce. Missing ear and all. Sure, he’s cantankerous and stubborn, but he’s fiercely loyal to the people he feels worthy of such fealty. He’s a beast not just in his interactions with people but on the battlefield, yet he knows his place. His cockiness and arrogance isn’t misguided; he’s talented and he knows it, but he also knows the limits. I really liked the way his character grew through this.

- Everyone should have a Gray in their life. He’s the father figure most people dream of. He’s insistent that Roper will either succeed or fail on his own, but he doesn’t withhold his advice and attempts to guide him, either. Nor does he shy away from speaking his truth, even when it’s a harsh one. He’s just a brilliant character, and comes out with the best advice and stories. What’s not to love? “And there is nothing to fear about death, because when you reach it—when you have no choice—you can accept it.”

- I’m really interested in Bellamus and the game he’s playing and where it’ll take him. I actually want to know more about his backstory, really, since I’m sure there’s got to be some good stuff in there. He’s such a deep character, and we get to see a lot of character growth and realization in him in this book, but I want to know more about his past. He’s smart and cunning and somehow manages to survive, like a roach. He seems like a worthy adversary for Roper, and I look forward to seeing what he does in the next books.

- The author has a degree in biological anthropology, and it shows. The differences between the cultures and groups is fabulously done. They each have their own religions and beliefs and ways of approaching life, which makes it pretty nigh on impossible for them to actually understand each other. It’s even touched on in the book that as much as Bellamus believes he knows about the Anakim, he still doesn’t understand some of the most vital information that’s just embedded in who they are. There’s a stark contrast between the Sutherners, who live relatively normal human lifespans and are always moving, fluid, and in love with gold, and the Anakim, who can live for easily two hundred years and bond with the environment and the area they inhabit, to the point where they would rather die than resettle somewhere else. I thought the cultures were marvelously done, and I got a really good sense of those two groups. I actually look forward to learning more about the Unhierea, which I assume will come in the later books.

- The ending was the perfect setup for book two. Which obviously there’s going to be a book two, as this is book one. There’s a bit of a cliffhanger, but nothing where you’ll be beating the author over the head with his own book for making you wait. The epilogue is a nice touch to create intrigue for the next book, but it’s also not unexpected. I mean, it was foreshadowed throughout the book, so when it got there, I was more like, “Oh, yes, that. Well, this is about to get interesting.” Like I said, nothing in this book happens without consequences.

- Uvoren is awful. There are times where I thought, oh, look, he has a chance to redeem himself slightly because he’s a garbage person but at least he might have this thing going for him. But no. Every time, he unfailingly proved me wrong. He’s not even worth wasting words on because grrr. That is all I have to say about that.

The Negatives:

- As great as the cultural aspect was, the worldbuilding is a bit lacking. Especially for a high fantasy. There’s maps, so that’s helpful, but beyond that, I don’t have a great sense of the world they’re living in. The map shows that where this takes place is obviously an island, albeit a decent sized one. There’s also mention of the Sutherners having arrived on boats, basically, and settled there, so that hints at a larger world. But beyond that, this feels like it takes place in a microcosm. The races are so vastly different (the Anakim at around seven feet with bone plates under their skin and the Sutherners, who seem to basically be like normal humans as we know them) yet I have no sense of why this is or how it came to be. Maybe the hows and whys aren’t as important, but it feels so much like an alien vs. human concept that I really was looking for more of a grounding in what this world as a whole actually is.

- I actually have absolutely no idea what Anakim look like. Which is problematic, given that I read the whole thing. Well, mostly. I confess, I may have skipped some descriptions when it became too much, so I very well might have missed something rather important. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be just really tall human-like creatures with bone plates or if they look entirely different or what. I guess I pictured them as not entirely human-looking. Though, apparently, it’s possible for Sutherners and Anakim to reproduce, sort of, so I guess they should be at least sort of human-ish. I just really don’t know.

- Yeah, about that skimming thing … I did that quite a bit. There were some fantastic and important descriptions, but there were also times when it became overbearing. I feel like this is a symptom of high fantasy in general, which is why I tend not to read a lot of it, because ultimately, I just don’t care that much. I can conjure up the image of a fort just fine without three pages describing the buildings and exactly what it looked like. It may not be exactly what the author imagined, but it gets the job done. The battles also dragged on in some places and became a bit repetitive. I came for the political mind games, not the war, so those parts really just didn’t interest me and couldn’t hold my attention.

Overall:

Even though I don’t read a lot of high fantasy, I picked this up specifically for the political aspect. As I said, I love a good game of wits. I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. I easily found myself taking sides, shaking the book, lecturing characters, and altogether getting embroiled in the war itself. All in all, this was a good book. Not great, but good, and enough so where I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series. Just be aware that it’s slow (as most things regarding war and politics are) and there are likely to be places that will be skimmed.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let's start with the great! The author is a graduate of anthropology and you can tell in this book. He does an excellent job of creating different people groups and delving into the nuances of what their culture would look like. The main character is part of a war driven society of people called the Anakim that live around 200 years (if not killed in battle). They have no written language and little use for art. I would say it's a book about learning a new culture more than anything. For anyone that has lived in a culture other than what they were raised, they'll probably enjoy this book.

The plot overall was well paced and interesting enough to keep me engaged. There weren't any major twists, turns or surprises, but I don't think that was the purpose of this book. It was more about watching the slow growth of an underdog leader. The supporting characters were also well thought out and enjoyable to get to know.

There were a few places I thought the book fell short. The biggest being that I think the main character, Roper, never really developed into the leader that he's lauded to be at the end of the book. Most of his accomplishments were actually done by other people or he simply got lucky. He really didn't do much of anything as a leader. While I liked most everyone else, I thought the main character was flat.

The book was really hard to get into and very descriptive. The plot was interesting, but i couldn't get into the story really, or the characters. It was quite a complicated story, so I guess lots f people wil be intrigued by it but I just couldn't get into it.

There was nothing "wrong" with this book. I just didn't really enjoy it. The prologue felt too long, and that made it harder for me to get invested in this book. It was well written with well written and developed characters. I just don't really enjoy books that are very focused on political intrigue.
While the characters <i>were </i> well written, I often lost track of who was who. Their names were hard for me to follow from time to time.

As I said, this is in no way a bad book, just not my cup of tea.

“The Wolf” is a piece that mirrors that of an epic Game of Thrones type fantasy book where there are house loyalties, deep betrayals, assassination attempts and war all wrapped together nicely.

There’s a lot of political elements here that go into the rise of a leader and the process of building an army that respects that leadership in order to defeat a long standing enemy who have new tricks up their sleeves and friends in high places pulling strings in order to achieve success.

I’m unsure if this is just my own sort of interpretation or deliberate symbolism but throughout my read I kept thinking how the Northerners represented more of the old ancient ways with this idea supported by their choice in weaponry and the materials in which they are made, their language and the very concept of their lives expanding centuries as well as the very aesthetic of their land itself, whereas the Southerners were more like a modern age where they run through things such as the land and life itself so quickly that they are constantly trying to tip the scales in their favor by reigniting this feud over a land they don’t really want after they rid it of it’s people.

If that’s what the author was going for then I applaud his ability to turn such an age old almost consistent generational tension into a high fantasy/war novel and if not I still enjoyed reading into it and going about seeing a greater picture with just this first book in the series.

**thank you to netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**