This book starts with a fascinating premise and then just runs with it! While the story may sound interesting from the summary, it only hints at the wild ride that is Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. While there weren’t any shocking plot twists, the author does a great job of building tension and adding some fun surprises. My only complaint is that in order to build some tension and increase the stakes for the protagonist at the beginning of the novel, there are some repetitive scenes of Sena trying to make a living by herself.

Sena is the protagonist and she’s a fun character to follow through the story. She is street smart and savvy. While she does make decisions that sometimes made me want to smack my head against a wall, she has the confidence and unpredictability that make for a great narrator. The wolf she becomes intertwined with, Iska, has a great personality for a non-human character, as well. There are also some compelling and well-rounded secondary characters to balance out Sena and Iska’s strong personalities.

This story is set on a small ice world named Tundar, which has been abandoned by governments and run by corporations. The author does a great job establishing the dynamics and rules of this world before throwing the reader into the thick of the plot. However, since this is an entire ice planet, the descriptions, while beautiful, do get slightly monotonous by the end of the book.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is Meg Long’s debut Young Adult Science Fiction novel. If you grew up loving the movie Balto and other (literal) underdog stories, this book is a must read. The book has a great plot that will keep you reading, a kickass main character and a chilling setting that will make you feel right at home during this chilly January weather.

I found this book so stressful (in a good way). The book begins with high stakes that only become higher as the book progresses. Sena’s desperation to survive and leave her frozen wasteland of a planet behind is central to the plot, and what I really appreciated is that we as readers are shown rather than told about how desperate Sena is to escape. We see her desperation in how she puts herself in dangerous situations to scrape by. When Sena chooses to join the same sled race competition that killed her mothers — something she has actively avoided for years — her actions were completely believable because I knew she had no other choice.

As someone who lives in a pretty cold climate for most of the year, I appreciated that the cold weather was portrayed as unforgiving and dangerous. Nothing irks me more than when a story is set in an arctic wasteland, but the weather is treated as a secondary problem. It’s not, and I love how Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves never forgets where it’s set. The climate is an adversary in of itself and serves to increase the tension and desperation that is woven throughout this book’s plot.

Overall, an incredibly strong debut novel that I felt resonated with me on so many different levels.

A difficult read to get into. I read the first 50 pages but then sped-read the rest. I couldn't connect to the writing or the characters and thus zones out one too many times. That being said, the book's premise is wonderful and intriguing, but the execution is just a tad off.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for gifting me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the idea of this story, with lots of adventure and a deadly race with wolves, but it just didn’t excite me as much as I hoped it would.

Sena irritated me to no end. I understand that she lost her mothers and was severely depressed because of it, but her bitter, untrusting attitude drove me crazy. I did like that she was intelligent (when she actually stopped to think things through rather than being impulsive) and didn’t back down from a fight.

I loved that there was a found family. Remy and Iska were my favorite parts of the book. Both of them are fierce and loyal and just wanted a friend. Iska honestly surprised me and grew on me very quickly, though why wouldn’t I love an awesome wolf? Her and Remy are just the kick that Sena needs to fight her depression and move on with her life.

I did enjoy the race, it’s where I really think the book picked up, though it did take half the book to get there. It was faster paced and there was more action in it. And the world building throughout was great, I easily envisioned everything that happened at every point of the book. But I do feel like I have a lot of questions that I still want answered.

Overall, I think the idea of the story was different and exciting, but that the characters just needed to be fleshed out a bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books, and Meg Long for the e-arc of Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves in exchange for an honest review.

On a frozen tundra planet, Sena Korhosen is forced to flee the safety of the city after angering the local gangsters and take part in the deadly race that took her mothers from her. She teams up with a group of scientists that promise to take her off world, on the condition that she guides them to the finish line so they can study the precious material everyone is fighting to control.

I love how action-packed this was. It was exhilarating and kept me on the edge of my seat through the latter half. The world-building and the premise were very well done. As we travel through the story, I could feel the brutal, icy weather and Sena’s struggle to survive in it.

I grew very attached to Iska, the wolf, and really felt the bond that grew between her and Sena. The found family element added a whole other dimension and heart to this adventure/sci-fi story. Sena, as a character, was a little annoying at first. She was so stubborn and hard-headed. But as her backstory is revealed, her motivations became clearer and I started to sympathize with her. The side characters were also very well written.

I would love to read more from Meg Long, whether in a new world or the one she has masterfully created.

Okay, so I was a little iffy about this book at first, but I’m so glad I stuck with it!

It turned out to be such a good, wintery read! A frozen ice planet, a Mad Max-esque sled race through the tundra, dangerous creatures in a desolate forest: what more could you want?

While I didn’t always agree with Sena’s choices, I loved watching her grow throughout the book! Not to mention her stubborn wolf counterpart. They made quite the pair on their journey and I would definitely read more about them—or even stories set in the same world. Maybe following another great character, Remy!

It was a little hard to pinpoint where this book genre-wise. It felt a little like sci-fi and fantasy and a little post-apocalyptic. It ended up a fun mashup set in a world I was eager to keep learning more about.

If you make it to the halfway point, don’t give up! It only gets even better from there.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a science fiction fantasy set on tundra planet that is known for having a valuable metal that the corporations who run the planets want and need. Every year there is a race with genetically modified wolves. Sena is the daughter of two racers who died on the tundra, so Sena refused to ever race again. But when she finds herself in trouble with a pit boss and steals a fighting wolf named Iska, Sena does what she has to do to survive. Even if it means joining the race and taking on those threats.

This whole book was a JOURNEY. It took a bit to get into really and the world could have been explained better in my opinion, but once the action started I was hooked. Sena by herself in the beginning was irritating as a character, but a main factor in this book is found family and once Sena is with her group she really starts to shine. Also, this book does not include a romance, which is frankly almost unheard of. There isn't a subplot or even hint of a romantic connection and I really appreciated it. This book was about grit and survival, basically what The Hunger Games should have been without the love triangle.

I definitely recommend this for fans of science fiction YA. This is a very different take and personally I think it was a win for Meg Long. If you pick it up, be mindful of trigger warnings - there are a few to look out for.

**Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

I loved Julie of the Wolves when I was younger and this book stirred the same emotions and some new ones as well. This was such a well-thought-out book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC which I received in return for an honest review.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a YA fantasy/dystopian novel set in a futuristic world filled with cold snow, ice and blizzards. Seventeen year old Sena is among the many who are competing in a dangerous race across the tundra to win her way off the frozen planet. Along with a team of scientists and a very special wolf, Sena is in for the fight of her life in this thrilling adventure story.

I thought this book was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the adventure aspects of the story and flew through the pages. The relationship between Sena and her wolf Iska was great, and while I'm not really a huge animal person, even I grew fond of the wolf by the end!

It sounds like there might be a sequel in the works? At least the book ended with an ending open enough to allow a sequel, and I would definitely willing to keep reading a story set in this world.

Thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Originally posted on Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2022/01/17/book-reviews-cold-the-night-fast-the-wolves-by-meg-long/]

The Wolf Does Not Die in Meg Long’s Sci-Fi Iditarod Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves

The dead of winter is both the worst and the best time to read. It’s cold; you curl up with a book and a hot cup of tea. Maybe you have your dog next to you. Maybe there’s snow, or rain, or hail, or some other weather at your window. It’s cozy. It’s also, maybe, a little lonely.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is not cozy, but it is a deep exploration of loneliness, desperation, and survival. Our main character, Sena, is a teenager who lost her mothers during a dangerous dog sled race that underpins the entire economy of her small ice-planet. In this book, if people don’t race, they train wolves, or fix sleds, or play host to the Corpos that drop down when the race is about to start. While everyone around her is consumed by their need to mine the extremely lucrative ore under the ice that reveals itself only seasonally, Sena only wants off the frozen rock that’s been the only home she’s ever known. But when she rescues a brutalized fighting wolf from a ruthless crime boss, she gets pulled into the deadly race, and surviving the run across thousands of miles of tundra is her only hope of getting money for a space convoy before the criminal underbelly catches up with her.

The novel can easily be split into two parts: before the race and during it. The build up to the race itself is a slow-paced justification of how Sena will do anything but work the race. Then, about halfway through, when literally every other door she could try has been shut, locked, or blown up, and Sena finally runs to the starting line, the drag bar never lets off the ice. As Sena fights against nature and the other teams, she becomes a leader on this massive Iditarod-inspired race through an arctic landscape. While she bonds with the other members of her scientific team, she’s betrayed over and over, leaving her with only her native knowledge and a very ornery wolf to rely on.

I do want to reassure you; the wolf does not die. But… there are moments that come close.

This book, a debut young adult science-fantasy novel by Meg Long, is the kind of story that warns you to ice over your heart before reading. As you read, as Sena drives herself forward with a single-mindedness that is frustratingly simplistic and weirdly perfect for a seventeen-year-old girl, you can’t help but warm to her. A deeply flawed character, her earnestness and (forgive the pun) dogged desire to stay out of the dog race across the planet creates a sympathy that slowly melts off the page and into your heart. It’s hard to like Sena, but she’s trying so hard and sometimes that’s worth a lot more than just being charming.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves tackles a lot of difficult subjects, but tends to keep them at arm’s length. Issues of homophobia, bigotry, classism, and even climate change are all mentioned, providing a background of gritty reality amidst the ice goblins and genetically modified racing wolves. Long doesn’t pursue any of these with much dedication, but for a book like this, firmly grounded in the deep POV of our teenage protagonist, Long doesn’t really need to. Death, violence, and problems of survival are easily contended with, as they are the problems that Sena deals with in the immediate. The other, cultural issues are background problems that only occasionally come up in slurs and bigotry.

While this lack of a deeper introspection into the internal struggles of various cultures is a weakness of the book, it’s perfectly acceptable for a YA novel that isn’t focused on delivering a morality message at the end of it. There are native/first-contact scavvers that live outside of commerce, and Corpos who live inside of the planet itself. There’s not a lot of trust (or any) between the scavvers and the corporate colonizers, and Sena is caught firmly in the middle, with one mother a scavver and the other from the corpo. These lines of bigotry are much more clearly drawn between the culture of haves and have-nots, but both sides consider themselves the haves. In Cold the Night there’s really no need to go deeper into the easily drawn metaphors between real-world first-nation people and issues; more explaining or additional characters would only muddy the ice-clear narrative. Sena wants to leave. For that she needs money, and eventually she will be forced to run the race.

Plots like these are predictable, but that’s to Long’s strength. She can focus on worldbuilding, on the twists in the middle of the large decisions, on the nature that threatens Sena and her wolf from all sides. It’s a frigid, emotionally rich book, and while Sena’s motivations and dead mothers could probably take the backseat in the narrative a little more often, the core survivalist story at the heart of this book is compelling and immersive. The worldbuilding is focused, with a whole frozen planet focused on the act of mining ore. Long doesn’t let herself get distracted. There’s the town; there are the woods; there is the nebulous Outer Space, where Sena is desperate to go. You don’t need much else.

I enjoy reading about characters who have a deep knowledge of their surroundings, and reading Sena as she teaches others, trains her wolf, and simply survives, is very satisfying. She makes bad choices, and a lot of them, but never because of incompetence. Her choices are driven by desperation, anger, and frustration. While this is slightly maddening to read, it ramps up the tension, like a pack of dogs straining at their harnesses, until the book finally lets loose and the plot races forward without any hope of stopping it.

Delivering a Jack London-style survival story, Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves only asks the readers to remember that those who survive are determined and ferocious, even in circumstances that require them to be kind, to have faith, and to trust in their own knowledge.

The world-building in this book was absolutely fantastic. Set on a barely-livable planet that has one resource, exo-carbon, it follows a Sena and a fighting wolf, Iska as they race (literally) to freedom. The first half of this book is mostly getting to know Sena and where a bulk of the world-building takes place. We quickly learn that her mothers both died in the sled race that also serves as annual expeditions to the exo-carbon deposits that are only reachable during the non-stormy season. The sleds are pulled by vonenwolves, which are genetically enhanced and difficult to train. Luckly, Sena is one of the few that can, so she is basically kept by rich people to train their wolves.

The actual race starts about halfway through after the pair (Sena and Iska) make their escape. There is a good character arc that happens where they learn to trust each other and Sena starts to open up emotionally. However, the pacing is quite slow. The author spends a lot of time vividly building the world so that, although it was easy to immerse myself into it, the plot sometimes felt like it took a backseat. I definitely recommend this if you liked the movie Balto and are fans of survival stories.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves reads like Star Wars if Anakin was a cynical thief girl who grew up on Hoth instead of Tattooine. There are even a few moments later in the book where I went "Is that an intentional Star Wars reference?" I can't tell! Anyway, the Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is very the Iditarod meets pod racing. Mobsters included!

The entire first third of the book is just: This planet focuses entire on racing, I hate racing, I need to get off planet, all anyone cares about it racing and I hate everything about racing! 'Sena, why don't you race?' I hate racing, why doesn't anyone understand that?! I need to get off this planet. I hate racing, the only way to make money is racing and that's why I'm a thief, because I refuse to have anything to do with racing. Sena, why don't you just race? UGH, I hate racing, I need to get to a different planet! ...Lather, rinse, repeat.

I almost DNF'd, but WOO, I'm glad I stuck with it because right at the 30% mark the plot picks up and takes off and the book gets way better. Basically, methinks the lady doth protest too much (especially since the blurb already let us know she ends up racing...) This would have been a better book overall if the opening third didn't have so much complaining about the planet and the racing culture and how much Sena hates everyone and everything.

Once she actually starts working with the fighting wolf, Iska (another thing that bugged me about the blurb, it's not really accurate to say "her" fighting wolf...) and with the science team, the pace picked up somewhat and it became a lot harder to put the book down. There's a plot-twist/reveal I saw coming from 100 miles away, but it was still a really enjoyable read (after getting past the initial slog). I love the world building, and I hope there's another book about the continued adventures of... well, read the book and then you'll know who, I don't want to spoil anything! I was originally going to give this book 3 stars but I liked the ending enough that I bumped it up to a solid 4 stars.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book!

This was one of my MOST anticipated releases of 2022! I absolutely loved the concept of an Iditarod-type sled dog race on an alien planet with sci-fi elements, and this did not disappoint. I adored the world building; it felt so cold and gritty while I was reading, like I was really on the planet with them! And of course, I loved the wolves. The stakes were definitely high and I felt on the edge of my seat the entire time.
However, the main character was a bit unlikable, and the relationships felt a bit shallow, making it less impactful when certain events happened in the book. I wish it had focused on the main characters relationship with her wolf more, and actually showed her taming and training her instead of feeling like the wolf just "chose her".

4 stars.

Holy crap this book. One of my favorite books growing up was White Fang. This book brought me back to that feeling, with added Sci-fi, and a female main, this book was such a great read. I'm glad I went out on a limb and reviewed this book because it was worth it. Debut author, YA Sci-fi, not romance.
A Girl and her wolf, a frozen planet, a dangerous sled race, and she must lead inexperienced scientists through the race all the whole having a crime boss on her ass. I loved this book. I hope there are more books with Sena and Iska in the future.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this book because wolves, but the wolves were not in here as much as I wanted. But don't worry if you missed that Sena hates the race because it killed her moms and therefore associates wolves with the race (or pretty much anything) you will be told this about five hundred times throughout the book.

I wanted to feel for the character's but it is hard because it is only in Sena's pov and I did not like Sena until the last two chapters when she displayed emotion. I mean heart broke over the scene with the wolf because Iska is such a sweetheart.

This was not the book for me (if you want my more scathing review you can find it on my blog here: https://bookgirlreviewsbooks.blogspot.com/2022/01/cold-night-fast-wolves-by-meg-long.html )

2.5 stars
3 feels

Really enjoyed this race book and space book. I loved that she found a family and was able to finally find more about her moms. Really enjoyed the the wolf and learning to find one's place.

I was originally drawn to Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves because it sounded like an incredible mix between a survivalist sled dog adventure and YA science fiction. But this one leans very heavily into the first part, and the science fiction aspects are more hidden. I think if I had known that going into this one, I would have enjoyed it more.

Also, the first half of Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is incredibly slow. Although it’s beautifully atmospheric, I still took breaks from it because I was struggling to engage with the story. Fortunately, once the action started, this book became great. The race itself was the highlight of the story, with Sena, Iska, and the other racers facing impossible odds.

Overall, this novel is a story of loneliness, grief, and how you can find family in unexpected places. Long manages to make the frozen tundra come alive, and the dangers feel real. So even though the first half of this one wasn’t my favorite, I still enjoyed this book as a whole.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you Wednesday Books for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
4.5/5 stars
This was an amazing read! The writing style was easy to follow and get swept up in the world of Tundar and the excitement and fear of the race. The characters were incredible, and I liked seeing the friendships form.
Sena was a great main character. She’s grown up on Tundar as the daughter of a former racer and a Scavver which means that she doesn’t really fit in. She’s looked down upon for her Scavver heritage, and she refuses to participate in the race because it killed her mothers. When she pisses off a syndicate boss, Sena gets wrapped up in more than she bargained for.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but what I got was an exciting story about adventure and friendship and finding companionship when you thought you were alone. It was a bit slow in the beginning, but all of the set up helped to establish the world and the relationships and history between characters. The second half moves quickly and there’s lots of different kinds of excitement with the race.
The highlight of the book for me was the relationship between Sena and Iska. Iska is a fighting wolf, and when Sena runs away with her, the two formed a fantastic bond.

Seventeen-year-old Sena is a seasoned loner, living on the outer edges of society in a small town on the frozen planet of Tundra. She survives by picking the pockets of rich tourists and while she's good at it, she's not sharp enough to escape being caught by Kalba - a cruel capitalist with a stable of fighting wolves and several sled race teams. Sena is highly sought after by race teams because she possesses the knowledge to survive the strenuous races - skills learned from her mothers (one a racer and one a scavver) who disappeared in the last annual sled race to the exo-carbon mines. Ex-carbon, the most valuable resource on the planet, is coveted and controlled by capitalists whose methods of mining are destroying the ice planet. Through a lot of misfortune and a string of bad decisions, Sena finds herself working for Kalba, trying to heal one of his injured fighting wolves within one month or else. One catastrophe leads to another, and an injured Sena must flee barely escaping with her life and a killer she-wolf. A team of scientists takes her and the she-wolf called Iska in and nurses them back to health in exchange for Sena teaching team members the survival skills needed to win the deadly sled race. Sena refuses to run the race that killed her mothers, but in the end her choices are limited. The story that ensues is one of the fight for survival against all odds. One of a young girl and the killer wolf she rescued bonding and finding a way to persevere through a blood-thirsty journey where danger lurks around every bend. It's a story of the search for truth and justice and the acceptance of family forged by necessity not by blood.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is an outstanding debut novel with amazing, skillful world building - from the frozen planet to the genetically altered wolves to the predators both animal and human to the different societies and races - it's a visual wonderland. While I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi, this book captured and totally immersed me in a young girl's race for survival in a harsh world where she doesn't fit in. I was completely captivated by Sena - her tenacity and determination to overcome all odds and discover exactly what happened to her mothers who were the best sledders on the planet meaning they didn't die from making a fatal mistake. Sena knows in her gut there's more to what happened than that, and she's determined to find answers even if she dies trying.

While this story starts out a bit slow, I found every single page of it fascinating. Long does an impressive job of world building - one scene, one character, one larger than life danger at a time which proves to be highly beneficial as the story progresses and the pace picks up. Without the meticulous setup, I would have soon lost my way in this complicated world of futuristic beings. Instead, I was totally immersed in a story that bombarded all my senses as I held my breath several times sure that all was lost. Author Meg Long proved to me that a futuristic sci-fi story can also be a great suspense thriller. There's no way to follow Sena on her journey from beginning to end and not get deeply immersed in the mystery of what happened to her mothers - did they succumb to fate . . . or murder? Or are they still alive?

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is an amazing debut novel that has me looking forward to more great things from Meg Long. It's intense, captivating, detailed and ultra-visual, worthy of reading in one sitting. I would love to see this book turned into a movie and can only imagine how the big screen would explode with color and creatures and characters and epic life and death battles. Fans of fantasy and sci-fi will devour this book; however, I also highly recommend it to fans of suspense thrillers. Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a delicious combo of genres that will rattle all your senses.

This one was wild.

Thank you so much to @wednesdaybooks @heeeyitsmeg for the advanced copy. This book is available now.

If I could describe this book in five words it would be:

The Iditarod meets Mad Max.

Imagine if you will a planet covered in icy tundra with rich mining deposits but the only way to get to them is by modified dog sled and a race so treacherous that many don't make it to the finish line. And while the environs are death defying themselves - cliffs, iced over rivers & a lake so large you can't see the other side - the other teams are also trying to kill you at every turn.

Then you have Sena, an orphan and a thief who is trying desperately to get enough money to buy a ticket off world. She grew up around the race but when her mothers died competing, she swore she'd never race herself. When she is caught stealing from a crime boss one too many times her punishment is to rehabilitate his prize fighting wolf. When an incident occurs and the wolf ends up saving Sena's life she flees with the wolf in tow, and the crime boss on her heels. She escapes with a team of scientists wanting to study the mining deposits, but that means she's headed for the one thing she swore she'd never do. The race.

I really liked this book! This is a story of found family, a girl realizing her strength and the unconditional love of a wolf.

I'm always leary of books that feature dogs (or a wolf in this case) as main or side characters, because there's nothing worse than if something happens to them, but Iska (the wolf) adds to the story perfectly as she represents grief and healing for Sena.

If you liked Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom you will like this book, especially because of the schemes and found family. Remy is Jesper and I cannot be swayed from that fact.

The author also leaves the ending open for a potential sequel and I can totally see a second book having Guardian of the Galaxy vibes.

So give this book a read and escape to an icy planet with an adventure to die for.