Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Year Release: January 17, 2023
Buy Links: Bookshop.org | Unabridged Books | Libro.fm

Review of Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves (2022)

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Content warning: gun violence, weather disasters, blood, explosions, loss of parents, colonialism, implied nonconsensual medical experimentation, mentions of torture. There is a wolf. The wolf experiences some peril, but the wolf does not die or suffer permanent injury

Once again, Meg Long takes the reader on a journey that is full of feeling, fun worldbuilding, and the complexity of friendship and surviving trauma. Sena and her wolf, Iska, are side characters in this adventure told from Remy’s point of view. It takes them to Maraas, a lush, jungle planet plagued by a hellstorm which rests the landscape every two weeks and the corporations at war with the syndicates. Remy searches for a good friend who she lost several years ago, and that might mean teaming up with the boy who betrayed their partnership at the same time.

Excellently paced, intriguing, and healing, I really enjoyed this return to Long’s slice of the cosmos, this time in stormy jungle rather than in a frozen tundra.

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Year Release: January 11 2022
Buy Links: Bookshop.org | Unabridged Books | Libro.fm

Read a NetGalley eARC
Content warning: dog fighting, hypothermia, vomiting, blood, gore, loss of parents, child abuse, gun violence, colonialism

Attention all readers who once identified as wolf girls: this book is for you. On a frozen planet Tundar, Sena is scraping her way to survival while being caught between the competing interests of local gangsters and corporate overlords. An Iditarod-type race takes place every season, and she’s sworn off it as it claimed the lives of her mothers. But when she pisses off a gangster and steals his prized wolf, she must partake in the race for a chance to get off that rock.

A compelling relationship between a girl and her wolf woven throughout rad world-building that takes a hard look at the literal colonialism of taking over a planet for its resources.