Wolf Review

Review of The Wolf

By: Leo Carew

            During the first battle with the Sutherners, Roper’s father, the Black Lord, is killed leaving Roper, his son, to become the new Black Lord. Not only is seen as just a boy, but he has enemies within and without.  Roper must prove himself to his people and take back their land from the Sutherners.

            This is a pretty good debut.  Carew creates a beautiful and deadly wilderness and fills it with two different races of people that are warriors through and through.  The Anakim feels like a race of people who have been around for a long time and that they are part of the wilderness around them.  I don’t understand their love for battle, but it is fascinating to read about it.  Their actions on the battlefield determine who they are amongst the Anakim and at first Roper makes his life difficult when he chooses to run from battle right after his father dies.  He believes it is the right thing as they couldn’t defeat their enemy, but his competition for leadership thinks him a coward.  This rivalry between Roper and Uvoren adds an interesting element tension. It raises the stakes as Roper must fight the Sutherners and contend with losing his throne that is rightfully his while he is on the battlefield.  It begs the question of who is the better leader?  Uvoren knows how to win people over and make it looks as if he cares, but he has a temper and only cares about himself.  Roper is impulsive and emotional, which is not flattering on a warrior, but he cares about his people.  He is willing to learn and take advice from others.    The lead female, Keterah, doesn’t have much of a role except being Roper’s wife and the person who finds out about things that can’t be figured out on the battlefield.   She also gets poisoned making her a victim and wife taking away any chance of her being a strong female character.  Hopefully, in book two she’ll have a bigger role as she has a lot of potential. I appreciated how we have the Sutherners perspective and one of our main characters is Bellamus an upstart and leader of the Suthern army.  We get both sides’ perspective on this war over land ownership.  Carew does battle scenes the best.  They’re brutal and chaotic as the armies fight with passion and anger as they’re determined to win.