There are times when you just need a book that has characters full of sharp edges, words, and an incredible will to live. Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a book all about survival in a brutal hell-scape where most people are enemies, and you’re better off not making friends. This story encapsulates the feelings of barely repressed rage at the world incredibly well, and I think each reader will find something to love about Sena. If you want to immerse yourself in a world of ice and a bitter race that might end in death, you’re going to want to add this book to your list.
Sena Korhosen and Iska the wolf are running for their lives. After angering the local gangster, Sena takes shelter with a group of scientists who agree to pay her safe passage off of the ice-planet she calls home. The catch? She has to get to the finish line of the infamous sled race on her planet, one she vowed to never participate in after the death of her mothers. During the race she’ll not only combat the tundra’s treacherous conditions, but the threat looming over them. Sena and Iska will be given the ultimate test: survive the wilderness, or die.
This is not the book to pick up if you’re looking for a fluffy, light-hearted read, I’ll tell you that much. Like the winter season itself, this book is full of cold and dark things. Some of the possible triggers in this book are death, physical assault, attempted murder, and animal cruelty. This list is not exhaustive, just some of the ones that I noticed while I was reading.
With that said, if you choose to pick up this book, know that you’re about to go on an incredible journey. It’s for anyone who loves Balto, and who loves reading stories about survival in the winter wilderness. It was definitely a more stressful read for me, as I sat on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next.
I wasn’t sure I was going to get through this book when I started, to be honest. Sena isn’t the most loveable of characters. She’s a thief with a pretty abrasive personality, and a chip on her shoulder the size of a planet. She’s pretty one-track minded, which is how she lands herself in the trouble she’s in. Though a lot of it can be explained by the trauma of losing both of her mothers, for someone who’s so determined to live, she risks her life quite a lot. What kept me going was the fact that beyond her bullish nature and general disdain for life in general, is that she still has vulnerabilities that make her relatable. Her relationships with Kirima, Iska, and Remy being prime examples.
There’s quite a lot of set up leading up to the race, but what was most riveting to me was the race itself. It’s where personalities are stripped bare and it’s a fight for survival. Sena’s upbringing gives her an advantage, as one of her mothers was a top racer before she died and the other was part of a tribe that was on the planet before it was taken by corporations. There’s quite a few layers that build later on in the book that create a fascinating portrayal of events.
Some of the themes that I noticed as I was reading were nature vs. nurture (both characters and animals) and the destruction of nature due to corporate greed. There’s also some conversations happening around prejudice due to Sena’s identity. Each theme seemed to have it’s own moment in the book, and though there are a few moments where this was a little overwhelming, it all evened out at the end.
The pacing of this book is pretty disjointed at the beginning, but found its rhythm toward the middle of the book. I also felt like I needed a little more world-building for me to make sense of the world that Sena was in. There’s a lot of fascinating things that are mentioned, but never described in enough detail for me to get a clear picture. However, I feel like this was made up for once the race actually begins.
This book did not have much (if any) romance in it, which I think will be perfect for anyone looking for sci-fi/fantasy novels that don’t have much romance in them. I definitely enjoyed it, but I wish there was a little more worldbuilding over all. I would definitely recommend you add it to your list if you enjoy wilderness stories. I won’t be forgetting about Iska the wolf for a while.
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 11th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Meg Long’s Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a captivating debut about survival, found family, and the bond between a girl and a wolf that delivers a fresh twist on classic survival stories and frontier myths.
After angering a local gangster, seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen must flee with her prize fighting wolf, Iska, in tow. A team of scientists offer to pay her way off her frozen planet on one condition: she gets them to the finish line of the planet’s infamous sled race. Though Sena always swore she’d never race after it claimed both her mothers’ lives, it’s now her only option.
But the tundra is a treacherous place, and as the race unfolds and their lives are threatened at every turn, Sena starts to question her own abilities. She must discover whether she’s strong enough to survive the wild – whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.
