Everyone has their favorite book trilogy. For me, it's without a doubt The Wolf Chronicles. These books have left an impact on me few other ones have made so far. It's not a very elaborate series like Warriors, counting only the trilogy and some Wattpad short stories, but nonetheless one I very much enjoy, more so than most other books. Funny thing is, I'm not even really nostalgic for these books, unlike books like the original Warriors arc, Wolf Brother or Northern Lights. I got into these books relatively late, or at least later than all the formerly mentioned ones.
So with that said, let's see why I love this series so much. Let's have a look at the first book in the trilogy: Promise of the Wolves. Spoilers ahead.
First of all, I'm generally quite a big fan of prehistoric novels set around the Pleistocene, whether it be in our universe or a fantasy-based one. I'm a huge fan of Clan of the Cave Bear (which I'll get to eventually) and Wolf Brother, for example. That said, this one didn't disappoint. It's clearly set in our universe, but what makes it unique is that it is completely written from a wolf's point of view. And not just any wolf, but a supposedly cursed one. Seeing the human society and just the world in general through the lens of an animal around this time was really interesting and made for a nice change of pace.
The characters are also amazing. First of all, Kaala is probably my favorite protagonist from any media, ever. I generally tend to gravitate towards side characters or villains for my favorites, but Kaala is the big exception to that. She goes through an amazing arc over the course of this book and the rest. She's also not generic in the slightest. She's short-tempered, loses her cool a lot, and can be really unfriendly even. But despite that she's never unlikable. She makes foolish decisions, but you don't hate her for it. It's also nice to see her grow from the curl-tail from the pack to being the most dominant pup.
The other characters are also great. Most of them you'll love (the good ones) or hate (the villains). My favorite side characters were Ázzuen and Trevegg, as well as NiaLi. Rissa was also a really nice character who wasn't just a generic nice motherly character, but also had a temper on her. The antagonists and villains are quite effective, too. Ruuqo the pack leader is just a wolf I can't stand, but at the same time you do understand where he's coming from. He lived his entire life in the shadow of his big brother and now tries to do his best as pack leader to follow the ancient laws he dedicates his life to, which is made hard by our protagonist and the interference of the Greatwolves.
The Greatwolves were also a great concept. While not accurate (they're based off of dire wolves, but those were still about the same size as regular wolves), they add a nice bit of mystery and intrigue to the story. You never quite know what they're up to, and they're usually one step ahead of our protagonist. You don't even know if you can trust them a lot of the time.
The way the wolf packs are described in here aren't fully accurate, as it still kind of relies on the alpha-beta-omega theory (though thankfully it doesn't use these words), but a lot of it also is based on truth. It was also really nice to see the natural symbiosis between wolves and ravens be such a large part of wolf society.
Humans society is described in less detail, but that makes sense as our main wolves only hunt with three of them, and not near their villages, in secret. We at least know they live in some form of prehistoric tribes. I also thought their naming conventions were rather interesting, with them having prefix (their actual name) and a suffix (their tribe name, with or without an N at the end depending on gender). Examples are TaLi (Ta + Lin tribe) or BreLan (Bre + Lan tribe).
The naming conventions in general are fun. Aside from the humans having theirs, all wolves have made-up fantasy-sounding names with two double joined letters (e.g. Kaala, Ruuqo, Trevegg, Werrna), and the Greatwolves have -dru or -dra suffixes, depending on gender. Their suffixes are also interesting because they refer to a great historical figure of the past: Indru, one of the first wolves to actively communicate with humans many centuries ago. The ravens have fun and borderline unpronounceable names (e.g. Tlitoo), though it was kind of odd to see that two of them have more generic names (e.g. Rainsong). Maybe there's a reason behind that that'll be revealed in upcoming books, but for now we don't know.
There's also quite a bit of lore to the story. It gets quite deep, with the philosophies of the wolves and Niali about whether or not wolves and humans should be together depending on old legends, history and the paradox that wolves and humans have to be together yet cannot successfully coexist. We even get a glimpse of spirituality with most creatures worshiping the Sun, Moon, Earth and Sky, as well as a ghost she-wolf called Lydda that visits Kaala from the afterlife.
Overall, Promise of the Wolves is definitely one of my favorite books ever. I can just get lost in this time period and the wolf culture it establishes. More than any other protagonist I've ever read, I want Kaala to succeed. Will she, though? We'll see that in the next books!
Rating: 5/5
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