This is a duology I've been meaning to obtain and review for ages. Heck, I've owned the second book for a while now, but only recently got the first for my birthday. So let's have a look now that I have both! Spoilers ahead.
In the near future, where the Mennen (humans) have waged many wars and wolves in Europe have become almost extinct, a few of the last scattered wolves hear a divine calling. These wolves, from all corners of Europe and different walks of life, seek to unite and find the so-called Heartland. But in order to get here, they will have to learn to live with one another in peace, and must also face the evil pack known as the Magyars.
Some elements of this book I liked. All these different kinds of wolves coming together to form a pack and now having to learn to stomach each other's presence. The journeys they all go on and their interpersonal relationships. Their conflict with the Magyars.
But there's also a bunch of stuff I didn't much care for. For one, the characters aren't amazing. I'm not saying they're downright bad or same-y or anything, but I simply didn't care too much about our many protagonists. Most of the males had a rather similar heroic personality and there's only three important female characters in this sausagefest, although I'll have to admit that they at least were slightly more distinct than the males.
There's also the things that made me uncomfortable, content warning for mentions of incest and gore in these two paragraphs. Like, I'm fine with a bit of dark stuff being in my books now and then, but this was a bit excessive. There's some incest going on, which I'm never for, and there are literally parts where one of the wolf pups is slowly eating his own little brother alive. Piece by piece, until he has almost no skin left, even with chunks of his flesh missing.
And regarding said character, there's also the ableism (and sexism regarding the females, that's present, too). One of the female main villain's pups is born deformed, which makes his villainous mother hail him as some kind of hero of the Magyars, causing him to be groomed into being a horrible villain who, like mentioned before, is feasting bit by bit on his own living brother. And the way his description is handled is...not great. He's frequently referred to as being abominable, among other things, and not just for how his personality is developing, but usually just for his deformities, which is all kinds of yikes.
There's also some human "Mann" perspective parts in the book that I didn't care for and didn't even seem to add much. Honestly this book could've just been confined to the wolves' POV and we would've been better off.
Not saying this is a horrible book, but it definitely leaves a lot to be desired and hasn't aged well. It's also just needlessly dark. Like I said before, it has some good elements. I liked the drama of the Pack of Time once they all united and started to have to work together after being alone for so long. I liked their individual journeys. I liked parts of the Magyars conflict. But the overall book just isn't what I hoped it'd be.
Rating: 3.5/5
I too had high hopes for this book, and was somewhat disappointed. The factual errors spoiled it for me, particularly the "incest is totally normal" aspect, and the way the breeding pair were portrayed as being forced to be together even if they hated each other.
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