The Wolf's Call by Anthony Ryan

The Wolf's Call by Anthony Ryan ISBN-13: 9780451492517 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Ace Released: July 23, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Vaelin Al Sorna is a living legend, his name known across the Realm. It was his leadership that overthrew empires, his blade that won hard-fought battles - and his sacrifice that defeated an evil more terrifying than anything the world had ever seen. Yet he cast aside his earned glory for a quiet life in the Realm's northern reaches.

Now whispers have come from across the sea of an army called the Steel Horde, led by a man who believes himself a god. Vaelin has no wish to fight another war, but when he learns that Sherin, the woman he lost long ago, has fallen into the Horde's grasp, he resolves to confront this powerful new threat.

To this end, Vaelin travels to the realms of the Merchant Kings, a land ruled by honour and intrigue. There, as the drums of war thunder across kingdoms riven by conflict, Vaelin learns a terrible truth: that there are some battles that even he cannot hope to win


My Review:
The Wolf's Call is an epic fantasy novel. This is the first novel I've read by this author and it's the first in a new trilogy, but Vaelin has already been in battle all over the western continent in a previous trilogy. Details and outcomes that were needed to understand this story were "spoiled" in this book, so you may wish to start Vaelin's story at it's beginning. I'll also mention that the author ended this book with the main characters still in immediate danger and distress, which I didn't find a satisfying way to end hours of tense reading.

The novel started off with the first part of a three part narrative by the sister of the main enemy. She described how her brother came to power and made himself into a living "god" to his fanatical army. Deft world-building quickly brought the culture alive in my imagination without slowing the story of how she came to love her brother then came to see how dangerous and manipulative he was. There wasn't much character building except for the villain's sister. When we switched to Vaelin, the first part was mostly showing what had become of some of the main characters that he'd previously fought with and to add a few new companions. Then it turned into a story of constant danger, running from one battle to the next.

Stil, I enjoyed the story up to 95% of the way through, and then it all fell apart for me as I lost my willingness to suspend disbelief. I'll be as vague as possible to avoid "spoiling" events. Waves of soldiers were running at a certain point and dying by the thousands, creating a pile of bodies. Bodies are wobbly, uncertain ground to walk on let alone run on, so I was already starting to disbelieve the events. Then a single rider raced his horse at the pile of bodies. In real life, that horse is going to trip and fall. In the story, it bulldozed through the pile and cleared a path. Whoa. I simply couldn't get back into the story after that.

The "magic" in this world shows up as random Gifts that people are born with, things like seeing visions of the future or living for centuries or the ability to create and toss fire balls. There was sex but no sex scenes. There was some bad language (mostly b**** and f***).


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.