**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Meg Long's Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves follows the story of Sena. Sena has made her way in the world alone since the death of her mothers in what amounts to the biggest sled dog race on the planet. In this race, the dogs are replaced by a wolf hybrid species and the threats from other racers, the environment, and natural predators is a constant threat. When Sena finds herself on the wrong side of the syndicate, she joins a team of scientists and the race is for pure survival.

Sena is, at first, kind of unlikable as she is made angry and aloof by her life experiences. I was initially concerned I would be following a character I really didn't care for, but then Long introduced the fighting wolf Iska. Long manages to get the reader invested in Sena's relationship with Iska and humanizes both Sena and Iska in how they grow together.

The action was nonstop and I read the entire book in one sitting. I would absolutely be interested in a follow-up book exploring Sena and Iska's future adventures, even though the book did tie up neatly. I look forward to Long's future works, even outside of this world as the action sequences and glimpses of cultural development shown really promise that Long is capable of much more.

After reading Cold the Night Fast the Wolves by debut author Meg Long, my frozen heart has been thawed due to a renowned sense of hope and restored faith in humanity thanks to a cranky vonenwolf and a grieving young woman named, Sena, who have found a family in each other they never knew they desperately needed.

If you love the Found Family trope, which I know that many of you cherish, this YA Sci-fi book is going to be one of the best books of 2022 you read.

Sena Korhosen has lost everything: her mothers, hope, and the future and person she wanted to become. Thieving to feed herself and her mothers’ friend, Kirima, and save enough chits to buy a ticket off-world, Sena steals from the pockets of the wrong corpos. Boss Kalba catches her and instead of killing her offers her a job to heal his prized fighting wolf, Iska, after she was severely wounded in a dog fight.

Without any options, Sena agrees but knows she will not be able to naturally heal the she-wolf in the allotted time Boss Kalba gives her and when the syndicate boss takes all the chits she stole one night, she figures she has nothing left to lose than to steal her winnings back. She breaks into his office and takes only what she needs to get off-world to a place that can secure her a safer life out of a freezing cold and harsh Tundra where no one really lives but just focuses on survival.

Fate has different plans for Sena Korhosen, one she spends her whole solitary young adult life trying to avoid: the race. The race killed her mother and Äma. She fights like hell to never concern herself with the treacherous thousand-mile race across the Tundra they stole her mothers’ lives.

To escape death, Sena and Iska have no choice but to join a sled team of scientists who begin the race in pursuit of science. They want to study exocarbon, the mineral all of these racers try to mine for profit.

This is an action-packed, adrenaline filled debut that left my heart pounding. It is a story of prejudice and hardship, grief and healing, and a new found family that knows no boundaries. It is about a fierce love, friendship, and loyalty I’ve never experienced in my entire life that I one day hope to have.

I’ve never been so filled with hope like I have reading Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. What a powerful and deeply thought-provoking debut novel from Meg Long! I’m excited to read more from this enticing new voice in YA Sci-if Fantasy!!

Perfect for fans of Six of Crows, Red Rising, and if you love the idea of a sci-fi survivalist tale similar to Call of the Wild, you will adore this book with every fiber of your being. I know I did.

What's it about (in a nutshell):

Cold the Night Fast the Wolves by Meg Long will make you cheer, turn you into a puddle, and keep you on the edge of your seat. Sena is a 17-year-old girl orphaned on a cold desolate planet who wants nothing more than to earn enough money to leave the only place she knows as home in this survival of the fittest adventure novel.

What I Enjoyed:

Iska, the red wolf, stole my heart. Stories with heroic animals always grab my heart, break it, and hopefully mend it back again, and this story is no exception. Iska is a survivor, she is brave, and she bears the name of one of Sena's mothers, so you know she is destined to be a driving force in the story. I instantly fell in love with her loyalty, bravery, and ability to adapt to any situation as the story unfolded.

I also enjoyed the relentless fast pace that starts immediately and never lets up. Sena and Iska are fighting for their survival in a world with many dangers, and it feels like they must have come up against every one of those dangers at some point on their journey. Added to that is that the majority of the story is indeed a race, an event that this world revolves around, and I held in my hands a compelling, immersive story and kept me on the edge of my seat.

The world-building is incredible and utterly immersive. I could feel the cold icy vistas chilling as if I were there. Even the underground world felt alive and vibrant with the rows of shops, the fighting rings, and the visitors and inhabitants that frequented it. Even the more people-friendly areas are fraught with dangers that don't allow Sena or the reader ever to relax, even a little bit.

Characters:
All of the characters, even the ones in the smallest of support roles, are so richly complex that they quickly stirred my emotions for good or bad as their actions dictated.

Sena is the hero and narrator of this story. She is somewhat a morally gray hero, which I always love, and boy does she make more than her fair share of bad decisions. But, her heart is always in the right place or seems to be. Since the story is told from Sena's perspective, the reader gets an inside look at what motivates her good or bad decisions.

What I Wish:
I wish I knew more about Sena's mothers. They are an influencing component of the story, but I had a hard time grasping any details about them that might fill in the noticeable blanks in the narrative. I felt like they were important enough and influential enough in the story to warrant more of a look back, even if that meant more pages and a much larger book.

To Read or Not to Read:
Look no further if you are looking for an edge of your seat action-adventure novel. Cold as Night Fast as Wolves will grab your heart and pull you along for a dangerous ride.

I absolutely love ya sci-fi. I find there is a balance there that works for me. This book has the balance for me. We have a Ice planet and a resource that's being exploited but it's also extremely useful. You get to see how this planet is run and how corrupted it all is. It makes very interesting world.

But when you get to the race there's a whole other side that I didn't know I joyed but I did. You get Is a real sense of the wild untamed dangerous wilderness as they track through it for the race. I found myself on edge and exhausted with how much was it gets them to survive. Which just shows how well it was written.

This book has a lot of emotions that I did not expect. One moment you feel for a main character, Then you were angry at her because she stubborn, And you're mad at the corporate and the greed and the corruption, And then you're crying.

I only flaw with this book Is when I started it I kept putting it down because it's very repetitive. We are getting the same emotion and story repeat it to us over and over again and it takes a while to step out of that. I wish instead we would have had more time hearing about the surrounding planet and more about the Daily life and struggle on the planet when the race is not happening.

Thank you Netgalley for this stunning Arc!

Stunning. That's the perfect word to describe this book. I did not know what to expect but this story swept me off my feet.

Sena is a 17 year old young woman trying to make it through life on a planet that cannot find a way to respect anyone with Scavver blood. Sena lost her mothers 5 years ago when they took part in a famous sled race on this world. Sena feels alone and, even though she doesn't know it, she needs help.

Sena goes through an amazing transition from loner to a team leader throughout this story. I think the most emotional element was her connection to a fighting wolf that kind of adopted her as a partner. The author did an amazing job describing the relationship between a human and an animal. It was very real and reminded me of how attached to my pets I am on a psychological level and going through forming that attachment and the overwhelming love I feel for them.

This was an incredible read that was fast-paced and full of action. I highly recommend this!!

Look for this in 2022 on January 11th!!

If Balto brought you joy you will thoroughly enjoy the world Meg Long builds. The pace starts slow but halfway through turns into nail-biting, edge of your seat reading.

Sena is stubborn, strong, and looking for a way out of the world she knows. Iska is a fighting wolf needing to run free. Together, they build the most beautiful connection. I cried, I smiled and I can't wait to see what Long publishes next.

As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with Julie of the Wolves. And Balto. And wolves just generally. So I was immediately intrigued when I saw the premise of Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. A girl and her wolf flee a gangster and join a treacherous sled race across a frozen ice planet? Sounded right up my alley.

And because the premise held such promise, I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It had its moments of heart-pounding action, and the wolf-girl in me loved the bond that grew between Sena and Iska over the course of the story. I was definitely interested enough to want to know how it all turned out and to make sure that everyone made it to the end of the race.

That said, I ultimately felt the book as a whole to be somewhat flat and one-note. For me, the story took too long to get going and not enough time during the race, which was the most exciting part. And while it certainly makes sense that Sena would be preoccupied by the death of her mothers, her mentions of her backstory often felt repetitive, going over the same information over and over again without revealing anything new.

*spoilers ahead*

I also felt that this book lacked any sort of B plot. Sena's budding friendship with Remy didn't carry the emotional weight I think it was supposed to, nor did the professor's death. And while the prejudice against Sena and her mothers certainly struck a blow, I wish it had led to more than just a few pages with the scavvers at the end of the book. Like Sena, I wish the scavvers had intervened earlier, if only to bring some new tension and conflict to the story before the final chapter. Not every book needs a romance, but I found myself wishing there was one here, just so there would be something else going on in Sena's mind. Driven relentlessness is all well and good in a race, but it makes for somewhat dull reading in a narrator.

Overall, while I enjoyed this book, I'm not sure I was engaged enough with Sena or the world of story to want to return for the sequel that is so clearly set up by the final interaction.

3.25/5

This was quite enjoyable! It's perfect to read in the winter, especially because of the setting. The book takes place on a very cold and inhospitable planet. This really helps increase the tension level, especially during the race because our characters are out in the elements trying to survive. We also have a lot of natural predators here, including ice goblins, giant bears, big cats, and more! I really liked all of these and just generally getting to see/know more about them.

The world was interesting in general. It's definitely a corporations vs. living off the land dynamic where both groups don't like the other. Scavvers are really looked down upon in society, and there's generally a lot of tension between the groups, especially when the scavvers refuse to help the racers.

This is definitely a sci-fi book, though it does have survival and action elements as well. It seems like there's things like advanced technology, spaceships, manipulating the planet's climate, genetic manipulation, and more. There are some really cool ideas with this, and I did like the combination of sci-fi and survival here.

The pacing is a bit strange in that it takes almost half of the book to get to the race. I thought it would start earlier, but I did like the background info provided in this first part. It does get a bit repetitive at times, particularly with Sena's thoughts and actions. The actual race was very fast paced and action-packed though!

Sena was enjoyable overall. She's very tenacious and brave, though she can be stubborn (sometimes annoyingly so). I did get tired of her at times when she kept refusing to accept help and thinking that she's alone, but this does make sense given her past. Her mothers died during the race years ago, so she's very against having anything to do with it. She's just trying to survive and get money to get off-planet, but she gets involved with things and forms attachments. I really liked seeing these bonds develop, especially with Iska (the wolf-dog) because I always love a good animal companion. It's really lovely to see them learn to trust each other! I liked the idea of the vonenwolves and racing, and this definitely reminded me of Balto.

Sena makes some rash decisions at times and must deal with both natural and human predators. I really liked the team she joins up with in general since it's mostly a bunch of scientists trying to study exocarbon. Remy in particular is super interesting, and I definitely want to know more about her. I liked how she refuses to give up and helps Sena with her quests and survival. Pana, a doctor, is also an interesting person. I liked how she wants to study things, but she's also very practical and helpful to have around.

I really liked this overall and would definitely recommend it! I really hope there are more books in this world/a series, especially because it seems like there are more planets to explore here.

My video review can be seen on my booktube channel (around minutes 14:01-18:02 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKD7YP5P3f0

3.5 stars

Ever since her mothers' death, Sena has wanted nothing more than to get off her frozen planet. She makes her living as a thief. As soon as she gets enough money, she will leave.
Unfortunately, she crosses the wrong person and must bargain for her survival.

This is a survival story, a found family story, and an adventure story.

I thought this was pretty good. It's very fast paced and I loved the characters. Hopefully there will be another book about Sena and Iska.

Atmospheric and beautiful setting. Tense and emotional. I really loved it. It was slow to start, but by the end I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

// Book Content Warnings: animal cruelty, death, murder, violence // – Please educate yourself on the content warnings for this novel before reading, as I may have missed some in my review.

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// Quick Statistics //
Overall: 4/5 Stars
Plot: 4/5 Stars
Setting: 5/5 Stars
Characters: 3/5 Stars
Writing: 5/5 Stars
Memorability: 4/5 Stars

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// Quick Review //
Thrilling and adventurous, Meg Long’s debut novel is a solid sci-fi with compelling characters and obstacles set upon an icy planet that welcomes peril at every turn.

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// Other Information //
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Page Count: 368 pages
Release Date: January 11, 2022
Series: None
Genre: Fiction, Young adult, Fantasy, Science fiction, Dystopian, Adventure, Survival

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// Book Description (from Goodreads) //
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.

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.

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// Characters //
Sena is a stubborn, strong, yet imperfect young woman living on the freezing Tundar, a planet ruled by a deadly sled race for money. When we first meet Sena, she is completely against racing due to the unfortunate deaths of her moms during a race. She makes a living by stealing from the rich and makes her escapes by the rooftops of the Ket, a gambling town on Tundar. Over the course of the novel, Sena faces challenge after challenge while attempting to leave the unforgiving cold of Tundar.

I greatly admired the character development displayed in this novel. Sena deals with a lot of grief and trauma throughout the story but is able to begin to live with them rather than ignore them.

There are other great characters in this novel, but none felt as fleshed out as Sena. For a race that is ‘life-changing’, none of the other characters seem to change. Some of the other characters that Sena meets include Professor Kaassen, Tulok, Pana, Remy, and Askaa. All five of them are racing in order to study the metal promised at the end of the race (if they make it there alive).

I was somewhat confused by the relationships that Sena seems to have. At first, it seems as if a romantic relationship will develop between Sena and Temur, but very quickly their ‘romantic’ relationship dissipates. I would have been completely fine with Sena remaining partnerless through the novel (which she does), but the author seemed to want to have some love interest for her. I felt like this just really pulled away from the story unnecessarily, as it didn’t impact the plot or Sena in any way.

I cannot end the characters section without talking about Iska, the killer wolf that Sena steals rescues from a powerful gangster in the Ket. Reading about this sweet wolf just made me curl up and snuggle next to Poppy (my dog, for those of you who don’t listen to the podcast and can’t hear her incessantly bark every two minutes).

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// Writing and Setting //
I am in love with the descriptiveness of this novel. I could picture the biting cold and the monstrous beasts that inhabit Tundar.

The setting is my favorite part of Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. Cold, desolate, and almost unsurvivable. Tundar presented the perfect obstacles for Sena, which really made the progression of this novel interesting and adventurous. I don’t know if any of you have played Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, but this novel really reminded me of the feeling I got from playing that game (which is one of my favorites, by the way). The creatures that inhabit Tundar made me as interested as Pana to understand the ecosystems of this icy Edge World planet Long created.

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// Plot //
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves was fast-paced and addicting. With thrills and adventure around every corner, I could not put this novel down. As I’ve mentioned previously, the obstacles that obstruct Sena’s path to leaving Tundar behind provide exhilarating action scenes and realistic struggles.

The only complaint I had about the plot was that I felt it was a little too predictable. The big twist at the end, where Sena discovers the true nature of her mom’s deaths is kind of glazed over and I had a general idea of what she was going to discover.

Regardless, the novel was pretty cohesive and perfectly mixed its thrills with a solid storyline.

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// Overall Review //
I really enjoyed reading Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves and getting to know Sena and Iska throughout their trials and treacherous adventures.

Thanks to NetGalley & Wednesday Books for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves" is about a survival/sci-fi story set on a cold, harsh planet thousands of light-years away from Earth. Though you could just pretend this is all set in Alaska or something. Ha! So, Sena has been struggling with the loss of her mothers and wants nothing to do with taking care of alien wolves because it's what her mothers loved to do when they were alive. Until she gets roped into taking care of one wolf and she gets pulled back into the pain of loss and a crazy adventure across a frozen wasteland.

Honestly, it's a really good survival mix sci-fi story. Has a lot of those "corporations can't control nature" messages which is neat, but sometimes the pacing was off and the characters a bit two-dimensional. I honestly wanted more scenes of Sena and the wolf, despite the lack of verbal communication between the two, their bond was really great to see. I want my own giant wolf now...

Still, a great story, even those like me who don't tend to read survival books will enjoy it since it's great at building the atmosphere and tension.

This book was so fun, I absolutely loved the setting. You don't get a lot of stories with a lot of snow, cold weather and such in books these days. Like imagine a very small town with a lot of wilderness with snow. Always snow. And of course the dog sledding competition reminds me of Balto, Snow Dogs and literally every Alaska-story ever. It was a great change of pace, honestly.

Our orphan thief was a hoot. She knew her way around her home-town like one would expect, but honestly she isn't very smart. She steals a prized wolf from someone who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty. I just felt like she was always like "okay so I could do this BUT I think I'll do that instead even though it obviously is not going to work out in my favor and is the harder way to get things done" lol.

This book doesn't have romance, but it has a lot of other vibes people seem to look for, like found family, character arc, dogs (super important), I honestly hope there is a follow up book for reasons!

Sena is a 17-year-old who lives on an ice planet which boasts one big yearly event, a dangerous wolf-sled race across a frozen tundra to reach deposits of much sought-after exocarbon. She is orphaned at 12 when her mothers are killed during the race. She finds herself unwillingly drawn into the race and ends up fighting for her and her teammates’ lives.

Filled with great geographical descriptions and exciting adventures, this is a story of resilience, courage and finding one’s family. It’s also a great story of the bond between human and animal. Despite being a bit of a slow starter and experiencing some frustration with Sena at times for committing the same mistakes over and over again, I found it a very good debut and look forward to more from this author.

My thanks to #NetGalley , #StMartinsPress and #WednesdayBooks for providing me the free early arc of #ColdtheNightFasttheWolves for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Great adventure, sci fi tale

Seventeen year-old Sena Korhosen lives is an orphan that lives on ice planet Tundar. She mainly supports herself by picking pockets, trying to stay out of the way of the local gangsters but not always succeeding. She ends up getting caught by one who wants her to heal his fighting wolf, Iska, and Sena finds herself bonding with the wolf and the wolf with her.

The local economy is driven by the mining of exo-carbon, a mineral used in technology all across the solar system and once a year there is a race across the frozen wastelands to the north to get to the exo-carbon deposits.

Sena has said she wouldn't race but this year she ends up working for a professor trying to study the exo-carbon and joining in the race.

This reminded me of a Jack London adventure tale and I enjoyed it very much. I highly recommend it.

I received this book from Wednesday Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

I was totally expecting fantasy from the cover and the story blurb, but I was not disappointed at all that this was a science fiction story.

We start at the beginning of a three on one fight, no context and no information, and I was completely hooked. We get a scene showing our main character’s skill, intelligence, and adaptability within the first ten pages. And I’m immediately on her side.

The world building is fantastic, giving us drips and drops at a time so we’re not overwhelmed with an infodump on this planet and its history. And the scene descriptions really nail the stark and bitter chill of an icy planet.

The pacing is a little uneven at the beginning, a lot of start and stop it felt like, but once I got past the halfway point point, the plot really picked up steam and I couldn’t put it down for the climax of the story.

It does bother me a bit that our only canonical LGBTQ representation are Sena’s mothers who are dead before the story even starts.

One of the things I liked the most was the ending. We got enough resolved through the climax of the story that I felt satisfied. And some good falling action after the peak that I didn’t feel cheated of resolution. There were enough loose threads that I would be interested in seeing pursued if Long decided to write a sequel. I already have a few guesses over some things, and I would absolutely follow up with this story.

The writing is atmospheric and the story is action packed. And there's a lot to love about this story. Unfortunately it was just one of those that I couldn't seem to get into, DNF'd at around 35%. Still getting for our collection as I feel this story of adventure and survival will appeal to some of our readers even if it didn't appeal to me.

2.5 stars - I unfortunately did not enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I think the main problem would be the overall writing of the novel. I didn't feel as though there was much complexity to the characters in the novel. The ones that were good people were exceptionally good with not the slightest of evil within their heart. And the ones who were evil? Who were bad? They were absolutely bad and no sense of moral questioning. Like, there was really no blending between the two. Additionally, the word building was okay. It felt very easy to me - the people of the planet are good and the corporation that holds the races is bad. The relationships between characters felt equally flat. I just felt overall there wasn't really any complexity at all with anything in the book. It just felt very middle of the road for me. I was entertained in the middle of the novel when the race happened, but other than that it was okay. I think the concept was really interesting and I would be interested to see what Meg Long comes out with next.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Publishing for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, let’s talk about how BEAUTIFUL that cover is. Seriously, have you seen one more elegant but intriguing? I can’t wait to see it on shelves JANUARY 11, 2022.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a survival story. The main character, Sena is still trying to cope with the loss of her mothers (yeah, motherS!!!!!) and trying to leave the frozen Edge World.

Even though this book is a fight-for-your-life tale, the wholesome found family trope is ever present. When I got to parts that were slow and/or repetitive, it was Sena and her wolf’s relationship that propelled me forward. I wish I had been interested in the actual plot while reading, but instead I would have been content with the book being just about Sena and her wolf loving each other.

TW: violence, references to murder, death (both animal and human)

Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the arc!

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves was a great story to dive into. Sena is 17 years old and a bad ass. She lives on an ice planet called Tundar. The planet is known for their deadly race that happens once a year and the amount of money that could be made by the end of it. After Sena angers the local gangster Kalba, she flees with his prize fighting wolf Iska and the rest is a rollercoaster from there.

This book was very atmospheric and well written. I really enjoyed the details Meg Long put into the story. The writing was immersive and enjoyable. The characters were phenomenal but Iska definitely stole my heart.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time reading this book. The only thing I have negative to say is the details describing some of the animals deaths in here just didn’t set well with me but thats just a personal thing.

Book releases on January 11th so make sure to grab a copy!