There weren't a lot of books that I read last year that I DEVOURED, but this was one of them. I am a sucker for animal companions, strong women, and survival and this was absolutely packed. I won't go too far into it so as not to spoil much of anything, but the setting is a freezing planet where our heroine is attempting to steal and scrape enough to get offworld and somewhere...better? Or at least somewhere she isn't haunted by the loss of her mothers and hated due to her mixed parentage.

This scrappy fighter has a chance encounter with a kindred spirit - an injured crossbred wolf used for fighting.

Did I cry? Yes. Are we shocked? No.

It's finally released and available for purchase. Though it does leave open for a companion novel it feels complete on its own as well.

What an amazing genre-bending adventure! I was swept away in the world and the mystery, rooting for Sena and Iska and the benevolent scientists in the midst of all the corporate takeover and ruthless racers. Also I absolutely love that there wasn't a central romance driving/derailing the story.

I read this ARC via Netgalley.

Ever since her mothers died in the race, Sena refuses to participate. Instead she makes a living stealing money, until she gets into trouble with the local crime boss Kalba, who convinces her to care for a fighting wolf. But Sena forms a bond with the creature Iska, named after her mother, and they escape. Agreeing to help some scientists complete the race through the planet's unforgiving terrain, Sena must push to the limit to make it to the end.

This wasn't what I expected from the title (that's me, any book with "wolf" in the title makes me want to read it) but it was an unexpected thrill ride in a world where dog sleds are pulled by massive wolves and danger lurks in alien-esque creatures, but more so in the other competitors. I lost Sena's main objectives a little bit as survival took over although she remained a strong-willed character. The mystery behind how her mothers died was a great layer to the drama. The worldbuilding felt a little like a Jack London novel set in deep space: same ruthless types of people, relationship with an animal, and essential tension between people who just want money and those who are more interested in nature/science, so it felt familiar and didn't overwhelm me. A tense and thrilling story that will appeal to more than just sci-fi fans.

What a cool world Meg Long has created in Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves! This action-packed YA fantasy had me shivering on the edge of my couch. It felt like a mash-up of The Call of the Wild, The Scorpio Races, and The Hunger Games with the unforgiving weather, a yearly race that defined the city, and monsters—human and otherwise—lurking in the dark, including an evil boss trying to control the outcome.

This tale is plentiful with characters, but I was never confused. Long has done a good job of fleshing them out and making them memorable. Like any good hero, Sena is far from perfect but the reader is invested in her outcome. Long does a good job of laying the ground work for the characters AND the world, giving the reader an adequate understanding as we jump right into the action.

At the heart of this story, and by far my favorite aspect of the book, is the relationship of Sena and her wolf Iska. Iska takes on an almost human role becoming one of the main characters, and I cared about her outcome as much as Sena’s. Much like the skittish wolf, Sena has her guard up, and watching these two break down each other’s walls was quite rewarding.

I was also a fan of the team aspect. I love a good book that involves a great cast of characters working toward a mutual goal and that’s what we have for part of this book. The ending did seem to wrap up quickly, but satisfactorily. And I’ll be very surprised if this one doesn’t become a series. Long left the ending fairly open with the possibility of future adventures and a few of the minor side stories have further potential, as well.

If you’re a fan of fantasy adventure stories set in impossible terrains, found families, and down-on-their-luck strong female characters facing impossible odds, then you should appreciate Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves!

Thank you to the publisher Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy.

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On a frozen planet, a girl and wolf are on the run from ice goblins, giant bears, and a ruthless leader intent on trapping them both. There are few hiding places and fewer resources. Where will they go?

Sena ekes a living stealing and playing messenger, as she refuses to work on the wolf sled teams after her mothers' deaths on one. She knows a lot about the world and how to survive in it, a legacy of one mother's life as a scavver, a descendant of the original terraformers. Newer corporate citizens hate them, and the newest, fanciest corporate citizens feel they're above all the others. It's a harsh world to live in, where storms, ice, cold and the natural predators of the world ravage those outside the narrow confines of the city. The city is loosely governed by corporations and crime syndicates, adding to the lawlessness and chaos of the place. We know from the beginning that a world like this won't let Sena get what she wants, which is the simple but expensive ticket off world.

Sena is fascinating, resisting how much everyone keeps pushing her into the narrow roles defined for those living on Tundar. She is stubborn but not mean, no matter what life has thrown at her. If anything, the wolf Iska is the same. I was drawn into her journey, from facing down the bosses and their goons to the team that Kassen built to race to the exocarbon site, to the wildlife of the planet, and even Iska herself. Without spoiling this very worthy read, I could guess where Sena had to go by the way the book was set up but still had to see how she got there. Sena and the other characters had incredible stories throughout the book, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

This fast-paced, action-packed book hit all the right spots for me. Girl on adventure? Check. Survival in icy tundra? Check. WOLVES? Check!! Sena faces obstacle after obstacle as she resists a legacy that seems to be her fate: racing in a deadly journey on an icy planet with wolf hybrids being used as sled dogs. Note that there is animal abuse, but it happens almost entirely off-page. Animals and humans also face danger and violence from nature and other animals.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a YA dystopian sci-fi about a 17-year old girl, Sena, who was orphaned at the age of 12 and living a hardscrabble existence on a planet short on resources and optimism.

Sena's home planet, Tundar, is known for a grueling and deadly race with the potential for a big payout, attracting the greedy and competitive from throughout the universe. Her mothers were killed in the race, and Sena spends her life avoiding everything related to the race while trying to earn enough money to leave the planet and her problems behind. Sena finds herself indebted to the local crime lord and tasked with healing an injured wolf, Iska, with whom a mutual attachment is formed. Sena is hired to help an outsider team of rookies prepare for the race, forming friendships for the first time in her life.

Sena learns lessons of loyalty, community, and friendship and finds a sense of family and belonging for the first time since her mothers' death as she teams up with the group of outsiders. The story is fast-paced, with the city initially preparing for the big race and influx of visitors, and then the race itself. This story will appeal to fans of Hunger Games. I hope this is a planned series because I need to know what happened to Temur and would love to see what happens in Sena's future adventures. I'm not always a dystopia fan, but I really enjoyed this book and thought the cover was beautiful.

Overall, this book had a strong storyline with drama and mystery blended with the overall science fiction theme. It started slowly and took a while to build the story. I would say that the action was much more noticeable in the second portion of the book.

The overall theme behind how Sena, our main character, finds family through many unlikely sources - - most surprisingly a wolf the she rescues. Having lived through the tremendous loss of her mothers both dying, Sena lives with a whole in her heart where the love of family should be. It's a loss she has continually struggled to overcome but it continues to haunt her.

In addition to the emotional element of the book, it is chock full of science fiction elements including monsters of several varieties - - which are always a sure way to keep a reader intrigued. All of this is added to the sled race that is at the heart of the story. The same sled race where Sena's mothers were killed years before. As if the race itself isn't difficult enough because of the environmental elements and the terrain, there are people striving to be sure they don't succeed. Overall, it's action packed in the later part of the book.

Thank you to NetGally for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Think Snow Dogs, but sci-fi.

I'd been looking forward to this for ages now, and oh boy did this NOT DISAPPOINT. I was a little "meh" going in, but so quickly my attitude changed and suddenly I was 50% in, enjoying myself fully and annoyed that I couldn't just inhale the rest of the book.
Having to get up early for work is such a buzzkill.
I loved this. Fantasy sci-fi is legit one of my favorite genres - they meld so wonderfully, and I was so invested, so hooked. I could easily read another book set in this world.
10/10 recommend. Pick this up if you want an enjoyably read that just completely captures you.

I’m a sucker for kid-and-their-dog books, and this is a high-stakes scifi version of that. It’s the perfect book for reading while snowed in and cuddling your own dog.

“No wolves. No sleds. No racing.” I say it automatically despite the lump in my throat.
“Foolish rule for life on a planet that revolves around those three things,” she quips.”


Tundar, an Edge World, that has near constant electrical storms and a frigid climate. Corpos – giant corporations – attempted to terraform the world once, but just made it worse, exacerbating the weather and making the wildlife even more deadly. Sena grew up a child of two worlds and none, the daughter of an ex-racer, who trained the genetically engineered vonenwolves for the famous Tundar race, and a scavver, who believes that the race, to mine a rare ingredient, is unethical. She grew up learning how to care for injured vonenwolves and the scavver ways of living with the planet. But after her mothers die in the race, Sena refuses to have anything to do with the race anymore. On a world that revolves around the race, that means she’s left with pickpocketing and not much else, and before long she’s in trouble with one of the crime bosses.

“They think they can just take a piece of Tundar without giving anything back. But that’s not how it works here. Nothing taken, nothing given.”


Sena is honestly half-feral herself. Traumatized and determined to be independent, even as a young teen, Sena’s cut herself off from anyone and anything that could get between her and somehow earning enough money to leave the planet. She’s impetuous, frequently acting or speaking before she thinks, which lands her into trouble about as often as you’d expect. Sena’s constantly leaping from one bad situation to another, and that’s what drives most of the book’s plot. And while she’s not afraid to fight for what she wants, she’s also got firm lines she won’t cross. Her scavver äma taught her to respect life, even that of vonenwolves, whom everyone else seems to view as expendable components. It’s that connection with the wolves that leads her to get involved with Iska, an injured fighting wolf that belongs to one of the crime bosses. Sena’s a loner, and the last thing she wants is a connection to anyone, including a wolf, but her continued survival on Tundar depends on joining a racing team, and Iska seems to have her own ideas.

“Sometimes you don’t get to pick your family. Sometimes, they show up and pick you and you have to embrace it. And that wolf picked you.”


The slow build of the relationship between Sena and Iska was one of my favorite parts of the book. Watching Sena slowly accept her trauma – and understand that accepting help from others isn’t a weakness – was the heart of the book. The world building was surprisingly interesting for something that’s, well, just a scifi version of Alaska. I mean, Tundar is, after all, just “tundra” with one letter switched, and a lot of the fauna Sena encounters have Earth analogs, like reindeer and polar bears. Vonenwolves, in fact, are hybrids of the native vonen mixed with Earth wolf and dog DNA. They’re genetically engineered to pull sleds and not much else. The secondary characters were also fun. Remy – and her sense of humor – and Pena were my favorites. Where the book faltered was in the pacing. Sena is constantly faced with the consequences of her impetuousness, hopping from one disaster to another, so it’s not like nothing is happening, but some of those threads and characters never felt fully developed. It takes about half of the book before we even get to the race, but wow, once that happens, the book really picks up. The author’s prose is evocative of the snowy wastelands Sena and her team have to cross, and it made me very happy to be huddled up under a blanket with a warm drink.

“We race the cold and night, my wolf and I.”


Overall, while it takes a while to get going, this book was full of action and heart, and I particularly loved the ending. I would happily read a sequel! This is a very promising debut and I’m excited to see what this author comes up with next.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Sena has to be on the run with her wolf Iska. To get off the planet this planet though she must race which she doesn't really want to do. It is very dangerous and it will take all they both have. Turn the pages on this icy one to see if their good is enough.

Unfortunately I struggled with this title and I will not be recommending it for purchase at my library. This novel has a very original and compelling premise and I was so interested in the idea of the race. I traditionally really enjoy books that focus on survival in harsh conditions, and I found the world building to be quite intriguing, especially the aspects of corporations controlling the world and the government, the genetic engineering of the vonenwolves, and the descriptions of the planets native flora and fauna. Unfortunately for me the issue came down to the writing. I found the prose to be quite stilted, repetitive, and slow. The pacing was glacial. Sometimes slow pacing can result in a richer understanding of the character and the world, but this was not the case for me. I felt that Sena was a rather flat character and I could not understand her motivation or actions much of the time. I felt that the characterization of side characters as well as the dialogue could have used more work. Overall I think the writing was the real issue for me. I was interested in the story, and maybe if things had moved more quickly, I would have enjoyed the experience more.

COLD THE NIGHT, FAST THE WOLVES is a riveting and slow-building YA fantasy adventure. On Tundar, an ice planet, the city of Ket is run by crime bosses and corporations (corpos) who use the outpost as a means to gather exocarbon, a highly valuable resource. As the mines are difficult to reach by ship and the terrain dangerous, the race was formed with great rewards and great risk. Racers travel on sleds with vonenwolves (genetically engineered dog/wolves) to reach the mines, but most do not make it back. Sena's mothers were two who joined the race for the monetary prizes to be able to move off-world, but they died and Sena was left alone.

Sena lives on the edge of society, pickpocketing where she can, hoping to fulfil her mothers' dream of getting off Tundar. Her heritage, being that one of her mothers was scavver, the people who live in the wilderness and spurn the corpos, has left her vilified by most, seen as less than. Although she wanted to be a Racer when she was little, after the loss of her mothers, she wants nothing to do with it. When she angers a crime boss, he asks her to make it up to him by healing his prized fighting wolf, Iska, using scavver ways. This sets off a chain of events that leads to her taking a desperate job with a professor, Kaassen, who has come to join the race with his team in order to study exocarbon - and eventually joining them for the race that threatens to take all their lives.

What I loved: The world-building here was really fascinating, with a corrupt society based on corporate greed and built around a dangerous annual race akin to the Iditarod, but with even more barriers and dangers. The beginning of the book builds slowly as we get to know Sena, the major players, and this world, but once the race really kicks off, the story picks up a lot with high-octane danger and action. There is a lot of suspense and lurking peril during the race, not only from the other racers, but also the dangerous terrain and wildlife. As things continuously get worse for the scientific team, the question of whether any of them would make it looms larger and becomes more and more uncertain.

The characters are quite compelling. Sena is a prickly one that takes a while to really understand but is definitely worth it as she slowly grows during the story and reevaluates her choices. The scientific team contains characters that become easy to love for their camaraderie, their hope, their passion, and kindness. When faced with many who treat her poorly for her heritage, their relationships are a breath of fresh air. Remy is a particular favorite, and her story is fleshed out later in the book, raising a lot of questions and building the broader universe in new ways. Iska really steals the book though. This fighting dog is something amazing and captures the relationship between Racer and animal in a really beautiful way. Iska is really central/critical to the story, and her bond with Sena is the propelling force and turning point of the story. Her personality also really shines through the story, making her a strong character.

The book also tackles some important and thought-provoking themes around corporate greed, climate change (some peril along the race is due to warming planet temperatures from corpo activity), found family, emotional healing, genetic modifications/engineering, prejudice, and animal/human bonds. These themes really propelled the book forward and made it very compelling. The ending also felt like it could lead into another book that I would be very interested to read.

Final verdict: An atmospheric YA fantasy adventure, COLD THE NIGHT, FAST THE WOLVES is full of action, danger, compelling characters, and fascinating themes that made this a riveting and suspenseful read. Highly recommend for fans of SPIN THE DAWN, CROWN OF OBLIVION, and THE BONE WITCH.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Spellbinding, mesmerizing, and absolutely captivating, COLD THE NIGHT, FAST THE WOLVES immerses the reader into a cutthroat adventure with fantastic world building and character development. This is a strong entry into the world.

I first want to thank the publisher for reaching out with an advanced copy for review. St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books is always consistently releasing high quality fantasy, and this is no exception.

From the very first pages, you can immediately gather that this will be a fast paced story. The writing enveloped you inside this bleak and grim environment that was so very interesting. I am loving how authors are blending the lines and pulling from multiple genres. This was fantasy but there were pieces of science fiction that kept me very invested in the plot, needing to know more about the world.

One of my favorite "tropes," if you could call it that, would be animal companions. I do reach out for books with an animal companion included because I love to read about the development between animal and characters and the bonds they have. When I learned that COLD THE NIGHT, FAST THE WOLVES had a wolf companion, I was excited. Wolf companions are definitely my favorite - and I recently finished a series with a wolf companion included so reading this book filled that void.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot because I think the exciting part is experiencing it without knowing to much. Besides knowing about the genre and animal companion, I will say that it felt a little like that childhood movie, Iron Will. Long will successfully take you on an emotional journey filled with high stakes of survival accompanied by lessons in learning to trust. I loved this book.

This really seemed like it would be up my alley, but I tried several times to get in to it and failed. The main character kept making such spectacularly illogical decisions that it was difficult to empathize with her. I love the cover, though, and I think this will have a readership at my library.

Thank you to the publisher, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Tundar is a frozen planet with hostile terrain and wildlife, and the only remotely interesting thing that happens is the annual, very dangerous sled race. Racers compete for the chance to mine a valuable mineral and get rich, but the trail is long and treacherous. After her mothers died in the race, Sena Kohorsen vowed she would never enter it and her only goal is to make enough money to get off Tundar. But when she gets into more trouble than she can handle with the local gangster and flees with his prize fighting wolf Iska, the race might be her only way out. In exchange for getting them to the finish line, a team of scientists offers her a way off the planet, and Sena, determined to do whatever it takes to leave, agrees, returning to the one place she promised never to go again.

This book started out rather slow, with what I felt was an unnecessarily long time spent on showing the reader the city and Sena’s situation. The setting of this book was an interesting one however, and I really enjoyed the world-building. The contrast and conflict between the rich corporations and the scavvers, people who prefer to live off the land, made for an intriguing backdrop. The race itself took quite a bit of time to start, but once it did, it was pretty much non-stop action. It was also refreshing to read a book with no romance after such a long time and just focus on the adventure. I liked the narration style and it worked very well for this type of story, showing rather than telling and allowing the reader to visualize everything that was going on. The combination of sci-fi and adventure/survival story was very well done, and with the cool advanced technology hinted at here, there is a lot of potential for this world to be expanded further.

Sena was a character who was rather frustrating to follow at the beginning when all she seems to be doing is making terrible and reckless decisions, but as she begins to get closer to the research team and build friendships with them, she became a much easier character to root for. Out in the frozen tundra, all the knowledge she has from her mother became excellent tools for survival and it was fun to watch her navigate the many challenges that the race trail posed. Her developing bond with the wolf Iska was one of my favourite parts of this book and it was so beautiful how they slowly grew to trust and protect each other no matter what.

While Sena became easier to like as the story progressed, I felt like she didn’t actually grow much as a character despite her long journey and building trust with Iska and new friendships. There were several side characters who seemed promising but they weren’t developed enough and ended up being rather two dimensional, making it hard to connect to them in any way. Apart from that I hope the pacing is improved in the final version and that the race is expanded to take up a little more of the story too.

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves was an easy read, fast-paced and exciting, and I’m glad I started my 2022 reading year with it. The ending, while a bit abrupt, wraps up things rather well, but it does leave room for a sequel which could be interesting if it explores the other planets. I would definitely recommend this for sci-fi fans.

17-year-old Sena has become a thief rather than participate in the long distance sled race that claimed the lives of her mothers. On Tundar, nearly everything revolves around the race - a scurry to mine for hydrocarbons before the world freezes over again. Forced to care for a wolf and desperate, Sena joins an academic team on their race across the ice. A lean, sharp story, as sparse as the tundra, Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves is an environmental fairy tale about found family, hope, desperation, and greed. Not particularly deep, and suffering a bit from a desire to show just how much Sena wants to stay away from the race, which leads to unfathomable choices and wasted time, it is still an interesting read with redeeming qualities. The perfunctory romance is not one of these, but the wolf antics and race history is.

this was a stunning debut with atmospheric writing on a frozen planet thats barely habitable with deadly animals out to get everyone in the harsh environment. with a deadly race throughout the frigid planet, our main's tragic backstory wanting nothing to do with the race as she lost her mother to it. unexpectedly had messages about societal systems, its hierarchy and corporate greed as the race is to get to a mine of valuable resources in order to build ships. the writing in getting the story moving was a slow a times with the race not being until much later but the the dystopian and sci-fi elements in this with syndicate crime groups and corrupt greedy companies along with climate and hybrid animals was what made this story strong. along with the found family tropes done and i adored the bond sena and iska formed as they got through things together.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4 STARS

Release Date: January 11, 2022
Page Count: 368 pages
Perfect for fans of: Balto, The Hunger Games, any kind of high stakes wilderness survival story
Representation: the parents of the main character are a sapphic couple, mentioned numerous times throughout the story with a few flashback scenes
Tropes: found family, high stakes survival, animal companion

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a magnificent debut. Set in front of the backdrop of an icy wild planet, it is a high stakes adventure story that grasps your attention and refuses to release it. While there were definitely some weak aspects of the book, I ultimately greatly enjoyed my time reading it, and I cannot recommend it enough!

I’m not going to lie, the reason I initially requested an ARC of this was because of the stunning cover, and when I actually got approved for it, I really had no idea what it was about. If I’m being honest, once I did find out what it was about I was left feeling a little disappointed. This book is not the type of fantasy I normally pick up, and if I didn’t have an ARC, I doubt I would have read this at all.

But I did end up reading it (obviously) and for the first 50% or so of the book my fears were confirmed. While I was enjoying Sena as a character and was curious about where the book was going, it was a slog to get through because there was no. plot. at. all. The synopsis of the book is incredibly misleading, because the race–probably the biggest draw to the book–doesn’t actually start until about 50% through. The first half of the book was very boring and felt like it was there to fluff up the book and fill pages with information that didn’t really add to the book in a meaningful way.

Unfortunately, I imagine many readers will have this problem when they pick up this book, and it may result in a few DNF’s, but I encourage them to just get through it because the second half is so worth it!

Halfway through the story the race finally begins, and the story finally picks up. I finished the last 50% in just two sittings, and after drawing my reading experience for the first half out for five days, I thought that was pretty remarkable.

Meg Long completely flips the story on its head, and I became so enraptured with the characters and plot, and maybe grew a little too attached to some of them…

The second half of the book was such a wild ride and it made the book so worthwhile, but because of the slow beginning and a writing style that wasn’t working for me, I cannot give this book higher than 4 stars.

To wrap up my thoughts, I think it would be a good idea to jot down some of my favorite parts of this book (and ones I thinks others might enjoy too).

- a feisty heroine with absolutely spectacular character development
- the most adorable wolf ever (but she’ll most definitely attack you if you’re not careful)
- a wolf x human relationship, where they will sacrifice themselves to save each other; this was definitely my favorite part of the entire book!
- found family relationships, with an especially touching female friendship
- a thrilling race with twists and turns (literally) that kept me on the edge of my seat

I hope this book sounds at least a little bit intriguing, and I hope some of you decide to pick it up! Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves deserves every bit of the love it has already received, and I imagine it will receive even more as more and more people discover and fall in love with this treacherous tale.

Special thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC to this book.

I loved the idea of this book more than the execution. What I did love was the bond between Sena and Iska.....and the idea that Iska had a voice and a sense of humor (according to Sena). I also love, love, loved the world building, but gosh the story was sloooow to get moving. I think the second half of the book was where the book really got moving.

I love wolves, however, there are other books that are about wolves right now that are better but for this being a debut author, bravo. Sadly, because I ALMOST put it down, but didnt. Oh one more thing that annoyed me, as talented as Sena was, she ALWAYS made the worst decisions! Maddening.

3 stars!