This novel is a sequel to Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, and it picks up where that volume leaves off. However, where the first novel was primarily about Sena, this one is about Remy; Sena is still present, but as a minor character, and her wolf, Iska, plays a larger role in the story than she does. That disappointed me; I enjoyed Sena, and would have liked to have seen the hints in this volume about her mother's origins given more detail.

In Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame, Remy, with Sena along as a friend, return to the last world Remy was on: Maraas, a world with an ongoing storm which rotates around the planet on a regular, predictable basis - but the storm is changing, and Nova, the organization behind it, doesn't care about the impact of that change on the people of Maraas. Remy sets out to find her friend Alora, and in the process, to stop Nova from destroying the planet before she can save her friend. A nice science fiction adventure, although a little slow to get started.

Thank you Wednesday Books for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

4.5 stars

CWs: death, blood, injury detail, torture (historical, off-page, mentioned and referenced in minor detail), explosions

This is a companion/sequel to Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves, but it’s told from the POV of Remy instead of Sena. I wouldn’t say it’s 100% necessary to read CTNFTW before reading this one, but there are quite a lot of references to things that happen in that one so for a better understanding of the story and the friendship between Remy and Sena, I’d recommend reading that one first.

This book picked up right in the middle of the action with Remy, Sena, and Iska trying to navigate through a hell storm and land safely on the planet of Maraas. Of course things don’t go according to plan, and the trio learn that the 2 years since Remy had been there have seen a lot of changes. TerraCo is in charge with a woman named Weiland and her top henchman Taggert playing the roles of the main villains in the book. Remy is searching for her old friend Alora, and she’s a determined to hunt down her ex-partner, Kiran, to do so.
I loved Remy’s character. She was really well-developed, and her emotions came across really well. The genetic modifications made for interesting abilities, and I thought the various scents in particular were well described. Remy really goes through a lot of different emotions throughout the book, and I really liked her growth as she learned more about herself and who she really was. I also liked her changing and developing relationships with the people around her. Her history with Kiran was intriguing, and I really liked the two of them.
The plot was really well paced and developed. It took me a few days to get really into the story, but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down. Some chapters moved faster than others, and the ones with action and excitement were easier to get lost in. Overall, the pacing of the story was good, and the writing style was easy to follow and fall into. I’m really hoping for another book because the ending leaves many unanswered questions about the corpos and the characters talk about the future and continuing to fight.
I connected with the characters so much, and there were so many times where the book had me gasping and on the verge of tears. Especially where Iska was concerned because I love that wolf and I loved her in the first book. There were also many moments of friendship and hope, and I liked the way the author handled Remy’s character as a narrator.
The setting of the story was really intriguing. Much of it takes place in the jungle, and the planet was so different from Tundar (the setting of the first book). I liked learning more about this world and seeing a new setting. The author’s descriptions were vivid and I could absolutely picture everything in my mind.
If you’re looking for a story with an adventure, fighting against corporations, rebellion, learning about yourself, all the feels, a wolf companion, and lots of explosions then check out this one!

Still not sure if this is a series and therefore a sequel or if this book just counts as some kind of companion novel to Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, but anyway.

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is the fast-paced, compelling second novel in Meg Long's dystopian sci-fi world. I think this book suffered a tiny bit from second book syndrome. It's so intriguing and so much fun but the characters had just a little LESS about them than the ones in the first book. I couldn't connect with them in the same way. I loved Remy previously but slightly less in her own book. I did love, though, the action and fast pacing of the novel and Remy's tragic backstory.

I hope the author continues building this world; I am excited about the prospect of other characters receiving their own books!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

A lot of telling and not enough showing.
Reading this, I didn't enjoy the character's voice for the story. Felt far too simplistic for someone I would consider to be genuine. This world is trying to portray so much backstory that would work in a more robust writing style and built world.

The idea was fantastic & fun, but the result, aka this book, wasn't it for me.
Shoutout for the incredible cover, though!

NOTE: I didn't realize this was a sequel, so I had to wait for my library hold of book 1, hence why it took a WHILE to review this book.

<b>The sequel to Long's young adult fantasy/science fiction debut <i>Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves</i> takes Remy and Sena to a storm-wracked planet where they search for allies and fight against the corrupt, greedy establishment that has risen to power.</b>

Meg Long's first novel was <i>Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves,</i> a science fiction novel about Sena, a tough young female protagonist on a bitterly cold and unforgiving planet, and her desperate journey across the ice along with Iska, her formerly feral wolf, and a ragtag group of makeshift allies. The setting was powerful enough to feel like its own character, and I was immersed in Sena's story.

This sequel, <i>Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame,</i> is told from the point of view of one of Sena's loyal friends from book one, the genetically modified fighter with heightened senses and abilities, Remy. Along with Sena and Iska, Remy crashes on her own home planet--and the group immediately finds itself under attack.

Years earlier, Remy failed to protect her young charge, and now she's determined to locate the grown-up young woman and secure her safety. But Remy's former partner Kiran, genetically engineered like Remy, betrayed Remy and threw her to the enemy when she last saw him. She's also on the hunt for him--and when she finds him, she's going to make him pay.

<a href="https://www.bossybookworm.com/post/review-of-cold-the-night-fast-the-wolves-by-meg-long/"><i>Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves</a></i></b> offered high-stakes action, intrigue, shifting alliances, a powerful emotional arc, and more in a brutally cold, vividly described landscape.

I didn't feel the same connection to the characters in <i>Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame.</i> The prospect of creating a powerful emotional arc for a brainwashed and artificially engineered Remy is inherently challenging, and I never felt invested in Remy or her concerns the way I did with Sena's desperate search for answers and an escape in book one. The storm-wracked, hot, jungle-filled planet of this book didn't feel as vividly wrought as the unforgivingly cruel ice of the first book, and I found myself missing the richness of that earlier world.

Much of the page time is spent on considering potential alliances, recounting past political and military motivations and moves, considering shifts in loyalty that may have occurred since Remy was last here, and explaining past events. All of this dramatically slowed the pacing of the story. One important plot point related to a key character revolves around a twist that feels unbelievable: a conveniently overlooked set of clues that is right under Remy's nose. And the interruptions that prevent Kiran from speaking about important context felt unlikely and eventually somewhat irritating in their frequency.

The book ends with indications that the fight for justice and the push to right wrongs is far from over, seemingly laying groundwork for a third book.

I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley.

LOVED! I truly enjoyed this story. It starts a bit after the first book. From the POV of Remmy, the genopath that helped Sena and Iska in the first book. A jungle world with a permanent hellstorm. Remmy and Sena one agian face of against the evil corpos. A very exciting book. I guessed the ending, but it was a hell of a ride to get to it.
Love it! I can't wait for more

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the first book, Cold the Night, Fast The Wolves, so I was looking forward to this one. Just like in the previous book, the setting and worldbuilding was the strongest part of this novel for me. Instead of being set on a snowy ice planet, this was set in a rainforest-like jungle. I was also happy to see LGBT representation in this book, which I wish we had more of in the first book. However, for me, the first book was much stronger; I connected with the first book's protagonist much more than Remy, and the writing was ultimately stronger in Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. However, I will be looking out for Meg Long's next book - she is one to watch!

**3.5 Stars**
While this is narrated by a different main character with a totally different mission/activity, I do recommend that you read the books in order so all the backstory makes sense. That being said, this could probably be a standalone since there is enough recap to fill in most of the blanks and the plot is completely separate.

Overall this was a nice opportunity to reconnect with characters that I loved from the first book, but I did not enjoy this one as much. The book focused on lots of action related things with a revolution on a repressed jungle planet, but for some reason the pacing of the plot was slower. While the first book took place during a dangerous sledding race on an ice planet, I was totally engaged and so into the book. It seemed like Swift the Storm was more reflective, with the main character getting lost in her own feelings and memories then the non-stop action I was hoping for. There were so many times I wanted to shout at the main character Remy for her actions/beliefs, she was pretty oblivious for a genetically created perfect person.

If you like angst, self reflection and tough truths then this is going to be a great pick for you. I will say the ending set up a third book perfectly and I will definitely be here for whatever wild ride is in store for that.

Like Long’s previous novel, the world building here is excellent. You can really feel immersed in the world and it feels so imaginative yet accessible in a way, which is a hard balance to strike.

However, much like the previous novel, I really struggled to connect with the characters to keep me engaged in the plot all the way through. The middle to last 20% also felt like a lull that could have been tighter. Lastly, I think this needed better marketing as a sequel in a series because it’s not clear on the title, synopsis or anything else how heavily Long’s last book weighs and ties into this one.

Info-dumping at its worse. My god the entire first part of this story was massive dumps of information. I hate it when authors do this because it takes you out of the story and just gives you information all at once and guess what. Once I get past those pages I won't remember anything. I wish authors would weave information through out the entire story. It give us the same information but in a way I will be able to remember it.

The characters in this one were kind of meh and the pacing of course was off with all the information that gets dumped on the reader.

This was one of my most anticipated new releases. I LOVED Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. I don't know if I thought it was possible for Meg Long to out do herself but BOY, DID SHE!!!

We carry on with Sena, Iska and Remy after the escape Tundar. The book starts with them basically crashing on Marass, a planet that couldn't be much more different than Tundar. It's jungly, hot, humid, etc. and suffers from frequent destructive storms.

Remy has a plan to find her ex-partner Kiran and find out what happened to her friend Alora. The plan does not go well. They are intercepted by henchmen of Weiland, the current "top" person on Marass. She manages to convince her she's supposed to be there and they are released but still have to escape Taggert, the lead henchman. Once that's done it doesn't take long to find Kiran, who she doesn't trust after he abandoned her in the jungle on their last assignment, as Kiran is a fellow genopath. He promises to tell Remy where Alora is in exchange for her help with a coo against Weiland. Chaos ensues repeatedly.

I was on the edge of my seat, fully invested in this book the whole time and fully intend to re-read multiple times. I really hope the author continues with these characters.

Thank you to the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

To start, SWIFT THE STORM, FIERCE THE FLAME is Meg Long's second book. While the two books are related you don't need to read her first book, COLD THE NIGHT, FAST THE WOLVES, to understand what is going on in this one. I would, however, recommend reading it just because it's really good.

I love the chosen family aspect of the story. It's one of my favorite tropes in books and I think Meg Long did it so incredibly well. Another thing I enjoy is how Long is able to paint me a world I can easily picture and feel through her words without bogging down the story. I feel like it's such a delicate balance between enough detail and too much but this was great.

This was a really fun story packed with adventure and good times. In her goodreads bio it says Meg originally wanted to be a spy and I think that really comes through in this book in the best way. If you're ready for an adventure this book may be exactly what you need.

Ebook received for free through NetGalley

I absolutely loved the previous book in the series and this book didn't let me down! It was just as good. Awesome conclusion with just enough open for the hope of another book. Incredible

While I loved the first book, I felt like I loved this book more. Remy is just awesome! Remy, Senna, and Iska crash land on Maraas and literally just start creating chaos everywhere they go. And it's all Remy's doing! She's brilliant and has a way of thinking her way out of any situation. And then we have the enigma that is Kieran... Remy hates him for betraying her and making her lose her friend, but is he really the bad guy? Me thinks not.

In this sequel to Fast the Wolves, Cold the Night, we get Remy's story. Remy is Sena's friend who helps her rescue Iska, her wolf, and escape Tundar. Sena supports Remy's need to go back to Maraas to find her friend and to face her past. Kiran, her partner, as set by the company that did their genetic mutations appears when she least wants to deal with him and helps her understand a lot of things both past and present. It was a good read but Fast the Wolves, Cold the Night was better in my opinion.

Thank you to Meg, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for an advance copy of Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame.

This is the second book in the Edge Worlds series by Meg Long. Though Swift the Storm is a direct sequel, I feel as though it could be read as a standalone as well.

Remy, a genetically engineered corporate pawn, has been searching for her friend for years, the only friend she’s ever had who she couldn’t save…the friend who taught her to feel beyond what the corpos told her she should feel. Her search across worlds is how she wound up on Tundar in the great race where she met Sena and her wolf Iska. Now, Sena has joined her in her search - a personal payback to Remy for helping save her life.

She has tracked her only lead, ex-partner Kiran, to Maraas - another dangerous outlying planet and one that holds awful memories for Remy. But upon the return to Maraas, Remy realizes that things have changed for the worse. It seems as though everyone is trying to overthrow the tyrant corpo director, the storms that ravage the planet are getting stronger, and Remy doesn’t know if she can trust Kiran even though he seems to have changed. While trying to find her friend, Remy will have to join a revolution to help save the planet, and hope that it is not all in vain.

I had an ARC of book one, Cold the Night Fast the Wolves, it was my first read of 2022 and made my top 10 at the end of the year so I definitely had high hopes going into this one (and I was SO stoked to have received another ARC!). One of the big things I wanted was a more in-depth look at the world that Meg has created. Of course with that comes a little lag in the action. Typical second book slowdowns which I did expect. That means it is important to go into this book knowing you might hit some lags where your brain is wandering a bit or you’re thinking okay come on let’s do something. BUT the world building is so interesting and vital to the story as well so I did still tear through this book.

Remy, like Sena, is a strong female character with a chip on her shoulder. She’s likable and relatable in the way that she doesn’t seem to know how strong, how nice, and how valuable she really is as a friend. And ISKA!!! So happy we got more of her, though I always get so worried when there is a beloved pet companion in a book… and of course, happy that Sena made the journey to this planet with us because I was not ready to say goodbye to her. Kiran was fun, kind of a morally grey trickster, but with less seriousness of the typical morally grey characters.

It was also fun going to a total opposite planet this time. We’re out of the blistering cold and into the sweltering jungle - but with just as many threats. I’m curious where we’ll go next, as I’m assuming it will continue to be a harsh environment…maybe a water world?

3.5 stars

This is the sequel to Cold the night, Fast the wolves though it doesn't focus on those characters but switches over to another, Remy.

I struggled with this one quite a bit. It was repetitive and I felt no connection to Remy in her end goal. She is hyperfocused on finding out what happened to her friend and saving her but you really couldn't tell if it was a familial feeling or romantic for a while there. Since she was her main focus, her bragging about her enhancements fell short with what she was actually doing.

The world itself was intriguing but not enough to keep me from putting this down every couple days to find something else to read.

*I received an e-arc via Netgalley from the publisher. Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books. All thoughts are my own*

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is the sophomore follow up to Meg Long’s Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. It is set in the same world, but on an entirely different planet. This one can be read on its own, but I highly recommend reading the first book so that you can understand the adventures that Remy has been through as this book takes place immediately afterwards. You also learn more about some of the side characters by reading the first book. I really enjoyed the world building and the fast pace of this one!

Remy Castell has been searching for her friend Alora after a mission went awry two years ago. This friend helped Remy to overcome the brainwashing she was subjected to as a genetically engineered corporate agent.

Since then, she has been following her only lead, Kiran Lore, who also happens to be her ex-partner who left her for dead when she compromised that mission. She nearly caught up to him on the planet Tundar, where she wound up meeting Sena and her wolf friend Iska. The three of them have tracked Kiran back to Maraas, the jungle planet where Remy lost everything. Nothing on Maraas is the same as it was two years ago, and Remy finds herself being asked to join a revolution. How far will she go to save her friend?

This was a roller coaster adventure that Remy takes us on! I really enjoyed learning about her past, and the planet that she once called home. I was very glad to see Sena and Iska again and have them be a part of this adventure as well. I found myself trying to figure out pieces of the plot, and actually found myself being right! I felt like I had a lot of questions still at the end of this one, and I really hope that there will be a book three.

If you read and enjoyed Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves or you like fantasy and sci-fi I recommend picking this book up!

In this exciting sequel to Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, orphaned Sena, red wolf Iska, and genetically engineered corporate agent Remy fight the corpos once more on jungle planet Maraas.

Remy was a genetically engineered agent brainwashed to do corporate Nova's will. On jungle planet Maraas, she befriended Alora, who helped her fight that brainwashing.

Events - and betrayal by fellow genopath and ex-partner Kiran - led to her failing Alora, whom she has been trying to locate ever since.

Sena and Iska have her back in a race against time. This episode ends on quite the cliffhanger, with hints of more thrills to come.

First, Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is a sequel / spin off of Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, and picks up where the previous book left off. I definitely recommend reading Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves first to get the full experience.

I really enjoyed the first book so do not want to give anything way but Swift the Storm focuses on a side character from the previous book. We also get the opportunity to explore a new planet which was probably my favorite part. The worlds in both books are really interesting.

I found Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame to be easy to read but really hard for me to get into personally. I am not sure what it was because I love the characters, the friendships that were built and the twists and turns.

If you were a fan of the first book, definitely check this one out. For me - I am going to give this one another chance on audio and see if that elevates my experience.

Still a 3.5 ish

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.