Would you fight to the end of the earth to keep a promise to your best friend?

Remy is determined to keep her promise to become a better person than the NOVA group made her to be. Throughout this story, we see Remy on her journey to find her best friend Alora after being separated two years ago. Will Remy join a resistance to help find her friend and to take down the person who separated them?
This is the fundamental premise of this book and I had such fun reading it. I didn't realize when I was reading this that it was a companion novel, but I think you can read this as a standalone and be fine. As a character-driven reader, I would say that the characters are not loveable but you do want to see what happens and they do keep you invested in the story. I felt like the plot of this story was much more the focus and I actually really enjoyed the way the plot of the story moved.
I am not someone who can do the whole movie in my head while reading but I do think that the description gave me enough information to be able to recall things that I have already seen to be able to help me see the setting and the action scenes.
I would say if you are looking for a fun sci-fi novel to pick up this year for anyone from the ages of 13+ this would be a great addition to their library.

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This picks up a few months after Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, with Remy as the main character. Sena and Iska are present throughout, but they are more side characters and their advendure on Tundar doesn't really play much of a part in this new adventure. I do recommend reading Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves first so you get and understanding of some of the references and backstory. I do feel you could read this as a standalone and not be terribly lost though. This is more like a companion novel in my opinion than a sequel.

In this installment, Remy shines as the main character as she tries to find a lost friend and her former partner who betrayed her. Sena and her wolf Iska are along for the ride, and the three of them find themselves on a rainy jungle like planet completely opposite of where they came from. Remy uses her genetic engineering to infiltrate and gather intel on the leadership that is now in place on Marass to help locate her ex-partner Kiran in order to reset mistakes of the past.

I really enjoyed this second installment! It was nice that it wasn't a traditional sequel and followed Remy instead of Sena, though Sena and Iska were still very present and involved in the storyline. It feels like we are going to get a third book, and I hope it follows the same format. I'm looking forward to seeing who the main character will be next. Remy is constantly fighting her genetic programming vs who she is as a person. She wants to do what is right and is constantly asking herself, "Am I like this because that is how I was made?" "Or am I my own person?" In the end she's a little of both. but she gets to choose what side she is on. I'd like to see a bit more character development from Remy when it comes to her emotions, but for most of the book I think she felt like she wasn't engineered to have them. She developed one friendship in her life and she felt if failed, and I hope we get to see her work on that more in the future.

This had great world building. Long does a great job describing the setting and the creative creatures she came up with. The pacing was a little slow for my taste but it does pick up in the second half as the revolution gets organized and starts to move forward. There is more action in the second half once we know all of the players and have the lay of the land.

I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with in the future!

Nice book. Liked it and yeah, I recommend it.Definitely a good fantasy book to read in the meantime but it was okay.

Now that Remy and Sena have escaped from Tundar, they are on the way to find Remy's friend, who went missing more than two years ago in an upheaval on Maraas. In order to do that, she needs to track down her ex-partner Kiran and hopefully find a lead back to her missing friend. And a little revenge for his betrayal wouldn't be remiss either.

However, what they find is a much more convoluted war between the Syndicates and the Scavvers, leading to a greater mission to save a planet on the brink of destruction. Remy knows she has to do something to help, and the two girls find themselves working reluctantly with Kiran and a group set on destroying the Corpos settlements and taking back the planet.

This next installment has plenty of action, along with a lot of introspection about what makes a friendship and how we treat people we want to keep around. Remy does a lot of thinking about how feelings work and how her actions affect the world around her and others. It was a little difficult for me to keep track of all the players and how the different factions interacted, but that didn't affect the enjoyment of the book for me.

Lots of sci-fi weapons, genetically altered creatures, and a variety of other details to work well as a space opera and also as a sci-fi adventure.

I received a DRC from the publisher via Netgalley.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was really hoping to like this one, but I had to force myself as each chapter passed to keep going. The story was fine and intriguing, but the writing style and description was not to my liking. I found it too descriptive to where it drove away from the plot, and felt like it could have been more flushed out before publishing.

I honestly feel so bad I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would.

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is the sequel to Meg Long’s debut novel Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. The story picks up right where the plot of the first book in the series left off so the reader is immediately thrown into the action and tension as Remy, Sena, and Iska land on a new, hostile planet. Here they encounter a new set of conflicts and obstacles as Remy is forced to confront her past life and decisions. The book had a number of surprises and I was easily pulled into the story just as I was for the first book.

The biggest surprise as I started this sequel was that the point of view changes from Sena, the protagonist of the last book, to Remy. It makes sense, given the plot focuses on Remy that the story would need to be told from her point of view in order to get the flashbacks that are essential to understanding the current events. But, I was disappointed as I enjoyed having Sena as a narrator in the last novel and I didn’t find Remy quite as engaging. I did enjoy many of the new characters and found the overall dynamics between the characters to be just as well developed as the first book.

What I loved most about this book is exploring more of the universe that helps inform the world we saw in the first book of the series. We’ve heard about other ‘gangs’ and the corporation run economies while on Sena’s world but now that we now get to experience first hand. The author did a great job adding depth and interest to this new world while making it relevant to the already established rules from Cold the Night.

I was so excited to share Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves with you all last year and when I was offered the opportunity to review the sequel, I could not wait to dive in. And I’m happy to report that this book did not disappoint, it keeps the high tension, high energy vibe of the first book. I was a bit disoriented by the change in narrator but it makes sense given the necessary background information needed for the story. But overall, I loved the story and I hope to see more from this series and author in the future.

5/5 stars
Recommended for people who like: scifi, fantasy, assassin MCs, healing stories, reluctant heroes, 'hates everyone but her' trope, strong friendships

This review has been posted to Goodreads and has been posted to my review blog as of 10/6 and to Instagram as of 10/7.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I enjoyed Cold the Night, but still gave it just 4 stars instead of 5 just because there were parts I thought dragged or fell flat. This book, however, definitely makes up for that. There's a lot of action in this book and a lot of character development (plus, I think the plot works better for those things in this one) that helps keep this book from having the same issues as the first one. Plus, Remy is the MC.

The entire book takes place on Maraas, which is pretty much the climatological opposite of Tundar in every way. Maraas is a jungle planet with a planet-sized storm that is growing ever larger and more dangerous with each passing day. The city is split into a couple of different areas, and we get to spend at least a little time in all of them. The first area we see is clearly the elite/government area since it's clean, well-serviced, and doesn't seem like it struggles with the storms. The second one is a more rundown area that's suffered from the recent unrest and has some rebuilding to do after the storms. Then there's the 'sprawl,' an area that exists partially in the jungle and is a mix of buildings and platforms that go from the ground into the trees and are connected by bridges. I really liked the imagery of this area the best since it speaks so much to a city in the trees and it's an interesting concept. The whole of the city is really struggling due to the power change since Remy had last been there, and not only is that evident in the syndicate-corpo unbalance, but it's also evident in how run down things are and how eager people are to jump into a fight against the corpos.

This hotbed of rebellion is naturally where Remy needs to be and also where she runs into Kiran, who's running his own kind of game, and it's where a lot of Remy's memories of her friend surface. Remy has a lot to deal with in this book, a lot of which center around what exactly happened two years ago and her feelings about the event. She feels quite guilty about not being there for her friend and being able to prevent what occurred, and that guilt drives who she wants to be. At the same time, she struggles with thinking things through to their conclusions and often winds up in situations that don't always end well, which feeds back into her guilt and her feelings of not being a good friend (to Sena or Alora). On the other hand, she's pretty furious at Kiran for his role in things and her anger at him does help drive her to make a distinction between who she was, who she can be, and who she wants to be.

I think Remy is a good friend to Sena and Iska, and I think she was a good friend to Alora. When she first met Alora, she was still fully under Nova's thumb and was being a 'good little genopath.' Meeting Alora woke her up and the two years since have involved her deconstructing the trauma of her past and trying to do better. This book is very much about Remy healing, and that's a process that's still ongoing during this book, so she does make mistakes, but the important thing is that she's able to acknowledge when it happens and identify potential areas of improvement.

Sena is (obviously) back in this book as well. She gets some more answers about her family and gets to flex some of her survival and fighting skills. It was good to see her around other people than the ones from Tundar, and I liked that she seemed to get along with some of the other rebels. I would've liked seeing more of her and Iska after the first third or so, but also understand that this is Remy's story and it couldn't've all happened with them together.

Kiran is an interesting character. Remy does not have a good view on him and pretty much always assumes he's being manipulative and double-crossing, and when we meet him it does seem that way (especially knowing why things ended badly for Remy on Maraas). At the same time though, as a reader who can read the narrative and not just Remy's thoughts, Kiran does seem to be helping the rebellion and he does seem to care about Remy. Their interactions and shared experiences were interesting to read about and I liked the dynamic that the two of them built up over the course of the book.

Lyria is another new character and is the leader of the rebellion on Maraas. She has her own reasons for hating the corpos, separate from the ones already established by Sena and Remy. The girl clearly knows her stuff and is good at getting people to organize under a common cause. She inserts a good amount of playfulness to things while still managing to come across as serious when she needs to.

The ending of this book definitely leaves things open for another sequel, which I'm so hoping will happen. While things are wrapped up on Maraas, much like how the story on Tundar was wrapped up in one book, there's a greater potential for the characters, both returning ones like Remy and Sena, as well as new ones like Kiran and Lyria. TerraCorp and Nova are both returning players in this one, both with their own nasty agenda, so I'm curious to see what'll happen if there's another book and where their plans will take the world and the characters.

One thing I will say is that I guessed pretty much all of the major 'twists' pretty much as soon as they were introduced. There's two character ones that I pegged from the beginning, and then there's a plot-related one that I had a guess about that turned out to be correct. For me it didn't take away from the reading experience, though there were moments when I was like ?? really Remy???

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. There's a lot of action going on and we get introduced to some new characters while still following Remy, Sena, and Iska. I really liked being in Remy's head while she went on her journey of healing from Nova's trauma. It is a bit predictable, but that didn't take away from the enjoyment for me.

After a mission that went awry two years ago, Remy is hellbent to find her missing friend. She sets out on a mission with a group all the while the worlds on the brink of destruction.

I sadly couldn’t get into this book. It took me a while. I stepped back, came back, stepped back again and then forced myself to finish. The best parts didn’t happen till the second half. I also felt a disconnect to the characters, which is probably while I struggled.

Just like the authors first book, this book revolves around more of world building.. which I love how in-depth she goes to bring it to life and makes the story as a whole much more explained without losing track. (less)

I was introduced to Meg Long's descriptive prose in the stunning Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves. The world building is outstanding and the story line mesmerizing. I'm happy to say she's taken that world to new heights in Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame. Remy Castell, a support character in the previous book, takes center stage in this book as she's on a mission to find the friend she was forced to leave behind - the friend who helped her recover from the brainwashing she was forced into as a genetically engineered corporate agent. Remy was betrayed by her genopath partner Kiran Lore and left for dead. Now it seems she must seek out his help if there's any hope of finding her friend and saving a planet even though it means returning to the jungle planet of Marass that is plagued by a hellstorm that's growing larger by the day. Danger lurks everywhere . . . perhaps most in the man whose help she seeks. He portrayed her once . . . can she trust him now?

The highly atmospheric setting in Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame steals the show at every turn. Long's world building stretches the imagination and yet is unbelievably realistic. It's all-consuming in every way - tantalizing all five senses to the point that readers are drawn into the battles taking place. The plot line and characters are larger than life and yet somehow feel so authentic that you believe every word you're reading. I love the inclusion of characters from the previous book, especially Sena and her vonenewolf Iska with whom this whole thing started. The author has expanded the world and broadened the reach of characters while blending the past with the present. The pace is insane in this action packed story and so intense that I found myself holding my breath at times.

Meg Long has rendered another fantastic otherworldly story in Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame and reeled me into it. While young adult fantasy isn't my go-to genre, I found myself trapped alongside these characters, battling my way through to the final page. Long's expertise at building vivid, larger than life worlds is nothing short of brilliant as is her talent for delivering fascinating, complex characters readers pull for. Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is an intense, vivid, gritty story I highly recommend to fans of fantasy and sci-fi.

4.25 stars.

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is just as exhilarating as its predecessor, Meg Long’s debut young adult fantasy, Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. Smart, with intricate plotting, Swift the Storm is a fascinating story with characters who reflect the well-developed world Long has created.

In Cold the Night, we met Sena on the unforgiving frozen planet of Tundar as she fought to stay alive and escape the planet with some help from the friends she made along the way. One of those friends was Remy. In Swift the Storm, we pick up almost where Cold the Night left off, but with Remy’s point of view and her story as she searches for a lost friend, following the only lead she has—ex-squadmate Kiran—through the jungles and storms on planet Maraas.

Swift the Storm gave me Lunar Chronicles vibes as Remy is genetically engineered, which reminded me of Cinder. Long does a great job of creating flawed characters who learn from their mistakes, and it’s always rewarding to take the journey along with them as they recognize and adapt to those flaws.

It had been a year since I read Cold the Night, and I’d forgotten much of what happened. I refreshed myself on a few characters, but it wasn’t really necessary. Everything you need to know for Swift the Storm is within its pages. BUT I still recommend reading Cold the Night simply because it’s good!

Sena and her wolf Iska from Cold the Night are present throughout the story, so that’s fun, as well. But we are introduced to some great new characters, too, which I look forward to getting to know better in the next book. And there HAS to be a next book because Long left us on a bit of a cliffhanger. I’m hoping the next book will share both Sena’s and Remy’s points of view, as both of their stories seem unfinished.

While Cold the Night had no romance or love interest—or none that was obvious—Swift the Storm does. It’s not a huge part of the story until the end, but as a fan of romance, I was loving the inclusion. And rooting for them, as well.

Pick this one up if you’re a fan of strong female characters as they fight against insurmountable odds alongside a group of dedicated friends who dare to find their footing in an unstable world among natural and human challenges! And a little bit of romance sprinkled in, of course.

Meg Long's newest work was delightful to read. Great world building, fast paced plot, great narrations by the main character, Remy, and just overall fun. Meg Long's writing style is enjoyable. The characters are relatable and believable. Often with sci-fi/fantasy novels, it can take a bit to get into the story, but from the moment I started chapter one, I couldn't put this book down.

Fans of sci-fi, a great story, fast paced plot, and good writing will enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday books for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Literally all the stars. So good, easily going to be one of my favorite reads of 2023. I loved Meg Long's debut, and this companion/sequel was SO DAMN GOOD. I'm such a sucker for SF dystopian books, and this one just hit all the marks and I need more. I really hope there is another book (or books) because these characters and this world is so amazing and I need more.

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame, is author Meg Long's sequel to Cold Night, Fast Wolves. Genetically engineered from animal and human parts by Nova Corp., Remy Castell looks human, but her body can heal quickly, and she has better reflexes and strength than others. Remy was trained to be a corporate spy. She's an expert at infiltration, sensing people's emotions, physical reactions, and body language. But then a mission that had her infiltrate a syndicate gang ended with Remy becoming true friends with her mark, Sena Korhosen and her vonenewolf Iska, and everything changed.

Two years ago, Remy's genopath partner, Kiran Lore, discovered Remy's intentions to stop their mission. He left her for dead in the jungles of Maraas and disappeared with the girl Remy promised to save. Two years later, Remy is still chasing Kiran across worlds, trying to find her lost friend, Alora. After nearly catching him on Tundar before the infamous sled race, Remy follows Kiran back to the same jungle planet of Maraas where everything started. Maraas is a lush, jungle planet plagued by one ginormous hellstorm which resets the landscape every two weeks and Nova and Terraco are at war with the syndicates.

Nothing on Maraas is how it was two years ago. A megolamaniac corpo director, Weiland, now has an iron grip on the world after overthrowing Dekkard. The whole city is struggling due to the syndicate-corpo unbalance. People are eager to jump into a fight against the corpos. It's a time bomb that Remy wants nothing to do with. When Remy finally finds Kiran in the midst of the chaos, instead of running again, he offers her a deal: help with the revolution and in exchange, he'll tell her exactly where her lost friend is. But how can Remy trust a boy that betrayed her once before?

Kiran seems to be working alongside Lyria, the leader of the rebellion on Maraas against Director Weiland. She has her own reasons for hating the corpos. With the giant hellstorm that encircles the planet growing stronger by the minute and entire planet on the edge of all-out war, Remy will have to decide just how far she's willing to go to save one girl before the impending storm drowns them all. There is a cleverly revealed surprise in store for readers, as well as an emotional one as well. So, be prepared for anything and everything to happen.

Sena is (obviously) back in this book as well. Sena now has a major bounty on her head for taking down a syndicate Boss who killed her mothers. She gets some more answers about her family and gets to flex some of her survival and fighting skills. Kiran is an interesting character. Kiran seems to be helping the rebellion and he does seem to care about Remy as they both survived numerous attempts at being brainwashed by Nova. Their interactions and shared experiences culminate in a shocking cliffhanger ending which is why I say to you, neither this book, or the first book, are standalone.

I really enjoyed Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, so I was beyond excited to receive an ARC of Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame.

As it was with Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame had immersive world building that pushed beyond what we first saw in Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. It was atmospheric and entrancing. Meg Long has built such an intricate and cruel world, and I would love to read anything else she write solely for the world building.

I was hesitant when I saw that this was Remy’s story, as I hadn’t connected well with Remy in Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. But I really enjoyed Remy as a narrator. She had a fun sense of humor that had me cackling multiple times.

As with Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, I did struggle with the pacing of this book a bit. But overall it was a fantastic follow up.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the ARC

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame was a fast past, adventure romp with a lot of heart. It is technically a companion novel to Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves but I think readers will get more out of it if they read Cold the Night before Swift the Storm. I know that it had been a bit since I had read Cold the Night and it took me a while to remember everything I knew about Remy.

While I didn't like Swift the Storm as much as I loved Cold the Night, I still highly recommend this second novel by Meg Long. A lot of the same elements that made me fall in love with Cold the Night are done just as well in Swift the Storm. Long's world building and her ability to make you feel like you are there is amazing. I live in a very humid climate and reading about Maraas almost have me sweating. It's also refreshing to read YA that doesn't have romance as one of the main arcs. While there is a bit more romance in Swift the Storm than there was in Cold the Night, the focus is still on friendships and found family.

If you're looking for an enjoyable adventure novel, this should hit all the right notes.

I was super excited to see the next installment of Sena & Iska's adventure. This time, Meg Long has us following Remy across the planet of Marras in search of her first real friend and on a mission of revenge against her ex-partner from NOVA. While the shift from Sena's perspective took me a few chapters to get over (because I just LOVED Sena), Remy had a very specific voice. She was impulsive most of the novel, which was in-line with her genes and yet, emotional, which was not. Her erratic behavior, her lack of of forethought, and her single-minded drive was the driving factor behind the story. Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is another novel in this series about found family; but it is also about rediscovery, self-awareness, and the weight of promises both to those we love and to ourselves. I am looking forward to the next adventure this growing band of misfits will be embarking on next!

While packed with action, it is not a harrowing adventure like Cold the Night. I deeply missed the bond between Sena and Iska, who are still along for the ride. However, Remy is just as compelling a character. Her loyalty runs deep and she is impulsive. More importantly, I was not as aggrieved by her decisions like I was with Sena's decisions in the first book. (Heh...)

Fierce the Storm further expands the plot as political intrigue and revolution serve as the backdrop to finding Remy's friend. It helped me make connections, forcing me to look beyond each book's plot to see a bigger picture. It was an exciting read, and I am more than ready for the next book.

Meg Long does it again! Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame is a fantastic novel on par with its predecessor. The story is thrilling and the relationships between the characters are genuine and dynamic. While not exactly a coming of age story we do experience the realization and understanding of the protagonist’s self and feelings. I can’t wait for the next installment!

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame has excellent world building and a compelling writing style that hooks you from the get-go. Although it had a dynamic plot, I didn’t connect with Remy and the rest of the characters as much as in the previous novel. I did find many things to like and am anxious to see what else Meg Long puts out in the future.

So to start this review I think I need to mention that I didn’t read the first book in this series since I didn’t have knowledge of the series before Negalley provided me with this ARC and that directly influenced how I felt about this book. Specifically, I struggled to connect with the characters that readers that read the first book will have built up a relationship with. However, despite not feeling an overly strong connection to the characters I thought the world building for this story was very well done. This book is a YA sci-fi novel that takes place in a lush and humid jungle where you are constantly covered in mud and sweat, juxtaposed against genetically altered humans, metal structures, interplanetary gangs and evil Corpos. Remy, Sena, and Iska (a larger than normal wolf)crash land on a Corpo controlled jungle planet in the hopes that Remy can find her lost friend and they end up helping the Syndicates, essentially the space equivalent to the Mob, with their rebellion against the Corpos. The story started off a bit slow for me but, as it progresses the pacing picks up as the main action segments begin and I found those to be really fun to read. Remy was not my favorite main character and I think that partially stems from her being a genetically altered human specifically made for gathering intel which made her pretty terrible at interacting with other people on a more basic human level. Despite that I did think that the female friendships were done really well. I loved the way that Remy eventually learned to rely on her friends and the other strong women around her, and I thought she had some decent character growth by the end of the novel. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that enjoys YA sci-fi with extra girlpower.