“Nothing taken, nothing given.”
Every species on the frozen planet of Tundar is predatory. When everything has sharp teeth and sharper claws, the people have to be hard too. Including seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen.
Sena never loved Tundar–it’s not a planet that engenders love–but she loved her mothers and the home they made for her on the planet between Tundar’s infamous sled race seasons.
They both died in the last race. Sena has been struggling to pay her way off the planet and away from its painful memories ever since.
After angering a local gangster, Sena is out of time to earn her way off the planet. Instead she has to accept a dangerous bargain leading a team of scientists through Tundar’s sled race while trying to protect Iska, the prize fighting wolf she never wanted to let herself care about.
Haunted by memories and grief, predators, and her enemies, Sena will have to use all of her wits and her strength to survive the race and make it off Tundar with Iska in Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves (2022) by Meg Long.
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is Long’s debut novel.
Long blends fantasy with survivalist adventure in this action packed novel. Long takes her time building up the world with rich details and a varied cast of characters. Sena’s first person story starts slow, carefully building out Tundar’s harsh realities before drawing readers into the novel’s plot.
Sena’s slow work to process her grief over her mothers’ deaths and reluctantly form new connections with both people and her wolf Iska play out against the Tundar sled race where the stakes for Sena and Iska are literally life or death. Readers should also be wary of casual violence throughout the story and frostbite induced injuries in the final act.
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is an engrossing adventure which hints at many more stories to be told in this world.
Possible Pairings: Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo, All Systems Red by Martha Wells, Fable by Adrienne Young
*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*
Miss Print 