Brenna Dillon &
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long

Balto in Space! A found-family adventure on a treacherous ice planet, where the stakes are high and anything on this planet could kill you. Sena’s tendency to blame herself for everything (even things far behind her control) resonated so much. No romance, just friendship with her wolf and her team of scientist friends.

CW: violence, classism & in-world racism, injury (people and animals) including frostbite

This would be a great read for younger YA fans or even those who prefer no romantic subplots. If you hold any love for Balto, Snow Dogs, the Iditarod, or even Call of the Wild—this would be up your alley. But even more than that, this book has a sci-fi setting and touches upon societal issues such as corporatism and socioeconomic struggles. It features strong animal companionship, as well as a found family. My biggest caveat is that the pacing of this overall was fairly slow—and I felt as though the story was still struggling to find its footing until about halfway in, when the race finally started. After that, everything seemed rushed, and it was difficult to keep up with what was going on and who was who. I think if this had more consistent pacing throughout, it wouldn’t have felt like such a bumpy ride at times. Other than that—I really wanted to learn more about the world and the powers beyond the planet. I had so many questions and interest, but much of it felt unanswered.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own. Book: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves Author: Meg Long Book Series: Standalone Rating: 5/5 Diversity: f/f romance mentioned Recommended For...: young adult readers, sci-fi, dystopian, survival Publication Date: January 11, 2022 Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Age Relevance: 16+ (animal gore, animal fighting, animal death, language, violence, gore, death) Explanation of Above: There is a lot of animal gore in the book and mentions of animal fighting. There are also a few animal deaths. There is cursing throughout the book. There is also violence, including gun violence, gore with blood and other injuries, and death mentioned and one gruesome death shown. Publisher: Wednesday Books Pages: 368 Synopsis: 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. Review: Overall, this book was really good. The book is full of action and adventure. The story is compelling and I really loved Sena as a character. The book has an Iditarod race feel to it and I really liked that. The character development was well done, as was the world building, and overall it’s a good story. However, I did really hate all of the animal violence scenes and I was confused at some points during the book, especially with a lot of the back and forth. Verdict: It was good!

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. Content notes: (view spoiler)[character death, animal death, animal abuse (including fighting), violence (including murder and gun violence), bullying, bigotry, parental death (before book starts), grief, torture (hide spoiler)]

I'm very picky about my YA reads these days but i really enjoyed this one very much. A fresh story that i couldn't put down, I’m a sucker for survival stories and wolves so it was meant to be :)… 4.5/5 ⭑'s

This was such a good way to start the new year!! This book has winter vibes with an air of survival, loyalty, and science fiction!! I loveeed this adventure! Goodreads synopsis: 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. I’m going to be entirely honest, I was hesitant about this book. I expected a Call of the Wild type thing - you know, a survival story with a wolf - and I wasn’t sure that would be something I could like. But y’all this book was incredible, and so much more than what I was anticipating! It has just enough science fiction and a focus on characters to balance the survival story aspect and make it a truly engaging story! This book takes place on the planet Tundar, a cold, storm-ridden planet where crime gangs rule the streets and the greedy corporations who control the surrounding planets put on a deadly dog-sled race every year to mine the precious metal exocarbon. On that world lives Sena, who spends her days picking pockets, trying to save enough money to buy a ticket off the planet and to a better life. The world is wonderfully built; it has the right amount of world-building it needs to make it feel like a science-fiction but keeps it to the scale the story requires. Sena is a very complicated main character, which makes her a great one. She makes A LOT of terrible mistakes (to the point where it’s almost annoying), but they end up having thematic significance because she learns that she can’t live her life alone, even though she feels like it protects her. While I wish her character arc was slightly more pronounced, it is still really great, and it is incredible to compare her frigidity at the beginning of the novel to her loyalty at the end. Which has a lot to do with the other amazing characters present in the novel. My favorite was (of course) the wolf, Iska. When Sena ends up on the bad side of one of the crime bosses, he tasks her with healing one of his prized fighting wolves: Iska. Inevitably, the girl and the wolf form an undeniable connection as two souls yearning for freedom and fierce enough to fight for it. Their relationship is PERFECT and I LOVED IT. They become each other’s reason to live in a way, and it’s sooooo beautiful. The other characters are well-written as well, especially the team that recruits Sena to race with them. You can’t help but root for them, and again, it’s so heart-warming to see Sena begin to trust others to protect and help her, simply because they want to. Apart from these elements, the story itself is an intense and well-written survival story, combining science fiction with the expected hardships of a tundra sled-dog race to create an engaging and truly heart-pounding journey. I got so invested in Sena and Iska’s story, and the icy environment made it a perfect read for the winter season. I highly recommend this one if you’re looking for winter-y reads with science fiction and high stakes, or a harrowing yet heart-warming story of a girl and a wolf fighting for their freedom. *This book releases on January 11th, 2022 so mark your calendars! I received a free e-arc from Wednesday Books; thank you so much! All opinions are my own.* If you enjoyed this review, you can friend/follow me here on Goodreads/Literal or on Instagram and Pinterest @ashton_reads for more bookish content (@ashton.reads on Tiktok)!! If you want, you can give this review a like or comment with your thoughts so I know you've read my review; your support means a lot to me! Happy reading!

I really liked the race aspect of this story.. its dog sled racing to the max.. Theres sabatoge, and winter storms, and crazy preditory animals that make this race super dangerous.. Its pretty fast paced, especially once the race starts, and with all the things that can kill you during it popping up all over the place it really keeps you on your toes wondering how they are going to survive whats going to happen next. Sena doesn't trust anyone or anything so I really loved seeing start to trust the other people in her team, and really bond with Iska. (Iska is my favorite)

An epic story about a girl who just wants to escape her world and a wolf who was bred purely to be vicious are thrusted into a deadly, high stakes race with very little hope of survival. Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is set on a highly uninhabitable frozen wasteland of a planet where every creature that happens to live on it, is extremely deadly and out to get anyone and anything for a quick meal. This entire planet has absolutely nothing going for it except this deadly race that happens once a year and where plenty of people hope to make some sort of money by the end of it. And that’s what our main character Sena wants, to make enough money to get off of the planet that has nothing to offer her. Even if it means competing in a race that tore apart her family and took everything she’s ever cared about away from her. I actually bumped this book up a star because it surprisingly brought tears to my eyes which, by the way, is HIGHLY unusual for me. It did take quite some time, like half of the book, to get to the high stakes race part BUT I think that was important because we really learned what kind of character Sena was. She’s alone with not much to lose and all she wants is to escape. I think that’s a really important part of the theme for this book so don’t let it get you down. But what I loved most about this book? The bond between wolf and girl. I’m a sucker for animals and prayed the entire time I was reading this book that the wolf would make it out alive in the end. Which, I won’t say what happened either way *insert wink face*. But I freaking loved the fierceness of this wolf and the pure joy she brought not only me, but Sena. This book is about finding your own version of a family and you know what was a breath of fresh air? The fact that there was absolutely zero romance. I honestly thought I couldn’t enjoy a book that had no romance but this book proved me wrong. This is also a story about a found family and I know we all love that. Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is Meg Long’s debut novel and I for one can’t wait to see what else she brings to the table.