Author J.W. Webb introduces his sprawling fantasy universe with Gray Wolf, the first book in the expansive Legends of Ansu trilogy. Set before and unrelated to the events of the Crystal King trilogy, this sweeping story is a foundation stone for other pieces of this author’s swelling saga.
After losing his entire family to raiders and the fickle Sea God, Corin al Fol becomes an orphan overnight and is saved by a mysterious sorceress who hints at a path for revenge, and then disappears. Years pass and Corin finds ways to survive, falling in love with an innkeeper’s daughter and trying to move forward from scarring tragedy.
His destiny leads him to train as a Wolf, an elite warrior of the kingdom, making him a fierce hero and bringing him closer to his ultimate goals of revenge. From classic fantasy origins – an orphan with an unknown destiny seeks revenge and finds adventure – comes a stirring tale of growing up, finding one’s path, and choosing sides in an epic conflict.
Corin navigates the cruel manipulations of Taskala, grows in skill through secret lessons and romance with the compelling Yazrana, and fights his own battles between a haunted past and an uncertain future. Facing down and evading death in a dozen different ways, this unpredictable protagonist is an excellent center point for this new series, one that delivers in the way that good fantasy should. The military campaigns and pounding action sequences keep the story moving quickly, as does the rapid passage of time in the prose, which can jump weeks, months, or even years at a time.
Some of the intermediate pacing is slow, such as the simmering hatred between Corin and Taskala, which feels white-hot at times, and nonexistent at others. As a whole, character development is limited outside of Corin, with stereotypical figures and fantasy tropes of good and evil appearing throughout the story. Female characters in particular are generally one-dimensional, even when the author attempts to develop a romantic depth to the narrative. This is far from uncommon in the sword and sorcery arena of fantasy writing, but there are ways to show crass behavior without removing all agency or nuance from a female figure; the narration doesn’t necessarily need to reflect all the actions of a given scene, or the intentions of a specific character.
On the technical side of things, the prose mostly lacks descriptive flair, with short, impactful sentences, rather than elaborate detail or visceral world-building, but it’s still effective in unfolding the extensive storyline. The dialogue is similarly functional, driving the narrative forward at a steady pace. The slow drip of exposition is done well, with exotic names and places being peppered in the opening chapters, allowing readers to adjust gradually to this fantasy context, rather than be drowned in minutiae from the start.
As a whole, Gray Wolf is an engaging work of fantasy that sets the stage well for a much longer saga, and the momentum of this first installment bodes well for the rest of this sword-swinging series.
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