Changeling: Blood Wolf by Steve Feasey
| Changeling: Blood Wolf by Steve Feasey | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: A double narrative takes up this third volume in Feasey's Changeling series - there's a necrotroph to deal with in London, but Trey's off to the US to find long-lost lycanthropic relatives. It's as satisfying an urban fantasy as its predecessors and will prove tremendously popular with fans. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 288 | Date: February 2010 |
| Publisher: Macmillan | |
| ISBN: 0330470493 | |
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Trey is the last living hereditary werewolf - or so he thinks. So when he discovers he has a long-lost uncle, he shrugs off all objections from his vampire guardian, Lucien and catches the first available plane to Canada. When he arrives, he finds that not all werewolves are fearsome, forbidding and courageous creatures. And they're certainly not all family-friendly. His uncle is old, half-blind and alcoholic. He lives in filth and he couldn't give a fig for Trey. But there is a pack out there, and it's vicious, bloodthirsty and rapidly spinning out of control.
Back in London, Lucien is dealing with a resurgence of his darkest vampiric urges. Neophyte sorceress Alexa is caring for a girl recently infected by the same parasitic demon that killed her father. The Nectotroph - said parasitic demon - is happily infecting other humans on its way to killing Lucien. And the Ashmon, a distinctly ambiguous nether-creature - has agreed to help Lucien and Alexa find and eliminate the Nectotroph.
And if there isn't enough in there to please fans of this tremendously successful series, I'm not quite sure what Steve Feasey would have to do to satisfy them!
I liked the dual narrative in this third book in an incredibly successful series. It's very easy for these kinds of books to get samey - same plot, same heroes, but only the villain changes. And nobody wants the Hardy Boys going lyco at full moon, do they? In Blood Wolf, Trey's story is moved on significantly, as he's out on his own, unprotected by the vastly experienced Lucien, and he's required to face up to a remorselessly unheroic aspect to his werewolfhood. But at the same time, there's a familar nether-creature battle going on back in London and so everybody gets a good dollop of what they enjoyed in the first place. Perhaps because Trey's personal arc has got a lot more visceral, there's less gadgetry in this one. But there's still plenty of action and some happily satisfying gore.
Plus, there's the Ashmon, who is a rather marvellous nether-creature. He exists in physical form only by inhabiting another's body. Luckily for the soul in that body, it gets to spend a week or so at the mirage of a luxury hotel, enjoying room service, personal trainers and every imaginable luxury. When it returns, it gets a completely overhauled body, free from disability or disease. It all sounds wonderfully benign, doesn't it? But there's something delightfully ambiguous about the Ashmon - he's on "our" side in Blood Wolf, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him being naughty in later books. I hope he makes another appearance, because I loved him.
They loved books one and two, and I think they're going to love book three even more.
Recommended to all breathless fans of high octane urban fantasy.
My thanks to the nice people at Macmillan for sending the book.
They should really begin with the first book in the series. If all things bitey and lycanthropic is their big bag, they'll also like The Summoning, Kelley Armstrong's YA spin-off from her hugely successful Women of the Otherword series. There's no Wolfan in The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld, but there are some superbly sexiful bitey things, and a very different take on vampirism.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Changeling: Blood Wolf by Steve Feasey at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Changeling: Blood Wolf by Steve Feasey at Amazon.com.
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