Review: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. It’s rare that I put out two reviews in a row, but it’s what I’ve been able to finish and have inspiration for. Today, I’m reviewing Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long, one of my most anticipated releases from 2022.

Title: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves
Author: Meg Long
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Edge Worlds #1 (not officially a series, but the sequel starts right after this one ends)
Page Count: 357 (hardcover)

A lone girl determined to survive. The feral wolf she must learn to trust. Only one chance to escape their icy planet: a race across the deadly tundra.

Seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen hates the sled race, especially after it claimed both her mothers’ lives five years ago. Alone on her frozen planet, she makes money any other way she can—until she double-crosses a local gangster.

Desperate to escape, Sena flees with his prized fighting wolf, Iska, and takes an offer from a team of scientists. They’ll pay her way off-world, on one condition–that she uses the survival skills her mothers taught her to get them to the end of the race. But the tundra is a treacherous place. When the race threatens their lives at every turn, Sena must discover whether her abilities are enough to help them survive the wild, and whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.

As the girl and the wolf forge a tenuous bond and fight to escape ice goblins, giant bears, and the ruthless gang leader intent on trapping them both, one question drives them relentlessly forward: Where do you turn when there is nowhere to hide?

Content Warnings

racism – death – murder – physical violence

There are no spoilers in this review.

I am very, very slowly making my way through my anticipated 2022 releases. This was my most recent one and my first year of 2023. I’m glad to say that the year started off on a good note!

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a science fiction novel based on the planet Tundar, the icy planet that hosts the famous sled race. Sena hates the sled race and doesn’t want to participate in any part of it, especially after her mothers died on the trail five years ago. The only thing she wants is to earn enough money to travel off-world. But when she gets into a twist with the local gangster boss, she flees with his prized wolf. She takes an offer from a group of scientists there for the race: teach them to survive the race and they’ll pay for a ticket off-world.

The best part about this book is the worldbuilding. The cold and storm-ridden environment came alive through the pages. It definitely strikes me as a winter read.

I wasn’t in love with the writing style or the pacing. There were a lot of sentences that weren’t really complete sentences and it didn’t flow together well at times. The pacing was super slow. We don’t start the race until over halfway through the book. I enjoyed the plot beforehand, but it would’ve been nice if there had been a bit faster of a pace in the beginning. Once the race starts, I feel like the pacing evened out.

Sena was a great protagonist who grew so much over the course of the book. I love the relationship she forms with Iska and how she grows to love her, even if she does remind Sena of her own mother. My favorite of the side characters was Remy and I’m excited to see her in the next book. I wish Tulok and Askaa had a little more depth to them; they didn’t have much characterization beyond “jerks who don’t think about others.”

But the real star of the show is Iska! I loved her and how she was so protective of Sena once they got their relationship evens out. She was a true fighter and I hope we see more of her in the next book.

There are some plot holes. What the heck happened to Temur and Kirima? They were a huge part of the first half of the story, but once the race starts, there’s no more mention of them at all. Did Temur live? Did Kirima get off-world? I hope we find out what happens in the sequel, but seeing that it’s narrated by Remy, I have a feeling they’re not going to be.

My Rating: 4/5 dragons