The Wolftime is here! Oh wait, maybe not.

I'm not one of those people whose enjoyment of a Black Library yarn depends entirely on whether it adequately covers my faction of choice, evidenced by the fact that I have no collection of minature figurines which I lovingly paint each evening in my mum's basement. I'm telling you this so you understand that I don't really care one way or the other about the Space Wolves (sorry, the 'Vlka Fenryka') I just want to hear a good story.

So do we get one with 'The Wolftime'? Well, yes. And no. Sort of.

Gav Thorpe takes up the baton for the third installment of the Dawn of Fire series, which resumes the action in the aftermath of the seige of Gathalamor and the ongoing search for some heretical weapon related to the Apostate Cardinal Bucharis. The trail leads to Fenris, which pretty much appears to be the centre of the known universe in recent w40k lore. For a barren planet full of ice, primitive humans and enormous things that want to kill you, Fenris really is a very popular destination. Why? Well, because it's the home of those loveable rogues the Space W- Vlka Fenryka - of course!

As with the previous entries in the Dawn of Fire chronicle, the story switches between multiple characters and their intertwining plotlines. Sometimes this is very effective, at other times it feels like maddening filler. The story of Gaius, the primaris marine who carries Leman Russ's geneseed and dreams of going to Fenris is the strongest in terms of a character arc. He and his squad's attempts to become more Fenrisian via an ancient guidebook is rather endearing, a bit like watching a teenage fanboy trying to emulate their musical heroes in the bedroom mirror with a hairbrush mic and a tennis racquet for a guitar. The story of the navy menial who is captured and enslaved by Orks is a good counterpoint, and a rare look at the greenskins off the battle field that doesn't play it for laughs with the 'cockney hooligans in space' card. Other characters feel less worthy of inclusion, like the Night Lord who turns up and gets a whole section to remind us how 'oooooh scary' they are before getting annihilated two pages later by Gaius and Co. The point? No idea.

But most frustrating of all are those Space Wolves (oh live with it). There really is no point in the several tedious chapters of Logan Grimnar and his mates fighting orks, it seems to serve no end other than to pad things out. When we get to the crunch events of the story (and I promise, no spoilers) the Great Wolf and his entourage display a level of idiotic paranoia regarding Guilliman and the primaris marines that is hard to fathom. The independent spirit of the Wolves and their antipathy to control from the Imperium is well-established, but when the Avenging Son comes calling to Fenris, the sheer pig-headedness and unsubstantiated conspiracy theory-peddling by Logan Grimnar and his pals is hard to credit. Basically, their argument goes, Roboute Guilliman has arisen, what's his obvious priority? Why, to lord it over the handful of surviving Wolves of Fenris, what else? This bizarre, self-important behaviour feels so unlikely that when Gaius accuses the Wolves of exactly that, it feels like he's breaking the fourth wall to admit how stupid it all is. It's clear to the meanest intelligence that the Lord Regent of the Imperium has slightly more important things on his mind right now than ruling the roost on Fenris.

The Space Wolves are supposed to have more intelligence than this. The best W40k novels concerning their antics paint them as considered and subtle operators who hide their cunning behind the facade of savagery. Here, there's none of that, they're just idiots. Gav Thorpe fails to make any of it credible, with Grimnar bleating on about the return of Leman Russ as if such incredibly unlikely event is somehow justification for turning their backs on primaris reinforcements and the entire Indomitus Crusade. It feels completely out of character. The Wolves are always the chapter that does what needs to be done, without complaint, for the good of the Imperium. Here, the way the Wolves are portrayed demeans them. The scene where Grimnar confronts Guiliman in his chapter's great hall is particularly awful. I just felt embarassed for him, the same way I do watching David Brent's posturing in The Office.

Even when Bjorn the Fell-Handed is trotted out to let fly a few conspiracy-nut style accusations against Guilliman 'The Legion Breaker', it doesn't feel like validation of Grimnar's position, it just feels like a wasted opportunity given that he's the one individual in the Imperium who was alive with Guilliman during the Crusade and the Heresy eras. Any way, the only thing all of this bizarre behaviour achieves is to make the suspicions of Tribune Stratarchis Actuaris Maldovar Colquan regarding the Primarch's ambitions appear vaguely sane and rational by comparison.

Still The Wolftime is a decent enough yarn. Despite all the holes, Gav Thorpe is still a solid story teller and reader John Banks is reliably good as ever (he's the one narrator who doesn't give the Wolves hurdy gurdy accents like the Swedish chef on Sesame Street). However at the end of the plot, Leman Russ has completely failed to show up. So it's not really the Wolftime. Not yet anyway. Or wait, is it...!?

(Wait. No it's not. Sorry, false alarm).

6 people found this helpful

Not a good book at all

Been a Space Wolf fan all my life and this book was a serious let down. Gav is not a space wolf writer it’s clear and while I do enjoy his other work, this was a serious let down.

The narrator is good in my opinion but he is let down by poor writing.

The characters are written very very poorly in this book. As if the author did not research into the background of these characters.

Spoiler beyond.





Long and short you get beaten over the head with wolftime constantly to get no hint of resolution on the matter. Bad call to name something after the end times of a chapter and then mention nothing about Russ

1 person found this helpful

Not a lot actually happens

Big fan of space wolves and all 30k and 40k, but nothing really happens in this story. Just a tale for the sake of a tale

1 person found this helpful

Wolftime

The overall story was pretty weak sauce, for a Space Wolves book there was way too much random Imperial stuff going on.

I was kinda hoping this book would pick up after Ragnar can be made Primaris, but due to GW messing with the timeline the current books are taking place before 9th edition, so we’ve got some catching up to do.

1 person found this helpful

Move of the wolves please

really enjoyed this one, was nice to hear more form the wolves.
Great story and narration.

1 person found this helpful

Wolf time ?

I know that fans of fenris were hoping this was THE Wolftime and the return of Russ but let’s be honest if Russ returns then that is the end of the space wolves so I didn’t expect that at all, it’s a decent story lifted by John Banks superlative narration, we have custodes, & historitors leading us in to the future with their thread and it was great to have the Fell Handed back even if briefly

1 person found this helpful

The primaristime

Gaius story is excellent the rest is meh, logan is portrayed especially poorly. Use a free credit dont buy it.

A slower continuation of the series

As per most Warhammer books this one is amazingly performed. The writing itself is also great but the story didn't capture me anywhere near us much as the pervious books in the series. Its exciting to be on the cutting edge of the current lore for the 40k universe but this one just lacked a bit of pace for me. Still worth a listen if you want to be on top of the current lore and stories in the universe.

Potentially a good story but...

This is clearly a Gav Thorpe novel, to many different subplots that have to come together. It took the first 7 chapters to get a grip on the drive of the story, really difficult to follow. In the beginning it felt like an advertisement for the Primaris Marines (this got better nearing the end). Some battles seemed to long while other parts of the novel seemed to be rushed. Many interesting questions do not get resolved.
Around the middle of the book, things start to come together and I enjoyed that part the most. Nearing the end it felt rushed again. Overall I enjoyed it but there is to much in it that is not covered well.
I enjoyed John Banks' performance but his voices all sound the same 😅

So good, I'm immediately listening to it again.

It may be that I'm a life long follower of the Space Wolves, but this has to be one of, if not the, best of their sagas. Just a great, great, listen.