Wolfskin by Jeremy Szal
I would like to thank the author and Gollancz for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Gollancz
Published – Out Now
Price – £14.99 ebook
Vakov Fukasawa is trapped.
Captured by his ruthless and cruel enemies, the House of Suns, he has been broken in body and mind, tormented until he is something less than human. And yet, Vakov and his brother Artyom are the Common's last hope.
The war against the Suns has grown to swallow the galaxy. Entire systems rattle with violence. Planets are burning. Species are hunted to extinction. And now that the genocidal alien Shenoi have been successfully summoned, billions of lives are staring into the abyss.
To save his friends and his home, Vakov will need to work with his brother to build a great intergalactic army. He will need to become the hero, the legend, his people believe him to be. He will need to draw on his every last ounce of courage to gain the loyalty and fury required to survive. He will need to become The Black Wolf.
But is Vakov willing to pay the price that victory demands?
NB This concludes the series that comprises Stormblood and Blindspace by Jeremy Szal there will be some spoilers for these books!
I was listening to someone saying space opera is very much connected to epic fantasy and I think that idea can have a lot of merit. Its usually cast in scope, has many worlds and factions vying for power and is often more towards the more violent end of the spectrum with wars, explosions and space battles. All of which when delivered well can still be a very rewarding read and a huge amount of fun. I’ve hugely enjoyed Jeremy Szal’s The Common series which very much has been that kind of tale and in the finale the gloves are off in many ways delivering a powerful, bloody and desperate final set of confrontations to end a battle for the future of the galaxy itself.
Vakov Fukasawa was once just a criminal living the huge asteroid world of Compass. A former soldier known as a Reaper he was part of a desperate experiment called Stormblood where his body was injected with alien DNA giving him immense strength, healing and often rage. The House of Suns cult on Compass became his enemy not just for inducting his brother Artyom but being exposed as working in the shadows to bring about the return of an ancient evil known as the Shinoi who want to return, and many other ancient races are prepared to stop them and join humanity in the fight. Vak finds himself now working for a group dedicated to eliminating the House of Suns before they can turn any more people into cultists using the power of Stormblood. A mighty battle turned the tide against them, but Vakov has been betrayed and now imprisoned is being sent to meet his sworn enemy the mysterious leader known as The Jackle.
Szal weaves a tale where we get effectively Vakov’s account of the very final war against the Suns. Think of this as a great warrior’s final account of his life and there is definitely throughout the feeling of the epic about this story. What makes it work for me from the off is we very much start in Vakov humbled and at the very nadir of his life en route to a brutal imprisonment and punishment. No amazing space armour, no powerful allies and imprisoned in a body suit that does not let him move. The first few chapters are grim, hard and with Vakov finding himself once again with his brother on opposite sides emotionally very tortured. As you can guess he will not end here or it would be a short tale but this very harrowing experience haunts Vakov for the rest of the story and I found the change in character very effectively done. He’s goes on a journey from a lost young man to a brave soldier with purpose and now his final evolution is accepting he is a leader not just of a small group but a whole galactic spanning army.
We get a powerful propulsive set of set pieces from an attack on truly disturbing alien cathedral ship to battling space mercenaries, fights to the death and across it all in the final third a huge space and land battle. Szal ensures Vakov is front and centre to these battles, so we get very much his personal account of every tactic, battle and loss or victory that occurs. The violence is balletic but often with added blood and bodily injury. Knowing we are in the final book Szal does keep the reader on their toes as to who may or may not get out of this story. Old scores are settled; various enemies return for showdowns and new allies are won. It is grand in scope, epic in approach and if you enjoy lots of action then much awaits you here.
For me where I get won over is Szal always remembers to make the story take a breath. From Vakov realising he has PSTD from his first encounter at the start of the book to his very twisting relationship with his brother Artyom to his various friendships there is a powerful story of bonds. These are warriors just as happy working together to win a war than just hanging out with food and beer. I’m not always comfortable with non-stop action tales but Szal reminds us regularly these people are humana and while Vakov is quite warrior focused in how he sees the world and sometimes the machismo makes me raise an eyebrow I understand that that is very much his worldview and his voice but he’s a decent person underneath it all.
There is also a great enemy in the form of The Jackal. Very much a dark shadow to Vakov and more cunning and ruthless than our hero. He feels both hard to beat and as more revelations come across a dark mirror of who Vakov could very easily have become. Their battles are bitter and very much point to a looming final confrontation. Their confrontation is satisfyingly brutal and long awaited.
The one drawback I think is a single first-person narrator narrating the entire final galaxy spanning war means we do get a few long expositions of what is going on rather than living what is going on. Vakov was not at every single part of the war so sometimes he just summarises the various key events he knows about. It works as Vakov adds lots of colour and shade on the results, but a third person update may sometimes have worked better in places to give the story a less third person witness style approach.
For fans of this series like me then I can say this very much feels like the final season of a well-loved show. We know the confrontations are coming, the stakes are the galaxy, we know not everyone can make it out alive and the final set pieces all await. As such this works really well as we get the payoffs we needed and Szal is an accomplished storyteller drawing all these plot points to their inevitable ends with an emotional flourish. An epic conclusion awaits and is highly recommended!
