Review: The Sharpened Fangs of Lupine Spirit

The Sharpened Fangs of Lupine Spirit
Vos Draemar Book 1
H.G. Sansostri

Next Chapter
June 2021

Print Edition $19.49
Ebook Edition Free

When I came up with the idea of reviewing one furry book a month, I said I’d only review books that I liked. It only took three books to throw a wrench into the project: what about books that I find to be a mixed bag?

The Sharpened Fangs of Lupine Spirit isn’t a book I’d heard of before. I’m told author H. G. Sonsostri is a furry, but it’s not distributed through our channels and—as a small press novel—hasn’t made a big mainstream splash that would draw our attention. It’s the first of a series which may be seven (!) books, although only three have been published so far.

The story follows two brothers, Corsair and Ragnar Sedrid, wolves living among their own kind in the snowy north reaches of their world. They’re the sons of the Winter Baron, a leader of their clan and an unrelenting asshole to his adult children—especially to our protagonist Corsair, the less studious and flightier younger brother.

As the story begins, the two brothers and their ictharr steeds are sent off for training with the Krosguard, an elite squad of soldiers. (Minor nitpick: we never get a good physical description of ictharrs.) Neither has an interest in going, but Dad insists—and war with the rabbit clan is coming. The lieutenant in charge of training turns out to be a psychopath. And, as the novel nears its climax, the Sedrids are plunged into political intrigue and betrayal. No one ends the novel at the same place they started.

Lupine Spirit is more low fantasy than high—more Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings, albeit with no sex. The violence, once the fighting gets going, isn’t incredibly graphic, but it’s brutal. Corsair is, for the most part, a protagonist you root for, despite his tendency toward whininess and hotheadedness. Nearly all the side characters are interesting, too, and drawn distinctively.

And, while you could tell essentially the same story with humans instead of anthropomorphic animals, Sonsostri never forgets that they are wolves. The late Fred Patten, who incessantly banged the “make the animal nature matter” drum, would have been pleased.

So why is this a mixed bag? Pacing. The Krosguard training is the novel’s inciting incident, and the battle is the novel’s first plot turn. Think Luke Skywalker discovering his family farm has been burned to the ground, or Judy Hopps getting 48 hours to solve Mr. Otterman’s disappearance. But those turns happened about a quarter of the way into their stories—about where they should be, at the end of the first act in a three- or four-act structure. Lupine Spirit pushes it all the way past the novel’s literal midpoint, which makes the first half feel positively glacial at times. After the battle, the pace becomes almost frantic.

Okay. So. Do I recommend The Sharpened Fangs of Lupine Spirit despite that reservation? I think so. The ebook is a free download, and as gauche as it is to suggest that makes up for some writing flaws, it certainly doesn’t hurt. There’s enough here to make me want to pick up the next book (which isn’t free, but the ebook is still reasonably priced), although I may not rush to do it.