Hunger Makes the Wolf (The Ghost Wolves, #1)

by Alex Wells

This thrilling sci-fi Western features “a dash of Dune, a bit of Fury Road, and a whole lot of badass female characters” (Emma Maree Urquhart, author of Dragon Tamers)

The strange planet known as Tanegawa’s World is owned by TransRifts Inc, the company with the absolute monopoly on interstellar travel. Hob landed there ten years ago, a penniless orphan left behind by a rift ship. She was taken in by Nick Ravani and quickly became a member of his mercenary biker troop, the Ghost Wolves.
 
Ten years later, she discovers that the body of Nick’s brother out in the dunes. Worse, his daughter is missing, taken by shady beings called the Weathermen. But there are greater mysteries to be discovered—both about Hob and the strange planet she calls home.

• ISBN10: 0857666444
• ISBN13: 9780857666444
• Publish Date: 7 March 2017 (first published 2 March 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Angry Robot
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 464
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780857666444

Reviews

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.

Alex Wells is a new-to-me author. I found them in a Twitter thread of book recommendations. I’ll be honest. I have no idea what about this author, and/or book, caught my eye to make me go look them up. I wasn’t looking for new books to read, as my TBR is never-ending. Anyway, I’m so glad I stumbled upon them. I really enjoyed this first book in The Ghost Wolves series.

Hunger Makes the Wolf is set on a different and harsh planet. It follows two main characters, cousins. Hob Ravani and Magdala Kushtrim, two young women growing up in more of a man’s world. They come from completely different ways of life, but are still distant family.

Hob is part of a mercenary group called The Ghost Wolves. Her uncle is the leader of the group, but she’s not given any leeway. She starts off the story at the bottom of the group after making a horrible decision.

Mag, we find her with her father trying to buy her a way off the planet. To do what most fathers would do in his position, try to find a better life for his only daughter/child. However, she never gets to board the transport, as they find her “contaminated” but won’t give her much information.

This was a very well-developed story about the haves and have-nots. There’s also the prejudice, as they demonize people for “witchiness”. They even go so far as to convince people that it is contagious, so as to help people purge those with powers before the people in charge, which is a mining business.

As close as this kind of story hits home (especially as I was listening to this early on in peak COVID shutdowns), I found I really enjoyed this story. While it was escaping to a world with many of the same problems I was seeing with prejudice and demonizing of others, I still enjoyed escaping to this world with Hob and Mags. I think I enjoyed seeing them do the right thing by others, even as it risked themselves.

If you know me, you know how much I love well-written characters. I want characters  I like, or in some cases, love to hate. I really enjoyed the characters of this book. Not only Hob and Mags, but also The Bonecollector and Coyote and the rest of The Ghost Wolves. I really want to spend more time with them. I’ll be picking up the sequel very soon.

Narration (4 stars)

This is my first time listening to Penelope Rawlins. I really enjoyed her voice. I really fell into and got lost in the story. I loved all the voices she chose for each character. I thought they fit perfectly, male and female alike. I really felt like she put a lot of passion into each and every character. I would gladly listen to perform more audiobooks.

** Note: I was able to listen to this audiobook free with my Audible membership.