A review of Wolfhound Century

If you're looking for a new flavour of fantasy fiction, Wolfhound Century offers a rather unique set-up. The book doesn't just take place in an other-Russia, but is written almost in the style of Russian writers, with the same ponderous oppression of glowering grey skies above a vast snowbound landscape. Here, Vissarion Lom goes from provincial plod to big city pawn, drawn by his superiors into a fight in the capital city he has little hope of understanding against adversaries that are giants to his gnat-like status.

This is a kind of early 20th century other-Russia in the grip of a malignant sprawling government that only artists and dissidents disagree with - a familiar setting, but populated with anthropomorphic forces of nature and "angels", great beings that could be gods or aliens who have fallen from the skies and brought their own problems into the mix. Lom is given the extremely difficult, but seemingly straightforward task of locating Josef Kantor, a violent dissident with more than a hint of Hitler about him that is terrorising the capital. But naturally, nothing is as it seems and his search for Kantor uncovers plots, conspiracies and forces he never knew existed, as well as some truths about himself he appears to never have suspected.

Higgins has crafted a beautiful world that he paints lavishly with every word, one that is both familiar to anyone who's ever read a book by a Russian great and unfamiliar, even to a seasoned fantasy reader. This world throws up its own fantastical beings that seem to belong here as they wouldn't in the traditional quasi-medieval settings of most of this genre's novels. For every lovingly detailed description of place, however, Higgins gives a frustratingly fleeting sense of character. Although we get some of Lom's backstory as the novel progresses, he remains an elusively two-dimensional character, with only his job and his desire for Maroussia, the main female character, to drive him. He shows a remarkable lack of self-awareness and curiosity, particularly for a man whose main occupation is analysing and interrogating the motives of others. It's up to his only friend in the city, Raku Vishnik, to pursue the deeper questions about what it might all mean and that isn't a situation that lasts long.

Kantor is a compelling and clearly complex villain, a charismatic and intelligent psychopath with layers of motivation and meaning that are hinted at, but not filled in enough by the end of the book. And Maroussia barely exists at all, showing up out of nowhere and given very little space to do anything other than be around for others to interact with and Lom to pursue. This is the first in a series so there's hope that Higgins plans to fill in some of the blanks in further novels, which will be needed if we're to stick with these characters for longer than a couple of books.

But with Wolfhound Century, there's enough in the remainder of the novel, the beautifully drawn world, the many mysteries of the supernatural forces at work and the taut political thrills all pulled into a straight-up cat-and-mouse chase that keeps the pages fast turning and all but guarantees a second outing.