Review: Iron Wolf by Siri Pettersen

Title: Iron Wolf
Author: Siri Pettersen (Translated by Tara Chace)
Series: Vardari #1

Genre: Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Arctis US
Publication Date: February 21, 2023
Edition: 507 pages, Kindle Edition
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Powell's

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

Juva knows all about blood readers. Praised for their Sight, they are nothing but swindlers, preying on people’s fears for power and profit. Born by blood readers herself, she knows only too well, and she has vowed never to become one of them.
 But when her family is threatened by vardari, the eerie lasting ones, who never age, Juva is entangled in a desperate hunt for the blood readers’ legacy: a dark secret that once changed the world, and may do so again. In order to survive, she has to confront the terrifying childhood memory she fought to forget.

Iron Wolf is a new spellbinding fantasy mystery from Siri Pettersen, built on a Norse foundation, about blood, desire and addiction. It’s the first book in the trilogy VARDARI, an independent series set in the universe of the award-winning fantasy phenomenon THE RAVEN RINGS.  

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First of all, this book is weird. But it is so good. The world is vivid, but feels very alien at the same time. The magic in this world has this dark undertone to it that I don't see enough of in Fantasy. I think this book is loosely tied to her other series (The Raven Rings). It's been a while since I've read that series, and how I write reviews leaving out details to avoid spoilers doesn't help me when I go back to re-read reviews for stuff.

 

Juva is both likable and kind of unlikable. She is extremely stubborn, and she makes some really dumb decisions at times. Around the middle of the book she spent a lot of time waffling about how to handle something. While I get it to a degree, I feel like a lot of her problems could have been solved had she made a decision about some of it sooner. 

Gríf, I struggled picturing what he looks like. And the fan art Pettersen has of him on her Instagram isn't what I thought he looked like. The fan art makes him look far too "human"... and he's not human. Maybe I missed a detail in his description, maybe something was lost in translation? The fan art is amazing, but I was picturing something else.

 

There are a lot of intertwined plot lines, a lot of backstabbing. And for a good while there I wasn't sure who I was supposed to root for. There are three POVs. I felt like one of them was slightly redundant with information we get from the characters. I also really hate that character in particular. What becomes of him is a little ambiguous, but I really hope karma catches up to him.

 

I have no idea where the story is headed from here, but I am excited to read it when it comes out.