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A review by yayforbooks
The Wolf's Hour by Robert R. McCammon
2.0
I read this book because the idea of WW2 but with werewolves was interesting.
This book was ridiculous. I've been reading a lot of romance lately, so I've seen my fair share of absurdity... but ... like... the opening starts with a wolf chewing off a man's hand. At some point another wolf explodes with gross worms (that scene was actually disgusting). There's a hunter who has a death-train. The most unappealing "erotic" scene happened. A lot of people get stomped to death.
This book was described as basically James Bond trouncing Nazis but also occasionally turns into a werewolf and wonders about humanity. I think it definitely holds up to that description (the review by Nathaniel Katz in Strange Horizons is pretty thorough and basically what I was thinking).
Robert McCammon writes entertaining stories. I really like the first two Matthew Corbett books. But the more you read his books, the more you realize that it's kind of like Michael Bay's movies but on paper (and more entertaining). There's a lot of visceral gore. There's a lot of graphic sex. I think McCammon does the gore better than the sex. I just feel like the characters aside from Michael are kind of thinly written. The women are the beautiful and dangerous women who are super attractive. But I don't get a huge sense of developed character out of them. And I'm pretty sure one of them was killed to further the plot and also be the super hot lady to show off the hero's prowess.
Also! The third person narrative with omniscient narrator (or at least very character hoppy POV) does not help the depth of the characters (in my own opinion, your mileage may vary). I just felt like the snippets of thoughts from everyone meant that I couldn't fully develop a connection...
Anyway. The verdict is that this was entertaining but also totally wacky in some places and I felt lacking in strong characterization. But filled with lots of explosions and limbs flying everywhere and throats being torn out and also women having supposedly super hot sex with the super hot hero. So basically James Bond.
This book was ridiculous. I've been reading a lot of romance lately, so I've seen my fair share of absurdity... but ... like... the opening starts with a wolf chewing off a man's hand. At some point another wolf explodes with gross worms (that scene was actually disgusting). There's a hunter who has a death-train. The most unappealing "erotic" scene happened. A lot of people get stomped to death.
This book was described as basically James Bond trouncing Nazis but also occasionally turns into a werewolf and wonders about humanity. I think it definitely holds up to that description (the review by Nathaniel Katz in Strange Horizons is pretty thorough and basically what I was thinking).
Robert McCammon writes entertaining stories. I really like the first two Matthew Corbett books. But the more you read his books, the more you realize that it's kind of like Michael Bay's movies but on paper (and more entertaining). There's a lot of visceral gore. There's a lot of graphic sex. I think McCammon does the gore better than the sex. I just feel like the characters aside from Michael are kind of thinly written. The women are the beautiful and dangerous women who are super attractive. But I don't get a huge sense of developed character out of them. And I'm pretty sure one of them was killed to further the plot and also be the super hot lady to show off the hero's prowess.
Also! The third person narrative with omniscient narrator (or at least very character hoppy POV) does not help the depth of the characters (in my own opinion, your mileage may vary). I just felt like the snippets of thoughts from everyone meant that I couldn't fully develop a connection...
Anyway. The verdict is that this was entertaining but also totally wacky in some places and I felt lacking in strong characterization. But filled with lots of explosions and limbs flying everywhere and throats being torn out and also women having supposedly super hot sex with the super hot hero. So basically James Bond.