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A review by nooralshanti
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso
5.0
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro was a fast-paced, character-driven return to the world I fell in love with in the Agartes Epilogues. I loved all the little mentions of cities and characters and names I had read about in the other series. I also quickly fell in love with the main character Queen Talyien of Oren-Yaro and became invested in her survival. And the author puts her through A LOT of pretty dangerous situations that threaten that survival. K. S. Villoso is as skilled at writing a single POV first-person tale as she was at telling a multi-POV third person one. I usually get quickly put off by first person, but I found myself diving right into this one and enjoying the voice that it lent to this tale.
It's hard to say much without spoilers, but I want to mention the attention to little details that make the world so rich. For example when Talyien first walks through the streets of a foreign city and she can't help but wonder about the lack of garbage in the streets and is sitting there trying to figure out how they stop people from littering. It's little moments like this that not only build a character but also build a world. It's moments like this that make the world so rich and real and raw. Like there are all kinds of dystopian books out there that try to convince you the world is falling apart, etc, but they focus on shallow things or big picture things and neglect the little details like this that really show how much a place is struggling. It's beautiful. Ok, I'll stop talking about the littering now...
The other thing I really loved was how the character's relationships and connections to each other are written. In this novel, unlike the Agartes Epilogues, the focus is very much on a "hero" character, the Queen who is trying to hold her Kingdom together with all these warlords waiting for her to make a mistake. And there's so much action in this story, it's almost relentless (poor Tali). But the author still manages to effortlessly create all these relationships. All these realistic relationships full of miscommunication and hurt and longing and just... honestly it's beautiful.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you read this book K. S. Villoso will make you fall in love with a bunch of character and root for their happiness and get invested in their relationships and then she'll make them suffer. And you'll be stuck along for the ride with them because you just need to read every word of anything written about this world.
I almost wish I hadn't found this book until the series (trilogy, I think) was finished because now even I pay the publisher's ridiculous $12.99 to preorder the Ikessar Falcon e-book (traditional publishing really needs to wake up about these prices, seriously, why are trad pub ebooks this expensive?) I'll still have to wait until the end of September to read it and then I'm going to have to suffer who knows how long not knowing what happened before the third book comes out!
While I'm complaining I will say that the one thing I really longed to see more of was Talyien actually being in her Kingdom and doing stuff. This book follows her on a pretty dangerous journey, and it's very compelling and reveals a lot about her and her kingdom, but I was really itching to see her actually rule and deal with the minutiae of running an entire kingdom or even to see a council scene or something. I really hope there's more of that in the next book and I'm excited for it especially because I think she's grown as a character throughout this journey so hopefully she'll be awesome at it! :)
Anyway, if my rambling review didn't make it clear this book is a must-read. Go check it out, but if you haven't yet, I would recommend starting with K. S. Villoso's other series: [b:An Elegy of Heroes: The Agartes Epilogues Complete Trilogy|42748232|An Elegy of Heroes The Agartes Epilogues Complete Trilogy (Books 1-3)|K.S. Villoso|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541893365l/42748232._SY75_.jpg|57333646] because it takes place first chronologically.
It's hard to say much without spoilers, but I want to mention the attention to little details that make the world so rich. For example when Talyien first walks through the streets of a foreign city and she can't help but wonder about the lack of garbage in the streets and is sitting there trying to figure out how they stop people from littering. It's little moments like this that not only build a character but also build a world. It's moments like this that make the world so rich and real and raw. Like there are all kinds of dystopian books out there that try to convince you the world is falling apart, etc, but they focus on shallow things or big picture things and neglect the little details like this that really show how much a place is struggling. It's beautiful. Ok, I'll stop talking about the littering now...
The other thing I really loved was how the character's relationships and connections to each other are written. In this novel, unlike the Agartes Epilogues, the focus is very much on a "hero" character, the Queen who is trying to hold her Kingdom together with all these warlords waiting for her to make a mistake. And there's so much action in this story, it's almost relentless (poor Tali). But the author still manages to effortlessly create all these relationships. All these realistic relationships full of miscommunication and hurt and longing and just... honestly it's beautiful.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you read this book K. S. Villoso will make you fall in love with a bunch of character and root for their happiness and get invested in their relationships and then she'll make them suffer. And you'll be stuck along for the ride with them because you just need to read every word of anything written about this world.
I almost wish I hadn't found this book until the series (trilogy, I think) was finished because now even I pay the publisher's ridiculous $12.99 to preorder the Ikessar Falcon e-book (traditional publishing really needs to wake up about these prices, seriously, why are trad pub ebooks this expensive?) I'll still have to wait until the end of September to read it and then I'm going to have to suffer who knows how long not knowing what happened before the third book comes out!
While I'm complaining I will say that the one thing I really longed to see more of was Talyien actually being in her Kingdom and doing stuff. This book follows her on a pretty dangerous journey, and it's very compelling and reveals a lot about her and her kingdom, but I was really itching to see her actually rule and deal with the minutiae of running an entire kingdom or even to see a council scene or something. I really hope there's more of that in the next book and I'm excited for it especially because I think she's grown as a character throughout this journey so hopefully she'll be awesome at it! :)
Anyway, if my rambling review didn't make it clear this book is a must-read. Go check it out, but if you haven't yet, I would recommend starting with K. S. Villoso's other series: [b:An Elegy of Heroes: The Agartes Epilogues Complete Trilogy|42748232|An Elegy of Heroes The Agartes Epilogues Complete Trilogy (Books 1-3)|K.S. Villoso|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541893365l/42748232._SY75_.jpg|57333646] because it takes place first chronologically.