Wolfsangel

M D Lachlan

Orion Books

Lachlan has written a strange, dark tale of werewolves, Norse gods and magic.

Odin may be returning to earth. God of war and destruction, if he returns it will be a dark time for mankind. His favourite form on earth is that of a wolf. The mountain witches believe they may be able to stop him with a rune called the Wolfsangel. The Rune is more than a letter, it is the embodiment of a powerful spell. Its drawback is that it can only be used by a werewolf or wolfman, someone more wolf than human.

King Authun is without an heir. If he dies his little kingdom will be thrown into civil war as the other lords fight for power. To buy time his wife is pretending to be pregnant but his time is running out. He has consulted the witches who have told him where there is a woman with a newborn son. He will raid the settlement and take the son for his own.

The witches did not look deeply enough. The woman has had twin boys. They are the sons of a wolfman who was passing the settlement and found her sleeping in the open one night. Authun takes one boy as his own and leaves the other with a family far up in the mountains. One day the boy is taken further into the mountains by his temporary parents and abandoned to his fate. This would usually involve a quick death in the teeth of wolves. His wolfman father has left him a legacy – a small talisman, just a pebble really, with a rune scratched into it that identifies the boy as the kin of a wolfman. Rather than kill him the wolves bring him up as one of their own. Eventually following the death of the alpha male he becomes the leader of the wolf clan. The old male warned him about the dangers of eating human flesh and so far he has avoided it, but the other members of the pack will eat humans if there is no other food available

Years pass and Authun’s son is something of a disappointment. He is not by nature a fighter and doesn’t take part in the raids that are so popular among the other Vikings. Finally it reaches the point where he must prove himself a man or step aside. He swears that he will travel to the north of the kingdom and bring back the wolfman who is terrorising the area and killing the occasional merchants who pass through.

The two meet and the wolfman is captured and brought back.

In the background the politics of the area are in flux. The two unknowing brothers are thrown closer together in a series of adventures and treachery and gradually the wolfman learns human values including love, while his brother learns some of the wild ways of the wolf. They are both in love with the same woman and there will be a showdown over this, but first they must regain the kingdom. There is also the lurking problem of Odin’s return. One brother with both human and wolf powers may be able to use the power of the Wolfsangel rune, but what if that power is divided between two of them?

Lachlan has a tight writing style that keeps the action moving but somewhere he manages to fit in some excellent characterisation and a good view of the cultures. These make his story so credible and tie together the different strands of the book.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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