Jungle Book meets Ready Player One!
What happens when hunters become prey? When a deadly threat invades the territory of a wolf pack and their alphas go missing, a new male and female must rise to lead the pack through the crisis.
In the human world, another alliance begins between a reclusive video-game designer and a Cherokee animal-rights activist. Since being mauled by a dog as a boy, Don has retreated into video games and dreamed of working for a company that specialized in werewolf-hunter games. However, when he meets Tsula, she challenges him to see wolves in a new light and pushes him out into a series of wilderness adventures.
In the distant wood, the new alpha pair discovers they face a serious challenge. Will they be able to outmaneuver their rivals, unite the other wolves, and escape with their lives? Must they find a new home or stay and fight?
Tsula's activism drives Don into a double life, though, when she targets the video-game company where he works for its misrepresentation of wolves. Don feels pulled between two worlds, the world of game design just opening to him and the wilderness Tsula has introduced to him. Which will he finally choose as his own?
And why does the fate of the wolf pack rest in his decision?
For fans of animal fantasy, outdoor adventure, sci-fi suspense, and romantic drama.
Assessment:
Plot: Wolf Code provides a gratifying blend of human and animal worlds, with a surprising dual focus on activism and fantasy. Parallel stories meaningfully and compellingly mirror one another.
Prose: Brett's prose style is evocative, vivid, and clear. Anthropomorphic descriptions are as capably rendered as those of the quotidian human realm and of the gaming world.
Originality:Stories of wolves are familiar, but Brett provides a novel element through the connections made between human and animal protagonists. The focus on gaming provides an additional layer of interest.
Character/Execution: Tsula and Don are an unlikely pair, whose bond over wolves and individual passions leads to their further development as individuals and partners.
Date Submitted: August 31, 2020
Brett had me intrigued by his parallel narratives in Wolf Code. One story line follows the travails of a pack of wolves while the other follows the romantic and moral development of humans. The plots inform and brush against one another; the reader feels there is a distinct weave that binds the narratives together.
Wolf Code straddles two worlds and each has its own characters and concerns. It's a coming of age story for the alpha male of the wolf pack and the academic engineer with a penchant for virtual reality gaming. But it's also a romance, as we see the affection and love the alpha wolf has for his mate and pack and we watch the narrator, Don, make decisions about his life path in order to get the girl and become a better version of himself. The subject matter is timely enough, touching on the emerging worlds of next-gen gaming and the fight to save our environment and the creatures within it. It takes a creative mind to link the two topics together.
Brett has a descriptive style of storytelling and immerses his readers in the sounds and sensations of a wolf pack struggling to survive in an icy expanse of treacherous terrain. Perhaps his greatest strength is the meta-element he brings to Wolf Code. Just as Don and his former-student and love interest Tsula care about the plight of wolves and take actions within the story to encourage understanding of their world, Brett does just that by putting us in the action of the wolf Kan and his mate Lana. It took some planning and tight structuring to pull off but he did it. The meta-storytelling lends a complex dimension to this new world.
I look forward to delving into the world of both his human and lupine characters with another Wolf Code story. Brett did his research and put in the time to craft a story with memorable scenes and realistic dialogue. A well done, clean and YA accessible read.
A wolf pack struggling to reorganize after the death of the Alpha male flees through the wintry woods, escaping the only predator capable of taking down their strongest member – an Amur tiger. The wolves must work together as partners to survive.
On a college campus, a graduate student name Don seeks a partnership of his own, a younger student name Tsula who organizes an activist effort to change the way human beings see wolves.
Shifting between the two seemingly disparate portraits of Earth’s creatures, wolves and humans, the reader is compelled to compare and contrast the relationships between male and female counterparts and the hierarchy that exists in every social system.
Chandler Brett uses the two worlds to speak out about the typical human views of nature: that anything wild is primitive and dangerous. Many of Earth’s creatures are demonized for their methods of survival. Tsula asks that human beings respect the ways of the wolf and other creatures, allowing them the space they need to survive. In order to win her affection, Don must examine his life goals and how best to use his skills in technology.
This well-written novel offers a depiction of life within a wolf pack with the wolves as the characters, giving homage to the narrative style of Rudyard Kipling. Each section of the novel draws you forward on a steady path through an intense chapter in the lives of both wolves and the humans who protect them.
4 Stars – A well-thought out message.
