THE SEVENTH FRIEND

In Stead’s fantasy novel, a grizzled wolf god still tortured by his past bloody deeds is called back to battle when war grips the land once again.

This first book in The Sparrow and the Wolf series introduces Narak as the ferocious, magnetic god of wolves, one of five “lords of each realm” created by the god of the underworld himself, Pelion. Since helping the land of Afael win the Great War against the Seth Yarra, a religious group that rejects the ancient Gods and desires to rebuild the world “in the image of their own land,” Narak has become a recluse. But he is forced out of retirement by news that the Seth Yarra plan to return in order to finish what they started. Pelion has pledged to help defend Afael by sending a group of creatures called the Bren (“There were many kinds, and all quite different from each other”), but they will not arrive for another year and a half. Until then, it is up to Narak and his allies—including the reluctant Pascha, a formidable god known as The Lady of Sparrows who rejects her own powers—to hold off the Seth Yarra by whatever bloody means necessary. Stead has crafted a fully realized, intricately detailed world. The text’s copious use of unique terminology (there is no glossary provided) and hefty 800-page length may prove overwhelming to fantasy newcomers. But those willing to dive in will be well rewarded with a rich backstory that weaves together religion, politics, and an army of “insect-like” creatures that are vaguely reminiscent of the aliens in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (1985). Stead deftly balances the dryness of political scheming with plenty of action (“They roared back at him, swords waving in the sunlight, a forest of righteous death waiting to close about the enemy”), delivering a nuanced fantasy that proves both exciting and thought-provoking.

An epic saga that brings its mythology to life with inventive creatures and meticulous worldbuilding.