A spoiler warning is hereby given to those wanting an untarnished view of this novel. Another warning, as I have not read the rest of the Sembia series, this review reflects my knowledge from this novel alone.
Black Wolf is a dual-story book, one part given over to Talbot Uskevren, the other part given to Darrow. Darrow is a servant that attaches himself to the novel’s villains. Tal is a wayward noble’s son, trying to make it on his own. Tal is also a lycanthrope, struggling to control this as the story develops. Darrow becomes a lycanthrope as the story develops, though this is a lesser counterpoint to Tal’s side of the tale.
The story’s main focus is that a family once held power in the city of Selguant (the Malveens) and now they want revenge on their usurping rivals (the Uskevrens). To do this, Stannis Malveen tries to get a cleric of Malar (Rusk) to help kill some of Uskevren’s children (namely Talbot).
Gross deals with the plot by splitting the story into alternating chapters, with either Darrow or Tal being the viewpoint character. That is, until close to the story’s end, where the two characters are present at the same place, then the novel progresses with a unified focus. In doing this, Gross losses some of the development that could have been gained (plus adding to the reader’s understanding) from more focused narration.
With Darrow in place to receive the backstory (a very exposition heavy, talking heads first chapter), the novel begins to crosscut, back and forth, having Darrow become the story development chapter character as Talbot gets to showoff the fun and flare that the Realms gets known for. Though this doesn’t remain true for the duration of the novel, the beginning of the novel is rough when the reader gets and witnesses the two main villains talking to each other for several pages with story developing details.
The novel packs a surprise twist in the revelation of Talbot’s true nature, which he believed to be an infected werewolf after Rusk attacked him a year ago at the Malveens behest. Darrow becomes a mock-tragic figure as his development becomes more a backhanded slap since the story deems him a servant at the end.
Black Wolf features some neat details about the Realms, has a decent amount of swordplay and has some neat characterizations. Talbot gets to have several humorous scenes that make him likable, but the constant shift chapter to chapter keeps from making him a well-developed character. Darrow while the villain’s servant and shouldn’t be likable, gets more development but gets backhanded at the end.
Black Wolf is a fun read, but has several weak points as storycrafting goes (the first few chapters are not as strong as they should be). Several Realms fans probably will fault me for not loving this book, but I like it enough to read it again. Overall, Black Wolf is not so bad that I regret buying it, I just have qualms with how the story progresses.
Review Summary