Review: Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame by Meg Long

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame by Meg Long
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This picks up a few months after Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, with Remy as the main character. Sena and Iska are present throughout, but they are more side characters and their advendure on Tundar doesn't really play much of a part in this new adventure. I do recommend reading Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves first so you get and understanding of some of the references and backstory. I do feel you could read this as a standalone and not be terribly lost though. This is more like a companion novel in my opinion than a sequel.

In this installment, Remy shines as the main character as she tries to find a lost friend and her former partner who betrayed her. Sena and her wolf Iska are along for the ride, and the three of them find themselves on a rainy jungle like planet completely opposite of where they came from. Remy uses her genetic engineering to infiltrate and gather intel on the leadership that is now in place on Marass to help locate her ex-partner Kiran in order to reset mistakes of the past.

I really enjoyed this second installment! It was nice that it wasn't a traditional sequel and followed Remy instead of Sena, though Sena and Iska were still very present and involved in the storyline. It feels like we are going to get a third book, and I hope it follows the same format. I'm looking forward to seeing who the main character will be next. Remy is constantly fighting her genetic programming vs who she is as a person. She wants to do what is right and is constantly asking herself, "Am I like this because that is how I was made?" "Or am I my own person?" In the end she's a little of both. but she gets to choose what side she is on. I'd like to see a bit more character development from Remy when it comes to her emotions, but for most of the book I think she felt like she wasn't engineered to have them. She developed one friendship in her life and she felt if failed, and I hope we get to see her work on that more in the future.

This had great world building. Long does a great job describing the setting and the creative creatures she came up with. The pacing was a little slow for my taste but it does pick up in the second half as the revolution gets organized and starts to move forward. There is more action in the second half once we know all of the players and have the lay of the land.

I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with in the future!

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