 Hey guys, it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about my new favorite book, The Wolf by Leo Carew. Follow me on Instagram then you'll know that I've been freaking out about this book because it is like the literal greatest thing ever. I talked to my TBR about how the way this book looked. It looks like it should be my new favorite book and I was more right than I could ever have even imagined. I am completely gobsmacked so I probably shouldn't be filming this yet because I barely finished it so I'm still kind of processing how blown away I am by this but we're doing it because I want to talk about it and it's amazing and you should read it right now. So briefly kind of what is this book about and then what makes it so amazing. So this book, it takes place, it's a fantasy in the sense of the way that the conqueror saw guys fantasy. It's an alternate history fantasy so it's not a magic system, it's not a magical new world that doesn't exist. It's our own like earth world in the Dark Ages but it's a reimagined history where instead of just our own Homo sapien humanoid species having survived through the Ice Age into the Dark Ages, other humanoid species also survived. So like what if Neanderthal had not died out? What if other humanoid species like that had survived long enough to form language and culture and be players in you know our history and politics. So if you like look at the map in this book it's showing like a Britain but it's everything is renamed and reimagined but that's where it's taking place in our own world but as if we were not the only ones to survive. Most of the story is told is an omniscient narrator but most of it is told from the perspective of the Anakim and the Anakim are these sort of more developed Neanderthal type species culture people. You do also see this sort of human side of things those are the Southerners and there is a sort of a main protagonist on that end of things that you do sort of check in with and you do see that side of things as well but most of the story page count word count wise is told from the perspective of the Anakim and basically the story has a very Viking Norse feel it's a very harsh climate the Anakim have a their their diet and their culture and their living circumstances is very reminiscent of like a Viking inspired world which obviously is my jam if you follow me at all like anything remotely Viking related I'm like yes please but they're obviously they're not Vikings they're their own thing they're a completely different species and it's uh again yeah they're not Vikings but it has that kind of feel I mean they drink mead and birch wine and they eat you know like lingonberries and they drink out of horns and it's a very earthy kind of vibe they're very large people they're very large creatures they're much much larger than the our ancestors of Southerners they're more long lived they live like 200 years on average they're not you know immortal like elves or anything they just live longer they're physically larger they live longer they have other natural adaptations that help them survive in this harsher climate um that the book kind of goes into um but so they are physically different and that is all very well explained and very well thought out and it is largely based on this author's research into like how Neanderthals were different and I mean some of it is invention but it's sort of a an extension of what might have happened had they continued to evolve yeah so it follows um it's basically a giant war story the Southerners like our own ancestors wanting to invade and take over everywhere and the Anakim are physically larger and stronger but they're not invaders so in that sense they're very unviking the Vikings went around raiding all the time invading other lands the Anakim they are very content with their own land they just want to protect their own land which is being invaded by the Southerners and they don't want to expand but they want to protect what is theirs so again it just follows the all the politics within the Anakim culture and society as these war games play out as well as some of the politics going on on the southern end of things and about why they're invading and who's invading and who's doing what so it's a very political war-centric type of story with a lot of Nordic vibes okay but so from that description you're like okay and that's sounds decent sounds like a pretty good fantasy book doesn't sound that out of the ordinary why is this so special and it's the world building the world building is insanely amazingly intricately developed and when I say that if I heard myself say that I would interpret that to mean something really dry where it's just listing constantly tons of facts and details just throwing info dumping exposition at you with here's what they call this and here's how they do this and here's their structure over this and it's not like that at all not at all there's some of that obviously any fantasy book has some info dumping to get you sort of you know into the world but not very much at all in this book the world building is just built into the fabric of how these people live and interact with each other and and how they go about things and I was so blown away by how life like it felt that it felt like a piece of history rather than a creative fantasy that I looked up the author because this is his debut which just let me just give up on life right now he was a bioanthro major and I was a cultural anthro major but I did take some bioanthro classes but as soon as I read that about him it clicked why this book it's just so miles and away different and I don't know for everyone but definitely for me it's approaching things from a lens that I understand and that I feel is superior but maybe it's just my it's my preference to me world building in the best fantasy books can often fall flat and feel quite lifeless which is kind of strange because to me a world is defined by the life within it and this book approaches things from a very anthropological perspective where the way that the culture is built it doesn't feel like it's just like sort of a creative thought exercise of what if a culture was structured like this um I mean it is a bit that way but because obviously the whole thing is a massive thought exercise of what if Neanderthal had survived but it's really just it's this sense of he's literally just sat there and asked what if questions until a culture was formed and it's perfect for that reason so everything is taken into consideration how this biology of these these other creatures would affect the way that they like physically the the ramifications of physically being different how that would manifest itself in culture how that would manifest itself in what they value and how they interact in how they structure things in in everything so that is seamless it is absolutely seamless and the the literal differences that um he's researching how Neanderthals are different in terms of their their inability to maybe understand symbols the way that we do and isn't necessarily that doesn't mean they're dumber than us it doesn't mean they're more simplistic it's just not how they're wired and so their culture would necessarily reflect that and again the way this has done you don't have a narrator saying oh they these aren't Neanderthals and they can't understand symbols and therefore they do things differently they do it like this no it's just built into their society the way that they record history is more is reliant on oral history is more reliant on memory is shared memory um they are more long-lived so there's more there's a longer period to be able to spend memorizing and recording it in that way um and they they do have symbols they do have some rudimentary kind of i don't want to say written language but written form of communication but it's not their strong suit necessarily and there's just so many details in terms of how they would be different from us and it feels real it feels so real and even though they're very distinctly different from from uri or from the southerners which would be uh who we would be descended from because what we do spend most of the book with the anachemes so you're necessarily more invested in their side of things because you're with them more but just in the way that when i studied anthropology a lot of um things that if you just heard about a practice by itself or culture just a fact about it you would dismiss as being barbaric or primitive but upon reading a really in-depth um description a really in-depth ethnography about who these people are why they do this what led them to do this how that you know ties into their cultural identity and you might still like objectively say okay this is a barbaric thing to do it is a violent thing to do but it's not just that like there is a logic behind it it makes sense and these people are just savages like they it makes sense what they're doing in a very very complex cultural way so the anachem are quite violent this whole book is very violent i mean the southerners are violent as well most definitely um but they're not just these barbaric others they uh they have very distinct values very distinct cultural system cultural hierarchy and what they do makes sense for them and it makes sense to you as the reader as you're going through it because you really get a sense for it it's not just being told to you that this is what they value so they're doing this like you really feel their connection to their own value system in their own worldview uh and everything in what they in just how they approach everything what they value and what they're what they're willing to sacrifice for live for fight for live for etc and where this becomes most apparent how it how anthropological it is and i the anthropology major in me literally gobbled this up is that the southerner who is the main antagonist who is the sort of engine behind this invasion he's approaching the invasion from a very anthropological perspective um and i mean anthropology was born from the fact that the british empire needed to understand the cultures it was invading in order to invade them so that's what this guy is doing he needs to learn about the anachem if they're going to invade because to you have to understand your enemy essentially so he is studying the anachem and he wants to figure out what they think and feel and what they call things and how they understand things so that he can invade them better and so that does help the reader to understand but just that whole approach is he's not just saying you know where are they gonna attack and where is their main force and i need to destroy their weapons and that's obviously important and that's covered as well because it's a very war-centric book but he's taking the time to learn about nuances in their language about how they have words for things that we don't and why would they have these words and what these words means to them and what that says about what they value and how that's gonna inform how they react to an invasion and it's fucking phenomenal i just don't have other words for it this is the best built thing that i think i've ever read the story is fantastic it's on par with game of thrones it's on par with you know what an epic battle-centric you know fantasy but it's the building of the culture and and belief systems of the people here is just so seamless and perfect and it's i just it feels real like nothing these characters does falls outside of what you come to understand as being their culture it it's all part of it they never act outside of what you've come to understand as being their culture and it feels so real for that reason what they do even if it's even at times kind of hard to identify with because they are distinctly different from you know from uri you understand what they're where they're coming from and why they're doing it and it makes sense and it it's just it feels real and i am blown away just blown away so yeah um i highly highly highly recommend this book um it's just it's just so so good like obviously the anthro nerd in me is is loving it but even if you're not into anthropology i can't imagine that you'd read this and not appreciate on some level the intricacy of the world building the intricacy of the culture building and i cannot wait for the next book and if this is his debut this is his first book oh my god he better write some more it's all i gotta say about fan so yeah let me know in the comments down below how you feel about world building um if what i've just sort of been describing and oozing about appeals to you if that's what you look for in world building what your experience with good or bad world building has been if i've picked your interest or if you have already read this i'd love to talk about this book specifically but uh let me know your thoughts about anything and everything in the comments down below and i'll see you in my next video bye