First , this is a tale involving Morlock, which wasn't evident from the back cover blurbs.

Second, this is probably my favorite by James Enge. I've been reading his tales of Morlock since the short story days of Black Gate Magazine and RBE offerings such as Return of the Blade.

I don't know if the author has somehow upped his game, or if it's just that he has a lot more pages to write a story (as opposed to a short story). But this book is so full of memorable moments that I was continuously telling my nephew about all these bits and pieces of it. He was so interested he turned around and read it right after me and we had many fun discussions about the novel.

This tale has very well fleshed out characters, locations, society, etc. The characters in here are very interesting, and this is something I recall thinking when I read "Lies of Locke Lamora". It's very similar in that the society, the cities and locations, the mythology, the individual characters, all of it seems very well thought out and coherent.

I'm attempting to stay spoiler free here, but for a fully realized world and setting, this book has it. True, it's only one area of the world that Morlock inhabits, but I feel as if I have actually been there.

Since the book itself mentions on the back, I feel free to mention that the city the majority of the tale is spent is a "werewolf" city. But this city is more than that would appear on it's face. There are different physical differences among werewolves. Some can't change to human, some can't change to wolves, some are stuck in between. This is all handled with great humor. The society itself also has many differences among packs, and among male and female wolves. So you will enjoy the extremely humorous moments as all of these elements are explored. All kind of facets are explored, such as courting, marketplace, law and order, battles, prisons, mythology, music, language, you name it it's probably at least briefly covered somewhere in here. Politics is also a big part of this story, but trust me, werewolf politics is very fun and interesting. And the variety and creative use of insults and snark in this story keep the humorous feel going, even when there are extremely violent fights and battles going on.

And then there is the mysterious Morlock. This guy is a very different kind of character - i'm not even sure he's a hero. He seems to be somewhat anti-social, rarely wants to speak, and usually doesn't bother to explain himself. One key problem he has is alcohol. It's been hinted at in many previous stories. One of the really interesting things in this story is exploring that particular vice. What happens when someone is an ex-alcoholic, and they are so tempted to drink? What happens if they do drink, and lose themselves in alcohol? And what is it that makes them realize that they are on the wrong path, and have to somehow break free of it again?

As i've seen before, Morlock seems to run into other Makers, and then get into a pissing contest with them, which is always in good fun.

I can highly recommend this book if you've previously enjoyed Sword and Sorcery, stories such as Lies of Locke Lamora, Fantasy with political intrigue, well realized worlds with very well done character development, suprises and curve balls aplenty, then you can't go wrong here.

**** SPOILER****
It is very hard to write a review of this book without spoilers, since there are so many great moments. Here is one that had me laughing. I'm going to have to paraphrase as someone else has the book.

At one point, Morlock is stuck in a cell for a long long time. He's tried all kinds of things to get out. He's been in there probably for a month or more.
Eventually he notices that there is some writing in the walls. So, being a Maker, I'm thinking cool, he can read that and unmake it. But when he ultimately
scratches away grime and junk that is covering up the writing , it says something like "I, Iacombs, built this prison. Sorry about that, prisoner" lol

Speaking of Iacombs, there is a hillarious part where this guy is arguing with a brass head in a library. The brass head seems to be something like a search engine, but it fusses with Iacombs as he is trying to locate a book. At first, it brings back way to many results, and they argue, and he gets it to narrow the results, several times. At some point, the brass head says something like "I'd rather be a disembodies brass head". The other guy says, "Good, i grant your wish. now bring me the frelling book" lol

And the insults that the werewolves spout out continuously are so funny i couldn't wait to see what the next one would be. One of the early ones was something like 'you never-wolf, ape fingered, walrus fondling pimp' lol

**** END SPOILER**** ( )

Fantasy novel set in a werewolf timocracy.

A solid fantasy novel with interesting characters and a well thought out world. Takes place primarily in the werewolf lands but centers around a human character that ends up there after a prison break. The subplot involving the Strange Gods is a little bit too thin but is interesting none the less. ( )