The Wolftime

by Gav Thorpe

The Wolftime is book three in the Dawn of Fire series, focused on the Space Wolves. The blurb mentions the encroachment of the Orks, but they only rarely feature in the book. This is more about the integration of the Primaris marines into the Space Wolves chapter, a chapter who hold their tradition very close to their heart, and are distrusting of Guilliman and his new legion. It follows Gaius predominantly, but also looks at the politics of the key heroes of the space wolves chapter: Logan Grimnar, Njal Stormcaller, Krom Dragongaze, and of course Bjorn the Fell Handed.

Firstborn vs Primaris

The central character is Gaius, a Primaris marine with a deliberately un-space wolf like name who struggles to fit in with his Space Wolf firstborn marines. They reject him as one of their own and try to show him that respect has to be earned. It’s quite a promising dynamic, and one that makes sense. The Primaris marines are touted as being better in every way, but are unproven and ignorant of tradition. The danger of this dynamic is that it focuses too much on the negative bickering of characters (something space marine books are often at risk at). But I think for the most part The Wolftime stays on the right side of this.

Gaius is an interesting character, not one-dimensional, determined to prove himself despite the firstborn jibes. He’s a decent enough main character that you want to follow. Other characters are mainly for Space Wolves fans, and are as passionate as you’d expect. Arjac features fairly heavily at points and did have interesting perspectives too.

Tradition & Prophecy

An issue is that the book is titled after the big event in Space Wolf prophecy. Leman Russ returning - even from death. Of course it is fairly predictable that Games Workshop will bring back many of the Primarchs because it makes them money, and besides I imagine most fans of their respective chapters want the opportunity to play with their Primarch, as we have seen for the Ultramarines and Dark Agels (or the entire Horus Heresy tabletop game). But this book only has characters speak of The Wolftime – there’s no indication of it really happening, Logan Grimnar speaks of wanting to prove to his Primarch that he’s done a good job in his absence. Nor does this book really feature the Orks. I guess the blurb couldn’t really sell the book off of the politics of the Primaris integration into the Space Wolves chapter.

The integration is actually less boring than it sounds. It tees up a bit of an Imperial confrontation, and explores the relative politics of the more conservative and progressive space wolves. I was surprised that this was actually some of the best parts of this book, although I do think the earlier parts of scene setting and introducing characters definitely includes some filler. The book clocks in at over 500 pages when I feel it could have easily been 400 or maybe even less.

The action is fairly mundane and unmemorable, perhaps excepting some of Gaius’s actions. The fighting with Orks barely occurs and I wondered why it was even included – probably to have some kind of threat that the Space Wolves are focused upon, but it seemed like a plot excuse rather than being integrated effectively with the story, action or characters.

Final Score

The Wolftime takes a bit of a different angle to the books so far. The Wolftime is not here yet and this book feels like a stopgap for further events for the space wolves. I would say that although not necessarily a huge amount happens in this book, it was interesting enough later on. But that can’t help dispel that a lot of it seems to be fan service than effectively carrying through a decent thread of its own, albeit Gaius was a decent character. Although this book isn’t terrible it’s one most can skip, and fans of the space wolves might want to read but even then don’t expect much I the way of crucial events in this book itself.

5/10