The Wolf of Oren-Yaro

By: K. S. Villoso

Narrated by: Catherine Ho

"Intimate and epic. It compels you to read on." (Evan Winter, author of The Rage of Dragons)

"Villoso's cunning, exciting debut is a new fantasy epic that readers will clamor for." (Library Journal, starred review)

From "a powerful new voice in fantasy" (Kameron Hurley) comes the tale of a queen who must unite her divided land, even if she's hated by the very people she's trying to protect.

"They called me the Bitch Queen, the she-wolf, because I murdered a man and exiled my king the night before they crowned me."

Born under the crumbling towers of her kingdom, Queen Talyien was the shining jewel and legacy of the bloody War of the Wolves. It nearly tore her nation apart. But her arranged marriage to the son of a rival clan heralds peace.

However, he suddenly disappears before their reign can begin, and the kingdom is fractured beyond repair.

Years later, he sends a mysterious invitation to meet. Talyien journeys across the sea in hopes of reconciling their past. An assassination attempt quickly dashes those dreams. Stranded in a land she doesn't know, with no idea whom she can trust, Talyien will have to embrace her namesake.

A Wolf of Oren-yaro is not tamed.

"Intricate, intimate, and intensely plotted." (Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld)

The Chronicles of the Bitch Queen

The Wolf of Oren-yaro

The Ikessar Falcon

The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng

©2019 K. S. Villoso (P)2020 Orbit

Critic reviews

"The Wolf of Oren-yaro is intricate, intimate, and intensely plotted. Full of subtle poignancy and remarkably genuine characters—even the rotten ones. I loved this book."—Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld

"A powerful new voice in epic fantasy. Villoso deftly creates an intricate and compelling world of high fantasy intrigue and adventure dominated by a crafty, whip-smart heroine determined to unite her kingdom at any cost."—Kameron Hurley, author of The Light Brigade

"Intimate and epic. It compels you to read on, because it's a story about people not characters, civilizations not settings, and deadly power plays not sanitized throne-room politics."—Evan Winter, author of The Rage of Dragons

Potential held back by foolish protagonist

There are several good things to say about this book, such as a detailed setting, interesting side characters, and nefarious antagonists. Despite the parts of the book I liked, there's no way that I could write a review without pointing out the extremely frustrating idiot plot that pervades every scene featuring any Oren-Yaro characters, including the protagonist, Queen Talyien.

In this book, the author goes on at length about how the Oren-Yaro tribe values honor. Yet, every single chapter has one or more people from the tribe doubting their allies' intentions and setting off alone, to their great detriment. After repeating this several times, Talyien finally decides to stop turning her back on her allies. This would be a good thing, except that the Oren-Yaro characters then insist on picking fights with their ever-forgiving allies rather than showing a single ounce of trust.

Frankly, their petty, childish behavior makes we think that: in fact, no, Talyien doesn't deserve to be queen, no one from the Oren-Yaro tribe does. I don't know if I'll read the second book, but if I do, I really hope that Talyien and her tribesmen mature into functional adults.

Complex characters draw you in

Storyline & plot are compelling and interesting. The characters are strong, complex and noteworthy. A wonderful book that makes you want to read a three in the series!

Absolutely all the stars.

OOooooohhh boy here we go. If this book isn't on your to-read fantasy list, you're missing out.

Listen. I'm always a bit nervous when I pick up an adult epic fantasy purely because so often, much of it feels inaccessible or hard to follow due to pages and pages of meticulous world building and heaps of muddied prose. Rest assured friends. The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is an easy (although heart-wrenching) read. It's tightly paced with the perfect mixture of intrigue and mystery to keep those pages turning.

Basically prepare for a R I D E.

The story starts when Queen Talyien, our heroine, gets a message from the husband who walked out on her (before the coronation, mind you) (oh, and we don't yet know why). Five years ago, they were married and were SUPPOSED to unite two rival clans, but he left her and their son, and she's hardly heard from him since. Until now. So yeah, he asks her to travel across the sea to meet her, and doesn't say why. Tali, thinking she can try and reconcile things, decides to pack up and go.

And meet him, she does. For like two seconds until an assassination attempt separates them both.

Thus Tali (Queen Talyien) is lost on the streets of a foreign city (alone, because her guards lost her in the chaos). She barely escaped with her life.

With no food, no money, and no one to trust, Tali gets entangled with a con artist (Khine). Khine is cunning, a bit sassy, and SO SMOL ermergersh. But Tali doesn't trust him, so they part ways. But yeah not for long because turns out she can't trust anyone else either, and Khine happens to appear again in a rather ... desperate situation. (Trust me, it's anything but convenient.) (OH and yeah there are some sparks.)

I don't want to say much more, but what follows is a series of wild events that reveal who was REALLY behind the assassination, who betrayed Tali along the way, and even more, what really happened between her and the prince (her husband). We get little pieces of their story along the way, but it isn't until the end that you understand what actually drove them apart.

You guys. The TWISTS. At every turn, I'm thinking 'Ok yeah this is what happened and so-and-so was totally lying' BUT I WAS ALWAYS WRONG. AH. And then the end hits you with these massive reveals that just leave you wanting to pick up the biggest axe and chop everyone to pieces.

Gah. I bawled. I can't even express the amount of emotions that ripped through me during those final chapters.

So yeah. Tali? I freaking adore her. This series is called 'Chronicles of the Bitch Queen' which initially made me wary, because I sometimes have a hard time connecting with characters who just want to cut everyone down. Yeah, yeah, I know everyone loves a 'fierce, mean, unapologetic heroine' - and don't get me wrong, I have before. But I'm just very soft hearted and I have a hard time relating to them. BUT. TALI. You guys. I connected to her so deeply. She isn't heartless by any stretch - if anything, her heart, the love she felt, made me feel for her sooo much. And every bit of vengeance and justice she brings (and WILL bring) will have you screaming her name.

To me that shows the skill of K.S. Villoso and her writing. She knows how to drag you under with the feels and make you crave SO many things. AH.

ALSO KHINE 2020. KHINNEEEEE.

Okay *breathes*

I'm fine.

PS... the audio is fantastic too!

On a last note, I took some time and read the author's story and why she wrote this book the way she did and I highly recommend doing so. She's incredible.

A Betrayal-Driven Deeply Personal Fantasy

The pacing is so good and I love Talyien so much. She goes through so many things and just...I hope she gets to rest soon.

Twisty

I enjoyed the story. There were some really good twists to keep you guessing.

Amateur performance, too breathy, irks.

The story is great, and I would love to pick up the second book to listen to, but the narration on this one is pretty tough to get through. The reader has the wrong intonations constantly, is frustratingly breathy and whispery in the most ridiculous places. It appears to be in an attempt to "act" but this is not the place for it, and even if it was, it was badly done. The story is complex and interesting and I can see it building up into good journey long term, if only I could bring myself to listen to that voice again. Nope.

A little disappointing

For a queen supposedly raised by a tough father, she descends into a person that has no confidence but all blubber. Would have liked her to show more internal intelligence and fortitude in her actions. Won’t be getting volume 2.

Great worldbuilding, story all over the place

I found the characters and the story being all over the place. Lots of great action though.

Unique fantasy storytelling style

Let me start this off with saying if you do not like books that TELL instead of SHOW, you might want to skip this one. The huge majority is the main character, Queen Talyien, telling us stories and memories from her past, filling in on the history of the different clans: wars, agreements, machinations. I am planning to continue the series, so it is entirely possible the follow up novels might change over to present happenings and show us the story as it unfolds.

I will admit, I wasn't sure I was going to like the chosen style for this narrative, but doggone it if I wasn't captured by the plight of Talyien. I almost found all that she went through a bit outlandish and unbelievable, but the author did a fantastic job of filling me in on the areas Talyien found herself in, the things that happened made sense because of the reputation and history of those parts. (I hope that made sense, lol)

I also really love scheming political plots, long term scheming and secret alliances in fantasy novels, so this sucker fed those addictions in all the best possible ways.

The main character annoyed me a fair amount. She had this fearsome reputation as Queen, but from what I saw, she was a bit of a weak character. It didn't make sense to me how she could make some of the decisions she made because they were just so contradictory according to her inner thoughts and actions I was privy to. I will say that all worked itself out in the end for the most part - I think a lot of readers would be perfectly satisfied with how she was written, but I'm still squinting at her development a bit.

Looking forward to the continuation of this story in the next book!

The narrator did a great job with the pronunciations.

Excellent story! Excellent performance!

I was NOT expecting THAT twist!

I hope the same narrator is used for the sequel!