Wolf of Withervale

Noss Saga, Book 1

By: Joaquín Baldwin

Narrated by: Magnus Carlssen

An ambitious, sweeping saga. As epic as it is queer.

Lago was only a child when the shapeshifter entrusted the wolf-like mask to his care—an artifact so powerful that it could come to shape the entire world of Noss. Now that he is coming of age, Lago is becoming ever more fearful of the ominous relics influence, of the empire who has scented its trail and is coming after it. Coming after him.

Aided by his best friend, an enigmatic scout, and his trusty dog, Lago seeks refuge in the vastness of the Heartpine Dome. The eighty-mile-wide structure had remained sealed for centuries, safeguarding more than mere secrets. Now that the domes entrails are stirring, the mysteries of the long-vanished Miscam tribes are coming to light, and the shapeshifting animal spirits are making their return.

Powers untold hide behind the blinkless eyeholes of the canid mask, powers that could tip the balance in the war. Lago is barely beginning to learn how to wield the dark visage, but he can already feel its potential. And he can feel a different change coming, deep in his marrow.

Wolf of Withervale is the first installment of the Noss Saga, an epic LGBTQ+ fantasy series.

©2023 Joaquín Baldwin (P)2024 Joaquín Baldwin

Fantastic in-depth Characters

I loved the characters of this series. Very well written and fun to listen to.

The best new thing in fiction

The story and characters are all so real. The pace is perfect and development is precisely what is needed. Amazing and engaging. I cannot recommend it enough.

Very amazing sorry

Def an imaginative story and worth a listen. Can’t wait to listen to the next book and the other books.

Detailed world and story leaving you with questions and edging you to continue forward

I really enjoyed reading this first book of the series. Each character is given a bit of time to breathe a little and just enough on a few to have you wonder. The world is beautifully described and detailed. While you don’t need to see the maps I’ll highly recommend that you do head over to the writers website and look at the additional materials as it really fleshes out this fantastic world of Noss Joaquin has created. He’s able to describe the goings on and daily life and uniqueness of the world with a flow that feels natural and doesn’t trail off the path. Each character is given a delightful bit of depth that makes each very memorable. Highly recommend folks give this series a read.

Exceptional writing and narration

An excellent story, made even better by the narration. Not sure who created the tunes used in narration, well done. Can’t wait for book 2.

Boring and Most Characters Were Useless

To start, I only listened to this cause the second book has an anthrophonic character on the cover, not many fantasy stories focus on them so I was excited and had to start here.

It was not worth the time. The main characters are rather bland and are stubborn about the wrong things at the wrong times. And the information dumps for many parts of the story made it clear the writter didn't trust the reader to figure things out along the way, many of the early chapters are nothing but in universe lore dumps for how things are the way they are now,

And the "romance" was just so unbelievable and felt forced for how the main relationship in the second half of the book was done. It was just so not well done and became the bane of me listening to the second half when their was no real chemistry between Lago and the Bear (forgot his name).

And every character who travels with Lago is either a hindrance or quickly stopped being useful or interesting and just another mouth to be talking when they go most ignored at times. Alaia was just a beacon for attention when they were on the run, and didn't ad much beside backing up Lago's annoying wave of thought for their situation, Bear was the most useless animal companion I have ever seen and caused more problems then helped. And the two older characters that could have been interesting,

The villains were the only one really progressing but they were so unlikable I hated going back to them. Nothing about them made me want to see what they were doing or if they were interesting since they quickly stopped chasing the MCs for this book.

Honestly not worth the time, has the promise of something more but boring as can be, and more annoying then anything.