Wishlist Wednesday: The Wolf and the Woodsman
When is it out: 8th June, in the UK
What is it about: In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.
But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.
As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.
Why do I want to read it: I keep hearing good things about this book, and it’s one of the reasons why it appeared on my radar. It looks like it has a lot of fairytale connections and intertextuality, and this is something I really enjoy in fantasy fiction. I’ve heard comparisons to Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver, which I liked the sound of even if it didn’t live up to my expectations, and The Bear and the Nightingale, which is one of my favourites, so I’m definitely curious to see how it shapes up to those titles.
What is high on your wishlist this week? Join the discussion by leaving a message in the comment section down below <3
