Coll is Wolf. He lives, breathes and believes this. After all, Wolf is his entire life.

Wolf is the strongest machine-like animal in Will’s world and he is honoured to work and live upon her. There are many others alongside Coll, including the tech experts, or Tocks as they are called, who ensure the smooth running of Wolf and who also take care of the compound called anthryl. This is dark liquid metal that brings the metal armour, pistons and machinery within Wolf, to life.

Coll is also grateful to be on Wolf as their leader – named Alpha, is also his mother. He knows without her fighting for his right to have some of that precious anthryl, he would have been tossed off Wolf, and left alone at the mercy of the elements. His anthryl runs his prosthetic arm and leg, but also marks him as weak and different. To keep his place on Wolf he constantly tries to prove his place to his fellow crew and Alpha.

Crossing their lands, they encounter other Constructs with their own crews – all looking for supplies and ready to fight for them. Hyena, Raven, Puma, Boar all have their own territories and there are others, further afield.

When a battle goes wrong and Coll finds himself unable to get back to Wolf, he meets others on their own. Rieka from Wolf. Fillan from Boar, and Brann from Raven. Can they put aside their prejudices honed since birth, to work together? After all, it will be the only way to survive.

Action. Team work, and hive-mind battles. A dystopian original world where humans live on giant machines that look and behave like animals. A hive-mind like force between the humans on board, works with a liquid metal compound, binding their actions and thoughts together.

Their world is a harsh one, and the only way they know how to survive is to fight each other for the tools and resources they need. The best way to achieve this is to kill another Construct Animal and take their parts.

Main character Coll is twelve years of age, but seems much more mature. Despite his mother being the leader (Alpha) of their crew aboard Wolf, she is cold and distant. The only way Coll knows she cares even a little, is how she fought to get him what he needed to survive with a limb difference.

This difference makes Coll more determined and tougher, in order to prove himself. It was interesting to see him change from the boy he was born to be, eg. a part of Wolf, into who he needed to be – leader of another crew. This new crew had proven themselves to him with their loyalty, courage and hive-mind of their own.

Looking forward to the next book in this series and learning more about this imaginative world.

Author – Alastair Chisholm

Age – 10+

(2024, Allen & Unwin, Nosy Crow, Fantasy, Science, Action, Friendship, Animals, Courage, Series, Wolf, Raven, Boar, Dragon, Journey, New friends, Machines, Beliefs, Fight, Battle, Think as one, Team, Crew, Limb Difference, Prosthetics, Future, Survival of the Fittest, Dystopian, Technology, Willpower)