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Honor, Regret, and Loyalty
Dark Wolf’s Howl centers around a young woman holding an ancient secret who finds herself on the run after helping with a theft that goes terribly wrong. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
The idea for the novel was that I wanted to take the traditional epic quest and spin it a little differently. I love the tabletop role playing game Shadowrun, and some of the themes and ideas come from the adventures I had with a group I ran with years ago.
Many characters wrestle with honor, regret, and loyalty. Why were those themes so central to this story?
I wanted to write a story that didn’t necessarily follow the epic quest trope, where a group is out to save the world. While they are out to save the world, I wanted the book to center more on their personal journeys. Honor, regret, and loyalty are all things I feel like people can relate to, whether it is dealing with a bad decision or struggling with a friend or family member who made such a decision and now needs help.
Dark Wolf’s Howl mixes adventure with political intrigue and class tension. How did you balance those elements while keeping the story focused on the characters?
Varya is supposed to be a fantasy version of our own world, where things are more complex than just right or wrong. Sometimes, in our world, you aren’t sure who the bad guys are, and I wanted my story to have a similar feel. You might start with one assumption and then change how you feel as you learn more information, letting the reader journey with the characters, their own thoughts and feelings on Varya changing as the character’s views change.
Can you give us a peek inside the second installment of the Varya series? Where will it take readers?
Diadrilath Selda, book two in the Varya series, the war is over, and our heroes struggle to reclaim their lives. So much has happened that they can’t just go back to doing what they were doing before, and in the midst of their personal struggles, there is a new mystery. Something else is happening, and they have to navigate the new threat while also still dealing with the aftermath of the events of the first book. The readers get to see more of the history of Varya, as well as dive deeper into the characters.
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When a reckless heist goes terribly wrong, a young woman finds herself branded a traitor by her own government, hunted not for her crime, but for the ancient secret she’s stumbled into. A secret powerful enough to shatter the kingdom’s foundations.
Now, as a long-exiled enemy rises to unleash vengeance and civilization teeters on the brink of annihilation, she must join forces with a mysterious rogue agent and a thrill-seeking adventurer. Together, they’ll face conspiracies, betrayals, and the weight of history itself.
But can one unlikely heroine find the courage to undo her mistake before it unleashes the end of the world?
Called “an ambitious and heartfelt modern fantasy” by Independent Book Review, Dark Wolf’s Howl blends modern society with familiar fantasy themes in an action packed adventure story.
Dark Wolf’s Howl
Brenton J. Lillie’s Dark Wolf’s Howl is a fantasy novel with a strong streak of political thriller and adventure running through it. It opens with an old catastrophe, when Queen Luorhidana tries to end a brutal war with magic and sacrifice, and then jumps forward into a modernized elven kingdom where a desperate young woman named Elisa helps with a theft that goes terribly wrong. From there, the book widens into a larger story involving buried history, class tension between elves and humans, a hidden scepter tied to ancient magic, and a coming war with the darkabolos. It’s a story about betrayal, guilt, and whether peace can be rebuilt after people have done real damage to one another.
What I enjoyed most was how earnest the book feels. Elisa’s opening section works because her bad decision is not treated like a clever caper. It feels sad almost from the first page. She is angry, boxed in by debt and class inequality, and trying to convince herself she deserves a shortcut, even while she knows she is crossing a line. I liked that the novel lets that choice stain everything that comes after. Dak and Shivani bring a different energy, more investigative and on the run, which gives the book a nice change in rhythm. Sometimes the prose is blunt, and sometimes the dialogue lands a little more directly than naturally, but there is also something refreshing about how plainly the book says what it means. It is not coy about honor, trauma, corruption, or regret. It puts those things on the table and makes the characters wrestle with them.
I also found myself respecting the author’s bigger choices, especially the way the novel keeps circling back to history as something alive and dangerous. The old war is not just a backstory. It leaks into the present and shapes who gets power, who gets blamed, and who is allowed to tell the story of the past. That gave the book more weight than a straightforward quest fantasy.
Elisa’s arc especially pulled me in. Her movement from reckless desperation toward a genuine understanding of sacrifice and redemption gives the novel its emotional spine, and by the end, I felt the book had earned its seriousness. This is a novel that wears its heart on its sleeve. If a reader wants subtle ambiguity at every turn, this may feel a bit too open-handed. I did not mind that much. In a book this driven by conscience, shame, loyalty, and grief, the directness often works.
By the time I finished Dark Wolf’s Howl, I came away thinking it would most appeal to readers who enjoy fantasy that mixes ancient magic and invented history with modern institutions, armed intrigue, and a very human redemption story. It is a good fit for someone who likes character-driven fantasy more than ornate worldbuilding for its own sake, and for readers who do not mind a story being sincere about moral injury and second chances. I would especially recommend it to people who enjoy fantasy adventures with political tension, emotional stakes, and a final stretch that leans hard into sacrifice and aftermath rather than easy triumph.
Pages: 211 | ASIN : B0CQRJZ1Y1
