Review: "Night of Wolves (The Paladins #1)" by David Dalglish

Title: Night of Wolves (The Paladins #1)
Author: David Dalglish
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "Wolf-men, savage creatures given humanoid form in an ancient war, mass along the Gihon River. Led by their packleader Redclaw, they seek to cross the river and claim a land of their own, slaughtering those that would stand in their way. Two paladins must lead the desperate defense to stop the invasion."
Source: I purchased this on my own.


Review: This one is a little tough for me. I liked the concept. I haven't seen enough paladins in my epic fantasy reading. I liked the "competing" faiths ideas, and the beacon of faith details. The wolf-men were interesting. I would have liked more on the history of it all, about how they ended up in the Wedge and so on. I got the idea, but would have liked more. And more on the gods.


Generally speaking, I was enjoying the story pretty well. The writing is smooth and flowed well. I was into the concepts, and I liked Jerico and Darius. The build up was good.


Then something went awry. I felt like he was setting up a scene, that a critical event at the end of the story would go a certain way, and I liked where I thought it was going. I liked the idea. It didn't happen that way and I didn't really like how it did happen. (I can't say too much without giving it away.)


I realize it's the author's choice to do as he likes, and he was clearly setting up the second book... but that didn't make me like it any better.


So, I'm actually rather disappointed, because I wanted to end up liking it better but the ending has just left me with a bit of a bitter taste that makes it hard to say I really liked the story over all. I don't know if I'll read the second book or not. I'd like to see what happens, but I was so disappointed in this one, I fear getting disappointed again.


Thus, even though it all went well up until then, I'm forced to give this a 3 Fireballs since I just can't get past my disappointment.