[Book Review] Imperium Lupi by Adam Browne

I just read through this giant book twice in a row, and my TL;DR is that it's a must-read for anyone that loves fantasy, furry or not. That's not to say it's an all-time masterpiece, but it's surprisingly strong in almost every aspect, and I think almost anyone will have a great time with its unique blend. I picked up an EPUB copy from Etsy, and the ~$7 price tag is a steal for its quality and length. It's a single book that's roughly the length of a trilogy (400k words), but I finished my first read in ~5 days because I couldn't put it down. The first 1/3 of the story is relatively straightforward and gets you comfortable with the world and characters, but as the story continues it slowly starts rolling faster and faster until it crashes through the finish line. There are very few, if any, dull moments in this book. The world-building is great, and the author describes every single object, character, and action in an appropriate amount of detail, which makes it easy to visualize every scene. They also never rush through a scene just to keep the story moving, which you may love or hate depending on how invested you are in the characters and world. This is clearly the passion project of someone who really valued their world and loved fleshing it out no matter how many pages it would take.

A few things to note off the bat:

• The concept art for this book has heavily-bara depictions of all the characters, but this doesn't come across in the story at all. I didn't see the concept art until after my first read and was shocked at how different my mental image was. Characters are usually initially described as muscled/athletic, but not in an extreme or even unusual way. Most characters are as strong as you would expect a guard/soldier to be, with hyenas in particular being shaped more like traditional gnolls. One character's large size is intentionally brought up repeatedly as a plot point (very early on). After a character is introduced they seldom reference their musculature again, but if a new character is meeting an old character for the first time you'll often get a re-description of the entire character from their perspective. Point being, the story is not going to force you to imagine the characters as bara or not bara, and I assume that either way will be supported by the text.

• The characters in the story are anthropomorphic wolves, hyenas, pigs, rabbits, etc, but there's not really a strong plot reason aside from being a more palatable metaphor for racism and classism. They're mostly anthro for style and aesthetic, and the author does an excellent job with their descriptions so you can easily imagine every character's unique visuals. I don't think you need to be a furry to identify with these characters - they're just complex people who happen to have tails.

• There are same-sex relationships in the story, but they're only ever vaguely-mentioned, and any sort of tangible same-sex interactions between characters are almost completely non-existent. Moreover, half of the references to same-sex relationships are negative, as in this world same-sex relationships usually equate to being someone's "beta" (don't worry) and most characters think that's degrading. Some of the characters momentarily find themselves nearing "beta" relationships and usually react negatively or with regret. Conversely, many characters in the story seem to be gay/bi/pan, but same-sex relationships are never shown as having the same weight in society as a "normal" hetero relationship (of which there are several prominent ones that we follow). The "homophobia" present in the book's universe is portrayed as old-fashioned and negative, but by mostly showing our own characters being vaguely homophobic and never showing any detailed positive same-sex relationships I feel the book missed a large opportunity to make an actual point. Even the subtext behind most of the "positive" same-sex relationships is a little troubling. I hope this is explored better in the next book, because the author was clearly trying to include these elements into the story in a constructive way, but never committed hard enough to make an impact.

• There are no sex scenes or anything of an explicit nature, though there's one fade-to-black. A mature teenager could handle this book, though the writing and plotlines may be a little too complex if they're not a strong reader.

Imperium Lupi is set in a fantasy/steampunk city where the main source of power and manufacturing causes atrocious pollution, "rotting" the citizens and causing them to live much shorter lifespans full of pain and suffering. It's not a happy world, and it's not a happy book. Thankfully, the characters in the story are almost always charming and upbeat, having long since resigned to their fate in this world, but the subtext of the overall universe and plot has a crushingly-negative trajectory. I often found myself longing for characters to catch a break or apologize for the negativity they inflict on each other. This book frequently grabbed my heart and sometimes brought tears to my eyes for a variety of reasons - plot twists, injuries/deaths, unexpected kindness, and oftentimes the cruelty of their world. Even on my second read I was unable to get through the fable of the "dayfly" without breaking down all over again.

The world-building is one of the highlights of the book for me, and learning all the mundane details about this society was one of my favorite parts. It clearly feels like the author created a robust world and history first, then set the story in just a small portion of it, occasionally showing glimpses of the world beyond. I would read any number of spin-off books set in this universe, as it seems there's still so much left to explore. There's a soft and semi-scientific "magic system" that isn't terribly complex but does have dangerous and long-lasting consequences whenever it's used, which keeps combat mildly fresh while contributing to long-term character growth.

There are a few dozen characters that the story is told through, and almost everyone that gets a name is detailed, realistic, and sympathetic. Aside from a few obvious protagonists, we're often not sure if most characters are truly "good" or "bad". This world isn't that simple, and characters perform misdeeds based on their own complex morality and on what you even define as a misdeed. Despite often being in conflict with each other, all characters think of themselves as "the good guys", which leaves the reader to decide which characters to cheer for - sometimes changing on a scene-by-scene basis. The PoV swaps seamlessly between characters within a scene, which takes a little bit of getting used to, and there are usually 2-6 sub-plots/scenes occurring simultaneously that the narrative interleaves into and out of whenever it feels like. Thankfully, it rarely leaves scenes on cliffhangers, so it usually doesn't feel frustrating to swap somewhere else. I think the main reason I couldn't put this book down is because there was always something fresh and interesting happening with this method.

I would say the main themes of the story are political scheming and mystery - every character in the book has their own unique motivations, and many of them are trying to achieve their own goals. As the story starts rolling, there's an endless onslaught of schemes, traps, and double-crosses that have long setups and payoffs. I was able to keep up with about 85% of the schemes on my first read, but still often forgot about pieces hinted at 800 pages earlier. I read most of this book in a few days, but if you're stretching this out over longer time spans I imagine it will be more difficult to keep track of everyone's plans. On my second read I had a much easier time following everyone's actions with the foresight of their goals, and I especially found the first half of the book rewarding to re-read as there were many small hints and character actions that couldn't possibly hold any value without the later story's context - e.g. a twitch of a character's nose at the mention of a certain topic. Unfortunately, the second half of the book was mostly void of any additional details that I would have missed on my first read.

By the final act of the book there are so many sub-plots occurring that it's hard to imagine everything will come together properly, but the story does mostly stick the landing and I'll give it an 8/10 in that regard. I enjoyed the journey and finale, but I felt like the post-finale was very rushed compared to the rich detail of the rest of the book. This is potentially justifiable by the fact that there's another book coming, so we aren't saying goodbye to these characters forever.

If you haven't guessed by now, this story is an easy 5/5 for me and is being archived as one of my favorite books. I absolutely cannot wait for the second book.

One neutral criticism: This is a self-pub book and there are a lot of typos that were really distracting on my first read. I won't hold it against the book because these things happen as self-pub. The typos were never indicative of poor writing quality, just simple mistakes. On my second and third reads I documented every error I saw and the author is currently working to get them all fixed, hopefully sometime in the beginning of 2024. If you've got an earlier copy and it's bothering you, check back after a while.