Wolf of Shadows

by Whitley Strieber

In the terrible aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, a wolf and a human woman form a mysterious bond that brings each close to the spirits of the shattered earth

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Horror, Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Wolves

105 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

American writer best known for his novels The Wolfen,The Hunger and Warday and for Communion, a non-fiction description of his experiences with apparent alien contact. He has recently made significant advances in understanding this phenomenon, and has published his new discoveries in Solving the Communion Enigma.

Strieber also co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell, which inspired the blockbuster film about sudden climate change, The Day After Tomorrow.

His book The Afterlife Revolution written with his deceased wife Anne, is a record of what is considered to be one of the most powerful instances of afterlife communication ever recorded.

Reviews

[Darrell Saunders]

Wolf of Shadows, my thoughts. We are on the brink of a real possibility of nuclear war in the world. All because of the stupidity of the leaders of the world. It's very hard to make peace with one another. But so easy to destroy one another. If I survive a nuclear holocaust, hope one day, I might come across a wolf with the mentality just like Wolf of Shadows. Between us, we may survive, and live in a brave new world of peace. Along the way, there will be death. But never forget, there is always Hope to live for?

[Grady Hendrix]

The guy who says he was abducted by aliens wrote a book about a nuclear war told from the point of view of a wolf. And it's actually pretty great.

[Ryan]

- Imagine a "Call of the Wild" meets a Juvenile version of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" but with mother-daughter protagonists.
- At Just over 100 pgs. a quick and enjoyable read.
- It gets a little intense near the middle, like all good stories, so I'd recommend it for the 10+ crowd.
- Interesting spin on the "Nuclear Holocaust" genre.

[WolfLover]

An unusual children’s book in that it has quite a dark tone, being set after a nuclear holocaust. The titular wolf is leading his pack in search of a new home and ends up forming a tentative relationship with a couple of humans wandering the wilds. It has rather too many factual errors for me (such as Wolf of Shadows apparently “sharing” his mate with another wolf), and the ending is a bit of a disappointment.

[Barbara M]

This was another book that I used in my Young Adult Lit class for a booktalking exercise. It was an exciting book and I enjoyed reading it. I would cautiously recommend it to the more advanced young adult readers that visited our public library since it is about a near end of the world. The relationship between and wolves and the human was intriguing and the story was real enough to be scary. Very inventive. This is not one of Streiber's top books but is still a good read. Not so youth-oriented that it can't be read by adults!

[Timothy Farring]

I very much enjoyed this book. It is a timeless classic and can be used in many different contexts. I would use this book in a history class, when going over the Cold war.
When I read this I thought that having it be through the perspective of the wolf was a nice touch, because he didn't always understand what was going on so it gave a nice element of foreshadowing.

[Mike]

Whitley Strieber is a pretty weird guy, and this is a most unusual cold war post-nuclear apocalypse story. Told from the point of view of a wolf in Northern Minnesota who adopts a human mother and daughter, it illustrates the ecological devastation that a nuclear winter would bring. Unique in the post-apocalyptic genre.

[Amy]

-1 for appropriation of Indigenous culture, but a decent book. In the context of the 80s, apocalypse science fiction had a different feature: nuclear war. One character says they learned about nuclear winter in school. I enjoyed the way the wolves were written, even if the dialogue was written in English for readability reasons.

[Jennifer]

it's about a nuclear holocaust told from the perspective of an alpha wolf. quite moving. read it a long time ago so i do not remember too much detail. go to: http://www.beyondcommunion.com/warday... for a fuller description.

[Peacegal]

The Cold War inspired much nuclear fallout fiction, including in the YA genre. This is a moving and thought-provoking book about human and wolf families struggling to survive side-by-side in the aftermath of an atom bombing.

[Daniel Kukwa]

An extremely intimate & visceral experience of a post-nuclear apocalypse, told from the most unique & unexpected of viewpoints. A fascinating morality play, and very often gut-wrenching, this is a tiny book that punches far above its weight class.

[Liam]

this is a good read, if a little short

its about a family adopted by a pack of wolves after a nuclear holocaust scenario

[Brian]

A scary yet realistic look at life after a nuclear strike and the following nuclear winter.

[Ezekiel Carsella]

good post apocalyptic fiction. it had some Jack London flare but the ending stunk.

[Diana Gagliardi]

Post-apocalyptic from the view of a wolf who adds two humans to his pack in order to save them from a nuclear winter.

[Otis Doss III]

Short and sweet. Can be read in an evening. It's a fun read, especially if you don't try to read too much into it.

[Ray]

this book is real life man vs bear and proof why women would choose the bear. the hunters stole a plane from a starving woman and her child (who’s youngest had just died, mind you), and then died because they didn’t listen to her knowledge (100% deserved), and the strangers that approached them later threatened to kill them instead of joining forces, while the WOLVES led the humans to safety! all these human characters genuinely pissed me off in a massive way because these men pride themselves on being “protectors” and they are literally just abandoning people in need. a scary read given our current political climate, and definitely representative of how animal’s nature is often better than humans (specifically better than cis straight white men).

was not expecting the wolf polycule

[Adam Webster]

This is an interesting story from the point of view of a wolf that had been living at the edge of a pack, mostly as a lone wolf, decides he needs to save his pack and how he allows a couple of humans to join and they work together to travel to survive the start of a nuclear winter.

I wish it was longer, but is one that I had read a couple decades ago from the library, and had stuck with me over the years. I had forgotten the name of the story, but eventually was able to find it again. It was just as powerful a story of survival as I remember it, and recommend everyone read it!

[Lars Hellberg]

A beautiful tale, even in its tragedy. To see the world from the wolf's perspective was interesting, but personally I could have done without the humans' dialogue. I feel that the story would have worked anyway.

[Mark Williams]

Good to revisit this, from one apocalyptic era to another

This 80s era brief, apocalyptic tome, reminds us once again -- to slightly paraphrase Muir -- of the many reasons to be on the side of the wolves.

[Charlotte]

eh. Not enough characterization for my taste.

[Ryan]

Interesting book. Nice twist looking at things from the wolf's perspective, especially his relationship with the human female.

[Todd R]

Another of Whitley's pre-Communion books that is really good. In fact I'll probably hang on to this one and read it every few years.

[Sarah Brooks]

It’s interesting to have the story told through the point of view of the wolves as an atomic bomb goes off. They aren’t equipped with the understanding the humans are but they just fight to survive.

[Alex T.]

Actual rating 3.5/5

A solid post-apocalyptic novel about a pack of wolves and two humans they befriend trying to survive. I liked the main three characters (Wolf of Shadows, the human mother and her daughter) and their relationship was pretty wholesome despite the horrid situation they find themselves in.

However, I do wish that there was maybe a bit more focus on Wolf of Shadows as a character (the book, despite being told from his POV, steers its focus heavily on the human characters). Also Wolf of Shadows' pack doesn't play that big a role, sadly. There's only three wolves of note (Wolf of Shadows, the Gray and the Female) in his pack and two of them feel relatively minor. It's cool that this book is xenofiction, but it could've done more with it being told from a wolf's POV by not focusing so heavily on the humans and being more about the pack.

It also has an open, not-to-be-continued ending so if that isn't your cuppa tea maybe skip this one. I do think it's good overall, though.

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...

[Bryan at Postmarked from the Stars]

4.5/5 stars. This is a quick yet rewarding story of survival and transformation. Stands out for blending post-apocalyptic tension with a wolf’s perspective on humanity’s collapse. Definitely recommend it for a 10-year-old and up! I’ve been reading a lot of WW3 books this year and was super impressed by how this one challenges our understanding of resilience in the face of nuclear apocalypse.

[Pam Baddeley]

Classed as YA but a very grim book of the aftermath of nuclear war, with nuclear winter and a mother and child having to be 'adopted' by a wolf pack to have any chance of survival with even the animals being picked off gradually. Very sad.

[Paul]

#96 1987