The Wereling Triligy - Stephen Cole

I picked up Stephen Cole's Wereling trilogy (which consists of Wereling: Wounded, Wereling: Prey and Wereling: Resurrection) from the library after reading and enjoying his Doctor Who novels (The Feast of the Drowned, The Monsters Inside and The Art of Destruction) as I was curious to see what he did with a non-Whoniverse story.

The trilogy starts with 16 year old Tom Anderson who is on a holiday with his parents and younger brother, Joe. He doesn't want to be with them, he wants to be on holiday with his mates and he has a blazing row with his parents before going off to the river. He's been warned that he shouldn't attempt to swim in the river because the currents are far too strong, but he decides to go for a dip anyway. Unfortunately he disturbs a bear and ends up trying to swim across the river to escape; since the current is too strong he gets washed down river. Fortunately he survives his near-drowning, but unfortunately he falls into the hands of Marcie and Hal Folan, who live on an island in the river with their two teenage children. And the Folans just happen to be werewolves. Tom doesn't know it, but rather than treating him for his near drowning, Marcie, who used to be a nurse, is working up some old magic to turn Tom into a werewolf, intending that Tom will mate with her daughter Kate, who is a lupine pureblood and won't develop her werewolf side until she's mated with a werewolf. However, Tom is a silverblood - his blood is naturally resistant to werewolf magic and when he's finally "turned" into a werewolf he becames a wereling - a werewolf whose wolfish nature is in balance with his humanity, which means that he's not just a cold-blooded killer like most 'wolves. When Tom discovers what's happened to him, via a conversation with Wesley, Kate's younger brother, he attempts to escape. But he finds himself forced to fight Wesley, and when Kate tries to intervene, wolf-Wesley turns on his sister and Tom, because his wolf nature is in balance with humanity, tries to stop him, but Wesley gets killed. Tom and Kate then escape from the Folan family home, but they don't have an easy time getting away because Marcie puts the word out amongst the extensive lupine community that Kate and Tom are on the run. They find themselves running into various 'wolves who'd be only too glad to capture them and hand them over to Marcie in the hopes of earning the favour of such a long-established 'wolf family.


In addition, there's Takapa, a scrawny albino 'wolf who has a sick vision for the future of 'wolves everywhere across America. He's working in New York, trying to build up a stock of newly turned 'wolves (homeless people and street kids) who serve as fight bait for other 'wolves whom he's trying to turn into superwolves. The superwolves are fed on dosed blood samples that make them crazy with bloodlust and enhances their strength. They team up with a small gang of street kids and one Stacy Stein, a doctor who specialises in creating the blood that Takapa is feeding to his superwolves - although she doesn't know that her work is being tampered with by another doctor. Tom is also searching for Jicaque, a Native American, who is descended from a long-line of shamans who have always worked to contain the 'wolf community. He can cure Tom, since he's a newly-turned 'wolf, but it will take a lunar month to do so - and in the meantime, Marcie is still hunting for Kate and Tom, and Takapa is causing havoc everywhere he goes. Tom and Kate, together with Jicaque, Stacy and a real estate agent named Adam Blood (whom Kate knows from certain internet chatrooms she used to frequent) soon find themselves facing Takapa who's attempting (successfully) to resurrect Peter Stubbe, an ancient 'wolf who is better known to scientists and historians as the Konig Man, and they find themselves involved in a major showdown in Chicago, in which everyone's life is at stake.

This trilogy was a gripping read and I enjoyed them enough to make a mental note to watch out for further books, whether Doctor Who ones or not, by Stephen Cole. The Wereling Trilogy: Wounded, The Wereling Trilogy: Prey and The Wereling Trilogy: Resurrection are also available from Amazon.com.