The Wolf Within is the sixth short story in Black Library’s ongoing Space Wolves serial and the second by Rob Sanders, picking up where The Darkness of Angels left off. With the help of his Dark Angel allies Krom Dragongaze has made it off Commorragh, and before long sees Ulrik the Slayer arrive to return him to his chapter. Despite initial hostilities the Wolves and the Angels soon find themselves united in purpose, tracking down a traitor Marine who might hold a clue to Logan Grimnar’s location.
Just when the overall story was starting to pick up, this is something of a backwards step, largely devoid of Sanders’ normal high standards and feeling a bit rushed and incomplete. More than that though it just feels contrived and artificial, as though each plot point is being ticked off a list. Remember this started off as the hunt for the Great Wolf, but we’ve now had Dark Eldar raiders, gladiator pits on Commoragh, enigmatic Dark Angels, a mysterious traitor who’s somehow linked to Grimnar’s disappearance…it’s all become really tangled and unfocused, and feels more like a shaggy dog story than a single overarching plot. To be fair to Sanders the pacing of this story as a standalone piece is pretty good, although there’s a considerable jump in the middle that feels like it’s missed out a chunk of detail, but it really suffers from the limitations of the wider story. It’s hard to see how this is going to get much better from here, sadly.
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