Best werewolf novels

Victor Pelevin's The Sacred Book of the Werewolf. It may not be what you're looking for, and it's not Pelevin's best, but it's still great.

It's strange that, despite an excellent body of work, Pelevin is hardly ever mentioned here. It's really a shame that more people aren't familiar with him.
 
not werewolf persay but shapeshifter is more like

well she is an erotic novelist
Kate Douglas
she writes Wolf Tales 1 to like 10 or 11
they're good
but like i said it is erotica
or you could go for the werewolves in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton
 
Wolfs' Hour is great.I also read a book that was not were-wolf traditional, but was top notch. I can not remember the name, but this couple are in the tropics, and are bitten by some insect. They end up as something similar to were-wolves.
CDN
 
Brian Lumley’s Necroscope: The Lost Years Volume 1 & 2 have the primary villain as a werewolf instead of a vampire for a change and are pretty good. His werewolf’s, like his vampires are not glittery, winsome loners trying to come to terms with their sad lot in life but big bad monsters that would bite of your face if they could.
You’d probably be lost if hadn’t read the rest of the series though.
 
I am currently reading Patricia Briggs' Moon Called. While the main character is not a werewolf herself, a large portion of the supporting characters are and it is a very wolf-centric book.

Almost done with it so I will say that it is written well enough, and I like the character of Mercy Thompson as well. However, at this point I am unsure of whether or not I will be continuing with the series as it has failed to really capture my imagination and there are a number of other books I am looking forward to reading.

I do not rule going back to it eventually, and I would still recommend it to people looking for a somewhat light werewolf fix.
 
I'm a little surprised...

Lycanthia - Tanith Lee hasn't been mentioned. I haven't read it, but the description on Amazon involves werewolves and as I recall reading in some writing book it had werewolves.

Howling Mad - Peter David hasn't been mentioned either, it was an interesting concept. Nothing too radical in the writing or anything, but decent.

Looks like there is a new series by David Wellington, as well. Haven't read or heard of, but when you search amazon by keyword 'werewolf' two of his come up. They also have angry looking wolves on the cover despite the Twilight-style black background...

There are also the werewolf series novels that are probably out-of-print that came through World of Darkness' tie-ins. Watcher, The Last Battle, The Silver Crown, Call to Battle (sort of), The third book in the Hunter introductory series of five novels also had a werewolf as a central character. Then there are the tribe novels, about six of those with a long thread of story between them, and Breathe Deeply, and so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Werewolf:_The_Apocalypse_books

--Brian
 
Best werewolf series!

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one out there struggling to find some good werewolf books, but I have good news. I discovered heather killough-walden. Though I haven't been disappointed by any of her books, she did wright a werewolf series that was fantastic. It's called the big bad wolf series, there's four in total and they are AMAZING! The Heat, the spell, the strip, and the hunt. MUST READ. This series is a great thought out story, but be aware there are some serious sex seens. I'm ok with sex in the story as long as there is an actual plot. And let me tell you there is!
I hope you read them!
 
I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. I really really REALLY like this book. But it's more a philosophy treatise with werewolves than a popcorn horror book. Lots of erudition, lots of thinking. Also some very gory stuff, so also not for the squeamish.
 
GrymsinMiew said:
well she is an erotic novelist
Kate Douglas
she writes Wolf Tales 1 to like 10 or 11
they're good
but like i said it is erotica
or you could go for the werewolves in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton
Click to expand...

If you want to go in that direction you can also include Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, lots of shapeshifters, particularly by the third novel and beyond.
I liked Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series up to Narcissus in Chains where she veers waaay off into the erotic zone and has stayed there ever since. For me the books became more about sex and lost a lot of their edginess that made her earlier efforts more entertaining, but this is going a bit off topic.
 
Contrarius said:
I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. I really really REALLY like this book. But it's more a philosophy treatise with werewolves than a popcorn horror book. Lots of erudition, lots of thinking. Also some very gory stuff, so also not for the squeamish.
Click to expand...

I can believe it. The last post before yesterday's resurrection was made about a year before the book was released. :P

I enjoyed The Last Werewolf. It set the standard of quality that I will hold future werewolf novels to. That said, the ending was weak and predictable. I expected more given the rest of the book, but nope... the author really dropped the ball. Also, the author is a genre-loathing jackass (he really seems to hate that he had to write genre), so if you are the type of person put off by an author insulting the genre you like (and he writes--his recent review* of Colson Whitehead's Zone One can best be described as pulling a Goodkind) then you should probably avoid anything outside his fiction.

* I say review, but the majority of the article was dedicated to ranting about genre readers.
 
Winter said:
I can believe it. The last post before yesterday's resurrection was made about a year before the book was released. :P
Click to expand...

Well that explains it, then. ;)

That said, the ending was weak and predictable. I expected more given the rest of the book, but nope... the author really dropped the ball.
Click to expand...

I didn't think so. I won't get into the reasons why, 'cause I'm too lazy to do a bunch of spoiler tagging right now.

Also, the author is a genre-loathing jackass (he really seems to hate that he had to write genre), so if you are the type of person put off by an author insulting the genre you like (and he writes--his recent review* of Colson Whitehead's Zone One can best be described as pulling a Goodkind) then you should probably avoid anything outside his fiction.
Click to expand...

Don't much care what he thinks, as long as he writes well and I don't feel insulted within the work itself. :)
 
I just read that Glen Duncan review of Zone One -- and while he does sound bitter (and I can't really blame him, a lot of readers DO sound like idiots when they post reviews), I think his attitude may have been overblown by others.

He ends his review by saying "If this is the intellectual and the porn star, they look pretty good together. For my money, they have a long and happy life ahead of them. " So he obviously doesn't think that the pairing of "intellectual" and "porn star" is an automatically bad thing.....
 
Werewolf/ shape shifters

I read Crux, book one in a series by Moira Rogers, because it was recommended and said to have werewolfs in the cast of characters. True to the recommendation, it was a very good book, I enjoyed it greatly. However the book was not about werewolfs, there was a few characters that were in the book but they had a very small part, and the wolf never came out. The book was a great adventure, filled with were cougars, mages, and some romance.
I recommend the book, but it did fall short to my werewolf needs.
 
Werewolfs to the max

If your looking for a good werewolf book, full of shifting, dominance, and PAC dynamics, you should read The Mating by Nicky Charles. I stumbled a crossed this book, it was a cheap e book, so I gave it a shot. Surprisingly I really enjoyed it. The book has a great story line, strong characters, and lots of wolfs. This is an adult book with a few sex scenes, but it is not an erotica. There is an actual story line involved. In really liked it, I hope someone else gives it a try, and let me know wat u think!
 
Good werewolf reads

I love a good werewolf book/series, and I've actually stolen a few ideas from this forum myself, so thanks for asking the question in the first place!!

I've recently discovered a series by Patricia Briggs called the Mercy Thompson series, Book one is called Moon Called. The main character is a Coyote shifter who lives next door to the alpha of the werewolf pack in her town/city/area... I don't think it's for everyone, but i certainly enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed Kelly Armstrong's series which started with werewolves, but delves into witches, necromancers and the like in later novels. Again, not for everyone, but I found them all quite enjoyable.

Phoenix Pack series by Suzanne Wright was pretty good, rated R18+ and a little predictable, but still, not too bad... a bit of action, a lot of sex, and a "meh-ish" kind of plot-line.

Amanda Carlson's "Jessica McClain" series is pretty good too.

and my last recommendation is Mark Henwick's "Bite Back" series about a PI who's part were and part vampire (or "Athanate, as they call themselves) lots of action in this one.

I suppose it all depends on what type of werewolf novel you like reading. Most of the above are kinda action-packed linked with romance... so if that's not what you're looking for then I'm sorry if none of this has been a help (thought I suppose it will help in avoiding those books if you're not into them), at least other people can look into these books!

Hope this helps, and happy reading!

-jackie x
 
I freaking love werewolves. I just can't get enough of them, so this thread mainly has given me a lot to read. However, I will have to give a shout-out, again, to Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf. It was the first really fun werewolf novel I read, after being a huge fan of cinematic werewolves for awhile.

Additionally, while not a novel, I recommend reading some historical records on the trials where they accused people of being werewolves, and actual lycanthropia, where people delude themselves into believing they're werewolves. These texts are purely academic, but they are vastly intriguing.
 
I have read the whole thread and don't see any mention of my favorite werewolf book of all, Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar. It is a damn strange book with a whole lot of subplots, but at its core its about a modern day clan war. Moves at a real fast pace with increable short chapters but I didn't feel it was hard to follow all the little links that don't come together until the end.

It has a sequel that I don't remember liking as much, but need to reread one of these days.
 
FYI: Probably the pack leader of werewolf novels was reissued this year in an affordable paperback edition from Pegasus -- The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore.

For a bit more of my biased opinion on this novel, check here.


Randy M.
 
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