Ten realms will test everything… For two years she led an alliance, forming bonds with people from around the world—but someone was watching. Chronopoint was only meant to be a game, until she found herself trapped in that world. Fighting to survive, Kiuno discovers she’s not the only player who has been thrown into this strange land. Hideous, twisted monsters only seen in nightmares plague … nightmares plague their every move. Untold powers lie at the hands of the chosen and flames dance at her fingertips.
Can Kiuno find the players from her alliance or will she be too late and discover death has taken far more than she ever imagined?
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My first thought when I read the title was that it had nothing to do with wolves. I was right.
A woman wakes up in a strange world not knowing where she is and who she is. Not even her own name. There is a name written in her bracelet “Kiuno.”
After some unfortunate situations, she meets people who are in the same condition as she is and wearing similar bracelets with their names on them.
As the days progress, they understand that they are trapped in a virtual game they used to play in real life but this isn’t virtual reality, this is real life and they can be killed.
Is Kiuno and her friends going to survive? Will she find her husband and save his life?
I liked that book because it was original. It blends virtual reality with magic and it does it in a very balanced way. I loved the fact that the characters were unique and strong. But, why had Elliott had to go? I loved him so much and I was really sad that he died. Nonetheless, it was an exceptional book and I can’t wait for the second book!
If you liked The Maze Runner, then you will like Running with the Wolves even more!
I heard about this book a while back and could not wait to dig in. I was not disappointed, finding it difficult to put it down. One reviewer called Running With the Wolves (The Chronopoint Chronicles Book 1) by J.E. Reed, Ready Player One/Hunger Game’s love child. I’d add to that characterization that it could have been nannied by the Maze Runner.
Kiuno is what I call a likely hero thrown into a world she’s apparently destined to come out on top in. The thrill ride is in getting there. Kiuno is not your run-of-the-mill wishy-washy heroine, she’s a true girl on fire, and some, that knows what she wants. Straightway, Reed successfully throws Kiuno and the reader into the game, only spattering in backstory through dialogue when needed. This one starts out fast and finishes even faster. Reed gets it all right from world-building (loved the escalation of scary creatures and increasingly elaborate structures), to imagery/description (I often times felt like I was watching a movie) to fast-paced action and fight scenes (brutal comes to mind. Watch out kiddies. PG-13 for sure).
Reed’s pacing is also on point. Kiuno has a lofty goal early on in the novel. She’s on a quest of sorts. Her search leads to a satisfying resolution in a big way and at a costly price. I love the characters and their development through their actions. They were both complex and contrasting. Get the names; Kikyo, Scorpios, Elite, Blade, and my favorite, Palindrome, just to name a few. The biggest bomb drops halfway through the novel when Reed makes a daring move (can’t say ‘cause that would be a spoiler) that’s she executes brilliantly, and it plays out well in the end. Five easy stars for Running With the Wolves and impatiently, eagerly awaiting Book 2 of the Chronopoint series. Monster debut. Well done, J.E. Reed.
I was not sure was to expect when this book was compared to Hunger Games, Maze Runner and Ready Player One. I had high expectations. By page 3 I was hooked. I got confused off and on because two of the main characters has such similar names. Otherwise this book was brilliant! Totally recommend if you are looking for an escape!
I received an advance copy of this book and voluntarily reviewed it.
Although it had a slow start, it quickly picked up steam and I found myself unable to put it down.
Although completely heartbreaking at times, it was difficult to not put yourself in the main character’s shoes, and her reactions to the horror she deals with are on point. This book ends on a high note, but by no means is the adventure over.
A wonderful start to the series I can’t wait to read more from this promising author!
This is a fantastic book!. I didn’t know what to expect when I first started reading it. The author kept me on edge the whole time wandering what was gonna happen next. I hope there us a book two. We have more realms to go thru and so wanting to know who’s evil idea this was. The characters are Amazing! I’m still mad about a certain two deaths tho. Expect the unexpected! So worth the price!
(Review based on an ARC copy of the book)
TL;DR: In this gritty tale of learning both self-reliance and the necessity of teamwork, Kiuno must progress from helpless villager to alliance commander while coming to terms with the deadly rules of a game turned real as she searches for her husband. A high telling/showing ratio and an indistinct cast of supporting characters in the second half weakened my emotional connection, but the setting and action easily carried me through with a desire to see what happens in the next book. Sword Art Online x The Hunger Games x Fushigi Yuugi.
When I was an undergraduate, one of my favorite pastimes was playing real-time strategy games such as Star Trek: Armada or Age of Empires II. As I read Running with the Wolves, I found myself thinking back on those games—and breathing a sigh of relief that I hadn’t been abducted, brainwashed, and made to play my way to freedom. This, naturally, is the fate which has befallen Kiuno (not her IRL name; she’s forgotten that) and every last person who played the phone game of Chronopoint.
*** Spoilers below; ye be warned! ***
Kiuno wakes one Autumn morning in a forest, with nothing to eat and only a bracelet adorned with a lightning bolt and blue stone beside her name. After learning to forage in a sequence that reminded me strongly of my own combat survival training, she discovers a ramshackle village of similarly lost people. They set upon her—most having decided that taking from the capable is preferable to learning to survive on their own—but she is protected and adopted into a small party of hunter-gatherers led by the military veteran Elliott. He delegates her training to the brooding young man Kikyo, who not only teaches her the use of weapons but also instructs her in the use of magic. As it so happens, Kiuno’s blue stone marks her as one of the privileged few to have magical ability. In fact, her particular talent, Fire from the Sky, is recognized by other players as being one of the strongest and least predictable. This makes Kiuno a desirable ally—and a target.
Worried about the fate of her husband, Elite, Kiuno decides to search for him rather than be caught up in the nascent politics of this medieval world. Elliott and Kikyo accompany her, teaching her as best they can to use steel and flame as they advance through three of Chronopoint’s ten realms. Kiuno is horrified to see people killed by native monsters—Ms. Reed does a fine job keeping her monsters alien and threatening while staying within the usual bounds of a fantasy world—but Kiuno is even more appalled when she sees how the people treat each other. Her recklessness puts her small party in mortal peril numerous times as she burns war camps to free slaves, but luck is with them.
Until it isn’t. One of the things I respect most about Ms. Reed’s writing is that she doesn’t play favorites. Every character Kiuno meets, no matter how minor or major, is at risk. And combat happens unexpectedly, wrenching Kiuno from training montages and fireside conversations in a brutal reminder that there is no downtime in Chronopoint. Not when desperate, normal people are involved.
The only exception to this rule, seemingly, is Kiuno herself. She is injured and threatened with death and rape more than a few times, but her unpredictable magical abilities and a sense of Chosen-One predestination keep her hurtling from realm to realm as she seeks for any clue to Elite’s survival or whereabouts. This lands her with more than enough survivor’s guilt, which manifests as a fear of letting anyone stay too close to her, even when she begins to find people from her old alliance.
Perhaps it is because of Kiuno’s reluctance to truly relax around to her friends, but as her party grows, its members (all males) begin to blend together. Almost all knew her as an alliance leader in the old days. All of them are fiercely loyal to her, even as she constantly questions their motives in her mind. Some have magic, some flirt with her. Others manage things behind the scenes, adding a layer of intrigue as quite a few of them are focused on figuring out how they were abducted and how to escape. But Kiuno is strangely distant from these proceedings. On the strength of past battles and stories we only hear briefly about, she almost unwittingly gathers her army. And yet, when she finally finds Elite and his own forces besieged, she charges in, lightning blazing, to level the opposition by herself. This results in the ending feeling incomplete, as Kiuno hasn’t truly reclaimed her position as the queen of her alliance, so much as the superweapon.
I also had an increasingly difficult time emotionally connecting with Kiuno’s journey, mostly due to a high frequency of narrative beats that told rather than showed. I noticed myself starting to read with a lag in my own emotional reactions because I fully expected to be told how to feel shortly after. This didn’t diminish my appreciation of Kiuno’s emotions or my interest in following her journey, but it did leave me feeling like I was watching Chronopoint play out rather than being in the trenches with her as I’d hoped (and initially felt).
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, nevertheless. As a spouse, I could relate well to Kiuno’s determined search, and as a gamer, I loved the grittiness that Ms. Reed has imparted onto her setting. Magic feels visceral, hard-learned and hard-bought. The violence is intense without being unnecessarily gory. And Kiuno’s realization that perhaps her fellow victims are the deadliest monsters in all the realms strikes true. Running with the Wolves isn’t a standalone novel so much as the first part of a larger saga: the architect of the players’ abduction remains hidden and unreachable, there are five more realms for Kiuno and her allies to clear, and the consequences of their presence in Chronopoint are no doubt felt in the real world. I eagerly await the next book in the series, both to discover the answers to these open questions and to see Kiuno finally come into her own and win the game she seems destined to conquer.