The Wolf's Hour

By: Robert R. McCammon

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

On the eve of D-Day, a British secret agent with unique powers goes behind Nazi lines.

Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in charge is the spy who betrayed Michael’s lover. The werewolf goes to France for king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.

©1989 The McCammon Corporation (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Simon Prebble's elegant narration adds dignity to a potentially tawdry premise: a British spy in Nazi-occupied Europe during WWII who is secretly a werewolf. As it turns out, McCammon's storyline is surprisingly plausible, and Prebble persuasively voices the spy's tortured introspection about his identity as well as the horrors of the Nazi regime…. Prebble articulates a wide range of characters--from a beautiful French Resistance warrior to a sneering Nazi officer--with just enough color to distinguish them. Also notable are Prebble's voices for the spy's fellow werewolves and his perfect pacing as the spy is almost cornered." ( AudioFile)

Reads like a trashy romance novel

I LOVE Robert McCammon, but I'm about 7 hours into this audiobook and I'm ready to call it quits. First, the book is graphically violent. Normally, I don't mind gore, but the descriptions in this book almost made me sick. I wouldn't mind the violence if the rest of the story gave me something more. However, I find the characters predictable and cliche. The main character, Michael, is a werewolf and also (of course) ridiculously handsome and irresistible to the ladies. He's able to conquer every woman he meets and the book goes into detail about its protagonist giving all the ladies the best sex of their lives. If I wanted to read a trashy werewolf romance novel, I could have shopped in the teen section. I don't mind sex in a book when it's deserved, but I was literally rolling my eyes thinking "Come ON." Michael's conquests, perhaps once strong women in their own right, turn in to putty around Michael and it's honestly boring for me to read about how these women are unable to contain themselves in his presence. Literally one of the lines in the book is about saving dessert for later before Michael and his woman go upstairs to bang. I rarely stop reading a book, but I'm putting this one down and waiting until my next Audible credit rolls around. Again, the characters are cliche, the "romance" is cliche, and I don't find the plot at compelling enough to keep listening. Very disappointed.

McCammon man, McCammon!!

Any additional comments?

If Jason Bourne and rabid Lassie had a love child on the set of The Dirty Dozen directed by John Woo, this is what you’d get.

Can a Story be Insufficiently Ridiculous?

I was really ready to love - or at least like - this book. I like spies, I like historical fiction, I like werewolves, and I think Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett series is just great. I was absolutely ready to embrace WWII werewolf spies! And then...the story just didn't grab me. I didn't really connect with the main character, and his relationships with other characters in the story were uninteresting.

The werewolf-focused parts of the story were pretty good - even realistic, which may have been part of the problem. McCammon successfully addresses the workaday aspects of being a werewolf. Michael Gallatin is very chill about being a werewolf. I needed some excitement! YOU'RE A WEREWOLF SPY IN WWII. This should be completely off-the-chain crazy, and it's not even as over-the-top as most Bond novels.

Robert McCammon can be very, very good - and he can also be just OK. This is just OK. If you're looking for a straight-ahead, slightly pulpy action story about a werewolf in World War II, you've come to the right place. If you want a really compelling story about a werewolf in World War II, you might have to go write it yourself. And I'll read it if you do!

Enjoyable story with characters I liked or hated

I read a lot of books from this genre - my list looks more like I'm a 15-year old guy instead of a 64-year old woman! I've read several of McCammon's books and Wolf's Hour is a great addition to my library. I would have enjoyed a bit more wolffish time with the main character, but getting to know him in both his human and wolf persona was interesting. And who doesn't hate Nazi's?

Engrossing story

It made me feel like I was sitting around a campfire listening to a master storyteller. Clear, limited characters and easy to follow flashbacks made the story simpe to follow. Narration was perfect. Even the female voices sounded right. If you like WWII stories don't let the wolf twist keep you from this one.

Took some time to get into it but...

I wasn't really feeling this at first and bought it strictly because Robert McCammon is one of my favorite authors. After an hour or 2 I nearly game up, but I'm glad I didn't. I would absolutely recommend this book, it is well written with great characters.

A Must Listen

Where does The Wolf's Hour rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top Ten

What did you like best about this story?

Awesome character development, tight plot even if stretching belief at times but researched well and many historical facts are woven into this fast moving tale. Its ironic that i accepted the man-wolf-man mythology but rejected some of the Norway Chemical plant scenes as far fetched!

What about Simon Prebble’s performance did you like?

I love simon prebble's voice! His narration is top notch in this- to portray many voices and accents from across Europe during World War 2 and American also is a feat in itself.

Any additional comments?

Satisfying Action/fantasy/historical fiction. Satisfyingly long also. Robert Mc Cammon well done! I want more.

This is a fantastic story

I read the book back when it first came out. I loved it then. I ordered it to hear on tape. I know I will love it. This should have been a movie years ago. This is one of the best books ever. I'm so glad Audible offers this story. I love Robert McCammon. I know anyone who orders this will become a fan. I think one of his best. I loved 'They Thirst' and 'Swan's Song'. These are my favorites.

True Lycanthrope

If you could sum up The Wolf's Hour in three words, what would they be?

Unique.Thrilling.Interesting.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Wolf's Hour?

The most memorable for moment for me is the scene surrounding his initial bite into the Russian Clan.

What does Simon Prebble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Simon Prebble is certainly one of the best. He brings to the story (and all he reads) a sense of narrative that takes us into this story. His style owns the characters.

Any additional comments?

A unique take on the lycanthrope that does not feed into the current monster madness dominating this genre.

more traditional lycanthropy vs super stylelized

If you could sum up The Wolf's Hour in three words, what would they be?

A real wolf.

What did you like best about this story?

Having not read dated books in a while I found the detail McCammon packed in his sentences refreshing. I felt at the center of each seen, my senses being aroused by all the sights and sounds.

Which character – as performed by Simon Prebble – was your favorite?

The fact that we were given chapters full of back story on Micheal made him for me the best character by far.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Spy Wolf

Any additional comments?

A spy book set in WW2 may not be your type of book, however combined with a lycanthrop main character made it a great read for me.

Well written World War Two werewolf novel

"The Wolf's Hour" was a surprising and memorable read.

This is not modern urban fantasy, with hip, kick-ass characters, struggling against their wolf nature while trying to save the world from demons in just three days.

This is a book with the self-confidence to save the world over several months (and seven hundred+ pages) AND interweave an "origins of" story as it moves along.

The hero, Michael Gallatin is a man more likely to rip an enemy open that engage in witty reparté. He is a serious, focused man, totally committed to his mission. Turned into Werewolf as a child in post-revolutionary Russia, Gallatin now works for the British Secret Service, fighting to destroy the Nazi war machine.

On the surface "The Wolf's Hour" is the kind of book I would normally pass over: it was written in 1989, the plot sounds like "Indiana Jones goes wolf", the Nazis are bad, the allies are noble, there a snow-bound Russian palaces, castles full of evil Nazis, brave resistance fighters, beautiful women who can shoot, drive tanks or fly planes, and larger-than-life evil bastards with no redeeming features.

And yet this book WORKS.

It works because McCammon can write. He knows how to build a scene and evolve a character. If it takes weeks to get from Paris to Berlin, McCammon takes you on the journey and helps you feel the passage of time and understand the sustained stress imposed by the situation and the focused determination needed to win. He describes places in a way that gets under my skin, whether it's the snow-covered corridors of an abandoned Russian palace, the grotesque grandeur of a Nazi castle or the unbearable inhumanity of a Concentration Camp. He delivers wonderful set-piece action sequences. He allows his hero enough introspection to make him to give him a worldview and not just killer reflexes.

It works because the evil things that McCammon's Nazis do are not fiction but horrifyingly real and he does not flinch away from them. They fuel the anger of Gallatin's wolf and make the Nazis far more monstrous than any werewolf could be.

It works because of the skillful way that McCammon weaves the story of how Gallatin became both a wolf and a man into the story of how Gallatin takes on the Nazis in a way that adds depth to Gallatin's character and delivers a welcome change of pace.

Finally, it works because Simon Prebble is the perfect narrator for the twenty-two hour-long audiobook.

There are things I could have lived without. The sex scenes seem somehow dated, although you could think of them as period, and the scenes with Hitler seemed to add little except caricature.

If you are looking for a change of pace and want to spend some time in another era (actually TWO other eras) and a different perspective on the supernatural thriller, then "The Wolf's Hour" is worth a listen.

WWII Werewolf

It sounds like a daft premise, a werewolf spy trying to beat the Germans, but it was actually a great listen.

Michael is a British spy trying to find out what operation Iron Fist is. The story goes back and forth between his early years as a werewolf and the current situation working with the resistance. I enjoyed the werewolf parts as the war sections were quite harrowing, particularly the concentration camps.

A British spy with a secret...

Where does The Wolf's Hour rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is my favourite novel of all time, I first read it around 20 years ago, and even now it keeps me gripped to every page. However, the narrator doesn't hold the suspense very well and his characterisation of each character never changes, even from male to female or accents from different countries, which I found a huge let down

Who was your favorite character and why?

Michael Gallatin...A British spy with a secret

Any additional comments?

This novel is crying out to be made into a Hollywood movie, with the strength of the lead character this could be a huge success...

Great Story, Great Characters very weak Werewolf

I wanna start by saying that I loved this book the story is exciting, very well paced and very well written.
The characters are interesting and compelling you really want to know about who they are, were they come from and why they are like they are, you care about them and you feel invested in them, especially the main character Michael Galantin the lycanthrope, Michael is a great human character but as a lycanthrope it's a disappointment, a big disappointment, being a fan of the werewolf genre, this werewolf is very weak and very lame, a werewolf even in his human form is more powerful than any human, they have heightened senses, superhuman strength, stamina, agility, durability, reflexes and speed not to mention super healing factor, werewolf Michael as none of this things apart from the sense of smell and vision, every time he fights against human opponents he gets a beating before overcoming his adversaries thanks to his fighting skills and then it takes him forever to heal is injuries and that greatly annoyed me every time he was fighting and I suddenly remember he was a werewolf, he should be able to mop the floor with his adversaries easily.
The narrator is ok but the characters have all the same voice there's almost no nuances in the characters voices.
So has I said A Great Story and Great Characters and I greatly recommended it but the Werewolf.... Very disappointing.

Awesome concept and story

I bought this on the reviews and certainly was not disappointed. I sort of wondered how it would work without being a silly werewolf tale - but it worked brilliantly. The headline information is about a werewolf who becomes a spy - which is correct. However, the parallel and just as engaging story is how he became a werewolf - and the trails he faced whilst being one. This made the spying piece much more interesting as you had context to his condition. I found the book engaging, fast paced and very enjoyable.

Captain America with hair and teeth

What great potential. The general premise of the story simply turned into a boys Captain America Comic book with hair and teeth. The characters were all a combination of James Bond super baddies meet Captain America. Boring ruthless killers comic killers. Super-duper schemes to kill the good guy.

Perhaps most annoying was that this fellahs "super power", which is that turning into a savage, unstoppable killing machine, goes unused at the most obvious times.

Trapped in a deadly utter darkness while facing down an enemy? Why turn into a wolf who can see, smell and hear better, when you can stumble about in the dark?

Heck no, lets use it to eat rats!

The werewolf genre is so sadly represented, that this is commonly rated as one of the best efforts.

When you start with a supernatural element, try to make some aspect of the plot and characters plausible. No Barbarella, no oddjob, no Captain America.

Had me hooked!

Don’t be put off by the wolf bit, it ties in nicely with the story. Narrator good, story good had me well and truly hooked. Another great book by this author.

Outstanding

Despite the daft premise, an excellent book, great story and characters. Superbly read. Thoroughly recommended particularly to those, like me, who don’t much care for fantasy.

Not for the faint-hearted

A well-written story but numerous scenes of violence that became a little tedious. A grim reminder of the Second World War and a somewhat depressing storyline although a few lighter moments.

Don't usually do werewolves but..

Devoured the Matthew Corbett series because the writing was always good. Characters and storyline fantastical but very engaging. Same could be said for this. No matter the 'unbelievability' of the situation the writing brings it all to life. Bit more bone crunching and flesh ripping than I'd usually stomach but then what else would there be in a werewolf book =} Thumbs up to a good narrator too. Easy to listen to which makes all the difference 👍