Imperium Lupi

[Flint]

Furry? Queer? Literature? Right gang, I'm going to ramble about Imperium Lupi.

Imperium Lupi is a series of books by Adam Browne: the first book came out in 2017, and the second book came out earlier this year. A friend of mine was such a huge fan of the first book that he gifted me a copy on my birthday a few year back without warning because 1) I read books and 2) he desperately needed someone else to talk about it with. And then I got a little bit obsessed about it too and so far I've wolfed down all these books with barely being able to set them down.

The extremely truncated summary is that Imperium Lupi is set in Erde, a relatively grounded fantasy world dominated by nation states and tribes of various anthropomorphic animal species - as per the book titles, the main perspective we follow is that of the inhabitants of the wolf republic of Lupa. Erde is on the cusp of its industrial revolution, through utilising a natural resource called imperium - effectively a mix of electricity, raw oil and uranium all in one. Imperium is everywhere and is an enormously useful (if polluting) source of energy allowing for various scientific marvels; but, ambient exposure can also lead it to concentrate within bodies of individuals, some born with more of it in theirs than others. If there's enough of the toxic good stuff in their bodies these individuals can then use their innate radiation levels to project the energy outwards, allowing for superhuman feats; the downside is that the more you use it, the more it straight-up rots you from the inside. This lays out the foundations for all manners of instabilities within the world and the actual plots of the books revolve around the political machinations between the various parties in power, secretive conspiracies within Lupa that try to upset the existing balance and the multiple threads of different, initially unrelated characters who find themselves to be part of the same wider picture.

Why I fell in love with Imperium Lupi to the point that I am now starting a random thread about it is because of both the world and the characters within and how Browne's writing which brings it all to life in such a lush way. His language is imaginative, gripping and full of intricate detail, and his ability to keep you wanting to read one more chapter is frighteningly strong. As a huge fan of bold world building, the Imperium Lupi books are so rich and well thought-out in this respect: the world has a genuine sense of history, its quirks have explanations that make sense and the science behind e.g. imperium is constantly explored and expanded upon, and the wide set of traditions and norms behind the different nations and (most prominently) wolf packs that make up the capital of Lupa are established with such distinctive detail that every piece of information makes you more invested. The countless characters - there are many - are all fleshed out so distinctively and with such different personalities that it's not only really easy to keep track of who's who, but you also grow really attached to them (Linus 4ever). I can't remember the last time I read a book where I was genuinely dreading whether a character I had grown really fond of was actually going to meet an unlucky end, which serves to highlight how deeply I got sucked in. The pace of the books is steadily intensifying, with positively slow starts (IMO - I love a long introduction) to allow for various character moments to establish everyone's place in the world until the plot starts ramping up. It's admirable just how well Browne places the puzzle pieces together bit by bit across the hundreds of pages, and then when the full picture finally clicks into place it feels rewarding.

And yes, there's queer furries there too. Both books have their fair share of (mostly) male-male sexual tension and relationships and though the first book mainly just brushes on the subject, the second book has a few slowburning male/male romance threads and a lot more overtly homoerotic tones overall. Nowhere near enough to turn these into smut fiction, but enough to bring that nice little extra touch for a gay furry like me who just likes a world where dudes can be with dudes. Browne also likes his men... built, so if you're into muscles you may get an extra kick out of it (and out of all the character art Browne draws on his website). For those of us who don't, we just get to amusingly chuckle at how often the descriptions of new (and old) characters make a specific emphasis on the size of their chest and broad shoulders.

tl;dr I just love these big-ass books (first book is 700 pages, the second book was split into two parts with 1k pages each, and all I did was want more) and I really just wanted to take the opportunity to mention these to people who might be intrigued. Amazon seems to have the first handful of chapters available as a sample, which are basically just a lot of background context building and bit-by-bit character introductions, but might be enough of a starting point for those who are curious but don't want to commit. Whilst the fact that it is furry does hold a huge amount of appeal to me, I think these are generally excellently crafted fantasy books that can easily stand up to more typically dressed-up ones of the genre. Worth a shot I guess!