Hellooo!

Over the last few months I’ve had a great time reading David’s Wragg’s two books The Hunters and the newest The Company of the Wolf that make up the Tales of the Plains series. They’re action packed with a touch of the western about them and have two gripping leads. I was lucky to get the chance to have a chat with David about the books and what awaits us in the final book in the series!

Hi Womble! I love what you’ve done with the place.

How do you like to booktempt people into reading the Tales of the Plains series and Company of the Wolf?

I like to pitch Tales of the Plains as a trio of fantasy westerns, which despite being very character-focused are chock-full of excitement, action, stabbings and swearing. The Company of the Wolf is my best book yet, a slow-burn villagers vs bandits setup, set in a single, contained location, with a fascinating cast of extraordinary characters and an absolutely gripping finish.

These stories definitely have a touch of the western about them. Was this a deliberate choice?

It was indeed. After Articles of Faith, my first series, I wanted to write in the same world, but do something different with it. I’ve always been a fan of Westerns, and the setting of the Serican Expanse (which the later events of The Righteous reached the edge of) fitted so readily into a quasi-Western setting that it all just slotted into place.

At the heart of the series are Ree and Javani, an unusual mother daughter relationship – what drew you to them as your main characters?

My first series, despite a fairly even gender balance in characters overall, featured three blokes in the most prominent roles, and had a running theme of absent father figures throughout. I wanted to flip that, and look at the other side of the coin, while exploring my own feelings about parenthood (I have two increasingly large daughters myself) along the way. I’ve been writing both characters so long now that they’re completely real to me, even as they’ve aged and changed, and I’m incredibly attached to the pair of them.

For Company of the Wolf we get a whole new setting and cast. Was this something you wanted to try in the series and why? Who was your favourite new character to write?

I suspect this is another pivot away from my first series, subconsciously or otherwise; Articles of Faith was one story, told across two books (apologies to anyone who got to the end of The Black Hawks then had to wait the best part of two years for its Covid-delayed sequel…), and this time around I wanted to do three individual stories, each properly concluded (while telling an overarching tale in the background, of course). I’m confident you can read Company of the Wolf as a total standalone, without having read The Hunters first, and miss out on very little – although book 3 will probably benefit from having read the first two!

As for favourite characters, it’s a toss-up between Anri the archer, and Manatas the mercenary captain. Their dialogue has been a delight to write, for diametrically opposite reasons!

What three words would you use for the next book in the series?

Tense, explosive, final (bonus 4th word would be “sweary”)

What else can we look forward to from you in the future and in this strange world of social media where can we find out more?

I am fairly active on Bluesky these days (as davewragg.com, which is also my website), and maintain a lingering skidmark of a Twitter presence, although the sooner that’s gone the better. Book 3 of Tales of the Plains will be out in August next year, and eagle-eyed readers may be able to find stealth listings for it already, complete with the title. Preorder now to avoid disappointment!

If there was one book, not your own, that you wish you could get everyone to read, what would it be and why?

I love this question. There are so many options, but the one I keep coming back to is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. It’s about as far away from what I write as could be imagined, and I adore it to an almost unhealthy degree.

Thanks for having me!