K.S. Villoso’s The Wolf of Oren-Yaro brings realism into epic fantasy with a female main character who is flawed without remorse. (Spoilers!)

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro starts out with one of the most memorable sentences I can remember. The hook is immediate, jaw dropping, and powerful.

I’ve read it out to friends, not telling them anything else about the The Wolf of Oren-Yaro as I recommend it to them because it sells it itself without further prompting: “They called me the Bitch Queen, the she-wolf, because I murdered a man and exiled my king the night before they crowned me.”

It infers things immediately upon reading the sentence, such as the usage of the term Bitch Queen and how, in our society, if a woman has any power whatsoever and uses said power, she’s usually labeled as such.

This sentence tells a tale on its own, about the world building and how patriarchy reigns within this fantasy society even though Talyien is queen.

By stating the fact that she killed a man, it puts Talyien under the blanket archetype of a strong female character, though if you’ve read The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, then you know how K.S. Villoso dismantled the heavily stereotyped strong female character within epic fantasy and built it anew.

Queen Talyien is flawed, beautifully so, making her one of the more realistic female characters I’ve read to date. Queen Talyien’s portrayal reminds me of the female characters in Samantha Shannon’s epic fantasy The Priory of the Orange Tree, of how complex and different they each were.

Last year Samantha Shannon spoke about the term “strong female character” and how problematic it is. If you haven’t listened to her interview with Females in Fantasy, you should check it out on their SoundCloud. It’s a must listen if you’re like me and want female characters to be shown as human, flaws and all, without having to be shoved into a narrow and unrealistic archetype.

As both readers and writers, throwing out that term is difficult because female characters can be strong, but in complex ways that can’t be simply described.

Queen Talyien is a complicated character, as it’s revealed throughout The Wolf of Oren-Yaro. She starts out being portrayed as that strong female stereotype, but it quickly crumbles away as an assassination attempt splits her from her party in a foreign land and we see the real Tal and not the facade she puts on as queen.

(This article contains minor plot spoilers for The Wolf of Oren-Yaro.)

One of my favorite Talyien characteristics is how, despite showing how stoic she can be thanks to her upbringing and training, the emotions she has boiling under that royal facade are not only of rage, but of love.

Her love of her son and of her estranged husband keeps her going throughout the tumultuous events of the loss of her advisor and her guards, along with being imprisoned multiple times in various ways.

Despite inevitable betrayals and the reveal of the events referenced in the first sentence, Talyien’s continued belief that she could fix things with her husband, that her son’s safety back in Oren-Yaro was secured as long as she was alive, showcases her persistence and strength as a leader.

She is very human, and that’s what makes The Wolf of Oren-Yaro so captivating read.

If I’d read The Wolf of Oren-Yaro last year or the year before, I would have had a very different reaction to her choices and plot twists. I wrote about internalized misogyny last year, about how, as readers, we tend to not allow female characters the same room to make mistakes and grow that we give male characters.

Talyien’s complexities are an example of my own newfound self reflection and ability to break down the barriers of what characteristics are wrong and right to portray.

Life is a mess, we all make mistakes, and K.S. Villoso manages to capture the vulnerability that comes with admitting those mistakes not only to ourselves but to others as well. She also perfectly portrays how hard it is to try to right those mistakes, of going after something that never was, of something that we pretended it wasn’t.

We all chase after ghosts, of a memory that makes the past seem brighter than it actually was, and Talyien’s journey encapsulates how complicated emotions truly are.

Human beings are complicated, and to be able to read about Talyien’s perseverance throughout everything gives me hope that soon most, if not all, female characters will be able to be flawed, vulnerable, and resilient all at the same time without needing a specific label to set that character and book aside as something special.

By giving Talyien room to grow and work through her own issues, by allowing her to admit it was her own fault that certain events happened, and by having her raise her chin high despite failures and setbacks, K.S. Villoso shows us all that there is plenty of space in epic fantasy for more complex female characters.

Other epic fantasies with some of my favorite female characters are Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri and City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty.

Related:

The Priory of the Orange Tree sets new standard in epic fantasy

The Kingdom of Copper offers depth in choice and consequence

The Priory of the Orange Tree establishes a dominant female voice in epic fantasy

Realm of Ash explores finding oneself in the aftermath of devastation