Book Review: Wild Times

This book is a wild ride

I aim to review at least one book a month on magical, pagan, and polytheist subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. You can find all my book reviews here.

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Wild Times is a wild ride.

I was quickly and easily drawn into the world of this story, a world that begins in the Britain that we know today and extends far beyond it to other worlds that overlap this one. But instead of the usual Underworld-type realms, Wild Times introduces a world called the Wild. It’s a place where magic still lives and breathes and where all kinds of non-human beings reside.

The people of the Wild make forays into our world, moving back and forth without causing disturbances. But eventually the people of this world discover ways into the Wild, and that goes about as well as you might expect when members of the capitalist military industrial complex infiltrate an unspoiled world. Both time and space intertwine, with people moving between layers and working toward their own goals, which are often at odds with each other.

The forces at play in this tale are the same ones we encounter in our world today: greed, revenge, the lust for power - but also love, compassion, and generosity. The conflict between these sets of forces plays out in the lives of the two main characters, Min and Joe, and their friends. There’s also the “fun” of an ancient curse, and there’s a good bit of shape-shifting (I won’t give away the details, but I’ll just say it’s all done very well and isn’t tropey, which is gratifying).

I love the kinds of magic the author has filled these worlds with: song magic, wood magic, the magic of different non-human animals. My favorite quote from the book: “Magic is a marriage of hope and rebellion.” Indeed.

Despite clocking in at 596 pages in paperback, this book was a quick read. The action moves fast, even though the themes are pretty deep. Do be aware, there’s lots of violence and gore, plenty of high tension and high stakes.

The tagline on the cover describes the book as “A socialist hopepunk novel from a socialist author and a socialist publisher. A novel of hope for our times.” The characters talk a good bit about hopepunk and socialist ideas, and I’m happy to see those subjects being put out into the world more and more these days. But beyond that, I’m not sure I would categorize this as a hopepunk novel, to be honest. The hopepunk fiction that I’ve read, even the stories that are set in fantasy worlds, involves the characters finding solutions to the issues they face and implementing them, even if it takes the people a long time to figure out those solutions and the implementation is difficult. In this story, in contrast, the “solution” in the end is to run away to an idyllic, unspoiled world while the “spoiled” worlds remain in their degraded, damaged condition. Ultimately, that doesn’t feel like it’s offering any real hope, because in real life, we don’t have an unspoiled world we can step into via magic to escape the chaos and destruction. And even if we did, I wouldn’t want to turn my back on this world, where we do actually need to find solutions to the issues we face. To me, instead of a hopepunk novel, this feels more like a fantasy novel that includes the occasional insertion of hopepunk concepts in dialogue.

That said, this is still a powerful, enjoyable book that made me think. The story pits different sets of values against each other, calling out imperialism and expansion-driven capitalism for the scourges that they are. Magic isn’t some pure force that instantly solves every problem, but a tool to be used for good or evil. And evil - self-centered greed and spite that don’t care how much damage they do as long as they get what they want - exists everywhere, even in apparently pristine communities. Despite the fantasy elements, the story is quite realistic. I expect that, if the kinds of magic and intertwined worlds that are described in the book actually existed, people would respond to them exactly the way they do in the story.

Wild Times and David Bridger’s other books are available on the publisher’s website.

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About Laura Perry

I'm the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne's Tribe, a worldwide inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition. I'm also an author, artist, and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. My spiritual practice includes spirit work and herbalism through the lens of lifelong animism. I write Pagan / polytheist / magical non-fiction and fiction across several different subjects and genres. My Minoan entry in the Moon Books Pantheons series is now available for pre-order and will be released on 26 August 2025. My book of modern Minoan myths is now available in paperback, with the ebook coming soon. I’m also an avid herb and vegetable gardener and living history demonstrator.