Alastair Chisholm introduces his I Am Wolf trilogy

About Author

Alastair Chisholm introduces We Are Dragon, the stunning concluding book in his I Am Wolf science fiction trilogy published by Nosy Crow.

As a child, Alastair Chisholm wanted to be a computer programmer, an author, and an astronaut. So far he's achieved two out of three and still hoping NASA will call... In the meantime, he writes picture books, chapter books about dragons, and science fiction for older kids.

He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and family, and his hobbies include writing and playing games on his phone when he should be writing.

You can find Alastair on Instagram @alastairchisholm and on X @alastair_ch

Interview

April 2026

Alastair Chisholm introduces We Are Dragon, the final book in his I Am Wolf trilogy

We Are Dragon, the concluding adventure in Alastair Chisholm's critically acclaimed science fiction trilogy, brings to a conclusion the battle that began in I Am Wolf.

This phenomenal series pits Construct again Construct - huge mechanical animals brought to life by those who live within them - in a world where survival depends on strength and guile. Each book - I Am Wolf, I Am Raven and We Are Dragon - explore identity, belonging and what makes us human.

ReadingZone caught up with author Alastair Chisholm to find out more about this world of Constructs, conflicts and chaos. We also invite readers to take on a writing challenge from Alastair to create your own Construct!

More about the I Am Wolf series:

I Am Wolf (book 1): Coll belongs to Wolf. He lives with his crew on a Construct, a huge technological "creature" driven by the crew's combined willpower. They roam their world, fighting other Constructs and absorbing them into their own. But when a new and dangerous Construct attacks them, Coll is thrown from Wolf and left behind. Read a chapter from I Am Wolf

I Am Raven (book 2): Once, Brann belonged to Raven. She flew high above the world and she was fearless. But Raven was destroyed by Dragon. Now Brann's home is gone, and her crew is missing. Read a chapter from I Am Raven

We Are Dragon (book 3): Prepare for the final battle . . . Technically brilliant Rieka is the only one who can defeat Queenie and save their world - but who and what is she willing to sacrifice for this final victory? Read a chapter from We Are Dragon

Alastair Chisholm's final return to his world of Constructs, battles and survival in We Are Dragon

"What is it that makes us human, and what are we willing to sacrifice in order to win?"

1. Hello Alastair, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone to talk about your I Am Wolf series, and the final book, We Are Dragon - what an ending! Can you remind us what inspired your original I Am Wolf title, and this world of 'Constructs' that take animal form?

Hello, and thank you for inviting me back to ReadingZone! It's amazing to be here at the end of the I Am Wolf series. This is a world of giant mechanical beasts called Constructs, roaming the land and fighting each other for territory, with human crews on their backs.

The idea actually came from the title of the first book - I Am Wolf - which popped into my head one day. I had no idea what it meant, or why, but it stuck in my mind. I wondered: who was talking? What was this Wolf? Then I thought: maybe Wolf is a machine - a giant, thirty-metre-high machine, and there are other machines, and they're different animals . . . And once I imagined that, I had to write it!

2. What draws you to writing science fiction stories? Have any other authors or films inspired you to write your own novels?

Of course, I love the 'whizz-bang' of science fiction - the technology, the pew-pew-pew of the lasers, the explosions . . . ! But most of all, I love that these are worlds just like ours, but with a twist - what if this happened? The people in them are still us, and I can use these stories to talk about who we are as humans.

I love sci-fi TV and films - I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who, Guardians of the Galaxy (and pretty much any Marvel film), and so many others. As a kid, I loved the Isaac Asimov Robot stories - they're a bit old-fashioned (they were quite old-fashioned even when I read them) but I loved the way they talked about a robot future. And my favourite of all was Susan Cooper's The Grey King, part of the Dark Is Rising sequence of magic books. The Grey King is the book that taught me that the stories that live with us forever are the ones that make us care about the people in them.

3. Science fiction is often used to explore big themes - what do you explore through the books in the series - I Am Wolf, I Am Raven and We Are Dragon?

I love using science fiction in this way, and each of the main characters - Coll, Brann and Rieka - face different challenges in the books. I Am Wolf is about tribalism and belonging, with Coll learning how to accept himself for who he is. In I Am Raven, the theme is fear - Brann has been taught her whole life that fear is weakness, but as her world unravels, she must find a better answer. And in We Are Dragon, we step into Rieka's shoes, as a person who has always been brilliant with technology but terrible with people. She can defeat the enemy, but at what cost? What is it that makes us human, and what are we willing to sacrifice in order to win?

4. How did you decide which animals to use for each the constructs featured in these three books? Do they have particular characteristics you wanted to explore?

In a way, the animals chose themselves. I Am Wolf came about as a title, first. But then came the idea of the wolf pack, and how that could be about tribalism and belonging. The first enemy they fight is Raven, simply because I thought a giant mechanical Raven would be cool! But then I realised Raven was perfect for talking about fear - it has wonderful gothic connotations, dark and brooding. And I was always drawn to the idea of Dragon as the most terrible of them all. Dragons have so many meanings in our culture - friendly and ferocious, magical and deadly, clever and brutal. I love that about them.

5. How did you develop the setting for the novels? Do you create this world in detail before you start writing, or does the world grow for you as you write? What were your 'rules' for this world?

I do try to at least work out 'the rules'. The Constructs are advanced technology, but the world is quite barbaric - so who runs the Constructs? How does their power work? And how did we get into this state in the first place?

In this case, I remembered an old article about tiny self-assembling robots that could (in theory) build anything. It was a prototype and very basic, but I imagined how that might go, and that gave me the material used to build the Constructs. I thought: what if it was powered by us - by our minds, a kind of psychic energy linked to belief? So, the more you believed, the more powerful your Construct would become . . .

6. We Are Dragon is the final book in the series - what should readers should expect?

I Am Raven ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, and We Are Dragon picks up in a world that has almost been overrun. The enemy is at the gate, but Rieka believes she knows how to stop them.

There are more Constructs than ever, more old and mysterious technology, more danger, more moral quandaries, and in the end, a battle larger than any before, one that will decide the fate of the world . . . So, you know. No pressure!

7. This is a nail-biting adventure, explored through the eyes of Rieka. Why did you want to focus on her story in the concluding adventure, and to shift the title from 'I Am' to 'We Are'?

I always wanted to tell Rieka's story. In some ways, she's my favourite; super-smart but quite flawed (Also, she's fun to write just because she's so rude!). And in some important ways, she and the big bad enemy are not as different as they seem. Book three is about what makes us human, and part of that is the line between hero and villain . . .

As to why it's We Are . . . Well, I don't want to give way too much. But if you've read I Am Raven, you can probably guess!

8. Did you always know where the series was headed? Do you plan your novels ahead when you have a series, or do you like your characters to surprise you?

I always have a bit of a plan, but not all of it. I knew Kevin the Ant's final destiny, for example! I knew who the villain was, and I knew why. But some things came about because of the characters. I only realised book two was about fear after I'd met Brann. Kitsune's relationship with Rieka was a complete surprise to me, but it ended up being vital.

Some writers like to make up the plot as they go along, 'flying by the seat of their pants'. I like to have a plan - but I don't mind throwing it out the window if something cool happens

9. Looking back at each of the books, if you found yourself on any one of the Constructs, which one would it be and why?

I loved the Beetle crew. In a harsh world, they worked out a way to just be nice. (Also, they got to introduce themselves as: "Hello, we're the Beetles" ;). But I think if I were on a Construct, it would probably be a big happy dog - one of those silly, goofy ones who thinks everyone else is brilliant.

10. Are you planning any more science fiction stories? What are you writing currently?

Absolutely more science fiction on the horizon! But right now, I'm working on something rather different - a YA Fantasy novel. It's a bit of a change, but oddly enough, it features dragons . . .

Creative Challenge from Alastair Chisholm: Create your own Construct and world setting

The first thing is to choose your Construct animal. What do you love? Are you a cat or dog person? Or would you like to fly, like Raven? Or swim - perhaps Dolphin or Great White Shark?

Then find some pictures of it, get a feel for its hands/feet/teeth/paws/tail/fur/whatever. And then … think BIG. It's got to be large enough to hold a crew. Scale it up! When I started out, I looked up sailing ships that carried crews. How big were they? How big would my Construct have to be to hold a crew?

Finally, remember it's a MACHINE. Swap the fur for strands of fibre cable. Teeth could be steel - or diamond? Ears or Radar dishes? How does the tail move? Are there pistons in the legs? Have a look at the materials and machinery used to make planes, or ships, or giant wind farms, or the enormous machines that bore tunnels through the earth. How do you think they look? How do you think they sound?

School events: I love doing school events, both in person and virtual. I love chatting about amazing inventions that have changed the world (and terrible inventions that really didn't), about what science fiction can tell us about our world, about stories and how they can help us, and about empathy (a human superpower!). If you'd like to find out more, head over to my website!

Alastair Chisholm introduces I Am Wolf (Nosy Crow): The first book in the I Am Wolf science fiction trilogy introduces a world where giant animal Constructs range across vast landscapes; living things powered by their crew, fighting other Constructs for territory and survival. Read a Chapter from I Am Wolf

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