Pirates, vast sea vessels, talking animals, evil sorcerers, plucky youth protagonist with strange powers, and arranged marriages are ripe, often used ingredients in Epic Fantasy. Here in The Red Wolf Conspiracy, the first installment of Robert V.S. Redick’s Chathrand Voyage he brings those familiar elements together in a thrilling adventure ride that is more than the sum of its parts.
Our protagonist here is the alliteratively named Pazel Pathkendle, a young man who can decipher languages thanks to the sorcerous machinations of his mother. In addition to his mother being a sorceress, his father has a reputation as a dastardly pirate. Clearly, Pazel has some interesting lineage. He sometimes feels the weight of that, especially when his “fits” take over and the young boy suffers a seizure-like episode. For much of the story, Pazel is a “tar boy,” a lowly deckhand on the ships of seas of Alifros (the world in which the story takes place) who is often bullied and abused. He’s had a rather non-standard childhood. In addition to his mother being a sorceress, his pirate-father was largely absent, and his family’s benefactor Dr. Ignus Chadfallow is much more than he seems. Pazel eventually comes to work on the Chathrand, the grandest ship known to man, despite Chadfallow’s warnings against joining the Chathrand’s crew.
Before we get to meet Pazel or any of the other characters like Chadfallow, the woken rat Felthrup, the treaty bride to be Thasha Isiq, or the miniscule people know as the Ixchel, Redick presents a document/artifact of the world announcing the final journey of the Chathrand. This ‘artifact’ is a clever trick which lends authenticity and an air of gravitas to the tale, which is complemented by other framing devices such as letters sent from Chathrand’s Captain Nilus Rotheby Rose to his father.
Once Pazel joins the Chathrand’s crew after an ample amount of build-up from Redick, the journey begins and the story kicks up into a higher gear. When he first comes near the Chathrand, Pazel’s ability allows him to understand the rare creature – augrongs, gigantic long-lived humanoid helpers of the ship who are in a frenzy. Because only he can understand their language, he saves the lives of members of the Chathrand’s crew, bri
nging him to the attention of Captain Rose. In the Chathrand, Redick has crafted a fascinating, mobile world in and of itself. Part of Pazel’s special ability involves not only reading foreign languages without ever having encountered them, but overhearing voices. Specifically, Pazel overhears the group of Ixchel, or little people, aboard the Chathrand and because they are smaller and able to hide in the darker corners of the ship, they know more about the machinations, or rather, the titular conspiracy. Pazel manages to get closer to Thasa as a result of saving her father, the Ambassador and the two are further convinced of the conspiracy because of the woken rat Felthrup and Thasa’s friend, Ramachni a shape-shifting mage from another world. (Not a bad friend to have). Ramachni lets the young heroes know that a sorcerer long thought absent from the world is pulling the strings in order to secure a talisman, the Nilstone, that will allow him great control over the world.
The Red Wolf Conspiracy is a hefty tome, but for all the foundational narrative and set up of the characters inherit in the novel due to its nature as the first of a four-book series, I felt the pacing was very well balanced and the novel quite complete. The introduction/discovery of the characters and world were interlaced so well with the plot and made for a very compulsive read for me. I liked Pazel and most of his supporting cast, but at times, I was frustrated by Chadfallow’s withholding of information that seemed a bit contrived in order to build up tension. The other element that I found a bit frustrating was the somewhat flat ending. Although there were tendrils of resolution and the course for the series was set, the ending felt rushed and a bit unsatisfying compared against the preamble to the finale of the novel.
That said, the world of the Chathrand, the vast landscape of the milieu and fantastical races is a great stew of ingredients that seems just the first of a fuller course to be served over the three remaining books. This book (and series) has been on my radar since The Red Wolf Conspiracy published in 2008 and though it hasn’t quite achieved the profile of author authors who’ve published in that time (Peter V. Brett, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch), I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to readers who enjoy those writes and their books. Redick spins an enthralling tale that, like the best of Epic Fantasy, weaves the familiar together with the inventive into an addictively readable novel.
© 2014 Rob H. Bedford
http://www.robertvsredick.com / Del Rey, January 2010
Mass Market Paperback, 544 Pages / ISBN: 978-0-345-50884-3
Excerpt (Chapter 1): http://robertvsredick.com/chathrand-voyage/red-wolf-conspiracy/#chapter1
http://www.redwolfconspiracy.com/
Review copy purchased
>>Chadfallow’s withholding of information that seemed a bit contrived in order to build up tension.<<
Yeah, felt that way too at the time.
Fortunately, Chadfallow wasn’t prominent enough a character for this trait of his to be too overbearing or take away from what I (clearly) thought was an otherwise very entertaining novel.
Have you read the subsequent novels in the series, Paul?
I thought this entire series was terrific. Is it YA? Sure, if you want to categorize is it as such, but that doesn’t mean it lacks depth, either emotionally or in the world building. It certainly isn’t grim dark, but that doesn’t mean the characters are all white hats. In fact, I found the characters to be vivid and real with great flaws but greater strengths. There was also a weirdness about the characters. Some of them reminded of Stark from Farscape: an absolute loon, who was nevertheless strong and fearless at times and cowardly in a humorous way at others. What really struck me about the books, though, was how fun they were to read. I can’t put my finger on exactly why I felt that way. Perhaps it was because the characters were young and fearless, always running from one end of the vast ship to the other, and always on the brink of disaster. Sometimes they even fell into the hot mess, but they never let it get them down for long, and their tragedies didn’t end up defining them. At least in the first book.