Robert V.S. Redick

The Chathrand Voyage — (2008-2011) Publisher: The Chathrand — The Great Ship, The Wind-Palace, His Supremacy's First Fancy — is the last of her kind — built 600 years ago she dwarves all the ships around her. The secrets of her construction are long lost. She was the pride of the Empire. The natural choice for the great diplomatic voyage to seal the peace with the last of the Emperor's last enemies. 700 souls boarded her. Her sadistic Captain Nilus Rose, the Emperor's Ambassador and Thasha, the daughter he plans to marry off to seal the treaty, a spy master and six assassins, one hunderd imperial marines, Pazel the tarboy gifted and cursed by his mother's spell and a small band of Ixchel. The Ixchel sneaked aboard and now hide below decks amongst the rats. Intent on their own mission. But there is treachery afoot. Behind the plans for peace lies the shadow of war and the fear that a dead king might live again. And now the Chathrand, having survived countless battles and centuries of typhoons has gone missing. This is her story.

Forthcoming: The Night of the Swarm

The Red Wolf Conspiracy

In The Red Wolf Conspiracy, Robert V.S. Redick manages to overcome several flaws and some conventional character types to create a mostly compelling and complex novel that leaves the reader eager to continue on to the next installment.

 The plot is far too complex to go into any detail here, but the major set-up is this: two great Empires, Arqual and Mzrith, are in a period of uneasy peace after having fought several wars, the most recent a few decades earlier. The massive (and I mean massive) ship Chathrand, last of the Great Ships built with skill and magery, sets sail from the Arqual Empire bearing an ambassador and his daughter Thasha — promised as a truce-sealing bride to a prince of Mzrith. Except in reality, the Chathrand has a secret mission as ordered by the Emperor. But others, including a talking-minx mage from another world, a long-dead mage of this world, and an imprisoned prince who thinks himself a god (among others) have their own ideas for how to use the Chathrand.

We also meet tarboy Pazel Pathkendle who has the gift of understanding any language and whose homeland was recently brutally conquered by Arqual (the invasion led by Thasha’s father the ambassador; Pazel’s mysteriously inconsistent benefactor and Emperor’s agent Dr. Ignus Chadfallow; Sander Ott, the Emperor’s spymaster; Thasha’s “dance tutor” Hercol (former student of Ott); the soap maker Ket who turns up in odd places; Lady Oggosk who seems to have some knowledge/power of her own; Lady Syrarys, Thasha’s scheming stepmother; and the Chathrand’s captain, the menacing and somewhat insane Captain Rose. Add in a clan of diminutive people (think the Borrowers) called Ixchel or ‘crawlies’ who have boarded the ship for their own reasons; a group of “wakened” sentient animals — the rat Felthrup Stargraven, the falcon Niriviel, and Sniraga the cat; and a lengthy scene involving a type of merfolk and you have a huge mix of characters and conflicting or paralleling ambitions/goals.

Pazel is clearly the main character, with Thasha getting nearly as much text time and later Felthrup the rat becomes a major point of view (probably my favorite of them all). At first, as Redick shifts POV and introduces many of the characters, the book starts a bit slowly, but the shifts are easy enough to follow, if a bit disconnected, and the book soon settles into itself and becomes quite compelling. Many of the humans are conventional fantasy characters, but they have enough uniqueness to them (such as Pazel’s gift of languages) and are likable enough that the familiarity isn’t any great problem.

Redick is served far better and more imaginatively by his non-human characters, especially the tragic Ixchel and the wakened animals, in particular Felthrup who steals the scene whenever he appears. I look forward to seeing more of these and learning more of the phenomenon in later books. And the minx mage Ramachni is also intriguing, adding a nice bit of mystery to the plot.

The complex plot of The Red Wolf Conspiracy is mostly enjoyable in its labyrinthine fashion, but it seems to careen a bit haphazardly, wrap up climaxes a bit abruptly with some clunky exposition, and then meander on anticlimactically a bit longer than it should have.

The worldbuilding is solid, with a good sense of history and mythology, references to other places and events, and some sharp detail about other groups and races. The shipboard setting feels like a shipboard setting without us getting bogged down in backbreaking nautical details, say about knots (I’m looking at you Melville!) A book that seems to be writing itself, a menacing iron statue, and a terrifying magical object whose horrific descriptions vary from culture to culture add some other nice touches of imagination (though that last one fell a bit flat for me at the end).

Structurally, Redick adds some variety to the basic multiple POV narrative with some journal entries, letters, and even a newspaper broadside. It was a welcome touch and one I would have enjoyed more of.

In the end, though the book disappointed a bit in its last 50 pages or so, and despite some overly-familiar character types, I found The Red Wolf Conspiracy to be mostly engrossing, and the flaws of familiarity were more than overcome by his more original creations. I’ll certainly pick up book two when it comes out and happily recommend this one. —Bill Capossere

The Ruling Sea (aka The Rats and the Ruling Sea)

PLOT SUMMARY: The great ship Chathrand, supposedly launched to bring an end to centuries of war, has all along been a tool of evil men. And behind them all stands Arunis, a 3000-year-old sorcerer bent on scouring life from the world of Alifros.

Now this enchanted, 600-year-old vessel has reached the island of Simja, where the tarboy Pazel Pathkendle will see the young woman he loves, Thasha Isiq, face death to thwart Arunis — and Pazel himself will be forced to confront his shattered past.

But the journey is only beginning. After Simja, Pazel and his friends must face the terrors of the Ruling Sea, an ocean so vast and violent that no ship but the Chathrand can even attempt the crossing. And all the while, deep in the ship, a cursed artifact is unleashing powers more terrible than the sea itself. Powers Arunis means to control...

CLASSIFICATION: THE CHATHRAND VOYAGE TRILOGY is a mix of modern and classic PG-13 rated epic fantasy that is being marketed for “fans of Philip Pullman and Scott Lynch,” and has also drawn comparisons to C.S. Lewis and Charles Dickens. Personally, the books remind me of Pirates of the Caribbean crossed with Tad Williams and Robert Jordan. Recommended to readers who like their fantasy epic-scale, charming, and full of magic, intrigue, and adventure.

FORMAT/INFO: ARC stands at 634 pages divided over a Prologue and 43 titled chapters. Also includes a note from the ‘Editor.’ Narration is in the third-person, mainly via the protagonists Pazel Pathkendle and Thasha Isiq. Other viewpoints include the wokened rat Felthrup, Thasha’s father Admiral Eberzam Isiq, the former ixchel queen Diadrelu, the Arquali spymaster Sander Ott, and the Mzithrini warrior-priest Neda Ygraël. Like The Red Wolf Conspiracy, the book also features breaks from the standard narrative in the form of Editor’s notes/footnotes, an excerpt from the The Merchant’s Polylex, Captain Rose’s letters to his father, and journal entries by the quartermaster Fiffengurt. The Rats and the Ruling Sea is the second volume in THE CHATHRAND VOYAGE after The Red Wolf Conspiracy, and ends at a point that is both a lull in the saga and a cliffhanger. The Night of the Swarm will conclude the trilogy.

October 29, 2009 marks the UK Hardcover and Tradecover publication of The Rats and the Ruling Sea via Gollancz. UK cover art provided by the award-winning Edward Miller. The North American edition will be published by Del Rey on February 16, 2010.

ROBERT’S ANALYSIS: Robert V.S. Redick’s debut novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, was a very good book that never lived up to its full potential due to various issues including questionable plot decisions and problems with the last 80-100 pages. Despite these issues, I was impressed by The Red Wolf Conspiracy’s extensive and imaginative world-building, the entertaining story, an eclectic cast of characters, and the book’s overall appeal, and still harbored high expectations for the sequel. Fortunately, The Rats and the Ruling Sea, the second volume in THE CHATHRAND VOYAGE TRILOGY, met those expectations, and then some.

Everything I loved about The Red Wolf Conspiracy is back in the sequel in full force starting with world-building that continues to impress for both its scope and its creativeness. In this case, readers will get to learn more about Erithusmé, the Nilstone, ixchel customs, and the wakings as well as the Arquali Empress Maisa, the father of the Mzithrin Empire Sathek, sfvantskor, and yet another fascinating non-human race called the dlömu — the other non-human races, one of the book’s highlights, include the ixchel, nunekkam, flikkermen, augrongs, stoors, and murths. There’s actually less world-building in The Rats and the Ruling Sea than there was in its predecessor, but this isn’t an issue because the author is able to strike a better balance between the world-building and the book’s other components.

The cast of characters meanwhile, is once again very large and diverse with the protagonists suitably charming and the villains easy to detest. Stereotypes still abound, but Robert V.S. Redick manages to add depth to some of the characters like Hercól Stanapeth and Eberzam Isiq, while further developing relationships (some obvious and some not so), as well as introducing new faces (Neda Ygraël, the Father), evolving characters, and occasionally surprising the reader with a major death or allies who are actually villains and vice versa. The problem with such a large cast however, is that there’s just not enough characterization to go around and some of the characters, both major and minor, inevitably get the short end of the stick. The characters that suffer from this in The Rats and the Ruling Sea include Sander Ott, Felthrup, Dr. Ignus Chadfallow, Mugstur, Ramachni, and Neda Ygraël who is related to one of the main protagonists.

Story-wise, The Rats and the Ruling Sea is definitely epic — clocking in at over 600 pages — but the plot is not very complex. Basically, the book revolves around finalizing the Great Peace between Arqual and Mzithrin so Arunis and Sander Ott can continue their scheming which includes the Chathrand sailing across the Ruling Sea, landing at Gurishal, awakening Shaggat Ness, and using the power of the Nilstone, while Pazel, Thasha and the badly outnumbered good guys try to find a way to stop them. There are various subplots: Pazel and company finding new allies including the other two individuals who were marked by the spirit in the Red Wolf (one of them is a major surprise), stopping Arunis from using a forbidden thirteenth edition of The Merchant’s Polylex to free the Nilstone from Shaggat’s grasp, the revenge-seeking sfvantskor and the Mzithrin warship Jistrolloq, Eberzam Isiq’s fall from grace, and ixchel/rat intrigue. But for the most part the story in The Rats and the Ruling Sea is easy to follow — punctuated by swift pacing, well-executed surprises, cunning stratagems, and engrossing action.

As far as the writing, The Rats and the Ruling Sea is once again incredibly charming and accessible, and a lot of that has to do with Robert V.S. Redick’s engaging prose and dialogue, and tongue-in-cheek humor that wonderfully balances the book’s darker and more dramatic moments. I was amused by the Editor’s Note at the start of the novel which explained the infrequent appearance of footnotes in The Rats and the Ruling Sea which was an issue I had with The Red Wolf Conspiracy. ;)

Overall, Robert V.S. Redick’s The Rats and the Ruling Sea possesses all of the same outstanding qualities that impressed me in The Red Wolf Conspiracy, while fixing most of the problems that plagued the first volume of THE CHATHRAND VOYAGE. In particular, the book manages to maintain a high level of excellence from the very beginning all the way to the engrossing finish. In short, The Rats and the Ruling Sea is not only a vast improvement over its predecessor; it’s easily one of the best fantasy novels of the year. —Robert Thompson

The Ruling Sea

The Ruling Sea is the second book of Robert Redick’s Chathrand Voyage series. I truly enjoyed the first, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, despite a few flaws and a lackluster ending, and so I was looking forward to the sequel. Unfortunately, I didn’t find this one either as enjoyable or as compelling. I picked it up and put it down quite a number of times, curious as to what would happen in the end but not grabbed by the journey.

In the first book, the great ship Chathrand is carrying young Thasha — an admiral’s daughter of the Arqual Empire — to marry a prince of their arch-enemy, the Mzithrin Empire, to bring about the Great Peace. Actually, though, the marriage is a trick by Arqual agents, meant to inflame a fanatic cult that would weaken the Mzithrins as well as provoke war. Meanwhile, the villainous millennia-old sorcerer Arunis attempted to gain control of the Nilstone, a magical artifact of great destructive power with which he could end civilization. (There are lots of other “meanwhiles,” but we don’t have time for them all.) Arunis is thwarted in the latter goal when Pazel Pathkendle — tar boy, learner of languages extraordinaire, and wannabe lover of Thasha — turns the cult’s thought-to-be-dead sorcerer leader to stone as he clutches the feared Nilstone, putting it for a time at least out of Arunis’ reach. The wedding, however, is still on, and this is where The Ruling Sea picks up: with the preparations and ceremony.

Soon, however, everything goes topsy-turvy (or according to plan, depending on which scheming character’s perspective one uses) and the Chathrand is crossing the nearly-uncrossable titular sea to eventually attack Mzithrin by surprise from an unexpected quarter. (There are other reasons as well, but again, time presses.) Along the way our heroes (a small band made up of Pazel, Thasha, a talking “woken” rat, a tormented master swordsman, a diminutive ixchel (tiny people) outcast, and a handful of other allies — some of whom come as a bit of a surprise — have to deal with possible mutiny, a magical storm, Arunis’ machinations, a team of super-fighter Mzithrin’s tailing the great ship to seek vengeance (for what we will not say), the Nilstone’s malevolent influence, an ixchel attack, and a plague of huge, woken rats, among others.

That’s a lot, and to be honest, I found it a bit much. The book felt a bit haphazard and overly episodic to me, careening from one event to the next with little sense of narrative cohesion or fluidity. There are schemes within schemes within schemes, and they begin to get a bit wearisome and even have a bit of a counterproductive effect in that as various plot points or schemes are revealed, the reader sort of sits back and just waits for the next layer to get unpeeled rather than feeling all that invested in any particular one. Some of it all feels a bit over-elaborate as well, feeling more like Rube Goldbergian constructs of an author than the schemes of real people trying to effect real results in a real world.

I also found myself caring less for the characters this time around. One of my favorites, the woken rat Felthrup, simply wasn’t given anywhere near the page time he deserved, as his is one of the most original and distinctive personalities. The spymaster Sander Ott, the not-quite-clear Dr. Chadfallow, and a new character — Pazel’s sister — are also given short shrift, which is too bad because all of them are more complex and more interesting than most of those characters who get the bulk of the page time. Captain Rose is an exception — not just complex and mysterious but out-and-out fun — though again I wished for more of him. As is the swordsman Hercol, though in less fun manner than Rose. Pazel and Thasha are likable enough, but neither stands out as particularly original or compelling; their situations are a bit familiar, as is the back-and-forth relationship (part of the reason for the back and forth aspect was also a bit implausible to me). Unfortunately, they get a lot of the focus.

There are flashes of intensity and inventiveness throughout The Ruling Sea — such as Pazel’s meeting with a fearsome magical beast, any of the scenes with Felthrup, a subplot involving Thasha’s father — but not enough. The book, however, picks up speed and intensity greatly toward the end; unlike book one, the last 100 pages or so are the strongest, not the weakest, part of the book. In the end, The Ruling Sea was a disappointment, and felt like it fell victim to bridge-book syndrome where we spend too much time getting from Point A to Point B. Sometimes the journey is the thing rather than the destination, and if any book should prove that it would be one about a great ship’s voyage, but in this case the story got a bit becalmed. Here’s hoping book three gets its wind back. —Bill Capossere

River of Shadows

PLOT SUMMARY: The crew of the vast, ancient ship Chathrand has reached the shores of the legendary southern empire of Bali Adro. Many have died in the crossing, and the alliance of rebels, led by the tarboy Pazel Pathkendle and the admiral’s daughter Thasha Isiq, has faced death, betrayal, and darkest magic. But nothing has prepared them for the radically altered face of humanity in the South.

They have little time to recover from the shock, however. For with landfall, the battle between the rebels and centuries-old sorcerer Arunis enters its final phase. At stake is control of the Nilstone, a cursed relic that promises unlimited power to whoever unlocks the secrets of its use — but death to those who fail. And no one is closer to mastering the Stone than Arunis.

Desperate to stop him, Pazel and Thasha must join forces with their enemies, including the depraved Captain Rose and the imperial assassin Sandor Ott. But when a suspicious young crewmember turns his attentions to Thasha, it is the young lovers themselves who are divided — most conveniently for Arunis. As the mage’s triumph draws near, the allies face a terrible choice: break their oaths and run for safety, or hunt the world’s most dangerous sorcerer through a strange and deadly land...

CLASSIFICATION: The Chathrand Voyage series is a mix of modern and classic PG-13 epic fantasy marketed for fans of George R.R. Martin, Philip Pullman and Scott Lynch. The series has also drawn comparisons to C.S. Lewis and Charles Dickens. Personally, the series reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean if it was set in a fantasy world created by Tad Williams and Robert Jordan. Recommended for readers who like their fantasy large-scale, exciting and full of magic, intrigue and adventure...

FORMAT/INFO: The River of Shadows is 592 pages long divided over 32 titled chapters. Narration is in the third-person, mainly via the protagonists Pazel Pathkendle and Thasha Isiq. Minor viewpoints include Arunis, Neda Ygraël, Neeps, Felthrup, Thasa’s father Eberzam, Mr. Fiffengurt, Myett, Greysan Fulbreech, Ensyl, Counselor Vadu, Sander Ott, and Lord Taliktrum. The River of Shadows is the third volume in The Chathrand Voyage series after The Red Wolf Conspiracy and The Rats and the Ruling Sea. The series will be concluded in The Night of the Swarm. It’s highly recommended that readers finish the first two books before attempting The River of Shadows.

April 19, 2011 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of The River of Shadows via Del Rey. The UK version (see below) will be published in both Hardcover and Trade Paperback via Gollancz on April 21, 2011. UK cover art is provided by Edward Miller.

ANALYSIS: In just a few years, Robert V.S. Redick has developed into one of the most exciting young voices in fantasy today. While The Red Wolf Conspiracy was a massively hyped debut that did not live up to expectations, the author showcased remarkable improvement in The Rats and the Ruling Sea — UK title — resulting in one of the best fantasy novels of 2009. Now in the third volume in The Chathrand Voyage, Robert V.S. Redick continues to make strides as a writer, while delivering another first-rate fantasy novel in The River of Shadows...

Originally planned as a trilogy, The Chathrand Voyage has evolved into a quartet with The River of Shadows the third volume in the series after The Red Wolf Conspiracy and The Rats and the Ruling Sea. A direct continuation from the end of The Rats and the Ruling Sea — MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!! — The River of Shadows starts off with the Chathrand and its crew safely across the Ruling Sea, but far from danger. Not only is the Great Ship facing food and water shortages, ixchel command, and possibly mutiny in a strange land ravaged by war and a plague that has turned all humans into tol-chenni — mindless creatures — but Arunis also remains on the prowl.

From here, exciting blockbuster action; sweeping adventure; intriguing subplots — dlömu/ixchel politics, Eberzam Isiq’s imprisonment, time-skips, the River of Shadows — unlikely alliances; and startling revelations involving Pazel’s mother and Thasa’s connection to Erithusmé take readers on a massively entertaining roller coaster ride that culminates with a final epic confrontation between Arunis and those sworn to the sorcerer’s opposition. Through all of this, Robert V.S. Redick’s engaging narrative is aided by frequent viewpoint shifts between characters major, minor, good and evil as well as informative/amusing footnotes and notes to the reader from the Editor, a journal entry from the quartermaster Mr. Fiffengurt, and one of Captain Rose’s letters, while the story’s undeniable charm and excitement factor is further enhanced by deft storytelling and witty prose:

My purpose here is simply a warning. If you are part of that infinitesimally small (and ever smaller) band of dissidents with the wealth, time and inclination to set your hands on the printed word, I suggest you consider the arguments against the current volume. To wit: the tale is morbid, the persons depicted are clumsy when they are not evil, the world is inconvenient to visit and quite changed from what is here described, the plot at this early juncture is already complex beyond all reason, the moral cannot be stated, and the editor is intrusive.

The one complaint I have with the story is that certain parts are easy to unravel or predict, like Greysan Fulbreech’s deception and the climactic battle with Arunis which involved the Nilstone and the Swarm of Night, but because The River of Shadows is so much fun to read and narrated in such entertaining fashion, it’s a minor issue.

Characterization is a somewhat bigger issue, and easily the novel’s weakest link. While Pazel, Thasa and the rest of their motley bunch — which includes heroes, villains, and those who fall somewhere in between — remain charming with interesting personalities and backgrounds, their sheer numbers have forced character development in The River of Shadows to a standstill. To make matters worse, the spotlight is far too small to properly accommodate everyone in the series. This is not so much a problem with Pazel and Thasa since they are prominently featured in The River of Shadows — as they should be — but some of the more intriguing characters introduced over the course of the series like Felthrup, Hercól Stanapeth, Neda Ygraël, Arunis, Thasa’s father Eberzam, Dr. Ignus Chadfallow, Sander Ott, Captain Rose and Lord Taliktrum only receive brief moments in the spotlight before disappearing back into the background, while new faces (Ibjen, Prince Olik, Counselor Vadu) struggle to make an impact. Honestly though, these issues with the characterization did little to dampen my enjoyment of the book. With such a huge cast of characters, one can only expect so much character development to begin with, while the brief moments I did get to spend with Hercól, Felthrup, Sander Ott, Captain Rose, etc., were time well spent.

World-building meanwhile, is less of a factor in The River of Shadows, especially compared to the first two books in the series, but what ideas Redick does introduce are once again creative and fascinating. Highlights include the immensely strange Infernal Forest; the city of Masalym with its unique docking system; Vasparhaven, a Spider Tellers temple; learning about the creation of The Merchant’s Polylex and Bali Adro’s Infinite Conquest; dlömic culture, superstitions and prejudice; the Orfuin Club; and the River of Shadows —  “a tunnel between worlds, the channel cut by the wild pulse of life through a hostile universe, the thought that flees on waking, the pure stuff from which souls are distilled.”

CONCLUSION: Even with characterization flaws and issues with the story, The River of Shadows is another outstanding work of fantasy from Robert V.S. Redick, ranking right up there with The Rats and the Ruling Sea in terms of pure fun and entertainment the book brings to the table, while surpassing its predecessor because of improved writing and the rewarding answers provided. Not to mention setting the stage for what should be an explosive and much anticipated finale to The Chathrand Voyage saga in The Night of the Swarm... —Robert Thompson

River of Shadows

I quite enjoyed Robert Redick’s first Chathrand Voyage novel — The Red Wolf Conspiracy — but was disappointed by the second, The Rats and the Ruling Sea, which felt less inventive and compelling (at least until the very end). The Ruling Sea took the focus off of several of my favorite characters and the plot seemed overly slow, meandering, and unfocused. So it was with some trepidation that I opened up book three, The River of Shadows. I’m glad to report it is a welcome return to the quality of book one, and maybe even exceeds it.          

At the end of The Ruling Sea, the great ship Chathrand had reached the semi-mythical empire in the south, Bali Adro. Rather than a possible ally, however, it turns out Bali Adro has been corrupted by dark sorcery (with the help of Arunis and his fellow dark sorcerers, the Ravens). Even more shocking is their discovery of what has happened to seemingly all the humans in the South. As Arunis grows in power and comes ever closer to his goal of controlling the dread Nilstone, the group working against Arunis must team up with past enemies as well as find new allies in this strange and terrible empire, all while the core group threatens to fall apart thanks to internal issues.

One of the reasons this book struck me as more effective than the prior one is that the plot feels much more focused and streamlined. Whereas The Ruling Sea was more episodic in structure and seemed more haphazard, River of Shadows has a clean, clear narrative line that has a strong sense of urgency due to its narrow, almost single-minded focus. Before the general goal had been “stop Arunis,” the same as now, but it was a more abstract goal then as they were all locked into the same setting (on board the ship). It became a matter of layered scheme upon scheme and arcane, almost arbitrary reasons why certain moves couldn’t be made (why Arunis couldn’t simply kill everyone, for example). Now, though, they leave the ship behind and the narrative shifts to a chase sequence, stripping through all those layers of abstraction. And because Arunis is actually this time close to controlling the stone, there is a much stronger sense of felt urgency (rather than an urgency that is declared by a character or two). All of this ratchets up the tension and suspense nicely, although a minor blip is that the very end seems a bit anticlimactic.

The characters also pick up in interest for the most part. We see more of Felthrup, thankfully, one of my favorite characters. Chadfallow continues to be the kind of character that grows ever more interesting even as the reader is ever less sure about him in many ways. And we get some interesting revelations and shifts among some of the other characters, such as Rose and Neeps, though with such a large and growing cast of characters some are given short shrift. How one responds to that will depend on their feelings about particular characters. I would have liked more with Neda, for instance, but some of the other characters I’m quite happy not being given lots of page time. Several new characters — a prince of Bali Adro, a commander wielding a powerful and sinister weapon, and a head of a monkish order — add new blood and bits of complexity and humor and wisdom to the story. Each is a welcome addition. One blemish in both the character and plot is a storyline involving Thasha and Fullbreech, one which continues the unfortunate soap opera kind of plot that so annoyed me in book two and which also is predicated on characters being a bit implausibly dimwitted. One other plot point is even worse in the “did they really not see that” way, but as things would have gone as they did anyway, one can set that aside a bit more easily.

Besides the sharper, more suspenseful plot and more interesting characterization, one of the true pleasures of The River of Shadows is its inventiveness. The South is a wholly new geographic region, and because it is connected in some way to the titular River of Shadows — a place of magic and dreams and thought where worlds commingle and from whence come all sorts of strange creatures (for good and bad) — Redick has lots of opportunity to show us new creatures, peoples, and cultures, such as fire trolls, glass spiders, hospitality rules, the Infernal Forest (shades of The Princess Bride), and even a ritual which involves Captain Rose having to bow to a kind of goat (you can imagine how well he takes that). All of these details, some of which play important roles in the plot and others of which simply flesh out Redick’s world, create a wonderful impression of newness and creativity. I think this is the reason I consider The River of Shadows the best of the series so far.

“So far,” that is, because the end resolves some questions but opens up other, perhaps more dire ones. After The Ruling Sea, I was hesitant to follow Redick to the end of the tale, but now, having had the series redeemed by The River of Shadows, I’m eagerly waiting to clamber back aboard the great ship to see what happens in sequel: The Night of the Swarm. Highly recommended. —Bill Capossere