Friday, January 10, 2014

100 Page Friday - THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY by Robert V.S. Redick

This might be a new feature on my blog, wherein I assess the book I'm reading at the arbitrary 100 page mark. I realize I'm far from the first of my kind (that is, an SFF blogger) to do so. This ties into the Friday trend on Twitter for #FridayReads, where folks tweet out the book they are reading every Friday. I don't know just *how* regular a feature this will be because I may not be at the 100-page mark every Friday, but at the very least, here's one post on the early assessment of a book I'm reading on Friday.

So, The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick is a book I've blogged about fairly often since it first came on my radar in 2009. In fact, I think it might be the book I've not read (prior to this week) about which I've blogged the most. It is the first of the four book series titled The Chathrand Voyage.

On to the book itself, at least the first 100 pages or so...quick verdict is I like where this is going.  Redick introduces a pretty wide canvas in the world of Alifros and populates it with interesting characters. He introduces mages/sorcerers, an ancient forbidden text, little people who scramble about underfoot of us "big people" a voyage on the Chathrand which brings two young people together for an arranged marriage that will broker a peace settlement. At this point, the protagonist of this many-charactered story is Pazel Pathkendlea young deckhand who near the 100-page mark was brought aboard the Chathrand. Pazel has a some magical talents, or at least, he can read strange arcane languages and his long-gone father has a checkered past as a roguish sea captain.

There are three more books in this series and if the The Red Wolf Conspiracy continues on the course it is currently charting, I'll be reading the series in full since it is hitting the correct Epic Fantasy buttons for my reading sensibilities.

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