The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick
Published by Gollancz in the UK 19 May 2009 in PB
and
is Out Now in HB from Del Rey in the US
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.
The first thing that struck me when the ARC arrived from Del Rey was the stunning cover design. This is one of the rare occasions when the American version is more striking than the UK one.
Then there has been the reviews. It’s not that I wasn’t interested when the UK Hardback came out but the buzz wasn’t really there and for some reason apart from Pirates of the Caribbean ships don’t do that much for me. But after seeing some of the great reviews like these:
“Let me be straightforward here. I really liked “The Red Wolf Conspiracy”. Robert V.S. Redick’s debut was fun to read, intelligently crafted, highly imaginative, and undeniably charming and I can’t wait to see what happens on The Chathrand Voyage in the rest of the trilogy”
“’The Red Wolf Conspiracy’ takes its readers on a wonderful voyage of adventure that they won’t regret booking passage on.”
Know as always take one takes high praise with a pinch of salt but the consensus is that is has something worth trying at least.
Anyone else fancy it?
I gave it a good review as well, with just a few critiques. Here it is: http://fantasydebut.blogspot.com/2009/04/review-r...
Your comment system didn't retain the rest of my comment. I also added that it isn't a pirate fantasy. It just happens to take place on board a ship. Most of the time.
I'm definitely foaming at the mouth to read this – I read the first chapter before the book was published (on the official site) and was immediately hooked, but here in SA there's some issue with the rights, and it's only arriving in July / August.
I managed to finish it but certainly wouldent recomend it to anyone, and wont be buying the sequal
Sorry about loosing rest of your comment – of can be quirky. And thanks for stopping by with the link to your review – insightful as always. I'm curious to see how the tension plays out
Ok so more a ship based fantasy than pirates thanks for that!
That will be an interesting read. Today I received my copy of the UK version with the cover I prefer. I will read it as soon as I have finished The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. Anyway I read an excerpt of The Red Wolf Conspiracy and I liked it.
Oh, and this is one case where the USA cover definitely tops the UK cover, in my opinion. Usually we get awful covers! But the best cover of all was the one on the advance reader copy, where you see the ship in much greater detail. The hardcover cover retains the same color scheme.
good article , I added you in the ‘Liked’ category.. thanks for sharing the article!
I tried to respond earlier and it didn't take. I'm tempted to turn-off intense debate but I like the email tracking feature.
Anyway, thanks for the link. I'm curious about how the tension does and doesn't work
And thanks for clarifying re the pirate/ship thing. I guess that's just how I see ships
Now it's showing!
Well not too long to wait…
there is an extract here:
http://redwolfconspiracy.com/PDFs/RedWolfConspira...
if people want to read it
Hope you like it when it does arrive
that should be:
http://www.redwolfconspiracy.com/NewPages/chapter...
Oh, why?
Sanderson is coming to UK at some point I think…. I'm not sure if I read that in a news item somewhere?
Thanks for information. But I live in Germany :>) Anyway I appreciate the books of Brandon Sanderson.