Customer Reviews

The Red Wolf Conspiracy

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Empires scheme and brace for war in this beautifully imagined, intricately plotted tale. Taking place aboard an enormous ship sailing to a foreign capital on a peace mission, The Red Wolf Conspiracy focuses on two young protagonists, from widely divergent backgrounds, who unearth a scheme that endangers their world. Also aboard are a mad ship's captain, a race of tiny, ferocious warriors, sentient animals, wizards, and others whose agendas are not at all what they seem.

A great and entertaining read, this book's tremendous strength is in the comprehensive imagination of a world in all its fascinating detail. Redick gives us a glimpse of the workings of a vast, ravenous Empire reflected in the lives of characters ranging from peace emissary to political operative to near-slave. It reminded me of the experience of reading Dune for the first time, with throwaway details that hint tangentially at complex, fully-imagined institutions. Cumulatively, they yield a sense of a vast society that is at once fantastic and utterly plausible.

This story is the first installment in the trilogy The Chathrand Voyage, and my one quibble with Book 1 was that it will make for a rather infuriating wait for Book 2. You get the impression this trilogy is elaborately designed, with many more twists and reveals on the way. - think "Lord of the Rings," and imagine how tough it must have been to await the release of those installments.

I highly recommend this engrossing book and I'm eagerly awaiting the next one!

Robert V.S. Redick's The Red Wolf Conspiracy is a book that takes the realistic movement in modern fantasy as far as possible in an ostensibly literary direction. Despite the setting, the story reads more like a contender for a Booker Prize than a Nebula Award. A displaced migrant worker struggles against an oppressive, misogynistic society. Set against the backdrop of the horrors of war, he bands together with other outcast minorities to forge a new family (in a triumph of the human spirit, naturally).

The setting is overtly - ostentatiously - fantastical. Tribes of tiny humanoids (Ixchel) scuttle around. Sorcerors and mad doctors practice their mystical arts in tandem. The overarching plot (when finally revealed) is similarly decadent. Two ancient empires, colliding in battle. Insane god-kings, long held captive in magical bonds. Ancient evils battle heroes from other worlds, etc. etc. Blah blah blah.

All of that, no matter how grandiose, is incidental. The real story of The Red Wolf Conspiracy is merely that of Pavel, a little boy on a big boat. Of no actual importance, his one SuperSecretHighFantasy ability is a magical ability to understand languages. He doesn't fight. He's not a wizard. He's just a cabin boy with bad headaches and an ear for dialects. He is, quite possibly, the least spectacular fantasy hero of all time. (Redick strikes me as the guy who played the Bard in his D&D group).

The earth-shattering events that surround Pavel are largely ignored by him - he's too busy trying to find a place for himself, in his own tiny world. Pavel is a real person, with real problems. He's got a good heart, so he's eventually pulled along in the meta-plot for understandable, altruistic reasons, but his primary motivation is often just to keep his head down.

The larger context of The Red Wolf Conspiracy is also completely independent of the book's fantastic surroundings. Although two mighty fantasy empires stand poised at the brink of war, Redick is less concerned with ancient war-related-prophecies than he is with describing the horrors of being a displaced migrant. Multi-dimensional wizards are facing off in battle, but the book is more interested in detailing the depressing, degrading status system. Or the misogynistic marriage practices. Or the unfortunate realities of slave trade economics. Ancient relics of unspeakable power someone else's problem - the heroes of The Red Wolf Conspiracy are more interested in getting out of their indentured labor contracts.

As a result, The Red Wolf Conspiracy is a very modern, very... almost overly... mature piece of fantasy. Instead of swords and sorcery, the reader gets etiquette and policy. There's no question that this makes the book a slow and often cumbersome read. The author's intent - and talent - seems to lie in complex world-building, as seen through the eyes of the world's most insignificant character. The occasional burst of action (and conventional 'plot') feels forced, and often drags both the reader and the characters away from the surprisingly interesting minutiae. The resulting book is not always an entertaining read, but definitely an absorbing one.

-- PORNOKITSCH

This is the best fantasy novel I've read in years! The world Mr. Redick has created is rich and fully realized. It's also unusual--a real departure from the typical fantasy fare. As a reader who knows absolutely nothing about ships and sailing, Mr. Redick's rich prose allowed me to immerse myself in his world with total abandon. And isn't that a big reason we fans read scifi and fantasy?

The plot is intriguing with lots of twists and turns, and the writer keeps it moving along at a quick clip. It's one of those books that make us stay awake all night long reading, because we just can't wait to find out what happens next.

A lot of thinking has been going on here, and that applies to his characterization as well. The characters are all fully human in their personalities, motivations, strengths and weaknesses. And as the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of two little girls, I was particularly gratified to see the strong female characters Mr. Redick has created.

In a nutshell, it all makes sense. And it serves up a heaping spoonful of tension and mystery as well. I can't wait for the second one!

Once in a while a book comes along that technically is well written... but for some reason is a complete fail for me. This is one of those books.

In recapping it, I visited Amazon and saw nothing but glowing reviews, so I'll I can say is it is not the book for me. Let me outline why:

1.) Reviewers state this is something "new." Scratching head.... I don't see it. Seems like the trite, rescue-adventure mission and quest with a group of misfits that I've read about since the 1980's.

2.) As one reviewer at Amazon wrote: "halfway through, the book fell apart in my hands." While the storyline has a firm beginning setting things up, by the time we get to the "little people" (shades of The Borrowers!) the entire thing starts to read like some sort of self-mockery.

I wasn't sure if this was a straight, fantasy-quest adventure, or a parody. Halfway through the line gets crossed and I started finding the book an unpleasant read as more and more characters were piled into the story.

3.) Sometimes I read a book and go hmmm did this author go through a checklist on what would make his book popular and then cut out a cardboard, dress-up doll to fit that roll? Characters are stereotypes from the Quest-Fantasy adventure stories of the 1980's. No one comes across as a real person and there was a real disconnect for me in trying to see these characters as people.

This book reads like a crafted "plan" for a story rather then a wonderful story.

4.) While the writing is sound, Redick's work comes across as cold and formulated. Like Sharon Shinn's work, the author doesn't create for me any reality that I care about. The entire time I am quite conscious of being lead down a formulaic plot storyline that I've been down a 100 times before.

Where is the "soul?" Personally, for me stories are about plot and characters, if one fails it is an average book; if both fails it is a book not worth buying and/or an author not worth reading.

This story would probably appeal more to the reading set who just wants a multi-cast, quest-adventure, and who would enjoy the sea and ship references (I cut my teeth on Hornblower by C.S. Forester). However, don't expect rousing adventure or in-depth characters who you want to cheer or cry over. If you don't think too deeply about it, the book is okay to satisfying.

Like day old sushi, this book didn't agree with me.

Story
A spirited and reluctant noblewoman is shipped overseas to marry a powerful lord in a rival kingdom, but treachery is afoot! An evil wizard hatches a fiendish plot and an unlikely band of heroes must thwart his evil scheme.

World
Robert V.S. Redick has created a unique fantasy world with different races, mysterious creatures, and magic. At first, the fantastic elements are strange anecdotes like, "The Makdors sure are sahzique," then everyone laughs but you. But as the book progresses the world gains depth and becomes rooted in its fiction. The world is grounded in reality. Don't expect epic dragon battles or anything like that, instead, you'll find more protocol between different races: "This is how you deal with Ixchel." Everything in the book is on a fairly small scale and most of the book takes place on a ship at sea.

One complaint, quite a few of the character names and races sound like they were created in a random name generator: Eberzam Isiq, Mzithrin, Diadrelu, Syrarys...

Writing Style
This reads quite a bit like literature. It's pretty elegant. However the pacing is a bit off... the book doesn't really get going until page 120 and it ends abruptly. The strongest part of the book is watching the conspiracy unfold between the major characters.

Characters
This is definitely not an epic band of heroes. Instead, it's more like an unlikely band of misfits. The main character is Pazel, a cabin boy who can speak many languages and often has magical Tourette's Syndrome. Aside from getting captured and thrown down wells, that seems to be the extent of his powers. He's alot like C3P0 from Star Wars, now that I think about it. The heroine is Thasha, the reluctant and feisty noblewoman. There's also a talking rat and a band of warriors that are the size of action figures. This maybe a turn off for some, but if you like the misfit style characters, you won't mind them at all.

Action
There is some action throughout the book and it's fairly mild.

Maturity
With family friendly characters, some swashbuckling action, mild language, and no sex, it's good for anyone who's mature enough to read a complex caper.

Overall
Parts of the book were rough, but watching the caper unfold in the middle of the book was very interesting. If you want to read about a conspiracy with misfit fantasy characters, you can really enjoy this book. If you want a swashbuckling tale of epic action, this probably won't do it for you.

As many have pointed out previously, this is a great modern novel with a traditional adventure flavor a la Melville or even Dickens. The world building is first rate, descriptions are vivid, and the pace quickly builds into a page-turner. If you find it slow going at first, just keep going and you'll get sucked up in it soon enough.

Here are the primary draws to this novel (for me):

+ Quality world building - this is a deep and fascinating world, and not everything is spelled out in too great a detail. It makes the little bits and pieces you collect about the world (such as the Flikkermen) seem like exciting discoveries, gradually fleshing out your mental landscape. Worth reading just for this. Also, the concept of "woken" animals is quite well done, despite being a concept that could have completely fallen flat. It's presented very well I think.

+ Strong female lead - It's nice to see a female lead who is not painted as perfect (although apparently she's beautiful), but who is determined to have her way - not in a spoiled sniveling way, but in a strong "this is my life" coming-of-age kind of way.

+ Following along with that, strong characters over all - Most of the characters are multi-dimensional and you can see their motivations behind their actions and any changes of heart they have. Some of them have motivations that are unclear, and this is generally shown rather than told. In other words, you develop your own opinions and ideas of the characters rather than having the author force-feed you. It works. The only exception would possibly (for me) be Nilus Rose who I think gets the short end of the well-rounded-character stick. Then again, there's two more books left, so we may yet learn much more of him.

+ Rollicking story - The story reminds me of many literary classics, from spanish picaresque to Dickens to Treasure Island. The characters stumble from one adventure to the next, and I for one was happy to just follow them along.

Not all is perfect however, so I would be remiss not to mention the (few) shortcomings:

- Some of the 'bad guys' are a little 2-dimensional and obvious. The whole good mage vs bad mage bit just feels a little tired.

- There is an overabundance of instances where you want to smack one of the main characters or roll your eyes, a bit like in a horror movie when you don't want them to separate, or in a romantic comedy when it's like Just Explain To Her Why You Did XYZ!

- The ending seemed extremely rushes and jumbled, quite out of pace with the rest of the novel. So many twists were coming, and so much action on top of action in a way that was out of proportion with the rest of the story, that I had try and reread several pages. Still didn't help a lot. I finished the book with my spinning more from slight confusion than from excitement or realizations. It seemed like you get a handful of pages from the end and suddenly everything just happens at once and it's done and aww, we just need to work together.

- Following along with that, the sappiness factor skyrockets at the end. It felt all of a sudden a bit Young Adult or after school special there near the end. Then again, after reading so much George R R Martin, Joe Abercrombie, etc. it's nice to have a little saccharin thrown in once in a while. Maybe we do need to be reminded once in a while to value our friends.

All in all, this is an excellent read, and I can't wait to start the 2nd novel (just purchased today). It may not be perfect, but it's well worth your time. Plus, if you have kids old enough to handle some of the fighting (although death and gore is surprisingly limited), I think it would be an excellent novel to read together as a family.

In The Red Wolf Conspiracy, Robert V. 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 into 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. Except 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.
Besides the above, we also have 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. And those are just some of the human characters. 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. As mentioned, many of the human characters at least will be familiar to fantasy fans. It is no great insight to predict that Pazel and Thasha, for instance, will first argue/dislike each other, then become conflicted about their feelings, then awkwardly start to show those feelings. Spymaster Ott does what one expects of spymasters, dance tutors who are really amazing fighters/bodyguards do what one expects of them, and so on. But if they characters are conventional and at times (the adolescent spark of attraction) clichéd, 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 outlier bit of mystery to the basic (if it can be called that) plot.
As mentioned, the plot is complex and mostly enjoyable in its labyrinthine fashion. Probably the major failing in the book is the ending, where the plot seems to careen a bit haphazardly, wrap up climaxes a bit abruptly with some clunky exposition, and then meanders on a bit 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, some sharp details with regard to other groups/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 descriptions vary from culture to culture but are all horrific 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 throughout its length, and the flaws of familiarity were more than overcome by his more original creations, such as the wakened animals or the Ixchel and their story. I'll certainly pick up book two when it comes out and happily recommend book one.

Mr. Redick's debut novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, takes place in a fantasy world in which the main mode of travel is by sailing ship, which leads to adventure on the high seas for the story's main characters. This story begins shortly after a terrible war, when a six-hundred-year-old ship sets sail for enemy lands in order to create an enduring peace between the world's two greatest monarchies. When the characters uncover a dark conspiracy surrounding the Red Wolf, a legendary and dangerous artifact, they must face a host of dangerous foe and fight for their very lives while uncovering secrets that could destroy both empires.

While the first half of this novel is fast-paced and well written, I found the middle to be slow and cumbersome, not nearly as well-fashioned as the first part. The ending, though satisfactory and set to merge well with the sequel, failed to make up for the humps, bumps and downright clumsy feel of the middle part of the book, where some elements seemed ill-timed or out of place. The concept is marvelous, very intriguing, but the middle of the story could benefit from some editing and possibly from another draft to smooth out some of the inconsistencies.

Over all, not bad for a first novel. I eagerly await the next installment of the series and hope to see some improvement in the flow of the storyline. Recommended to adult fantasy and sea-faring fans who don't mind the violence, which may be disturbing to some readers.

Robert V.S. Redick's the Red Wolf Conspiracy, is the first book in his debut fantasy series the Chathrand Voyage, which is, to the best of my knowledge, expected to include three sequels. The Red Wolf Conspiracy tells the story of young Pazel Pathkendle, a pseudo-slave who survives by working on ships as a "tar boy", which is basically a grunt who does a lot of the things the sailors don't want to do. Pazel ends up on the Chathrand, a famous ship on an important mission to an enemy land. On his journey, Pazel befriends Thasha, the daughter of the ambassador in charge of the mission, and the two are swept up in a tremendous conspiracy which threatens not only their lives but the lives of countless others.

In all, the Red Wolf Conspiracy is a decent book. The plot is reasonably engaging and the characters are entertaining, even if the main characters are somewhat prototypical. Pazel is, of course, somewhat typical in the fantasy genre as the poor, young nobody who somehow gets caught up in the great events of the world. But Pazel isn't a child of destiny, nor does he possess any great power. He's an intelligent kid with a magical knack for languages. Thasha is your typical tomboyish fantasy heroine, but she has an unusual knack not only for combat, but also for military strategy. The most interesting characters, however, are the side characters. Pazel's best friend, Neeps is vicious but loyal, and always entertaining. The "ixchel", a tiny, humanoid warrior species constantly at war with humans remind us that there is more at stake than the lives of a few while providing some comic relief. And Felthrup, the talking rat, is surprisingly eloquent and pitiful, and, indeed, may be the most fascinating and moving character in the novel.

I also enjoyed the relative simplicity of the magic system. I typically prefer fantasy novels with limited (or no) magic. There is a fair bit of magic in the Red Wolf Conspiracy, but it doesn't dominate the story, nor are chapters and chapters devoted to explaining the magic. When magic happens, it merely furthers the story. The magic isn't the point, nor is it even a major focus of the novel.

For the most part, the writing is respectable. Redick is no poet, but he can turn a pretty phrase here and there. His prose is good enough. But all the same, reading the novel could be frustrating at times, because if often didn't make sense. That's not to say that the novel is internally inconsistent or is illogical. It's not the sort of confusion that arises from an immensely complex work like a Martin or a Jordan novel. Rather, it seems that Redick simply doesn't always explain things very well. After one of the climactic battle scenes, for example, I knew WHAT happened, but I didn't really understand HOW it happened. The explanations were vague, at best, and absent at worst. Another annoyance is the author's reliance on conveniently timed letters or journal entries written by a character that happen to explain everything that has happened to that point. A flashback is useful, now and then, but over-reliance on them is just plain annoying. Bring some of the secrets out in the present, either through dialogue or narrative.

In conclusion, the Red Wolf Conspiracy is a decent novel and a very respectable fantasy debut. The book probably warrants a 3.5/5, but I think it's closer to a 3 than a 4. Although it's about 550 pages, the Red Wolf Conspiracy reads pretty quickly. So if you're looking for something new, or simply looking for something to fill the time while you wait for the next book in your favorite series, pick it up. It's definitely worth your time. I look forward to picking up the sequel. The Chathrand series has a lot of potential. Don't miss out!

I picked up The Red Wolf Conspiracy because it has a picture of a full-rigged ship on the cover. As a passionate, but certainly not exclusive, reader of age-of-fighting-sail historic naval fiction, I am intrigued by the possibility of successful HNF/SF hybrids. There are some quite good cross-overs between HNF and mystery fiction, as well as espionage and even romance, but I'm still looking for the perfect mix of HNF with the genre I read avidly in my long-ago youth, Science Fiction. Taylor Anderson has produced an excellent SF/Naval Fiction series, but it is based on WWII destroyers - fun, but not my cup of sunshine. Tom Grundner did a creditable hybrid with the first book of his Sir Sydney Smith series, but then wrote out the SF elements when he republished. (I haven't read Naomi Novik yet, but I have high hopes there. So little time...) The action of TRWC does take place on a sailing ship but, despite the occasional "stunsails aloft," it is not really naval fiction. It is, however, a damn fine novel and I was forced to put my quirky expectations aside and enjoy it on its own merits.


The Chathrand is by far the largest ship in the world, the last survivor of a distant era, and she is being prepared for a mysterious voyage. She carries not only a variety of nationalities and classes, but a mixture of sentient species. The action centers around two young people, Pazel Pathkendle, a tarboy (the lowest of the ship's crew) and Thasha Isiq, the daughter of the ship's most exalted passenger. Everyone aboard has secrets and few people are what they seem.

Secrets are revealed as the characters pursue their competing ambitions and the reader is forced to confront questions about the nature of good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, life and death.


The world of Alifros is richly drawn and the action is compelling. As in the Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy, young people struggle to be more than pawns in great schemes to which they are not privy. Like Pullman, Redick creates a sense of constant foreboding amid awareness of poorly understood menaces. Redick's readers, like Pullman's, cannot avoid that most imponderable of questions, "How can grown-ups be so stupid?" This first of four volumes, despite all the action, is really only exposition. Over the first three months of the Chathrand's voyage we achieve a better understanding of the characters and the issues that drive them, but the story doesn't come close to a resolution. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.