If you like experimental and you love fantasy that is familiar but starkly different and dirty, I recommend you read this book. Be warned, it isn't easy, and it isn't a good entry point for a new reader of the fantasy genre, and it really, really isn't for kids. I, however, think there isn't anything else quite like Snakewood, flawed though it may be. Here's why.
When I first heard about Snakewood by debut author Adrian Selby, I was excited for three reasons:
1. I have a thing for mercenaries.
2. The plant/drug based magic system felt new and inspired, and was something I could relate to as well as feeling so plausible that my reality-stuck wife even expressed interest in reading it. She hasn't yet, and probably won't, because she doesn't like fantasy. Still, there is hope...
3. I'm a sucker for debut work that doesn't feel like your typical yarn of tropes (which are not in and of themselves bad, per se) and badassery; though there be tropes here, and much badassery.
Snakewood is about a former and legendary band of mercenaries fighting to survive assassination and murder by someone who badly wants to see them all dead. This premise had me all in; it was simple enough with the promise of complications. And I wasn't let down. By the end of the book I felt satisfied by the plot, despite some eyebrow-raising narrative choices by the author. Still, I have only positive thoughts about the plot and how it unfolded up to the very gut-wrenching (to me, at least) end.
The narrative choices I mentioned, however, fall on the structure of the story itself and the use of some common tropes. The tropes I won't discuss because they lead to some spoilers, but the structure I'll try to go into detail about.
First and foremost, the author uses first person POV throughout the book, and there are at least four or five POVs to follow, and each one comes from an adult; there isn't a child in sight, which was refreshing. Each POV carries its own distinctive voice. I prefer my fantasy in third person limited and third person omniscient, especially if I'm reading about a secondary world. Snakewood, however, didn't grate on my nerves once I got comfortable after the first chapter and I realized what I was reading.
The main character, Gant, was the most interesting for me because he's an uneducated mercenary, a point that is made in the opening lines and serves as a warning to the reader that what you're going to get is an illiterate perspective on some very harrowing and violent events. He’s a gifted swordsman and an old man still making a living as a mercenary with his best friend, Shale, who fits the mold of epic warrior in every way and then some. In fact, I enjoyed Shale so much that I wish he had his own POV. Also, the relationship between Gant and Shale is one of the best bromances I’ve read this side of Icarium and Mappo from Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erickson.
But I digress. At first, Gant’s POV is difficult to swallow, but once the author’s style choice for Gant (the character being not so good with words, but not so illiterate that he can't write) was ingested, my time spent with the character was easy-going. By book’s end, Gant felt like an old friend.
The second POV I enjoyed most was Galathia's, one of a few antagonists in the book. Her POV was presented as an epistolary insert, and didn't appear too often, which I wish it did. She was an intriguing character, being a down-on-her-luck princess who knows she is a princess, and I wish her story would have played out more towards the end. What I liked about Galathia was that she wasn't a whiner. She had the arrogance of a princess, ruthless in her ambitions. And Selby writes her in a way that you want to cheer for her. And then you hate her. Because she is, after all, an antagonist.
Some criticisms I’ve seen Snakewood get are about the writing itself. This could be regarding the found-footage structure of the book. And if this means the prose, I believe there were deliberate choices made by the author for the prose to fit the characters and to wash away the authorial voice. I will say that I didn't get the sense of someone telling me a story at all throughout the experience of reading Snakewood, so mission accomplished, Mr. Selby.
What I felt, and I think this was the intent, was that I was actually someone from the world of Snakewood reading the book in a military library at a military academy, as though I was already familiar with the events. The method of worldbuilding the author uses requires the reader to dive right in and figure it out as the story runs along. Selby did an excellent job at this, in my opinion. There are just enough details to grasp the setting and characters fully without feeling set upon by walls of exposition/info-dumping and descriptions. I would have enjoyed more philosophy, sociology, and economics, especially regarding the magic system, as I’m the kind of reader that salivates at those things, but Snakewood isn't about those things. It's about mercenaries and armies who do drugs to get a tactical and strategic advantage -- on the surface -- and the drugs have real consequences such as debilitating addiction, crippling withdrawal, and physical/mental alterations. It's also about what people do at the end of a road when deciding which new road to take. The decisions that are made to ensure one’s future, and what debt is paid because of those decisions. It's a human story. A very human story. With an incredible final battle, I might add.
In this era of fantasy dominated by grittiness and darkness -- among other things -- Snakewood fits right in. And it makes a place for itself much like Michael R. Fletcher's Beyond Redemption did last year. It may not be for everyone, and if I’m honest, it isn't. If you like experimental work, however, work that is bloody, grungy, and personal, I implore you to read Snakewood.
And I won't lie. I hope this book gets a sequel. Although it's an awesome stand alone, if that's what it's meant to be. You’ve got a fan, Mr. Selby.
4.5/5 due to structure issues.
5/5 because I appreciate a good challenge.
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- STEVEN F CARTERReviewed in Canada on February 24, 2019
Grimdark Epistolary Perfection
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