'The Red Wolf Conspiracy,' by Robert V.S. Redick
BOOK REVIEW
The quest narrative is as old as storytelling and -- whether written, spoken or filmed -- is one of the most satisfying forms of entertainment. However, its popularity means it is incrementally more difficult to carry off with any convincing air of freshness and vitality. In recent years few series fantasies (the most common storytelling style in the fantasy genre) have managed. Daniel Abraham's "The Long Price Quartet" (which concludes this summer), Ysabeau Wilce's Flora Segunda series and Paul Park's Roumanian books come to mind. With the publication of his invigorating debut, "The Red Wolf Conspiracy," Robert V.S. Redick's "The Voyage of the Chathrand" can be added to that short list.
Pirates have been all the rage in pop culture fiction (at least when zombies and vampires have left them space to appear) but Redick isn't after such simple fare. He casts his tale off from the historical period so well detailed in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin novels and then seemingly tosses in every fantastic idea that has ever crossed his mind. (Yes, there are zombies.) But there is never a moment when Redick's masterful storytelling wobbles; even his throwaway lines deepen and open out the world he has created, moving the ever-more involving story onward.
The only forgettable parts of the novel are the title and the cover, but the generic illustration signals readers that although this is a debut, the contents will be comfortingly familiar. Which, in that an orphaned boy unexpectedly makes good in a weird and wonderful world, they are. But oh how much fun and how different from the by-the-numbers pastoral European fantasies Redick makes that tale.
Redick quickly introduces almost every character of import: from the tarboy Pazel Pathkendle to his sometime benefactor, Imperial surgeon Dr. Ignus Chadfallow; from the soap maker Ket (who is "a name worth remembering, worth jotting down") to the Lady Oggosk, either a doddering fool or one of the secret powers behind the scenes. The novel is immediately and satisfyingly complex. Characters are introduced in passing in the middle of events. They have personal histories and relationships, many of them not at all friendly. The reader is dared to keep up with the never-ending stream of action and it is both a delight and a challenge that does not end until the final page.
