The Red Wolf Conspiracy: A fun filled Romp

Before I begin this review I must confess my complete ignorance to Robert V.S. Redick's work. Because of the sheer wealth of the genre, even as a fantasy fan/author, sometimes peoples work slips by you. It was with great surprise and relish though that my wife would come home one day with not the first book of the Chathrand series but the third. "I saw this at the charity drive at work, do you think you'll enjoy it?" she asks. Upon reading the blurb and doing my research I discovered that Wifey had got me the third book and immediately set about amending this very sweet mistake. There was always something about The Red Wolf Conspiracy that seemed to be tugging at my elbow as I read other stuff. An almost instantaneous need to read Redick's work, the title alone was enough to grab hold of me and in one way he succeeded wholly as an author because the title was engaging enough to grab my attention and keep it. When I started reading though, it was different kind of experience to the one I was expecting. I found The Red Wolf Conspiracy to be more of a rip roaring adventure and not quite the contemporary to Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies I had been expecting but that does not mean I did not enjoy Redick's wonderfully imagined story. His leading character Pazel is someone who immediately we, as the audience, are on his side while the supporting cast firmly prop up the story with a wonderfully imagined plot that kept me going and resenting any interruptions. There were however one or two moments that let the story down but not enough for me to resent its writing. For such a richly imagined world with such a solid conspiracy Redick unfortunately has to rely on leaps of faith and "pulling rabbits out of hats" so as to swing his protagonists from a submissive position back to a dominant position and this in turn does not make the story as smooth as I would have liked. The ending was a touch flat but it serves as a lead in for the next story "The Rats of the Ruling Sea" which will hopefully address the few still hanging plot threads that were left I suspect intentionally. All in all it was a great story told with passion and love that gave me an entertaining read which I have wholeheartedly invested in and I can't wait to read the sequel.