Adrian Selby

Now this was one the most intensive and angry books I read in a while.

Story is about the group of mercenaries that years before were force to be reckoned with. Led by a more than capable leader, Kailen, and made of experts in all forms of warfare - from swords, archers, siege to what I can only call biological warfare - they played pivotal role in many conflict between the Old Kingdoms or on their borders with the Wilds.

Small digression is required here - explanation on the way war is waged.

You see, in this universe it is not technique, physical ability or weapons that decide battles. No. Decisive factor are herbs and barks and various potions derived from them. And these are made and concocted by warrior medics called drudhas. If group has a capable drudha then they are safe and can engage almost everyone with zero consequences (if one does not consider coming down from the potions as a consequence). Potions provide strength, supernatural speed, and ability to withstand various poisons and even mortal wounds. These potions do come with side effects and soldiers using potent potions have their skin colored in a variety of ways - more potent potion, more potent coloring.

And Kailen's Twenty, well they had most proficient and capable drudhas. This ensured they were always the elite force (20 soldiers to fight any type of war, reminded me of saying "one riot, one Ranger").

And as story goes 15 years after the Kailen's Twenty got disbanded suddenly they find themselves targeted by forces unknown. Only thing that is left by the dead bodies are black coins, markers for betrayal. Wont go into more details but lets say that Kailen's Twenty in their years of service managed to upset quite a few people so there is plethora of suspects here. Being scattered to all directions - some still fighting as mercenaries, some falling down heavily in life due to the mistakes they made and others building their own fiefdoms - it will take time to inform everyone and this will cost lives.

Here we come to the parts of the story that I had issues with.

First, these guys are all cutthroats - there is not a single one in Kailen's Twenty that is likeable. Even Kailen has his dark side, not to mention others. When they discuss their actions, there is no remorse, no moral questions. It was job and that is it. They eliminated entire villages, hey it was business, nothing to worry about. Drudhas used prisoners to test their potions and poisons - hey we call it Tuesday at Kailen's Twenty.

I mean they are bad ass, I understand. But believe me, even German penal battalions used in bloody anti-partisan warfare or death squads in Latin America and Africa - they had members that could not live with themselves because of things that were done (and they numbered less than twenty in size sometimes and fought for limited time (max 4 years)). In Kailen's Twenty there is not a single soul that feels remorse for what they did. As a mater of fact every action they execute to .... I don't know, say steal the horses .... need to end with total bloodbath and termination of every living soul they come across. You'd think this is for hiding their tracks, right? Nope, they track them in matter of hours. I guess they just do not know how to act in other way.

Well, maybe Kailen can. Others, highly unlikely...

And dont get me wrong, people after Kailen's Twenty - they are even worse. Which brings us to the only positive characters in the book - civilians. You know how they say that to be James Bond's friend is straight road to cemetery? Well, if somebody even rubs shoulder against one of the Kailen's Twenty - they are gone. And not just them, most likely their entire families and anyone they ever knew. That being said average life expectancy of any civilian in this story - 2, maybe 3 sentences. So good people do not live long on the pages of this book.

Take for example Black Company (Glen Cook) - mercenaries in fantasy setting, doing baaad things but they resonate on some faulty human level. There is something that redeems them at least in some way (same goes for Kane, the sorcerer warrior by Wagner). Here ...... unfortunately nothing. Possible positive action heroes here are Achi and his group - but they show very rarely during the story which is a bummer because they are like undercover troop roaming the world on secret mission which would make good story on its own (same with the Post - it sounds very very interesting indeed, cannot wait to read other books in series).

Second, that word .... purse. I decided after a while to drink every time I read it - I was dead drunk in 5 minutes. I understand they are mercs and I know they fight for money - but is it required to have word "purse" repeated like 10 times on a single page. Although, I gotta admit it does make a good game, changing word "purse" with any other word - it got really funny when they started fighting for aprons:)

Third - I understand that accents and local slang is important to draw the reader into the story but Shale's accent is so thick it sometimes took me multiple reads to understand what is going on. And it is not weird words mind you (there were very few of these and when they show up there is prompt explanation) but sentence constructs and missing vowels .... it drove me crazy. Keep in mind I could be subjective here because English is not my mother tongue.

Above being said this is rather good action book. I just wanted to have somebody to root for, you know. Gant and Shale were good characters but for me stage was taken by Achi and his group of merry men.

Book ends on cliffhanger and I cannot wait to start on the rest of the series.

Recommended for fans of dark fantasy and in general epic action story.… (mais)

I made an impassioned plea to Orbit via NetGalley, I believe, and I received an e-ARC of this book in response, so thanks to those entities for facilitating my desire to read it and pass on my thoughts to people in person and electronically.

So...if you like your fantasy novels spoon-fed to you in a formulaic manner, Snakewood is most likely not the book for you. In other words, if you enjoy Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books, but dislike Steven Erikson's/Ian Esslemont's Malazan series--just as a couple of examples--I doubt you'll have much of an affinity for Snakewood; and that's perfectly okay, variety being the spice o' life, and all that, so pardon me if I "throw shade" on Jordan's works and conversely make it known that I dig Erikson/Esslemont. I like what I like, and one of the things I very much like is Snakewood (I like it so much, I'm putting my money where my mouth is, as I just bought 2 copies of the book at my local B&N--the American edition being the true first edition as it's been released 2 days before the UK edition--and I've ordered 2 signed UK copies that should hit my doorstep in 3 weeks, or so. I expect big things from this book and author).

Still, the book does take a bit to get going, so do push through the first few chapters, it is worth it. There are a good number of characters to keep track of and learn about (another "issue" I see mentioned frequently as a negative in reviews of books similar to Snakewood). Remember, we're talking about 20 former mercenaries that are being hunted down, as well as various characters orbiting around some of them, so there will be some testing of ye olde prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain having to do with memory, and yes, I had to look that up, so give yourself points if you already knew what it was/does). There is also terminology of a variety that is non-standard to fantasy novels, where the meaning and usage will need to be learned via context, at least for a while.

There is a lot of action in this book, among other things. There is love, hatred, self-justification, revenge, sacrifice, camaraderie, betrayal, mystery, brutality, hubris, and cussing; lots of cussing. But I enjoyed trying to solve the various mysteries (Who/what is killing the Twenty, and why? Who is the Red?) with varied success, but of it all, I most enjoyed the relationship between Gant and Shale, which truly tugged at my emotions. Oh, and I also really liked the "climactic" fight between "good" and "evil" characters, which certainly didn't play out anywhere near how I expected.

I took off half a star because I don't think a particular character would have left another character so unprotected, given the supposed talents of the particular character, though I suppose overconfidence could be the culprit.

I very eagerly await the next book from Adrian Selby. This book has earned a most excellent… (mais)