Product Description

The Chathrand - The Great Ship, The Wind-Palace, His Supremacy's First Fancy - is the last of her kind - built 600 years ago she dwarves all the ships around her. The secrets of her construction are long lost. She was the pride of the Empire. The natural choice for the great diplomatic voyage to seal the peace with the last of the Emperor's last enemies. 700 souls boarded her. Her sadistic Captain Nilus Rose, the Emperor's Ambassador and Thasha, the daughter he plans to marry off to seal the treaty, a spy master and six assassins, one hunderd imperial marines, Pazel the tarboy gifted and cursed by his mother's spell and a small band of Ixchel. The Ixchel sneaked aboard and now hide below decks amongst the rats. Intent on their own mission. But there is treachery afoot. Behind the plans for peace lies the shadow of war and the fear that a dead king might live again. And now the Chathrand, having survived countless battles and centuries of typhoons has gone missing. This is her story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27432 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

About the Author
Robert V.S. Redick is in his thirties and works as the editor for the Spanish and French websites of Oxfam America and as an instructor in the International Development and Social Change program at Clark University. Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, he lives in rural western Massachusetts. While his unpublished novel CONQUISTADORS was a finalist for the 2002 AWP/THOMAS DUNNE NOVEL AWARD (under the title WILDERNESS) this is his first published work.

Customer Reviews

Stunning debut
Once in a while a truly great book comes along. This is one of those, made even more impressive by the fact that this is the author's first published novel.
It takes all of the conventions that we love about fantasy and tweaks them, somehow making it feel fresh and original.
The two most important ingredients - writing and plot - are spot on. The writing is eloquent, without any pretentious airs, and the plot is tight, (or should I say 'plots', as there are plots within plots here) driving the book forward - it is the absolute definition of 'page-turner.'
The characters are well written, both 'good' and 'bad guys,' along with a clutch of people who, by the end of the book, you are still not sure about.
The scale of the book is epic, both in plot and the detail of the world that the author has created. Alongside that there is a great sense of humour and fun balancing the grand and sinister themes of empire and treason.
Also it is nice to see a new author going against the grain of the current trend in fantasy, that of "dark, gritty realism" which more often than not means an abundance of hard core swearing and adult themes. I grew up on Tolkien, which i was reading by the tender age of 10, and although i am close to 40 now, still enjoy re-reading. Am i digressing here? The point is that this book is a great read, but one that my own son would probably enjoy as well.
Overall an excellent book; it sucked me in and captivated me from page 1. I am already eagerly anticipating the next in the series. Can't wait.

Takes a while to get out of the harbour, but then......
It is said much of Tolkien's writing was inspired by his serving in the first world war. I wonder if Redick's 'The Red wolf Conspiracy' is inspired by him living through the cold war period as it is more a spy story for the first two thirds of the book rather than being all swash and buckle. Surprisingly perhaps for a book set largely on a giant sail ship.

As with most modern fantasy their is a mix of new and more classical ideas. The giant ship was the hook that drew me in the first place and I also like that there a lot of charactors who by the end of the book we are still not really sure what their motives are. Though this and the climax of the story which I will avoid for 'spoiling' reasons does rather leave us with more question marks than your average episode of university challenge. If this is a trilogy it is one story chopped into 3 rather than 3 interconnecting stories.

I think comparisons to Lynch and Pullman are a bit misleading. I can see why they are made but I am afraid Redick's 'Thasha' rather pales next to Pullman's vivid, fiesty but flawed 'Lyra' from his Dark materiels trilogy.
The only Lynch/Camorian link I can see is perhaps a similar historical setting and the plot complexity, but Lynch's world is a definately more adult and gory place and good though this is, it does not match Lynch or Pullman for me in realising that almost real 3D landscape.

This leads us to a point a couple of reviewers have made, I was surprised to find I rather liked the lack of swearing, grittyness, ultra-violence and sex! For years fantasy was filled books where despite the epic battles, heroic tough manly men, beautiful scantily clad women and evil doers, no-one swore, had sex or shed blood! Now you are struggling to find a book where all of the above doesn't happen in the opening paragraph.

This is a book the whole family can read both at home and on the bus then you can give it to your young nephew without fear of causing offence and that was really refreshing.

In summary I really liked it, it took me a while to get really hooked but a couple of section's around entering the final third of the book were impossible to put down. There was a couple of scooby doo moments... 'and I would have got away with it too.....' or a hero awaking from a blow on the head would be given a long drawn out 'explanation' on what they had missed to keep the reader up to speed on all the plot elements. A bit clumsy perhaps but this is a great first book.

Well done Robert when's the next installment out?

Not a drop of padding
As always with a book by a new author one wonders what one is getting. Well, this time I was not dissapointed.
The book is full of action and magic, there are no dull moments. It leads one on the whole time, a real page turner.
All the main characters are well filled out and are likeable, well, those that you are meant to like.
The plot is pretty involved and is slowly revealed and there seem to be plots within plots. Even so one does not get bogged down in the plot or become confused.
I would compare this book to Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series. Not quite as good but getting close. Let us hope that he doesn't go the same way of padding things out for volume after volume towards the end.
All I can say is, When is the next book due out, I can't wait