The Red Knight (The Traitor Son Cycle, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Oct 28, 2015 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Warning: Goodreads has this as a 650 page paperback. I'm sure that is the case, but I'm also sure the font used in printing must be tiny for this to come in at that. Calibre counts this as 286,000 words. In comparison, The Name of the Wind comes in at 257,000 words.

That translates into a 30 hour audiobook which is mostly how I consumed this. (The narrator Matthew Wolf is superb, handling an enormous cast of characters with distinctive voices and suitable accents).

The world is an alternate versio Warning: Goodreads has this as a 650 page paperback. I'm sure that is the case, but I'm also sure the font used in printing must be tiny for this to come in at that. Calibre counts this as 286,000 words. In comparison, The Name of the Wind comes in at 257,000 words.

That translates into a 30 hour audiobook which is mostly how I consumed this. (The narrator Matthew Wolf is superb, handling an enormous cast of characters with distinctive voices and suitable accents).

The world is an alternate version of ours set during medieval times with Christianity and Feudalism, but also with magic and magical creatures. The Red Knight and his band of mercenaries have been hired by the nuns of Lissen Carak, a fortified Abbey and town in the North West of Alba, a part of the country that has been steadily reclaimed by the Wild. The mercenaries have been hired to deal with a monster rampaging through the region, but it becomes quickly obvious that this is only the first attack in the largest incursion by the Wild in generations.

Soon, Lissen Carak is under threat of siege and the whole North of Alba is under attack by an enormous and varied army of the Wild led by a fearsome sorcerer. The Red Knight and the Abbess stand firm as the forces of Alba rush to reinforce them. What follows is a long build up to the actual siege and a back and forth of advantage and disadvantage between the two forces.

There's much to recommend in this book. There's also much to criticize. Quite frankly, there's just much. I'm a little out-of-practice at reading the tree-killer tomes that epic fantasy is so well known for. What we have here is a story told through well over thirty different point-of-view characters, although it does concentrate mainly on a few favorites. Where the rest of the bulk comes from is the endlessly detailed description of the weaponry, armor and battles associated with the siege.

Another issue with the book is around world-building, and the basis of much of it in our world. There are world-building shortcuts that don't make a huge amount of sense. In a world with magic, and a world where resurrection and healing is possible through magic, how does Christianity work? What sets the deeds of Christ above those of your average sorcerer? In this book Christianity seems to be very similar to how it is in our world. There's anti-witch prejudice as well, but people with Power are very common especially in the Church itself. How does that work? The whole presence of magic feels tacked on, or a vague homage to something like Camelot.

Or more specifically, the author seems to have created the world he wants to play in and given only vague thought to how that world came about.

I also struggle with how women are treated in this book (and in much of epic fantasy to be honest). Women can be soldiers in this world, although we only get one named character who is a female soldier. But every other female character in the book fits pretty neatly into categories of wife, nun or whore, with a far greater variety of characterization among the male characters. And there's at least one of the female characters that's just horribly written with the male gaze just dripping off her and her very cynically aware of it.

But all that being said, this is an epic story that mostly achieves the goal of showing all sides of a siege battle in a fantasy world while making it very clear that even this sprawling conflict is only the first part of a much larger war. I'm hoping some of the issues I've come across here improve markedly in subsequent books. ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Nov 21, 2015 Emma rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fantasy

4.5 stars. I loved this book but I had top deduct half a star for the difficult start. I really didn't think I'd be able to get into it but I found it so intriguing I had to keep going and I am so glad I did! It takes a while to get used to the style of so many different points of view. Very pleased to see The Fell Sword is up next. ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2018 Alissa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-ebooks

‘It was my fault,’ the captain said. ‘It’s not my moral burden –I didn’t kill them. But I could have kept them alive if I hadn’t been distracted that evening. And keeping them alive is my duty.’ He stood up straight and picked up the baton of the command. ‘Best know this, if you want to be a captain. You have to be able to look reality in the eye. I fucked their lives away. I can’t go to pieces about it, but neither can I forget it. That’s my job. Understand?’

11 likes · Like · see review

Jul 22, 2017 Amanda added it · review of another edition

DNF @40%

Epic fantasy is very hit or miss for me and this one just didn't work. No rating because it's definitely me and not the book's issues. ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 21, 2013 Liam || Books 'n Beards rated it liked it

Shelves: 2013, fantasy, library

This book was a struggle to read for a long time. About half to two-thirds of the way through it picked up and I ate it up, but before that it did feel like a bit of a slog and failed to engage me despite my interest in everything that was going on.

Nevertheless I persevered and I am glad I did. The battles are very well done and exciting to read, and the characters are interesting and diverse. The world confused me somewhat - whether it is supposed to be an alternate Earth (due to the references ...more

Like · see review