The Red Wolf Conspiracy, by Robert Redick

This will be a strange review for me to write. The bottom line could be summarized thus: the first 85% was among the very best novel reading/writing I've ever fed to my brain. It was terrificly written: great characters, terrific setting, wonderful action, an awesome sense of internal consistency, and was written with confidence and clarity I haven't seen anywhere else. I was all set to give this book the highest of possible praise, and implore you all to drop everything and find a copy.

Then the bottom fell out...

It was almost as if another writer took over. I feared the possibility that the tale would fall apart, but the closer I got to the end, the less likely I felt that would be. I mean, it just was such a great read, and showed no signs of stopping. Imagine my shock when one baffling storyline choice sent the tale careening out of control, only to be sewn up nicely (and quite unsatisfactorily) in a nice little bundle. I don't know what happened! How could the author go from such overwhelming quality and success to tripping and falling down the rabbit hole? I've never seen such a turn-around in a book before. I've had books fail to hook me, I've seen books that hiccup and stumble and finally peter out, I've seen books start off slow and build up to a wonderfully fulfilling conclusion... but I can't think of another example of a single book starting off so well, holding onto that level for so long, and then dive-bombing into the abyss like this one.

So, do I recommend the book, or not?

There are many, many characters... usually, that is a negative with me, but Redick is so masterful at introducing them and making them ridiculously memorable, I had no problem at all tracking the characters (literally a couple dozen major characters). It was like an ensemble movie done right... like a Murder on the Orient Express, where many different characters are introduced and then thrown together in a single place - in this case, an ancient, oversized, magical boat (the Chathrand) sailing on a multifaceted mission. It is a fantasy tale, complete with magic and kings and villains and grit and intrigue. Plots intertwine, wars are planned, attacks are survived, lies are told (and unraveled) and difficult situations overcome. To try and talk about even a sampling of the characters would take way too long.

But a point is reached where it turns from the sublime to the ridiculous, almost on the turn of a dime. For those that have read this before, it was where the youths dive on the shipwreck. Let me leave it at that. That won't spoil anything for anyone else, I don't think. From that (ridiculous, incongruous) point onward, loose ends are tied up so neatly and with such speed, it left me crestfallen. The ending was just silly to me. Silly and forced, and it just felt different than the rest of the book. It left me wondering if a different author took over the book. Or maybe for some reason the author was forced to change the ending he had in mind. Or maybe he just grew sick of the story and felt compelled to force an ending. There must have been a very strong reason for the story decisions that were made at that point. It truly left me baffled.

So, again, how do I present a review? Do I recommend the book? Most definitely. An incredible, complex, highly successful story, with outstanding characters, deftly handled. Just prepare yourself for what might be a precipitous drop toward the ending. Perhaps you'll be just fine with the ending, who knows? All I know is, at this point, while I can solidly recommend this book based on the strong positives, I am very hesitant about reading the next book in the series, The Ruling Sea, which just came out in hardback in February.

Summary: 4/5 In spite of (what I felt was) a shocking drop in storytelling in the end, I still think the strengths of the book make it as close to a "must read" as possible, to my mind. It would be interesting to hear the author speak on the writing of this book, to see what the dynamics were behind the story choices he made in the ending. He obviously is a terrific, confident author.