Robert V. S. Redick

I'll be honest, I haven't even finished the book yet (bear with me). This is the third of four books and I've had interesting experiences starting out midstream with such series. I've fallen totally in love with this book and Redick's fast and furious style - this work defines the term "page turner." But after reading 100 wonderful pages (out of almost 600) of byzantine plot, fascinating characters, beautifully described landscapes, and an awesome sea battle ... I want to stop and buy the show more first two books.

This book is easily enjoyable by itself, but it's clear that to get the full experience I need to backtrack. Redick doesn't do a lot of explicit rehashing of the previous volumes, so I'm left scrambling to keep track of characters and places. I actually find it kind of fun in a "puzzle person" sort of way. But I'm enjoying the overall read so much I've decided to do this series right.

It's obvious that Redick is not writing for a general reading audience. This is a book for regular fans of the sword and sorcery genre. Someone new to the genre should NOT start mid-stream with this series. Aficionados and current fans of fantasy won't have a problem enjoying this specific book read out of order, but you may end up like me wanting to pony up out of your own pocket to get the earlier works.

Just call me a newly hooked fan of this author.

Note: The reviewer received a free copy (Advance Uncorrected Proof) of this book via the Amazon.com Vine program. show less

And we are done. The final book of the Chathrand Voyages tetralogy is over and I am left with a bittersweet taste, as befits the ending. Mr. Redick is a ruthless narrator, perhaps too much so. Not because he is not afraid to kill important characters, but because he often does not feel the need to close the circle of their personal stories and give us readers a sense of closure. Whether this works is a matter of taste. It is not fully satisfactory, but perhaps it gives us a sense of realism show more not often found in epic fantasy, a feeling that life just goes on, that we often don't get neat endings and not all is perfect even after a big threat has been defeated. Soon new ones will appear, although perhaps they will be for different heroes to fight.

Coming back to this story, I feel bad to only give four stars out of five to a tale so ambitious, with so many strong points and things to commend. However, I have the feeling that it might have been even better. When you see so much inspiration and potential for greatness you also become more demanding.

Let's see. Never since The Lord of the Rings have I seen a fantasy world with such a feeling of depth as Alifros. The richness of the setting is incredible. It feels fresh and new, always with new wonders to surprise us and captivate our imagination.

At the same time, the character work is excellent. All of them feel like real people, complex, with virtues and flaws that only make it easier to care for them. The cast is large, not so much for the total number of characters but for the number of fully-drawn characters. Perhaps that becomes a problem. So much attention is paid to the background and stories of each character that sometimes we are in danger of losing focus on the story being told here. When authors get asked for a new tale set in their more famous fictional world, often they write a story fleshing out one of the side characters. In this series, those stories are already included in the books. Again, it's a matter of opinion. For some it will be awesome. Others might have preferred a tighter narrative. I was somewhere in the middle. I loved all those background stories (they are good!) and I cared about the characters, but at the same time I felt a certain sense of detachment from the main storyline. When an important antagonist was defeated it sometimes felt underwhelming, like an afterthought.

I have just finished reading the story and I miss it. It's a feeling I have with the really great epic fantasies. I feel that this will be one of the rare series that I read again. I'm surprised that it is not talked about much more often. Read it! It's not perfect, but it has a lot of personality and you will find things here that other epic fantasy stories won't be able to give you. I'd like to express my admiration for the author and hope that he will keep writing and giving us stories as memorable as this one. show less

This was a super first novel, up in my top 5 favorites for the year so far. I love discovering new authors, especially since one or two of my favorites have not been delivering the goods lately (George RR Martin-write the book already and stop messing around and taunting your readers! Robin Hobb, write something else, preferably set in the Six Duchies!) Anyway, Robert V.S. Redick has satisfied my hunger for a fantasy world to match that of Martin's or Hobb's and it's populated with wonderful show more characters, not all of them human. Most of the novel was set on a ship, and I love a good seafaring tale. The plot is original, well-crafted, and the author didn't feel like he needed 150 pages of expository to set up the story. I got into it right away and lost sleep because I couldn't put it down. Can't wait for the sequel! show less

The Night of the Swarm is the the fourth and final book in RV Redick's epic fantasy series, The Chathrand Voyage Quartet, and what a fitting end to a brilliant series. This will be a short review because I don't want to give anything away except to say most of the characters have survived the long voyage but what has happened so far is child's play to what is coming and it's coming fast.

Often, in long epics like this (this last book alone is over 500 pages), the author loses focus somewhere show more in the middle but not so Redick. The story never flags or loses its way. Although the story takes place on mainly on board ship, Redick has built a world as complex and fascinating as any I have encountered in fantasy and I read a lot of fantasy, the characters are well developed and not the usual suspects of fantasy epics, and the story is a real page turner. My one criticism of the book - too short, I want more! show less