Adrian Selby
When the trade caravan Driwna Marghoster was hired to protect is attacked, she discovers a dead body hidden inside a barrel.
Brother Red is excellent.
It’s excellence, like Patrick Rothfuss’s silence, consists of three parts.
1.) A trilogy concluded.
This isn’t a spoiler, but Brother Red is chronologicaly the middle part of the Snakewood trilogy, however i’d very much recommended reading them in their published order.
Why? Because it was the authors design of course! but also because the final scenes of Brother Red will be all the richer for it. Believe me, the payoff is splendid but true to form for Adrian, bitter sweet.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Adrian before writing this article and we spent some time talking about tragedy in modern fantasy. As with Teyr Amondsen in The Winter Road, Brother Red’s protagonist Driwna is consistently tested to her limits. Adrian brings the grim and the dark.
I suspect I wasn’t the only person awake, way past their usual hour, eyes glued to the page as they pushed through to the end of this book.
2.) A story of its own.
I caught Adrian speaking once at Brighton Waterstones. He spoke about his love of epic fantasy worlds like that of Tolkien’s, especially scouring the maps thereof. He went on to mention, that when reviewing these maps, he would often focus on the smallest village on the map and thinks ‘I wonder who lives there’.
The answer is Driwna (or at least her parents).
As, primarily a ready of fantasy and science fiction which often focuses on large scale war, politics or conflicts, I found it thrilling that Adrian get’s into the smallest details of his worlds and makes drags them to the forefront. His stories are very much, the sum of their parts and Brother Red does not disappoint.
In Brother Red, we don’t just get a wonderful set piece, trying to weave a trilogy together, we get a self-contained story of a woman’s struggles to protect her family, fulfil her duties and explore blossoming (quite literally) love.
And not just the protagonist! Adrian’s supporting cast in, all 3 books is as fleshed out and vibrant (I find myself thinking back to Snakewood and Fieldsman 77 – I dare you to read this book and wonder who this badass is!).
3.) A world apart.
As with all good fantasy stories, the world itself is a character, with it’s own personality, traits and inhabitants. Adrian’s map is one worth scouring. I was rather taken back not to find it at the start of Brother Red, as it had been with it’s predecessors (The map looks especially glorious on the inside cover of the German addition of Snakewood).
The last time I got this excited about a magic system I was reading Brandan Sanderson’s mist born books. In the Snakewood world, Adrian has created a systemin which flowers, fauna and shrubs can be used to cook up ‘brews’, concoctions which when consumed or applied can give the user a variety of tactical advantages.
An example of such is applying a salve to the eyes which allows for enhanced vision or bags of spores thrown to throw at the enemy like smoke bombs. The books which contain the recipes of these brews and potions are coveted as a source of power by the tribes or nations that own them.
Thrilling. Gripping. Read it.
GO BUY THIS BOOK!
Brother Red: Amazon UK HERE
The Winter Road: Amazon UK HERE
Snakewood: Amazon UK HERE
5 out of 5 stars.
Within The Stacks 