Scan barcode
A review by dark_reader
The Rats and the Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick
5.0
LOVED. IT. This is going on my "favorites" shelf. This author cares about good writing, in the Strunk & White sense, and I have encountered so much of the opposite lately, it really stands out. He chooses his words with care; his writing is not sparse, but neither is it bloated at all. This is the kind of conscientious wordcraft that depends on multiple rounds of edits, by self and others, to smooth into perfection.
The book has a wonderful classic feel to it with its almost-episodic adventure, and several epistolary touches that I simply adore. Adventure at sea and on land, on remote jungle islands and in seaside cave complexes, the Chathrand battles enemy ships and the elements while its voyagers jockey for advantage as a multi-layered conspiracy unfolds, all in a world with loosely-defined magic, barely-seen supernatural creatures, and so many secrets still unrevealed. Two volumes left in this series—ooh, this is going to be good! And the author has recently stated that he expects to produce more work set in this world.
The book's world is desirable and believable, in terms of economics, politics, information systems, technology, etc. It's a gaslamp-type setting, but this wasn't clear to me until somewhere in the second book (when an actual gas lamp was in use), because the world is presented perfectly naturally through the experience of the characters and not as a 'character' in its own right. It's just where they live, without any explicit statements about what kind of world it it. I am so used at this point to grimdark and gritty fantasy, I have to adjust when characters actually care about individual lives in general and a single death is significant.
Who is "the editor"? My current guess is Neeps, but it's a total shot in the dark.
The book has a wonderful classic feel to it with its almost-episodic adventure, and several epistolary touches that I simply adore. Adventure at sea and on land, on remote jungle islands and in seaside cave complexes, the Chathrand battles enemy ships and the elements while its voyagers jockey for advantage as a multi-layered conspiracy unfolds, all in a world with loosely-defined magic, barely-seen supernatural creatures, and so many secrets still unrevealed. Two volumes left in this series—ooh, this is going to be good! And the author has recently stated that he expects to produce more work set in this world.
The book's world is desirable and believable, in terms of economics, politics, information systems, technology, etc. It's a gaslamp-type setting, but this wasn't clear to me until somewhere in the second book (when an actual gas lamp was in use), because the world is presented perfectly naturally through the experience of the characters and not as a 'character' in its own right. It's just where they live, without any explicit statements about what kind of world it it. I am so used at this point to grimdark and gritty fantasy, I have to adjust when characters actually care about individual lives in general and a single death is significant.
Who is "the editor"? My current guess is Neeps, but it's a total shot in the dark.