The Red Knight [Paperback]

This was a good story, well written with interesting characters and lots of detail, refreshingly not "dumbed down" - eg the author feels no need (and has not been forced by editors) to explain terms such as "round ship" or "bated lances". However, my enjoyment was seriously impaired by the extremely poor copy-editing/proofreading. There are many instances of missing words or letters, and of misapplied apostrophes ("it's" instead of "its" being particularly frequent), and several instances where a sentence has obviously been amended but the original wording retained instead of being replaced. There is also a particular problem with homonyms - did the author use voice recognition software? Just a few examples: "heart" for "hart"; "breeches" for "breaches"; "leaches" for "leeches"; "heel" for "heal"; "censors" for "censers" - a particularly annoying one that occurred several times was "spore" for "spoor". Did the publisher employ a proofreader? If they didn't, they should have; and if they did, he or she should be sacked.

I look forward to the next volume - but please get it properly proofed before printing!

I suspect there are going to be the almost inevitable comparisons between Miles Cameron and the likes of George R. R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie. First off, The Red Knight is one massive doorstop of a book, honestly it's HUGE. Also, much like the novels that make up A Song of Ice and Fire, each new chapter tends to shift point of view between the different characters. Like Abercrombie, Cameron likes to go uncensored when it comes to the violent moments, nothing gets sugar coated here. Be prepared to witness the horror of war and battle in all of its brutal, gory glory.

It helps with a book of this size that there is huge cast of memorable characters to discover. They add a sense of real depth to the plot. As is often the case, I found myself enjoying the characters that were darker in tone. It's the psychopaths and sociopaths who I always find notable. In The Red Knight there are a number of standouts like Bad Tom who lives for little but violence and the unrestrained joy he finds in the midst of a melee. Or Jean d'Vrailly, the self-styled "greatest knight in the world". Even the Red Knight himself displays his dark side on more than one occasion. These three characters are undoubtedly flawed in one way or another but it makes them just so damn interesting to read. I'd go so far as to say that they made the book for me, especially Bad Tom.

Cameron also appears to take a perverse delight in naming almost all the characters that appear, including the minor ones. It's highly likely I'll never know how the likes of No Head, Wilful Murder and Long Paw came to be named. It's never really explained just the occasional oblique reference. I kinda like that though. It hints at many untold stories which exist but the reader just hasn't uncovered them yet, it's a nice touch.

Though the pace of the novel slows from time to time this makes perfect sense within the confines of the story. A large chunk of the narrative covers the build-up to the final confrontation between the Red Knight's mercenary forces and the supernatural powers of the Wild. The author follows the characters trying to survive a siege and as things go from bad to worse you can feel the ramping up of tension. With each subsequent chapter the pace starts to pick up. Events build to a crescendo and then an epic confrontation occurs.

From a brutal bear baiting scene during the novel's early chapters to the full blown, frenetic chaos of main battle near the book's end things get pretty bloody. Cameron definitely has the descriptive skills when it comes to placing the reader right at the heart of the action. This author's writing perfectly captures the anarchy and confusion that exists in the heat of the moment. I had to keep reminding myself that this is a debut novel. I have high hopes for whatever Cameron comes up with next.

The Red Knight is published by Orbit and is available from 25th October. Highly recommended but I'd suggest that you go for the electronic version if you can. The physical book weighs a ton.

Review:

The Red Knight is the book i personally have been waiting for, for at least five years, and have been discussing with others for over 20 years. It is a true blending of Historical Fiction and Fantasy Fiction, not many authors have been able to manage it over the years.

That's not to say that Fantasy authors cant write a damn good fight scene when they want, they can make it action packed and bloody, Good fantasy like good Historical Fiction can be fun, action packed drama filled and full of gore. Great Fantasy and Historical fiction needs more depth and knowledge, there is so much from history sprinkled among fantasy: EG: The Nadir Horde from the Drenai and Ulric this is Genghis and the Mongol Horde, Paul Hoffmans Left hand of God is liberally sprinkled with Historical References and there are so many more to mention.

Miles Cameron brings to Fantasy years of fighting knowledge and experience with many weapons, a depth of historical knowledge that just makes me feel inadequate and blends it all with a fantasy environment, giving free reign to the scope and size of the enemy and the tools / Magic that both sides can use for fighting.

The last author I read who could bring this all together this well was David Gemmell, first with lion of Macedon, and then later with the more mature Troy trilogy. Add to this the flawed hero main character who is very gemmellesque, and i was hooked, The Red Knight is one of those books that comes along so rarely, one that captures you, and creates a world so real and believable that you go there and live there as soon as you open the pages, the fights so visceral that emotions run hot, cold, angry violent, melancholy and anguished and leave the reader exhausted from the storm of action and emotion. Miles Cameron has come along at a time when for me Fantasy is going through a resurgence of great writing, Mark Lawrence, Stephen Deas and many others.

This is the start of a series that could easily rival the very greats of the genre, I'm hooked.

Highly recommended
(Parm)

Book Description

This is a world dominated by The Wild.

Man lives in pockets of civilisation claimed from The Wild. Within men's walls life is civilised, the peace punctuated by tournaments, politicking, courtly love and canny business. Beyond those walls men are prey - vulnerable to the exceptionally powerful and dangerous creatures which populate the land, and even more vulnerable to those creatures schemes.

So when one of those creatures breaks out of The Wild and begins preying on people in their homes, it takes a specialist to hunt it down or drive it out ... and even then, it's a long, difficult and extremely dangerous job.

The Black Captain and his men are one such group of specialists.