Brother Red by Adrian Selby

I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Orbit

Published – Out Now

PricE - £9.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle ebook

When the trade caravan Driwna Marghoster was hired to protect is attacked, she discovers a dead body hidden inside a barrel. Born of the powerful but elusive Oskoro people, the body is a rare and priceless find, the centre of a tragic tale and the key to a larger mystery...

For when Driwna investigates who the body was meant for, she will find a trail of deceit and corruption which could bring down a kingdom, and an evil more powerful than she can imagine.

What makes an epic an epic? For some a very very long series of doorstoppers; for some a world of so much complexity you have to read the series twice to fully appreciate it – I think we have forgotten that sometimes epic can still be a stand-alone tale. For me the epic comes from the stakes and the scale of them within the tale. A single adventure can also change the world. Worldbuilding can be in one book superb. Adrian Selby has been taking a unique approach in his novels of basing them all in the same world but many decades/centuries apart with evolving cultures and different characters in each one. I loved their Winter Road last year and now we meet Brother Red which I think is one of the finest epic fantasy stories out this year.

Driwna is a member of a merchant travelling group known as the Post (know for their Red cloaks) her role when we firs meet her is protecting a caravan travelling through dangerous territory. A bandit attack means only her and her friend Cal are the sole survivors and while injured they look through the caravan for provisions and find the body of an infant smuggled in one of the casks. No ordinary infant but a member of the mysterious Oskoro people who live in the land’s wilderness weaving their bodies with plants to give them amazing strength, healing, and more unusual abilities. It appears someone now wants to trade in the valuable Oskoro and their related Ososi people’s body parts, and this means someone is up to trouble. Driwna has already been impressing her bosses with her honesty and devotion to the creed of the Post so they feel she may be best placed to follow this investigation. Promoted to the unique rank of Fieldsman which means all must host and follow her orders she untangles a web of treachery involving slavery, illicit magic and an ancient threat to the world about to wreak havoc on everything.

A key take from this novel that makes it so successful is the immersive storytelling Selby weaves for the reader. The story is not just told from Driwna’s point of viw but also in her accent and dialect. Terms we don’t recognise, slang and even sentence structure are altered. Rather than modern language Selby gives us the impression we are reading/hearing an ancient tale narrated by Driwna herself. It’s a wonderful piece of character building that we put ourselves in this place of a shrewd, fierce and honourable character trying to do the right thing and discovering not everyone wants the greater good just to enrich themselves. Driwna’s motivation is to find the girl’s body again and stop whatever is going on happening – not power, prestige, or victory for a cause – just justice. We also meet her family who aren’t so concerned with staying on the right side of the law giving us a lot of insight into how Driwna became the woman she is. It also means when there is action then we are right in the middle of it seeing the blood, feeling the terror and the pain or enjoyment as Drwina lets loose if you enjoy hand to hand combat and some tactics as to how to battle large groups then this story has it all for you and then some.

That leads nicely to the world the stories take place in. Selby writes very much of a tale of warring kingdoms and family groups that feels like a cross between eastern Europe/Eurasia and the wild west frontier. People are only just realising what lies in the inner wilderness. Driwna’s commentary brings the world to life with staging posts, merchant caravans and inner tribes like the Ososi and it always feels alive not historical. Pleasingly here is a world where men and women fight together, and same sex partnerships are accepted giving it a modern inventive touch. I also really liked that rather than just warring families this is a tale of trade and power too. People are fighting to settle grudges but also to own more land and wealth. Alliances fall and rise in the tale sometimes can be solved by just a marriage or even sometimes negotiation, but the threat of mass war stays constant and that gives the stakes for Driwna failure could mean revolution and akso the extinction of the Ososi people.

This leads nicely to the magical side of the tale. Here all people use plants for special powers and while the Ososi use this magic naturally as part of them for the more human groups the answer is ‘taking the colour’ here merchants take before any fighting special draughts that give them huge strength, speed and sense awareness but then drains them of all energy when the battle is done. It’s a fascinating experience watching super charged warriors battle and for this story the way people are thinking the Ossoi themselves could be used to fuel the next stage of this ongoing war to perfect the ‘brews’ has taken things into dark territory. It’s not unusual for people to think they can exploit native settlements for their own ends but the way this is done here is particularly stark. Selby has created a very powerful sense of natural magic facing into technical progress and as the series develops this is getting more pronounced which is a fascinating development.

Lastly, I need to say that this story has one of the best antagonists I’ve read in a while. From Chapter 1 we meet a characterr known as the Magist who is pulling the strings. It becomes very clear this is all part of their game plan; they are very very powerful, and they now have Driwna in their sights. A great book should make you feel the outcome isn’t certain and The Magist is chillingly good at what they do. They’re focused on their goals and will do horrible and sometimes even good things to further that quest. Whenever they appear in the tale the reader will worry exactly where things are heading.

You may tell I really really liked this story and am increasingly impressed with what Selby is doing. For Fantasy fans who appreciate scale, brilliant character work and action. An epic tale in a series that is going from strength to strength. I strongly recommend it to you!