Snakewood Is Not Your Typical Grimdark Fantasy
Snakewood is not your typical grimdark fantasy. It includes many of the same heady notes—grizzled mercenaries, twisted tortures, world on the brink of collapse, magical conflicts aplenty—but the brew tastes altogether different. Debut novelist Adrian Selby explores what happens when the world no longer needs these old soldiers and has no time for their rivalries. It’s an intoxicating draft of an old vintage, right down to the magic system, which twists familiar alchemical tropes in weird new ways.
Formerly a fearsome band of mercenaries, Kailen’s Twenty once turned back armies and toppled nations through chemical warfare, tactical cunning, and brute force. But the world has moved on. Kailen, their mastermind and leader, has gone into hiding. The Twenty are now past their prime, having retired to more peaceful pursuits or counting down their days working small mercenary contracts.
Snakewood
Hardcover $26.00
Snakewood
By Adrian Selby
Hardcover $26.00
But then a shadowy assassin begins hunting the Twenty, offing them one by one and leaving a single black coin on each body to signify an act of betrayal. If that weren’t enough, powerful former enemies have taken the opportunity to strike out at the survivors. When two of the Twenty, Gant and Shale, receive a desperate message from Kailen himself, they embark on a journey to save their remaining friends from the legions of people who want their heads—but two past-their-prime swordsmen and an eccentric tactician may not be enough to turn the tide.
Snakewood does many things well, but the magic system is the real selling point: Selby creates a world in which mad scientists known as “drudhas” mix plants to create deadly poisons, healing agents, biological weapons, and a variety of useful combat drugs. Because the world relies so much on these magical boosts, drudhas use personal cyphers to keep others from stealing or counteracting their alchemical recipes. Selby doesn’t just substitute alchemy for magic, though: each plant and compound also carries its own side effects and nasty withdrawal symptoms, to the point that special methods of detoxification are a crucial part of using this “magic.”
While it’s a complex tale, this is also an immensely readable one, and should appeal to fans of the immersive world-building of Brandon Sanderson. Selby contructs his world on a personal, visceral level, making sure we feel everything that happens to the narrators in almost brutal detail. Snakewood spares no sensations, from torture to the aftereffects of a brutal fight in the center of a vineyard, and the book benefits immensely from the lurid detail. The plot churns along, unpacking the mystery and building a suitable sense of dread over a plant called the Flower of Fortune, which grants nigh-invulnerable fighting prowess at the cost of an agonizing death.
This is a fantasy novel that remembers that battles leave all kinds of scars, depicting the toll of time and history on all the characters. It picks up where many grim and gritty fantasies would end, with its heroes put out to pasture and the world passing them by. Gant and Shale’s exploits are no mere youthful adventure; they must chug down a whole pharmacy’s worth of magical drugs and risk death by withdrawal just to keep up with their younger, more adept opponents. Those of the Twenty who try to confront the threats with the bravado and brawn they relied on in their prime are succinctly executed in a variety of nasty ways. Survival means adaptation, employing a modicum of subtlety, and shedding the brutality of the past.
Snakewood is available now.
But then a shadowy assassin begins hunting the Twenty, offing them one by one and leaving a single black coin on each body to signify an act of betrayal. If that weren’t enough, powerful former enemies have taken the opportunity to strike out at the survivors. When two of the Twenty, Gant and Shale, receive a desperate message from Kailen himself, they embark on a journey to save their remaining friends from the legions of people who want their heads—but two past-their-prime swordsmen and an eccentric tactician may not be enough to turn the tide.
Snakewood does many things well, but the magic system is the real selling point: Selby creates a world in which mad scientists known as “drudhas” mix plants to create deadly poisons, healing agents, biological weapons, and a variety of useful combat drugs. Because the world relies so much on these magical boosts, drudhas use personal cyphers to keep others from stealing or counteracting their alchemical recipes. Selby doesn’t just substitute alchemy for magic, though: each plant and compound also carries its own side effects and nasty withdrawal symptoms, to the point that special methods of detoxification are a crucial part of using this “magic.”
While it’s a complex tale, this is also an immensely readable one, and should appeal to fans of the immersive world-building of Brandon Sanderson. Selby contructs his world on a personal, visceral level, making sure we feel everything that happens to the narrators in almost brutal detail. Snakewood spares no sensations, from torture to the aftereffects of a brutal fight in the center of a vineyard, and the book benefits immensely from the lurid detail. The plot churns along, unpacking the mystery and building a suitable sense of dread over a plant called the Flower of Fortune, which grants nigh-invulnerable fighting prowess at the cost of an agonizing death.
This is a fantasy novel that remembers that battles leave all kinds of scars, depicting the toll of time and history on all the characters. It picks up where many grim and gritty fantasies would end, with its heroes put out to pasture and the world passing them by. Gant and Shale’s exploits are no mere youthful adventure; they must chug down a whole pharmacy’s worth of magical drugs and risk death by withdrawal just to keep up with their younger, more adept opponents. Those of the Twenty who try to confront the threats with the bravado and brawn they relied on in their prime are succinctly executed in a variety of nasty ways. Survival means adaptation, employing a modicum of subtlety, and shedding the brutality of the past.
Snakewood is available now.