Book Review: Red Country

I love to read all sorts of genres. 

For the past year I've read more crime/mystery/detective fiction than I have anything else.

But, for me, nothing trumps westerns or fantasy novels. Those are my first loves.

As an author, if you want to find the quickest way to my heart, combine the best of the western genre with the best of the fantasy genre. 

Stephen King's The Dark Tower is in my top 3 favorite series. When I read those novels I can't get Clint Eastwood's face off the screen of my mind, or the soundtrack of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly out of my ears. In fact, as I write this review, I'm listening to that soundtrack on Spotify.

Joe Abercrombie creates a unique fantasy novel in Red Country by mixing the tropes of the western into it. There aren't six shooters or cowboy hats but there are stand offs and outlaws, his take on the Indian, and a story of revenge. 

Synopsis

(From Goodreads)

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . . 

A Taste of Red Country

"Lamb?" she whispered. He didn't even look at her, just brushed her away with the back of his arm, black eyes picked up a fiery glimmer and fixed across that bridge, muscles starting from his neck, head hanging on one side, pale skin all sweat-beaded, blood dotted, his bared teeth shining in a skull-grin. Shy shrank out of his way like death itself had come tapping at her shoulder. Maybe it had.

As if it was a meeting long arranged, Waerdinur drew a sword, long and straight and dull, a silver mark glinting near the hilt.

"I used to have one o' those." Lamb tossed his own broken blade skittering across the floor and over the edge into nothingness.

"The work of the Maker himself," said Waerdinur. "You should have kept it."

"Friend o' mine stole it." Lamb stepped towards one of the anvils, fingers whitening as he wrapped them around a great iron bar that lay against it, tall as Shy was. "And everything else." Metal grated as he dragged it after him towards the bridge. "And it was better'n I deserved."

What I Liked

Joe Abercrombie is one of those writers that gets better with each novel. His first novel, The Blade Itself, really pales in comparison to Red Country. His writing is better, his story-telling is better, the character are more developed, and he has more of a handle on the grit and darkness that infuses his stories. 

Red Country had the richest setting of his books, that I've read, so far. This novel, like his others, is set in a world similar to medieval/renaissance Europe. Reading Abercrombie it almost seems as if his novels are set in an alternate reality. His world mirrors that closely to ours. You don't have to be familiar with the other books set in this world. It wouldn't be a bad idea to read them first. Especially The First Law trilogy. There are characters from those books that pop up into this one.

Back to my point, Red Country's setting was the most developed of all his books. I felt like I stood in the hot summer sun, or dug through the mines, or sat in the dinge and dark of the bars. At times in The First Law I thought Joe fell short with the setting. It sort of seemed like he painted on a part of a picture. Here he is more confident with the descriptions he writes and the settings he creates. He puts you right there in the action.

The action! Boy, the action! That's the highlight of all of Joe Abercrombie's books.  I've yet to read an author - within any genre - that can create a battle, a sword fight, or a fist fight as exciting as Mr. Abercrombie. I ducked balled up fists and felt like I dodged the edge of the blade as I read through is pages. My shoulders tensed and I worried for my favorite characters. I hoped for them to come out unscathed. I think about all of his books that I've read, and maybe it's because this books is freshest in my mind, but I can't think of any action scenes that are as well developed as they were in this book. I just want to go through the book and find all out my favorite parts and reread them.

Dialogue has always been a strong suit for Abercrombie, but he's fine tuned his skills with Red Country. Of all fantasy authors Joe Abercrombie writes the best dialogue. His characters talk like a person would talk. It's not pretentious, it's not overwritten, or trite. He puts the right touch on the words his characters use and it doesn't make me roll my eyes because it seems like he's trying too hard.

Finally the western twist. As I said before, you're not going to get shootouts with guns, or a cowboy shooting down a bad guy wearing a black hat. This is still a medieval setting and instead of guns you have swords, bow and arrows, and knives. Lots of knives. That didn't bother me. It was more the tropes of the western genre that Joe Abercrombie focused on. I thought that The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; The Outlaw Josie Wales; Deadwood; and Lonesome Dove were very prevalent in the writing. If you've never watched or read those titles I'd recommend it. Great works.

What I Didn't Like

There's very little that I can say made me unhappy.

I read this on my iPad using the Barnes and Noble app. There were a few formatting issues I noticed throughout the book. Mostly with dialogue. Parts of it were mashed together and made it hard to follow the conversations. Thankfully these sorts of problems were few and far between. 

There was also one chapter towards the end that was unnecessary. I don't want to give away any spoilers but the only purpose the chapter served was to kill off a particular character. The problem I had was that the character's story line had already been resolved. So to bring the character back into the story all of a sudden brought up more questions than it answered. I would have preferred that the character be left alive.

Some of the prose is also written in dialect. I thought that was unnecessary because the story is written in third person. I think the only reason to write prose in dialect is if the story is told in first person. Since it wasn't the dialect should have been left to dialogue. It would have made for a smoother read.

Should You Read Red Country

Yes!

Yes!

Most definitely, yes!

This is the first epic fantasy novel I've read in over a year. The last epic fantasy novel I read was actually another Joe Abercrombie novel, Before They Are Hanged, way back on January 24th, 2012. I got burned out on the genre and felt like every story I read was a retelling of the last one. Red Country was a nice stand alone novel with a unique story and twist on the genre. If you've never read the genre before I don't know if it's the best book to use to get your feet wet, but I think you'll be entertained nonetheless. Joe Abercrombie is one of the best writers in the epic fantasy genre today and will not disappoint you. He's got an ever growing catalog of books to read.

Give Red Country a read.