Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton (Legends of the Red Sun: Book 1)

7/10

Disclaimer: I've never been a fan of dark, gritty, sweeping political sagas about the corruptness of corrupt politicians and how they corrupt things. I read the paper for that, to find out who / what my local MP has been swindling this week. I'm also not a huge fan of ensemble casts. I picked up this book because it was on three for two in the book shop and it had a pretty cover. Yes I am that shallow…With that in mind:

An ice age is looming. Thousands of refugees descend upon Villjamur, hoping for refuge from the impending ice. But there's trouble all around. The emperor is growing increasingly paranoid about his position, and his suicide leaves the city rudderless just when it needs direction most. Brynd Lathraea, Commander of the elite Nightguard, heads out to escort the emperor's daughter, Rika, home to take the throne. But other people have their eye on the throne…

At the same time, Investigator Jeryd of the city's Inquisition finds himself investigating the mysterious murder of a councillor, while trying to come to terms with his wife leaving him, and the possibility of wooing her back. A young rake on a mission arrives in the city with his own hidden agenda and proceeds to charm the pants (and jewellery) off of several noblewomen. Worse, reports come in of some sort of massacre on the northern islands of the empire. In this land under a red, dying sun, events are about to come to a head...

So a sweeping epic of political corruptness set against a background of an Ice Age. So far, so George RR Martin. Lots of different characters to follow. GRRM, again.

So, my minor nits aside this is an impressive debut. The prose is reasonably tight and workmanlike rather than lyrical. It has a deliberate, sprawling pace rather than being a real page turner, but never so slow that you feel like nodding off. The world building is deft (other than as noted below) and it has a real dark and gritty feel to it. You can really feel yourself there. Events are set up with care – almost too much in fact, as not much comes as a surprise.

Unfortunately this is where we come to my nits, which, apart from my noted preferences above, are relatively minor. The book is littered with examples of how the author is in love with his grasp of vocabulary – never before have I had to go to the dictionary so much in one book, and I have a pretty good grasp of vocab. One or two of these every now and again would have been fine. I like learning new words, though having them be clear in context is always a better option, and often these aren't. But when, on occasion, you get two or three a page that have no context, it just gets frustrating. Extraneous names are also bandied about, confusing the issue. Considering there is no map of the area, do we need to have as a list the names of all the villages they DON'T go to? For me, it just means I end up ignoring them unless they actually become important, or else I get cross-eyed in a sea of names that mean absolutely nothing in the story.

Occasionally I felt hit over the head with information as it was forced onto me so blatantly, and again occasionally some things could have been shown more clearly. But not often – for the most part the author has kept on the fine line rather than fall off either side.

Again, this is where personal preference comes into play. Some people like all that extra information, just as some people love an ensemble cast. And this cast is varied, well written if maybe just a tad on the bland side, but the narrative swaps between them so often (and so rapidly at times, in fact we see them for as little as half a page before it swoops off after someone else) I felt like I was just getting to know them and BANG! Off we go to another. As a result I never knew who I was supposed to be rooting for, and ended up rooting, or caring, for none. Except maybe Jeryd. Bless. Of course on the plus side of this is, if you don't like a character, there'll be another one along in a minute.  Plenty of people love this style though, and if you're one, you'll like this.

If you like stories of sweeping political shenanigans involving a cast of millions (OK, about a dozen), if you love GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire, this is for you.

It's not my cup of tea, but it will be for plenty – I can think of half a dozen people I know who'll love it. If you like it down and dirty, realistic to the core, show every wart and the pus that seeps from it, then you'll like this. Sadly for the author, I don't – but I can see that it's well written and will probably be very popular, for good reason. So I'm in the odd position of scoring this book 8 out of 10 even though I didn't really care for it.

Final verdict – this is an author to watch.