Snakewood

Reviewed at Bookwraiths.Once they were a band of mercenaries who shook the pillars of the world through cunning, alchemical brews, and cold steel. Whoever met their price won.Now, their glory days behind them, scattered to the wind, and their genius leader in hiding, they are being hunted down and eliminated one by one.A lifetime of enemies has its own price.Now that description made Snakewood one of my most anticipated reads of 2016. I mean, how could a grimdark fan not love the idea of a story [...]

Kailen's Twenty was a legendary group of mercenaries. They were so capable that whoever hired them won. Many years after they disbanded the members of the Twenty are being hunted down.Promises of mystery, intrigue, and betrayal along with magic made Snakewood sound really interesting. Unfortunately those aspects weren't displayed in a compelling fashion. The story starts off with a scholar recounting various stories written with significantly different pacing. The choice to tell the story this w [...]

I've been hearing quite a bit of buzz about this debut Grim! Grim! Grim! Dark! Dark! Dark!Seriously, this makes most fantasy described as grimdark look like a sunny and cheery laugh riot. This book is bitter and brutal and nasty. Also, kind of disturbing, for those who care about things like bodily integrity.My first impression of the book was that it was really, strikingly original. The group of mercenaries we meet here are dependent on cocktails of toxic drugs - and antidotes for those drugs - [...]

3 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum bibliosanctum/2016/03/14/bIt has been ten years since the mercenary group known as Kailen’s Twenty broke up and went their separate ways. But now, some of its members are rallying to their leader again, drawn together by an assassin who has been methodically hunting each and every one of them down. Always, a black coin is found somewhere on the murdered corpse—a symbol of betrayal.As Gant and Shale race to warn the others, neither of them have an idea of why [...]

This is a book that’s going to challenge you and push you. Grimdark hardcore fans will lap this up, but if you're looking for a light hearted romp, this isn't it.I’m going to cut directly to the chase on this and explain why this novel is worth your time:Snakewood does what many attempt, and almost nobody manages to achieve. Selby has written about mercenaries who behave like actual historical mercenaries. Not one character in the whole book has a false 21st century morality stamped onto the [...]

The Good:This is intelligent in so many ways, from the narrative - a collection of first person accounts describing connected events - to the setting, which is Tolkienesque in its authenticity. The world featured in Snakewood is very low fantasy, with the type of alchemical magic system featured in the old Asterix comics. Druids and all.The Bad:It's just all a bit grimy - betrayal and festering wounds and mud, and there surely hasn't been a book with this many junkies since Trainspotting. Also, [...]

Wow what an intense book. I need to let it sink in a bit before I write a review.6-2-2018: It's been two days and this book is still on my mind Here are my thoughts on it.This book is something different, I struggled a bit through the first 100 pages or so but was intrigued enough to push through. The start just drops you in the middle without any explanation whatsoever on what's what and who's who. Which was a bit confusing to say the least. But keep reading! It will all become clear and this b [...]

"A LIFETIME OF ENEMIES HAS ITS OWN PRICEMercenaries who gave no quarter, they shook the pillars of the world through cunning, chemical brews, and cold steel.Whoever met their price won.Now, their glory days are behind them. Scattered to the wind and their genius leader in hiding, they are being hunted down and eliminated.One by one.A groundbreaking debut fantasy of betrayal, mystery, and bloody revenge."Okay, I wanted to begin by saying that I really struggled with this book at first. It's not a [...]

*copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*Snakewood is Adrian Selby’s debut novel; despite some rough patches, it’s a vividly imaginative work. There’s some memorable, complex characters, a sprawling, elaborate world, and a plot that feels something like The Count of Monte Cristo, but with rather a lot more murder. In short, this is good stuff, even if it could use a little smoothing out.The narrative structure of the book switches between four main points of view, with incidental note [...]

Snakewood is one of those books that will have plenty of fans and plenty of haters too. When an author tries to do something unique or far-reaching it will either impress you or turn you off.The ‘magic system’ in Snakewood means that there is a great deal of mind/body altering substances (potions) in use. The potions act as a kind of steroid and improve your strength/fighting ability in various ways – it does take a while for the variety available to become clear. With this in mind, the st [...]

Received in a giveaway.Technically this is 2.5, better than 'alright' but not as good as 'good', I've rounded up as the author is from my home town.The blurb states that Gant was a mercenary and my expectation, given that he was to tell the story, was that he would be the narrator. This isn't so. There are four main POVs, he is one. His portion is written ungramatically which grated on me not least for its inconsistencies.There are various gangs all acting on events that happened many years pre [...]

Ok, so I suppose everyone gets that this book is a bit different, a bit challenging, a bit marmite. I wasn't sure myself, but was curious enough to give it a try - and I'm so glad I did. The book is told in an unusual style, with a complex chronology, is full of hard-to-love characters, is grim and dark for sure, has a unique and complex magic system (that's not exactly magic), and doesn't take much time to explain much (with a few notable exceptions). For me, it all added up to making this one [...]

After spending days struggling through this and using various tactics to try and plough my way to the finish line, I finally had to give Snakewood up for a loss around the 16% mark.I feel like somewhere in here is a great story. There were moments when I did enjoy Snakewood, especially with particular characters holding the reigns. However, for me the biggest detractor was definitely the style of writing the author chose to employ. I found the whole thing so overwhelmingly impenetrable that I of [...]

*Thanks to Hachette audio for providing the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Joe Jameson is quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators in the biz (Age of Assassins & Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker, and The Greatcoats Series by Sebastien de Castell) and if you enjoy audiobooks, I suggest you check him out.*mer·ce·nar·yˈmərsəˌnerē/adjective - derogatory1. (of a person or their behavior) primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.Kailen's Twenty, a gro [...]

The book blurb: 'Once they were a band of mercenaries who shook the pillars of the world through their cunning, their closely guarded alchemical brews and stone cold steel. Whoever met their price won. Now, their glory days behind them and their genius leader in hiding, the warriors known as the 'Twenty' are being hunted down and eliminated one by one. A lifetime of enemies has its own price'.I recieved a free e-ARC of this book to review through NetGalley.I've found this review quite hard to wr [...]

Full review at: thequeenofblades/I'm not surprised that there are so many DNF reviews for this book, it's really hard to get into. But it does got better, and better still. I suspect that many will find it just too much effort. For me, it was an enjoyable read, but I did not love it. The conclusion as satisfying, but we are left with more questions. I hope we will get to see more of the world Selby has created, just maybe not through the same first-hand account. When your main character is writi [...]

3.5 of 4 starslynns-books/2016/03/21/snaSnakewood is a difficult book to review and for that reason I’ve sat on this for a few days to see how my feelings developed and gather my thoughts. To be honest this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I love the description and the cover and was so excited to pick it up. Now, up front, I can say that I didn’t love this – but, I didn’t hate it either and I think it’s definitely a book that improves as you read. It just takes a litt [...]

Adrian Selby's debut novel is a world-sweeping tale of mercenaries and revenge that is also deeply personal and inextricably tied up with its characters. It's also the Trainspotting of modern fantasy literature. And that, for the most part, is a good thing.Fans of conventional hack'n'slash grimdark will find themselves puzzled. Like Anna Smith Spark's Court of Broken Knives, Snakewood plays with language, uses it as a weapon as well as a tool. Gant and Kailen - and the other viewpoint characters [...]

After a very confusing start I thought the final third of this book was very solid. I will be interested to see where Selby goes next. Full review to come. 3.5 out of 5.

I really don't understand the hype with this book. It jumps around so much between POVs and timelines that you never really get to connect with any characters. Some of the POVs are written to convey the way the person speaks, or writes, and it just made it really difficult and annoying to read (especially for a grammar nerd). It could've been much shorter I think; I found myself skimming through pages for relevant info when I could have just skipped whole chapters. Frankly, I'm surprised I finis [...]

I would like to thank Orbit Books & NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book to review. Though I received this e-book for free, that has no impact upon the honesty of my review. Teaser: "Once they were a band of mercenaries who shook the pillars of the world through cunning, alchemical brews, and cold steel. Whoever met their price won.Now, their glory days behind them, scattered to the wind, and their genius leader in hiding, they are being hunted down and eliminated one by one. A lifetime of e [...]

Snakewood - Adrian Selby | 2016, Orbit, 432 páginas | NITROLEITURAS #fantasia #fantasiabrutal #fantasialiterária | Nota 4 em 5SNAKEWOOD de Adrian Selby é uma fantasia brutal ou "grimdark fantasy" que busca expandir os limites do gênero e aposta em uma forma mais fragmentária e "literária" de narrativa.O mundo descrito em SNAKEWOOD é impressionante, e o que mais me chamou atenção nesse livro. O cenário segue a linha de fantasia brutal, de um mundo povoado por humanos, porém, esse é um [...]

I really enjoyed this tale of a band of mercenaries who have now gone their separate ways, but are drawn together again when they start being killed off one by one. The cast of characters is large (which at times meant I had to remind myself who was who), and the world the author has created is easy to imagine. I especially liked how the author worked a type of plant magic into the story, where plants, or concoctions and infusions of plants, give characters enhanced abilities. And, true to well- [...]

Ok, I am a bit torn, first of all, Snakewood has a extremely cool idea for a fantasy world, and then wrap it in one of the most difficult, obtuse ways to tell your story, in another words.t good.I read reviews for this before hand, so I knew that it jumped perspectives and viewpoints so IF you go into the book with that in mind, it takes a bit of the edge off, but if you DON'T, you will drop it quick. That is a shame because there is hints of cool all throughout and I am intrigued once you get p [...]

The short version: stylistic choices will be difficult for some readers. On the plus side, there's a confident unique world from a new writer.fedpeaches/2016/0

If this books starts getting a lot of great reviews I may revisit reading this. But it isn't catching me in the first few chapters at all.

I received an arc from Netgalley in return for an honest review.Snakewood is about a band of mercenaries called Kailen’s Twenty that broke up 15 years previous that are being hunted by someone that is leaving behind the mark of a betrayer in their hand. The tale of the death of the members of Kailen’s Twenty is being recorded after the fact by a scholar named Goran. The story is a revenge tale that is dark and very violent.The synopsis has a lot of potential but the story jumped around a lot [...]

Their is a lot to like in this book. Lots of action and a very interesting world filled with potions and poisons. All these things were very original. However, the plots jumps a round quite a bit and new characters are thrown at the reader in an ever increasing number. This makes it difficult to enjoy the interesting world created by the author. With a little more polish and more coherent thought the author has a bright future.

While this book didn't click for me, I could recognize that there was something interesting and unique in it. I just couldn't seem to grab the thread of it -- possibly because of the shifting points-of-view and the non-linear timeline. It reminded me of another highly regarded book that I didn't enjoy, The Black Company, where I also felt it was just a me issue and not a "this book is poorly written/derivative/boring."Full disclosure: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for [...]

Review from Tenacious Reader: tenaciousreader/2016/0Oh, this is not an easy review to write. Ultimately, this is a book I wanted to love, or at least like, but truthfully I struggled with it. I will say, I enjoyed all the words as they were written, I felt the prose was incredibly well done. So while reading any given page I felt like I was enjoying the book at that particular moment. But when I would look at the big picture, and the story over all, that was not the case. If I stopped reading, I [...]