Red Season Rising

This was a book I won a copy of in a twitter competition (along with its sequel). The book opens with a bang with an attempted assassination attempt on the lead character (Kalfinar) at a remote outpost so he and his cousin travel towards the capital to bring word of this threat (and encounter similar stories of more successful attempts on the way). Ultimately they are sent on a quest to help bring a goddess back into the world.

There are some definite moments of absolute quality in here (the final battle scene is exceptionally well written) but there are also some serious issues with the writing on the way to this, Murray's prose is definitely a bit rough around the edges - especially in the first half of the book. Some of the dialogue feels very forced and the actions and reactions of characters can feel a bit odd at times. The main issue I have is with some of the confused plotting and mythology built into his world. The quest that Kalfinar gets sent on feels convoluted and contrived, with the mythology confusing. This element in particular suffers with issues around pacing. This is a long book that would probably have benefitted from having a significant proportion of that quest section cut out. We are given glimpses of an intriguing world, but the world is rushed through to fast to really give it time to breath.

Murray writes excellent fight sequences and these are worth reading the novel for, but the book is in need of some strong editing and plotting is somewhat uneven. An interesting read