The Red Knight (Traitor Son Cycle) by Miles Cameron (22-Jan-2013) Paperback

This book progresses slowly at first but after a little while I didn't want to put it down. The characters are extremely well fleshed and the story is compelling. Answers to larger mysteries are slowly revealed and the action is riveting. Some might be out off by the multiple points of view but once you get used it I feel like it adds depth to the story instead of distraction. Looking forward to the next.

Characters: The Red Knight features a wide cast of characters, with each chapter giving us a different point of view. Our primary point of view is the Red Knight himself, a young mercenary commander. The Red Knight might be young, but he knows his business. I don't put spoilers in my reviews, so I'll just mention that there is more to the Red Knight than (of course) first meets the eye. Besides the Red Knight we have a rich cast of characters, including the novel's primary antagonist. I enjoyed getting both the "good guy" AND "bad guy" point of views.

World building: This had to be one of my favorite elements of the novel. Cameron has taken Europe (circa 1450, I estimate) and tuned it to his own fantasy setting. You'll recognize names and places from European history, some straight out of the history books, some given interesting twists. The book combines the author's deep knowledge of history with a truly refreshing, well thought out overlay of magic and fantastic monsters (some you'll recognize, some you won't). It is a gritty, highly realistic setting.

Engagement/Willing suspension of disbelief: Cameron is a historian and a reenactor. Both come through in spades when it comes to engagement. Small details of everyday life create a rich, believable atmosphere. And Cameron certainly knows how to write a gripping combat scene. Knights in other fantasy novels wear the same armor, but in the Red Knight you really get to know what is means to be in a full suit of plate. It is obvious that the author has spent his fair share of time in full harness.

Writing/Mechanics: The Red Knight is a professionally written novel. Besides getting an exciting story, you are getting a well-written story. It is not all blood and guts, Cameron takes time to smell the roses. Love and hate, the nature of good and evil, the meaning of loyalty and friendship... Cameron writes them as well as he writes a deadly battle with a wyvern.

Impact: A terrific fantasy novel. It isn't a YA fantasy, this is a tough, realistic telling of a bloody war in a fantasy setting. It also isn't a Dungeon's and Dragons knock off - which is a great relief. It has the depth, complexity and realism of GRR Martin in a world where magic and monsters are more the norm. I can't wait for more.

Not light reading as another reviewer mentioned, but the book was sufficiently lengthy and highly engaging. It felt like an amalgam of several other authors, glen cook, grr martin, robert jordan in particular. Definitely recommend if you like gritty fantasy. Looking forward to the next book.

The book got me hooked within the first few sentences, but I did find the jumping back and forth between prospectives a little off putting. That, and there are a ton of characters introduced. Nevertheless, you keep reading because it's a damn good book and everything falls into place! On to book #2!!

There is lots to like here. Knights and monsters,wizards and magic, merchants and mercenaries, highlanders and Indians! Oh, and a dragon. It all works; desperate battles and a bitter sweet love story. Read it, you will not be disappointed.

OK. That's not fair...because only because this is an original voice, with an original world, and an enormous mastery of pace, language, character, and the story-telling art. I was lured in by the 2.99 sales price, and have spent the last several days telling everyone I know how much the are going to love this. If you read this, you will discover a new favorite author. I did.

This novel is a long, brutal tale of mortal combat. The warfare is not only between humans and magical, demonic or unearthly creatures, but between human men-at-arms and mages with powerful spells and summoned curses versus all kinds of vicious woods creatures, large and small, humanoid and bestial, a vengeful sorcerer , and indian-like human rebels with a cause. Sieges are vividly painted, with attacks flung rocks, flaming balls, and wyverns clawing down through smoky skies like dive bombers from hell.
Combat scenes are extremely well done, long and bloody; the reader gets a good ideal of what it is like to fight desperately for hours in heavy armor. The heroes, a mercenary band, defends a village of nuns and common people and do it at first for the money, then for love, pride and hatred of a fanatical foe.
No beautiful elf maidens with magical bows; no wise seers with glowing orbs at the tip of their staves; no comic relief at all. Just a story of desperate men battling to stay alive against a teeming ocean of horrible enemies.
Love, yes, tragedy, magic, brotherhood and much more making a good book to settle in with.

I read to escape and venture to new places... Meet new friends... Slay dragons. This book checked all of those boxes and more. Don't miss the audiobook, either! I read and listened when I couldn't read. Fantastic.

Well created characters who grow and evolve. A well constructed world with thoughtfully realized magic systems and an epic struggle between the raw, untamed forces of the wilderness and the slightly pompous but credible forces of civilization, with a near perfect arch nemesis and an engaging and complex, burdened hero.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a little sword and sorcery. I couldn't put it down. The characters were easy to understand and relate to. It was easy to get lost in this fast paced well written story.

I strongly encourage any lover of epic fantasy to get a hold of this book. Do not let the price scare you as it is practically three books in one anyway.

Proof of this books awesomeness- I've had my copy of Peter V. Brett's The Daylight War waiting in the wings for two days now whilst finishing The Red Knight. If this doesn't convince you then I'm sure nothing will.

Great story and loved the characters. Found the Wild and the monsters very interesting. Loved the real world elements woven in to the story (the religious orders etc...) well worth a couple nights and like $10!!

The best medieval fantasy since GRRM's A Storm of Swords. Knights, mercenaries, wizards and monsters, high adventure and gritty realism, all rolled into one. The world building and character conflict is second to none. Highly recommended.

I thought this was one of the more interesting fantasy books i have read this year. The world and history that Miles Cameron has created for his characters is fantastic and i look forward to the sequel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters really grow and you can see the progression they move through.
The thing I enjoyed the most is it didn't and predictably like most books. Most books will have a start a changed and an end. This book where you would think the endon kept going and continue to peak interest all the way to the finish where you know there's more…

Captivating story. Engrossing plot. Well written with good character development. It's a little hard to stretch the imagination far enough to cover some of the premises, hence 4 stars, but this is fantasy, after all.

I really enjoyed this book. The only real drawback was that some of the military jargon / knightly paraphernalia was hard to follow. I didn't mind the continually changing point of view, and in fact, found it to make the book more engaging than otherwise.

The author is definitely a fantasy nerd! If you enjoy escapism this book is for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a fairly standard medieval sword and sorcery tale that stands out by delivering equally on plot, character and world building. I have minimal interest in the details of military actions, but the obvious knowledge that went in to describing them did not overwhelm the plot or take over; it's simply there as a natural part of the story. The main flaw for me was the number of point-of-view characters; some of them aren't compelling or important enough to justify the scattered effect, but the author moves things along and tells the story in a mostly straight timeline, which keeps it workable. The main characters are interesting, the Red Knight particularly so, and the author is skillful at weaving hints of back story without stretching it too long. All in all, a very enjoyable story; I look forward to more.

This is a pretty good fantasy adventure. The world building is interesting and the characters are well defined if cliche. The plot moves along at a decent pace, and there's enough going on outside the protagonist s viewpoint to tweak interest in the bigger picture. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

A complex and fun intro to a proper tangled storyline featuring all the goodies you'd expect - magic, dragons, nefarious hidden powers. Written well, with fun use of the language and not overburdened with the over descriptive claptrap that most fantasy falls into.

Potential Spoilers... Proceed with caution:)
I have to admit that something that seemed quite obvious to me less than half-way through the novel hasn't really been mentioned in any of the reviews that I have read. The whole story seems to be an Arthurian analogue with the main character (The Traitor son and Red Knight of the titles) is a quite clear Mordred figure. There are quite good parallels to Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Gawain (who is even the protagonist's half-brother) and Lancelot (who is a talented foreign knight with healing powers - and a really bad attitude). This isn't the modern vision of a post-Roman - early Dark Ages Arthur, this is Mallory's Arthur with all of the laws of chivalry and heavy plate you can imagine. It places this all in fantasy realm where Mallory's conceits are a lot more plausible, and is much more realistic and knowledgeable about 15th century warfare (ironically given that Mallory was an actual 15th century knight).

Overall I found the novel to be good, though there were periods where the narrative become bogged down with extensive exposition. Since this is Cameron's first novel I hope to see an improvement in this over time, and I was interested enough in the premise and the characters that I plan to read the sequel at least.

Gritty and realistic with a cast of hundreds this book and forthcoming series is destined to be a classic. Terrifying fight sequences that make you feel as if you are in the thick of it, fighting for your life! The story twists and turns keeping the reader on edge, with its gritty realism and an abundance of interesting and engaging characters this is top shelf fantasy for the connoisseur!

This book has entertaining characters and an interesting plot. There are excellent descriptions of medieval warfare, both with and without fantasy elements.
The book has some dark humor (some based on blasphemy), cursing, and doesn't sugarcoat what a group of mercenaries are like in such a setting. I find these aspects go nicely with the characters and story, but they could upset some people.

The one major issue this book has that keeps it from getting five stars is that the copy editor was apparently half-asleep when they worked on this book. There are some off sentences, grammar issues, and occasionally characters' names will change or characters will be show up when they are described as being elsewhere previously (this seems to always happen when it's from one particular character's point of view, so I can't tell whether this character just doesn't remember who people are or if it's an actual mistake).

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the editing issues weren't too annoying.

This book is non-stop, fun action with dark humor thrown in. Hardcore fighters do what they do best:kill. But they are not holy saints, and they carry that aggression into everything. Bad Tom was my favorite character.

Thought the book was very entertaining. I was a little bit lost in the world however, at least in relation to where places were located and their distances from one another but that's sort of a minor complaint.

There was a bit of tiring reading from too many sub characters point of views. It seems like with the rise of George R.R. Martin, fantasy writers have come to believe they need to have as many characters in action as possible. Personally, I like to have a main character and enough secondary points of view to add some color to the story but not distract.

I felt like that is what kept Erikson's Malazan works from being great rather than good.

I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

This was a wonderful read and follows the recent trend of having more complex lead characters who are not one-dimensionally all goodness and light. Nice to see some stronger female characters, though they are less well-developed. Enjoyed it.