Snakewood

Snakewood by Adrian Selby
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

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 way broke up any flow the story established. I personally feel this type of storytelling just hinders the success of first books in a series. The recounting of various stories and varied time periods is far more appropriate for a sequel, world book, or basically any story where the world is already established.

The story also bombarded the reader with terminology specific to the story with no explanation of what any of it means. The characters in Snakewood all utilize plants for a variety of purposes. A myriad of poisons are produced using the plants as everyone seems content to poison their adversaries. The characters also use a special drink called fightbrew to empower their fighters to battle. These brews take a toll on the users as their skin changes color from repeated use of the brew. I can imagine this being interesting with some early explanation, but the way things are explained just makes it all frustrating.

My biggest issue is that the general storytelling kept me from liking any of the characters. I can get past significant issues if I'm interested in the characters involved in the story, but when that's absent I quickly become disengaged.

In the end I have to say Snakewood wasn't for me.

1 out of 5 stars

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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