Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick (Novel)

Mr. Reddick's sea-faring fantasy is about a tarboy named Pazel Pathkendel on board the massive ship the Chathrand .  While serving on a voyage to prevent a war through a royal marriage, he befriends the very princess being married named Thrash.  With an ability to understand any language, he along with others must uncover the true reason for their voyage.  I really enjoyed the first half of this book but as it progressed I felt like the story rushed through things and became over stuffed with subplots.  It felt like Mr. Reddick threw everything including the kitchen sink at me.  Instead of keeping the story focused and the number of character threads at a decent amount he kept inventing and spinning stuff until it became almost impossible to make all the story lines come together naturally.  The climax is a fast-paced blitz of the unraveling of loose ends.  It's not a bad book and I must admit to maybe (and that's a big maybe) wanting to read the next book in the series, but it's frustrating.  It's as if JK Rowlings combined the first four Harry Potter books into one book.   Or if Star Wars had a dozen more characters to keep track off.   This is a fantastic world and I would have loved to have savored it instead of feeling like it was crammed into my brain.  Because of this compressed feeling the writing suffers too, mostly in the second half.   I'd only recommend this one if you enjoy fantasy books and you feel more is always better than not enough.  Grade: B