The Price of Redemption
Shawn Carpenter
Paperback / Ebook
ISBN: 9781668033739
Saga Press, July 2024, 368 pages

Greetings, readers, and welcome back to another book review! This month we’re signing up for the royal Albion navy and daring the high seas with Shawn Carpenter’s The Price of Redemption.

The Price of Redemption takes place in an alternate world that is very much based on the political turmoil of the French Revolution and the associated conflicts between nations at the time, and as such will feel extremely familiar to those versed in that particular part of human history. The story primarily follows Marquise Enid d’Tancreville, an Ardainne (French) noblewoman fleeing the upheaval of the Theocratic Revolution as the incensed commonfolk seek to overthrow both their nobles and mages, of whom Enid counts herself one. Enid is attempting to find her way to the island empire of Albion (England) so she can strike back at those she feels have wronged her and the Ardainne kingdom, but her plans take a turn when the ship she is traveling on is overtaken by a frigate controlled by one of the feared Ardainne Confessors, and then saved by a frigate captained by the dauntless Albion captain, Rue Nath. Nath, in need of a maritime mage due to battle circumstances, convinces Enid to join his crew to seek her vengeance, and while reluctant to give up her dreams of the gallantry of heavy cavalry charges, Enid eventually agrees.

If that paragraph seemed like a bit of a mouthful, well, there’s a reason for that, and it’s to prepare you for the impressively intricate writing of The Price of Redemption. Carpenter has taken the bold choice of presenting his story, both descriptive and prose, in the convoluted, not-quite-meandering style of the classic naval adventure tales by C. S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian (Horatio Hornblower and Master and Commander, respectively), and while there is an initial bit of culture shock in getting used to the antiquated delivery and naval-heavy nomenclature (there’s a glossary in the back), it rapidly becomes second nature, believably immersing the reader in a world full of steely-eyed ship captains, salt-of-the-earth sailors, and bumbling midshipmen, all of whom jump off the page with character. While the story is mainly told from Enid’s perspective, Captain Nath receives plenty of presence, and Carpenter does an excellent job of creating the sense of a large and diverse crew without letting things become cumbersome.

However, the thing that really stood out to me about The Price of Redemption, is that even though the writing style is deliberately anachronistic in feel, Carpenter threads an excellent needle in making the characters and ideas feel modern without breaking the suspension of disbelief. Both women and men serve aboard the frigate Alarum (Captain Nash’s ship) in a variety of roles, with power and without, and the acceptance of relationships is not limited to what the prevailing norms of the actual time period would have been, but nothing feels shoehorned in or clumsy. Instead, it feels like an alternate world, one that very well could exist and have followed the same events of our own, just with a bit more magic during the Reign of Terror and chitinous antlered bug things that stand nine feet tall.

Yes, there are also chitinous antlered bug things that stand nine feet tall, and while they don’t play a large role in this initial introduction to Carpenter’s world, I am beyond intrigued to see what ends up happening there. I mean, c’mon.

Overall, this is definitely not going to be a novel that appeals to everyone, simply due to both the subject matter (dashing adventure on the high seas is, I admit, not quite the universal draw it used to be, alas [aside from One Piece, I guess]) as well as the faithful representation towards the original masters of the genre, but it was, beyond a doubt, one of the more interesting and entertaining books I’ve read in a while. It also avoided the common pitfall of books of this type, which is focusing on the numbers (if Horatio has X pounds of cannon, approaching the Spanish Armada at Y knots per hour, at what time does his triumphant final engagement arrive on the enemy’s flagship?) over the people, and I really appreciated that. I look forward to more entries in Carpenter’s universe, because I think he’s managed to capture a bit of that original magic that drives sailors to the sea, and it’s a magic that leaps off the page at every turn.