Once they were a band of mercenaries who shook the pillars of the world through cunning, alchemical brews, and cold steel. Whoever met their price won. Now, their glory days behind them, scattered to the wind, and their genius leader in hiding, they are being hunted down and eliminated one by one. A lifetime of enemies has its own price. Now that description made Snakewood one of my most anticipated reads of 2016.  I mean, how could a grimdark fan not love the idea of a story about past their prime mercenaries dealing with unknown enemies who are trying to slaughter them for past wrongs.  At least, I couldn’t help myself, so I was overjoyed when I received an advanced reading copy of this one. And, as promised, this story opens with the surviving members of “Kailen’s Twenty” (a legendary band of mercenaries) discovering they are being hunted down one by one.  Why they are being killed is both a mystery to them and to the reader, but one which the author attempts to slowly reveal by adding “historical” chapters regarding the group’s past endeavors  — as relayed by different people. Through this interchange between past and present, the survivors of Kailen’s…