Kings of the Wyld

What a wild ride! It's been a long time since I have laughed out loud reading a book, can't wait for the sequel!

Wyld adventure

Old fashioned fantasy with legends about giants, necromancers and, of course, dragons. The writing style is great especially for a debut—the dialogues feel pretty similar to how real people talk, smooth transitions from one event to another and really interesting legends. Also there are really well made descriptions, which I usually don't like in books, with awesome, funny comparisons.

A lot of very epic battles against very dangerous and awesome monsters. Cool bounty hunters and new bands. Some heartbreaking moments.

And the infamous Horde—and the forest where it came from—is insane featuring a lot of unusual, horrifying monsters.

And the ending is just beautiful.

Looking forward to reading Bloody Rose!

Fun fantasy read. I wish I connected more with the group and the characters within it, but the world and the goofiness made up for it for me.

I mostly enjoyed this slightly unusual fantasy novel, although I do have some criticisms. The audiobook kept my attention pretty easily for nearly 18 hours. Since I don't have a copy of the ebook or paperback, I apologize for my inevitable spelling mistakes with proper nouns. I'm going to try to avoid spoilers.

This book would make a great movie or TV show. It has a good amount of humor; although some of it is dated cultural references like “the cake is a lie,” some of the in-universe jokes made me laugh. Beyond that, it's very cinematic. The author is talented at creating original metaphors, though, which would be lost in a different format. I didn't find the book as funny as Terry Pratchett, nor are there insightful observations about human nature. But Eames's writing style is generally clever and I liked it.

The story moves along at a fast pace, and the characters have a lot of adventures. There's a primary plot and then side plots, mostly dealing with each character's family and/or backstory. For the first third of this book, I was on the fence about continuing. But somewhere around the time when they had to fight in the arena, I started caring a lot about the characters.

All of the main characters are male, although there are some important female characters. I really didn't like the plotline of the most prominent female character, Larkspur. Part of her power is a sexual allure that makes men (I noticed no lesbian/bi women in this world) do her bidding. She's also a fabulous fighter, so I don't think the sexual allure ability was even necessary. But it needed more exploration than it got, because it's such a sexist trope. Or she could've had a mind-control power that had nothing to do with sexual attraction, like the ability to convince people to help her in whatever way she needed. I had problems with some of the other female characters, also, and with the male-gaze-y way they were always introduced.

In general, I think I would've liked this book better with multiple points of view. I don't often read books narrated by lone cishet white male characters because I personally have trouble immersing myself in that PoV. I'm not saying these books have no value or even that there should be fewer books of this kind, just that it's not my personal preference as a reader, particularly when I'm supposed to identify only with that character. But this book has more depth than that; Clay is not meant to be a generic “everyman,” although I do think the reader is usually supposed to sympathize with his reactions. He has his own problems, though, and his own character arc. The author is also very good at showing us all the characters' reactions to different situations.

Minor spoiler Here's Clay's description of a different important female character:"...and the fact that she fought like a Cascar berserker who'd walked in on her husband in bed with her sister."I think it shows a lot that Clay and/or the author described a female warrior's strength this way.

I wanted to read this book partly because I saw some one-star reviews complaining about the existence of a gay character. So I was primed to like that character, Moog, and I did! He's not flawless, either, although he is a completely good man. He is immature and nerdy, and he's the character out of this bunch I'd most want to adventure with myself. I also really liked his close friendship with Matrick. Kit was my second-favorite character, and I would've liked to see more of him.

Overall, I think if I were a different person, this would be one of my all-time favorite books. I did like it, though, and I will read the next book, which the author says will be about Rose. I'm really curious to see how that works out and if some of the qualities that make me uncomfortable about this book will still be present.

If you like RPGs, especially Bioware-type games, I think you'd probably like this. It isn't really in the same vein as Terry Pratchett, although I see why Pratchett fans might like it. I'll definitely recommend it to epic fantasy readers.

This one was much better on the reread. True Dumb Guy/Dudes Rock shit, and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames is Legend...wait for it...dary. So legendary, in fact, that The Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy was on constant repeat in my head while reading it. Hell, I even thought about just reprinting the lyrics to the song and forgoing a proper review altogether. But cooler heads prevailed, and here I am sharing what is one of my favorite books now and is one of the most enjoyable experiences I had reading something in a long time.

Let me tell you about a little band named Saga and known for their deeds and misdeeds the land over. This band consists of five legendary mercenaries, thugs for hire who have slashed, bashed, magicked, and screwed their way across the empire of Grandual. And while this could have been a token machismo fest, it isn't. Eames humanized each character and added depth and breadth to them, which allowed them to be more than caricatures of who people wanted to emulate, and everyone wanted to be with.

“Among them is a renegade king, he who sired five royal heirs without ever unzipping his pants. A man to whom time has imparted great wisdom and an even greater waistline, whose thoughtless courage is rivalled only by his unquenchable thirst.

At his shoulder walks a sorcerer, a cosmic conversationalist. Enemy of the incurable rot, absent chairman of combustive sciences at the university in Oddsford, and the only living soul above the age of eight to believe in owlbears.

Look here at a warrior born, a scion of power and poverty whose purpose is manifold: to shatter shackles, to murder monarchs, and to demonstrate that even the forces of good must sometimes enlist the service of big, bad motherfuckers. His is an ancient soul destined to die young.

And now comes the quiet one, the gentle giant, he who fights his battles with a shield. Stout as the tree that counts its age in aeons, constant as the star that marks true north and shines most brightly on the darkest nights.

A step ahead of these four: our hero. He is the candle burnt down to the stump, the cutting blade grown dull with overuse. But see now the spark in his stride. Behold the glint of steel in his gaze. Who dares to stand between a man such as this and that which he holds dear? He will kill, if he must, to protect it. He will die, if that is what it takes.

“Go get the boss,” says one guardsman to another. “This bunch looks like trouble.”

And they do. They do look like trouble, at least until the wizard trips on the hem of his robe. He stumbles, cursing, and fouls the steps of the others as he falls face-first onto the mud-slick hillside.”

But that was 19 years ago. Their time in the sun has turned to shade. Time, that bitch of a mistress, has changed things for them. They have gotten greyer, older, slower, and in some cases wiser. But not really. They are warriors of old staring at middle age, wondering where the hell the last two decades went.

The story starts thus, Clay Cooper an ex-mercenary, now just a regular fellow with a family and responsibilities receives the inevitable knock upon his door. He opens it to find his ex-bandmate and brother in arms Gabriel. Gabriel is in a tizzy as his beloved daughter Rose has run off seeking fortune and fame, just like dear old Dad. The only problem is that she could be in grave danger, the kind of trouble that you don't come back from. Clay immediately says no. He doesn't do that thing anymore. But, with the realization that he would do this and more, including burning the world to cinders, to save his own daughter, he decides that he is in. Let gets the band back together.

Thus begins the tale of finding and coercing the bandmates to leave their comfy lives; one is currently a king. And embark on a quest that will take them across the empire and into the heart of a wyld forest full of poisonous spiders, giants, and an owlbear or two.

The full force of Eames's creativity shines on every page of this story. Honestly, I think under any other writer this story could have gone two ways. It could have been sullen and mean, decrying the effects of aging. Or it could have all the depth of an AC/DC concert. Fun yes, but fun for fun's sake and lacking any gravitas and having the depth of a thimble. Instead, we have brotherhood and not a fake, forced brotherhood. Real people, with real issues, are forced to take an in-depth look into the mirror at their past deeds and the pain they caused.

“What was it about fathers, Clay wondered, that compelled so many of them to test their children? To insist that a daughter, or a son, prove themselves worthy of a love their mother offered without condition?”

Also, there is grand silliness to the narrative that Eames crafted. Kings of the Wyld has serious themes, but it can't take itself too seriously. I mean, cmon, Kings of the Wyld is a band of brothers slaying everything that dares to cross their path. You have to find things funny, gallows humor, or otherwise. Also, the conversations, bantering, and ripping on each other is brilliant. They come off as friends or at least individuals with a deep common history. In any other circumstance, they would probably not be friends, but life and shared goals have brought them together. So because they are in this awful situation that they will probably not survive, it is entirely prudent that they poke fun at each other at every convenient moment.

“How do I look?” he asked.
Barret grinned. “Old.”
Moog glanced over appraisingly. “Tired.”
Gabriel snorted a laugh. “Fuck you guys.”

Each of the band members has a weapon of destruction, including Moog, the band's magician whose bag of tricks is literally a bag of tricks. Each weapon they wield has obtained its own legendary status. And much like the legendary warriors who wield these objects of destruction, they also play a part in the story. It is all very Dungeons and Dragons, but a very accessible Dungeons and Dragons for the masses that also involves the “fuck yeah” of 1980s metal bands. Eames made everything so fun and accessible. I think that even the greatest fantasy hater would enjoy this book and understand, at least for a few minutes, why people play Dungeons and Dragons and read fantasy.

This story is fantastical, Kings of the Wyld has all the right parts blended together by a brilliant storyteller that has you traveling with delight page to page. Bring me, Moog. Bring me, Gabriel. Bring me owlbears! This is a splendid book that I cannot recommend enough.

Let us destroy those in front of us and search for glory!

That was good fun. If mercenary groups were rock bands and went on tour killing monsters. Follow the adventures of Clay “Slowhand” Cooper and his fellow members of the Saga as they eat, drink and fight their way across the land fighting evil. Takes the piss out of many classic rock bands and artists.

This book was honestly amazing

3 out of 5 stars – See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

In this rock'em sock'em epic fantasy tale, Clay Cooper reunites with his band of mercenary misfits to do battle with a dangerous horde of monsters. It is an undeniably fun journey across a brutal landscape that feels overstuffed with seemingly every fantasy creature...ever. Since the story follows the reunion of the since-retired band Saga, there's a full career retrospective that has to be explored and explained. This will serve subsequent books in the series well, but it was a lot of information to process while the main story was ongoing.

One fun aspect of Kings of the Wyld was the readily-apparent influence of rock band culture. It became a fun scavenger hunt to identify the parts of the mercenary band world that paralleled the world of rock — from going on tour, to groupies, frontmen, opening acts, headliners, tour bus skyships, battle of the bands, and many more. This was an amusing twist on a genre that often hits similar notes time and time again. While I never quite crossed the threshold from ‘like' to ‘love' on this novel, it was an entertaining ride, nonetheless.

This book was fantastic. Just enough twists on classic fantasy tropes to be fresh and quite a lot of self-awareness to make it truly enjoyable.

If you want a fantasy novel in which the adventuring party is a thinly veiled stand-in for an 80's music group, look no further.

Lemmed/DNFed at 59%. I can see that it was trying to be funny, but I just found it stupid.

Not quite for me

I bought this book in 2019 and started it, but it didn't grab me and I put it aside. However, I recently noticed that it seems to be surprisingly popular, so I resolved to plod through it regardless, and here I am, having finished it. I didn't hate it, but it felt too long a novel, and I'm glad to be done with it. I don't plan to read the sequels.

The characters are mildly congenial and somewhat memorable, but not great. The plot is basically a simple quest with a lot of little complications thrown in. The writing is adequate.

It's what I call a wild fantasy: no rules, anything goes. The author invents whatever magical effects and weird creatures he pleases, ad lib, as he goes along. I don't approve of wild fantasy: I prefer magic to have rules and limitations to it.

The heroes of this tale get knocked about a bit, but improbably survive whatever conflicts they get into, no matter how outnumbered or outgunned they happen to be. It becomes hard to take these conflicts seriously.

I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, but I suppose this story vaguely resembles a game of D&D run by a childish dungeon master, who throws in hordes of frightful monsters but never allows them to kill anyone.

The author has some potential and he may learn to write better books as he goes along, but I've read plenty of first novels that were better than this one.

Book Club For December.

Do you remember the first time you listened to Zeppelin III? Maybe 13 seconds into Immigrant Song, you were like “THIS SHIT ROCKS!” and then proceeded to reach musical nirvana? That's this book. Like holy crap, I didn't even know I wanted a story like this, but here it is! A Rock/Metal themed Fantasy adventure; some bards, bands, and battles. We've got a nicely put together fantasy world and some veteran characters to guide us along a fantastical journey. It's the First Law but written by Terry Pratchett with music by Led Zepplin. There's actually a Spotify playlist to accompany this book, and if you're reading this (as opposed to listening) I think it's kind of mandatory. (The audiobook is narrated by Jeff Harding and is excellent, so that's another valid choice)

This book was previously on my radar, but I skipped it. I must have been judging books by their covers at the time (the cover does bear a striking resemblance to Gwyne or Abercrombie at first glance) and I was under the mistaken impression that this was yet another grimdark story. Rest assured, dear reader, this is not grimdark. What this book is: a high energy high fantasy rollick; a weird but kick-ass mishmash of Andy Weir, Guns n' Roses, Conan, and Rimworld. This book is about “Saga” the world's greatest mercenary band that's been ten years retired. We follow Clay “Slowhand” Cooper and Saga's frontman “Golden” Gabe as they work to reunite the band to bring Saga out of retirement for one last mission: Saving Gabe's daughter Rose, who is trapped in the under siege city of Castia.

If I haven't given it away yet, this book is decidedly Metal, at least to me. The mercenary bands are this world's analog for our Rock/Metal bands. I guess Rock is more the more ubiquitous label, but I just kept getting a serious Metalocalpyse vibe from characters like Ganelon the axe wielding warrior who's spent the last ten years trapped in stone, Larkspur the black winged Daeva with DID and/or head trauma, really every character in the band rocks. I think that's why I liked this so much, it's kind of like a novelized Metalocalypse (which for my money was the best thing Adult Swim was making in the 00s) with less “heavy” in its flavor of metal and the “fantasy” knob is turned to 11. This book was really playing to its demo in my case, and if the reception to this debut is any indication, I am not alone in thinking this combo was Metal as fuck.

On the subject of music, I don't want to make this review nothing but me calling out the references, but I need to address this point somehow. This work is Referential, capital R; EVERY character is a reference, EVERY location is a reference. Honestly, pick a detail, and you will find it referencing a band, a song, a line in a song, or something else entirely (I'm 90% sure there's a Final Fantasy 7 spinning away transition reference). I'm not knocking this aspect of the book- I was grinning ear to ear when I realized that the villain, Duke Lastleaf, is a White Duke era Bowie reference- but I can see this wearing on some readers. I mentioned Andy Weir at the top and this is what I was talking about, there are just so many references that it seems like Eames read The Martian and then tried to do the same thing just in Azeroth but then realized he had to name everything from scratch. In all likelihood, the average reader isn't going to catch all but the most obvious of these references and given the decided “rock fantasy” theme here, all the people/places/things aren't at all out of place or jarring.

Beyond the referential nature of this book, there is a really stunning world paired with an entertaining and jaunty yet emotionally grounded story that takes its time showing you how its insane universe functions. I was so surprised to learn that this was a debut because I really felt like I was in the hands of a veteran author with how steady and confident the pace of the book was. I came to love the characters, and while some of the dialogue was a little corny, I think that there's a certain point where you get what this book is trying to do, and you are either on board and in the spirit of things, or you are a reluctant passenger missing the forest for the trees.

Let's talk about rollicks for a second because that's kind of where I am torn on this book, I don't usually care for stories like this. A rollicking adventure is a lively, typically light-hearted or low stakes, humorous journey. A lot of things fall under the umbrella of a “rollick”, it's not always swashbuckling pulp or fierce barbarian warriors a-la Conan but more often than not I find that a lot of books like this tend to fall victim to the “make-em-up” criticism. Things always wind up working out! The dragon turns out to have a toothache, the earth was made in a factory, and they happen to have back-ups, etc. For a while there, it seemed like a lot of popular Fantasy stories were forced into a happy ending framework; even stories that took themselves fairly seriously fell victim to fantastical deus ex machina endings and story beats that undercut character progression.

Maybe there's been a little bit of an over correction. We're the spoiled generation that gets to read 5/7th of A song of Ice and Fire and as much Abercrombie as we can consume before traumatizing ourselves. I don't want to come off like a self serious fuddy-duddy, there are rollicks I have enjoyed: Hitchhiker's Guide is the prime example. It's smart, it's funny, it's absurd and unpredictable, and somehow it's still so relatable that you can't help buy into the ridiculous story. On the whole I get the criticism, I wouldn't apply it to Fantasy writ large, but hey there sure are a lot of fantasy rollicks that just fall apart at the end (especially in YA). Thankfully, Kings of the Wyld doesn't confuse a light-hearted tone as a license to tell a weak or uncompelling story. Honestly, some of the themes and character moments are pretty heavy, and it made it a lot easier to push through some of the heavier chapters when you could think back to a sword fight double entendre or other moment of levity.

This book managed to sell me on a world where cool shit is constantly happening, it convinced me that it rocks without pause. There is a whole universe of books that don't take themselves too seriously and are fantastic, and I am 100% on board with books like that, books like Kings of the Wyld.

So imagine the fantasy art off of a 1970s van came to life and played D&D. That's about this book. The rock band/mercenary band joke was funny for about a hundred pages, but this is almost 500 pages long, and I got tired of it so fast. It wants so badly to be Spinal Tap but the jokes are a pretty tired mix of phallic humor, fat jokes, and D&D references. Plus, there really isn't a complex woman in the entire story. Even the one that is supposed to be a real character and not just a shrewish/whorish ex-wife switches allegiance to the whim of the plot no less than three times.

It's a funny concept, but just not a funny book at this length.

Gallows humor brought to adventure fantasy. This absolutely hooked me. Recommended for fans of Glen Cook and The Black Company.

Executive Summary: A slow start, but a strong finish made this a pretty enjoyable read. 3.5 Stars.

Audiobook: This is the first book I've listened to narrated by Jeff Harding. I thought he did a really good job. He does a few voices and reads with a good cadence and volume. This is definitely one of those books that works well in audio.

Full Review
Their on a mission from god! When Jake Blues finds out his childhood home is going to be closed unless he can raise $5000 in short order he convinces his brother Elwood to help him get the band back together and crazy hijinks ensue.

OK, so I might have gotten some of those details slightly wrong, but every time they said “We're getting the band back together” (and this happened a fair bit) I just kept thinking of the Blues Brothers movie.

Instead of Jake and Elwood we have Golden Gabe and Slowhand Clay Cooper who set out on adventure to reunite their once great band of adventurers, the legendary Saga, in order to save Gabe's daughter from an angry horde.

I thought most of the characters were a bit cookie cutter, but still fun. Clay was a sympathetic protagonist, and Gabe made for a fine catalyst, but neither are especially memorable in the pantheon of fantasy characters. The rest of the band is about the same. They all fill their role, but nothing we haven't really seen before. The long exception is probably Moog the Wizard. The crazy wizard isn't exactly new, but I still found him a lot of fun.

My favorite character however probably has to be the bandit leader Jane. She's a pretty minor character, but is very memorable. I hope she plays a larger role in sequel.

The world building felt like it was based on D&D manual, which works well for me. There was a variety of classes and monsters straight out of the manual.

That said, the book was still a lot of fun. Nothing like some old and out of shape heroes stumbling their way through a dangerous world full of monsters.

Despite very familiar themes, I was hooked in by the end eager to find out what would happen next. This book was far from groundbreaking, but I enjoyed it enough to continue on with the series.

The thing is, I like this. Fantasy books that don't take themselves too seriously, that feel like something happening to actual people, instead of a story told by a stuffy history teacher. They have a lot of heart, something that makes the stories really approachable instead of some way too complicated nightmare of stiff characters.
This one is a really great example.

Remember how most stories end with the heroes separating and going home their own way? Something like 20 years passed since then. The heroes are out of shape, cool became extremely eccentric and weird. Joints pop and creak. The new generation is doing their stuff now, one of them, our band's old frontman's daughter, who got caught in a city under siege.
The old guys group up again to save her, just this one time.

Old guys are usually characters I love and I can't explain it. Somehow I feel for them, I enjoy reading their things, so in that regard this book was a win in my head. I especially like the dynamic with the new bands being cocky, ridiculous and not always respectful to the old ones, without actually being right about it. (Way too many of today's YA spreads this ridiculous idea that adults are idiots and young people are magical fairies that solve everything because they are perfection.)
The old glory days are gone. Now the new heroes are more in for the fame and honestly, a lot of it is just posturing. It's amazing, very entertaining and something different enough from all the other books. (It kind of reminds me of this brilliant anime called Tiger & Bunny, but that is with superheroes. I recommend it.)

Books with characters that have a long previous history can have the issue of you simply not knowing. They mention the things, they are obviously a big deal, but that's ridiculous, you don't know, you “weren't there”. You have no emotional connection, so it's just meaningless page filling.
Here it's pure fun. It's all hilarious stuff about the stories of the band, like one night stands with mermaids, being drunk during battles, all kinds of cool. You don't have to understand why it was a big deal, it all just makes you have a good chuckle.
(Not gonna lie, I would kiss the footsteps of Mr. Eames if he wrote all that, so I hope he is young and in reasonably good health, because it sounds like a crazy amount of stuff. DO IT!)

Some moments were incredibly touching, though. It's probably connected to how light-hearted and friendly the whole thing is, but you get attached. You do get attached, I warned you. You can't even emotionally separate yourself through the writing style, because it is all done it a way that pulls you in with its approachable ways.
That is a thing I enjoy; writing that feels close, that is not a march through boring and so overwrought that it makes things detrimental for the story. It just fits. It's fast, fun, lively.

A team of weirdos is always nice, if they are developed enough to feel truly like a group of very different people who somehow still work together. The dynamic needs to be there, which was actually happening here. They all had their strength and weaknesses, nobody was dead weight or totally invincible. Some characters had more humour about them, but they were not just comic relief. It all worked out so well. SO WELL.
Apparently the author built the whole thing with inspiration from rock bands. I like that. I like that, because it really made sense and it wasn't used in a way that made the book gimmicky. You don't have to be into rock bands to enjoy it or to be able to get it.

Yes, I loved it. Yes, I recommend it. Yes, I want more. Yes, I will get more once more is published. Go ahead, get it, it's freaking hilarious, exciting, fun, just... good. It is good. Okay? Okay.

Good night and rock on!

Kings of the Wyld is a book I'd recommend to probably everyone I know.
This story hits hard in all the good ways.
It knows what it is and executes it fucking perfect.

And god damn are the characters are a blast, let me tell you.

edit:
Ok, as I thought this book couldn't get any better I found the official playlist on spotify with songs corresponding to each chapter. Yes, I repeat: EACH CHAPTER. Guess who's jamming to some good old classic rock right now.

A light-hearted, (three-quarters parody) fantasy recommandable as a summer read for the beach. Not much more to it, unfortunately. It started great and I thought I've finally found myself a Witcher alternative, yet it is rather the action in the Witcher games, but without its stories and quests and background. Actually, I felt it quite lacked relevant action, too...

I loved the whole getting the band back together vibe. Perfect blend of humour and fantasy elements .

8/10

A heartwarming story about old friends and loyalty. Full of cool characters and funny humor.
If you like D&D, rock music and just having fun in general this book is for you.
It's surprisingly wholesome and emotional at times as well. I almost cried a couple of times :)

5 word review:

Terrible funny, lovable cast/plot.

I liked this book, but not sure who I'd recommend it to as it has a lot of swearing, a lot of violence, and general irreverence for what is proper. 

That said, there are thought provoking moments, speaking a bit of insight about life and how we handle it. No big expositions, just some very poignant thoughts of just the right amount at the right time. 

Perhaps this adventure was written to appeal to those of us who couldn't wait for the next manual of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st Edition) to arrive at our local bookstore. Like the heroes in this tale, we are past our prime - but we're not dead yet.

Almost makes me want to call my old gaming buddies and say, “We're getting the band back together!”