Kings of the Wyld

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.