Nicholas Eames

***WINNER OF THE 2018 GEMMELL AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT*** ***WINNER OF FANTASY FACTION'S BEST FANTASY BOOK OF 2017 AWARD*** ***WINNER OF REDDIT FANTASY'S BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2017 AWARD*** 'A fantastic read, a rollicking, page-turning, edge-of-your-seat road-trip of a book' - John Gwynne 'In short: it rocks . . . I finished this book in one night. If I could, I'd see the tour, and buy the t-shirt' - B&N Sci-fi and Fantasy Blog 'Could very well be the debut of the year' - Fantasy Book Review Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best - the meanest, dirtiest, most feared and admired crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. But their glory days are long past; the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk - or a combination of the three. Then a former bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help: his daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy horde one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of impossible mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for. It's time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld. LOOK OUT FOR BLOODY ROSE, THE SECOND BOOK IN THE BAND SERIES: 'Bloody Rose solidifies what Kings of the Wyld proved. Eames writes like a hurricane and has a voice like no one else in this genre' - Sam Sykes

The Band, Book One

Kings of the Wyld

fira

Clay's eyes preceded the chimera's destructive path, and so he saw that both the Duke and Dinantra remained inside the patron's box.

"Please," he prayed to whichever of Grandual's gods was in charge of killing people at random with the corpses of chimeras, "grant me this one … fucking … thing."

It would be just like old times, except that Moog was dying of an incurable ailment, Matrick was hideously out of shape, Gabriel—their proud and fearless leader—had gone meek as a newborn kitten, and Clay wanted nothing more than to go home, hug his wife, and tell his darling daughter stories of grand exploits that were all, thankfully, far behind him.

"Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best -- the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk - or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for. It's time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld"--

Kings of the wyld

Rebecca

We are each what the past has made of us. You would do well to remember what has come and gone before. Time is a circle, history a turning wheel. 

vinny<3

"When we seek to rule only ourselves, we are each of us kings."

Vicky  Nuñez 

Kings of the Wyld is the debut novel of author Nicholas Eames, an epic fantasy adventure of a former band of warriors who get together one more time to rescue the daughter of their leader.
It is a funny, action packed novel that is sure to leave you with a smile on your face. 

I enjoyed the first part where they all get together, I loved how none of them had happy lives despite the fact they had been great warriors and heroes. 
Clay was working as a watchmen when Gabriel, his old Band leader, comes to get him to help rescue his daughter Rose.
Mattrick is the king of Agria, locked in a loveless marriage watching his wife cheat on him with everyone in the palace.
Moog, the wizard of the group, was obsessed with finding a cure for the disease that killed his beloved.
And I was especially taken with Ganelon, who has been turned to stone. 
They all formed Saga, the greatest band ever alive.

I loved how they are all older and had all this unbelievable situations that had the happen to them when they were young and they are always making references to things that the reader doesn't have any way to know if they are true or not, and at first it got on my nerves a bit, but afterwards you get used to it.

This books is really, really fun. The story bordered the line between been a parody of the genre and been an actual novel. It is told from the POV of Clay Cooper, known as Slowhand. He seems to be the sanest of the group and whenever something particularly crazy was happening he was the only one quick to point out how ridiculous the situation was. 

I really enjoyed this book and I can easily see it become a classic in the genre.

kayla 

I honestly loved this book so so much, the writing was impeccable and the plot itself was never boring! I love all of the characters so much and will definitely pick up book two to continue :) My only issue with this book was the wild sexualisation of any and all female characters involved in the story - it's an issue I have with a lot of high fantasy though, so it was expected.

Aaron J Mitchell

Fun and funny while maintaining its epic adventure fantasy feel. A very enjoyable ride along with a band of mostly washed up over the hill heroes saddling up for a final impossible labour. 

By far my favourite part of the book was the sheer number of varied monsters they faced, or talked about facing, many I knew, but plenty had been punching into google to get an idea about.

Utterly brilliant, funny, full of heart and a great time!

Beth Bartholomew

'An outstanding debut which will make you laugh and cry and hold your breath. This is a book that has it all' - K. J. Parker Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best - the meanest, dirtiest, most feared and admired crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. But their glory days are long past; the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk - or a combination of the three. Then a former bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help: his daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy horde one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of impossible mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for. It's time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld. 'A fantastic read, a rollicking, page-turning, edge-of-your-seat road-trip of a book' - John Gwynne

Rebecca Lysaght

Some details were repeatedly brought up, like, I think I remember why Clay's shield is called Blackheart, I don't need to keep being told..That being said, I don't even care because this is the most fun book I've read in a WHILE. I can't remember the last book that made me laugh out loud on one page only to be shedding tears by the next. What a ride. Bloody brilliant.

Colleen

4.5 Stars but I am rounding up because the author seems tremendously promising.

Due to some annoying adulty stuff, July was a rather unproductive month for me in terms of reading books and writing reviews. So I am just now getting around to reviewing Kings of the Wyld. 

Fantasy is a very hit or miss genre for me. Some of it I love. I find a lot of it too cheesy and too repetitive though. But Kings of the Wyld stands out. It has heart and humor. It has adventure and some great fight scenes. It has an awesome cast of characters. And all of that is made more impressive by the fact that this was the author's debut novel.

Before I get into the rest of the review, I should explain that most of the book hinges on a large play on words. Several terms between warring (such as band of brothers, tour of duty) overlap with terms used in the music industry. How no one capitalized on this before now, I have no idea. It will undoubtedly will spawn a lot of copycats though. But it was a clever little double entendre. 

The setup is straightforward. A couple of decades ago, Saga: the Kings of the Wyld were the most badass band in the country. They went around killing all kinds of monsters and got famous in the process. Now the band has long since split up, gone separate ways, and well... gotten old. But one of the members needs their help and shows up saying, "We're getting the band back together." (And I hear that in Jake and Elwood's voice every single time.)

The older I get, the more I appreciate stories that do not feature fresh-faced, hormonal little snots. Often even the allegedly adult adventures still feature heroes that are so minimally past the fresh-faced, hormonal snot face that those years are still stepping on the back of their feet and squeeing in their ears. This is absolutely NOT the case in Kings of the Wyld.
"They used to call us Kings of the Wyld", remember"
"Yeah, they did. When we were twenty years younger. When our backs didn't ache every morning and we didn't wake up five times a night to piss. But time did what it does best, didn't it? It beat us up. It broke us down. We got old, Gabriel. Too old to do the things we used to, no matter how good we were at doin' 'em. Too old to cross the Wyld, and too old to make any difference at all if we did." The narrative is told in third person but uses bandmember Clay as the focal point of the story. Clay is an unlikely and reluctant hero. Although big in size and tough, he is not particularly skilled compared to the others. But he was an endearing character and so easy to root for which was kind of the point. The chapter names were also fun. Just listing the chapter numbers gets boring, so I like when stories has interesting headlines. I should also mention that this book had an excellent map at the beginning which I referenced often.

There were some aspects about the writing style that irked me. There were lots of parenthesis and little asides. Sometimes they were amusing, but other times they disrupted the flow of the story. The foreshadowing was far too blatant. It was stuff along the lines of "If only he knew that by morning it would all change..." that made me roll my eyes a few times. I will also note that there was a large amount of swearing in this book. It didn't bother me, but it was significant enough to mention. The writing style felt almost YA at times. It was very clear and simplistic - which is not really a bad thing. I think because I read this after two books with very lyrical writing (Night Film and We, the Drowned that in contrast it made the writing of Kings of the Wyld rather bare at first. This feeling did fade as I got farther into the book though and the characters and plot and humor largely overrode my objections.

But the rock band analogy got old after a while and did border on gimmicky. All the terminology (bands, saga, gigs, agents, tours, etc.) became repetitive. This is partly a personal view. While I truly love music, I hate everything that goes along with it. I am fine knowing pretty much only an artist's name and nothing else. I do not even care what they look like. I have never hung band posters on my wall. I HATE celebrity gossip. So while I did enjoy some of the side references and Easter Eggs, the many illusions to the fame and fangirl side of rock were off-putting at times. Even in the colorful setting of this book, that stuff still makes me cringe. So it did take me a little while to get into the story. The rockband analogy seemed particularly heavy-handed in the beginning. I felt impatient at times to get on to the meat of the story. But if you are a superfan, you will probably eat all that up. Like I said, that's just my personal view.

There were lots of unfamiliar creatures in this story. I do not need a remedial course on say, trolls or centaurs, but there were many creatures that were unique to this world that were casually mentioned without explanation. There were also times when the world-building was a bit unsatisfying. The overall world and its history was good and interesting (certainly better done than the world building in Red Sister, but there were several times when I could not tell if details were being intentionally left out for dramatic suspense or whether they just were not included. There were things that could have been explained much earlier in the story. Instead, most of the explanations come after the halfway mark and mostly in the form of info dump via the other characters explaining things to a certain character.

There were also repeated reminders of the same facts. By the fourth time the author reminded readers where Clay got his shield, I was starting to get a little peeved. Eames, do you really think your readers are so memory-deficient that they cannot remember a fact that you have told them that many times already? I tried not to be miffed by that, but well, it felt a teensy bit like he expected his audience to be incapable of retaining information. Perhaps his target audience was Deadheads?? That does fit with the rockband analogy...

For a Sword & Sorcery story, the dialogue sounded extremely Westernized twenty-first century at times. Not that I expect every word to be Ye Olde English. But there were seriously times when I expected someone to drop the dreaded YOLO or maybe a totes for realz. It was not all like that, so those moments felt like the dialogue jumped the tracks and unintentionally careened towards North America prime time.

At times the plot reminded me a lot of a video game... the type where you have to go the opposite direction, complete eight side quests, collect five magical items, learn a dead language, and juggle flaming swords while yodeling before you can even twitch a toe in the direction of your main objective. So expect some detours!

There were some laugh out loud moments and some poignant moments (and some moments that got left in the oven too long and got overdone). But despite a lot of little things that annoyed me, I enjoyed reading Kings of the Wyld. 
"Clay had just begun composing his death scream (he was thinking something high-pitched, sort of falling from a great height meets I've just shat my pants, with a touch of petulant little girl doesn't get her way thrown in to spice things up) when he heard a deep growling behind him." The strongest aspect of Kings of the Wyld was the brilliant cast of characters. There are quite a lot of characters. You have the five main band members and many tertiary characters, but every one of them was unique and vivid. One of my favorites was a talking doorknocker named Steve who was barely in the story, but he made me giggle.

I did not care for the epilogue though. It almost felt like a mockumentary. And it dragged on. It went into some unnecessary details while leaving other things frustratingly vague. There were still several unanswered questions from throughout the story that vexed me to still not know the answers to. Stop mentioning something so many times and then not actually telling me what happened. That is like people laughing about an inside joke. 

This is a book with many good points and a few weak links. But nonetheless this was a very impressive and memorable debut novel. Looking back over my review, I realize it may seem that I did not enjoy this book as much as I did. Yes, there were certainly some rough bits. But I will definitely be keeping an on Eames in the future. (That being said, the sneak peak at Book 2 did not grab my attention at all. I still plan on reading it when Book 2 comes out, but the it dimmed my excitement a little bit.) I don't want to end this review on a negative note though, so I will reiterate that this was a wonderful debut from a promising new author. Lovers of Fantasy and Adventure will probably adore it! Thank you, Petrik, for the recommendation!

Lastly, I really want Moog's magical hat! It will go great with Kell's magical coat!


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 5 Stars

Sade A

We having this saying back here, mostly when watching Action movies, that no matter what crazy shit the good guy gets into "Actor no dey die" basically -Main protagonist can't die. So yeah slash his hand off, be a druin who has precognition, Actor no dey what? no dey die!!

While certainly an entertaining book and really a good debut. It definitely wasn't all that for me. Everything was just a little too blatently convenient tied up for me especially with the band getting out of scrapes. Way too neat really. Didn't get the whole underlying rock band feeling (but that's on me anyways). 

The plot for me sort of reminded me of the Chicken Licken book i read when i was younger in that it sort of followed a specific formula. In Chicken Licken you knew the chicken dude was going to meet another farm animal, again and again. I got kind of the same feeling here, you just knew wherever they went there was this predictable fighting that was going to take place, which really isn't a bad thing but it just goes on and on and on and you find that you're going through the same scenarios but with different bad dudes. Quite frankly went on for too long in my opinion by like 60% mark i was more than ready to have the characters reach Castia.

Minor pet peeve: 
Naming the chapters. I just find that more often than not, these chapter names have little or nothing to do with what's in the chapter. Also sometimes they're so short. i'm just like why not just join it to other chapters?
The world setting: i get that with fantasy you can create whatever the heck you want in your world, but i'm firmly of the belief that you need to pick a side and stick with it. Are we doing steam punk fantasy? is this set in some sort of world that's leaning on medieval times? if it is, why are their words so modern? You know just pick a side really.

All in all, while certainly an entertaining book and really a good debut. It definitely wasn't all that for me. Everything was just a little too blatantly convenient tied up for me especially with the band getting out of scrapes. Way too neat really. 

p.s: Didn't get the whole underlying rock band feeling :( (but that's on me anyways).

Jeff James

I picked this up at Vroman’s, my favorite local bookstore, because I liked the cover and the story sounded like fun. The basic premise is that mercenary bands are like rock stars and the main character has to “get the band back together” to save his friend’s daughter from a siege. The book is funny but not silly; one pull-quote on the cover compared it to Terry Pratchett’s work, which is a gross exaggeration, but did convince me to pick it up, so I suppose I can forgive the inaccuracy. Ultimately this is just a fun adventure. It takes the edge off of grimdark without feeling free of consequences.

Ryan LaFerney

Although it took me for some reason quite a while to finally finish this book, I ended up really liking it. In a genre that is filled with nihilistic, grim-dark stories, this novel is exactly what the doctor ordered to help cure readers of the grimdark blues. Don't worry however. Kings of the Wyld includes enough grit for fans of George R.R. Martin and Scott Lynch but includes enough silliness and humorous moments to rival the work of Sir Terry Pratchett. At the same time, this novel has a few moments of genuine poignancy that really make you care about the characters. Kuddos to Mr. Eames for somehow pulling his crazy rock & roll inspired fantasy novel off. 

So what's it about? KINGS OF THE WYLD is about five male friends, an old mercenary band (similar to maybe, I don't know - Black Sabbath or KISS) that get together after a long retirement to tour once again (except that for this group of mercs this isn't a farewell rock tour, it's a perceived suicide mission). Clay Cooper and his "Band", Saga (The Kings of the Wyld) were once the greatest of the greatest mercenary Bands, but now the members have separated and grown old, fat, drunk or a combination of the three. Until one day, one of Clay’s band mates, Gabriel, came asking for help with an incredibly dangerous quest (to rescue his daughter Rose who went off and formed a band of her own) that will require the Band getting back together for one more tour across the Heartwyld, a gigantic forest filled with a plethora of monsters, beasts, and many other deadly sentient beings. 

With an impressive combination of lovable characters, gripping actions, intricate world-building, humorous moments and well-polished prose, Kings of the Wyld is a rocking good time (filled with fun rock n' roll references to boot).

For fans of: Scott Lynch, Jim Hines, Patrick Rothfuss.

Janice Hopper

The whole "what if famous bands of fighters were treated like rock musicians" conceit didn't work for me as well as the author wished, I think. It seemed like a bit of a stretch. And calling the final giant boss fight a "battle of the bands" was just... a lot.

But in between, there were some bits that were ok. Lots of male bonding over adventure, lots of crazy monsters, and a few moments of whimsy and sweetness. 

I started by listening to the audiobook, but I didn't really care for the narrator, so I changed to eye-reading the ebook.

Some details were repeatedly brought up, like, I think I remember why Clay's shield is called Blackheart, I don't need to keep being told..

That being said, I don't even care because this is the most fun book I've read in a WHILE. I can't remember the last book that made me laugh out loud on one page only to be shedding tears by the next. What a ride. Bloody brilliant.

Some details were repeatedly brought up, like, I think I remember why Clay's shield is called Blackheart, I don't need to keep being told..

That being said, I don't even care because this is the most fun book I've read in a WHILE. I can't remember the last book that made me laugh out loud on one page only to be shedding tears by the next. What a ride. Bloody brilliant.

Clay deserves a better book than this ngl

keith

Lia Yuliana

Update 31/08/2020

Find my reviews on :  An Ode to Fiction
Official Release Date : 18th August 2020
Buy the book :
 Amazon |  Book Depository

4.5 rounded up to 5/5 ⭐️


  
    “This is not a choice between life and death, but life and immortality! Remain here and die in obscurity, or follow me now and live forever!”
  


Kings of the Wyld is a grim dark fantasy inspired by the wild rock n roll 80s era bands, like Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, Queen, etc. Replace the musicians with mercenaries and instead of stadiums with screaming fans replace it with roaring spectators thirsting for blood spill. Instead of touring from city to city, they tour the Wyld, a place where mercenaries test their abilities against nature, cannibals, monsters, devils, and any other creature under the sun; bringing home spoils from their tour to parade them around town. Reading this book it feels like a love letter to those bands which songs you just put on repeat and adore so much you’d go to any of their gig if they were ever in town; until one day, when you think they’re at their peak of their prime, maybe one of the members went solo and the rest trickled off, one by one, going their separate ways. While you, heartbroken, hope that one day they might reunite for one last tour.

We start off the story following Clay “Slowhand” Cooper, a member of the most renown band in all of Grandual, Saga, but now they separated and have grown old. Everyone knew who Saga were, some would relish at the thought of being that famous but for Clay he only wanted a simple life after the band separated. He distanced himself from his old life, took up a job as a watchman by day and come home to his wife and daughter when the sun would set. Until his old friend, Gabriel, also a member of Saga, came knocking at his door with a deadly proposition : to get the band back together, crossing the most dangerous place, the Heartwyld, and saving his only daughter, Rose, from danger. This premise alone won me over, with every page of this book you feel a mix of emotions, ranging from grinning and laughing like an idiot to shedding tears of both happiness and sadness. A rollicking adventure of old friends reuniting and reminiscing on their past glory days as they band together one last time reigniting a spark that was long lost with time.


  
    “We were giants once, remember? Kings of the Wyld.”
  


I was truly blown away by Nicholas Eames debut work. Kings of the Wyld is probably the best debut book by an author I’ve read. The world building is thoughtful and intricate that I was thoroughly impressed by how well the world manifested in the pages. Each place the band visited has its own character and history with the band; from the mud ridden law less streets of Conthas to the big city of Fivecourt and its giant floating arena called the Maxithon. The places they visited had its share of memories that came with it, I loved reading the times when Clay and the band started reminiscing of the things they’ve done and the people they’ve met during their tour.

In this book there is no defined magic system, the narrative heavily relies on martial combat. The only time magic is mentioned is when Moog (the wizard of the band) does his tricks. This book contains many combat scenes that are well written, Nicholas Eames describes each scene in great detail. I can imagine everything that happens even during a large battle scene with multiple characters. I usually get lost in large battle scenes in other books but I find the battles here as streamlined. Nicholas Eames definitely does not disappoint in this regard. The author even slipped in a few comedic moments which I enjoyed A LOT. For avid fantasy fans that enjoy an epic battle, these comedic jabs could be a turn off as it shifts the mood. I loved these moments regardless though. These comedic moments also extends in many ways throughout the book.


  
    “A pinecone?” “Ha! Can you imagine? All this at stake and I give you a pinecone?” Moog’s cackle died in silence, and everyone simply stared until he went on. “Okay, yes, it’s a pinecone. But it’s a magic pinecone.”
  


I had my eye on this book since I started watching adult SFF booktubers. This particular book caught my eye as one booktuber said that Kings of the Wyld is built like a D&D campaign and in fact, after reading it, it is built like one. I am a fan of D&D, eventhough I never actually played, I’ve been watching Critical Role for over a year now that I understand the game fully without ever having playing it. The elements I loved from a typical D&D campaign are present in this book such as a thrilling adventure and ridiculous strategies the players come up with to succeed a mission. Moog, the wizard in Saga, comes up with the most ridiculous plans. I don’t know how many times I laughed at the sheer chaos of events that happened after Moog says “It’s risky though”. My favorite would have to be the one involving a mirror and certain potion.

One other element that I crave from a good campaign are a cast of characters that are lovable and diverse. Each one having their own contribution into the progress of the story. 

In Kings of the Wyld the characters are all a standout, each of them are different in their own way even the side characters. The main focus of the story is of course, Saga, but you can’t help but grow attached to every character that the band meets in their journey. I adore a certain thief turned mercenary named Jain in the book. She is the wackiest character they stumbled upon. Not to mention, the running joke in the book turned ironic after the band met Kit the bard. His pure existence is entertaining and I’m glad the author created this character.

What I love most about Saga is their bond. The bond between each member was strong throughout the book even after they split and reunited. They picked up where they left off like the years had never even passed. I love stories like Kings of the Wyld that have relationships as a core that drives story forward. The impossible wouldn’t have been done if it weren’t for their brotherhood, loyalty, and trust for each other. The author wrote the most beautiful scene before the last big battle happened, a private moment between the Saga members that displays how much love they have for each other. You can’t help but feel that same love they have as you read.

Funny enough this book is not written in multiple POV’s but I could easily grasp what each character is like from Clay’s POV alone. It seems that Clay knows more about his friends more than he thinks. Which is why he is my favorite Saga member.
 

  
    “Ganelon sighed, “Slowhand…”

“Never again,” Clay said. “Where you stand, I stand.”
  


Clay “Slowhand” Cooper is the first of the Saga members that Gabriel recruited. He has known Clay longer than any other member so he trusts Clay’s judgment on everything. Clay, though reluctant at first, agreed to Gabriel’s proposition to save his daughter because it is the right thing to do. I love that! He has all the reasons to say no to Gabriel but he helps him. The moment that made him agree to help Gabriel is the most heart warming moment in the book. I shed a few tears reading it. I adore Slowhand, even under his large intimidating exterior, deep down he is a kind man that would support his friends. In battle he became the shield for his friends using Blackheart (his shield) covering any blind spots and supporting everyone the best he could.

I want to praise one other character and that’s Golden Gabe or Gabriel. His speech before the battle made me cry SO HARD. I felt it deep in my being when I read his lines. He is a character that grew a lot in this book. He was broken man when I started reading this book but by the end, he became the man that he was, a confident and righteous fighter that didn’t give up no matter how hard the world is. I felt how much he loves Rose and I want to praise the author on how well he wrote Gabriel’s story. I cried SOO HARD (AGAIN)!

I highly recommend reading this book if you’re up for a fast paced adventure with a set of lovable characters. It is an entertaining and action packed book that any fan of SFF should read. Nicholas Eames will certainly be on my list of favorite authors. His debut work is one of the strongest and I have high hopes for his future works. I will certainly pick up his sequel “Bloody Rose” which centers more on Rose and her band that we only got a glimpse of in this book.

Celeste Richardson

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. 

Man, this was so much fun!!

First of all, I love classic rock. Like, a lot. Seriously, the soundtrack of my childhood consisted largely of Queen, Journey, Styx, Foreigner, and other bands of their ilk. Saturday mornings are still meant for “Your Love” by The Outfield and “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield.

So, when my friends started gushing about a fantasy novel filled with musical references from one of my favorite eras, and promising that it was funny to boot, I added it to my list. But something else always seemed to grab my attention, and it stayed unread on my list for months. That is, until my lovely friend Petrik sent me a copy as a surprise early Christmas gift. With my very own copy in hand, I finally cracked KotW open. And I’m so glad that I did!

I don’t know that I have ever described a book as “rollicking” but this one definitely was. "What if mercenaries were treated like the rock bands of the fantasy world?" is basically the best jumping off point for any book ever. The use of music industry terms, like headliner and touring and booker and frontman, were all really fun additions. I’m in a band, so seeing a band equivalent in a fantasy setting was exciting and incredibly entertaining for me. Also, I loved all of the band and song references. I know there’s no way I caught them all, but any time I did catch one I was messaging friends with cyber squeals of joy. I’ll refrain from giving any away, because the search for musical Easter eggs is half the fun!

And the music references weren’t the only ones Eames included. Video games and and movies and classic fantasy novels were all referenced, as well. Here’s my favorite, a reference to The Hobbit:
“The place was a hovel, but not the cozy hovel of the sort inhabited by poets and scribes, crammed with bookshelves, candles, and antique curios. Nor was it the sparse kind of hovel, occupied by little more than a ragged blanket and a straw-stuffed mattress: It was a kubold’s hovel, and that meant shithole.”
I genuinely busted out laughing when I read that paragraph, and it makes me smile every time I remember it. There are so many lines like that in this book. But there was also depth here, lines that actually made me stop and think, which stood out all the more because of the predominant humor throughout the majority of the book. For example:
“But what does a mirror know? What can it show us of ourselves? Oh, it might reveal a few scars, and perhaps a glimpse—there, in the eyes—of our true nature. The spirit beneath the skin. Yet the deepest scars are often hidden, and though a mirror might reveal our weakness, it reflects only a fraction of our strength.”
See? That’s deep stuff, man. And that deep thought sprung right from the head of our main protagonist, “Slowhand” Clay Cooper. I enjoyed Clay so much. I loved all of the members of Saga, a classic band getting together for one last adventure and the central focus of the book. But Clay was definitely my favorite. If Saga is to be equated with an actual musical band, here are my thoughts on what instrument each member would play. Golden Gabe is the frontman, as we already know from the book itself, but the rest are all strictly my opinion. I believe that Ganelon is the lead guitarist, because lead guitarists of rock bands tend to be destructive and more than a little crazy and are often lady magnets, all of which apply. Moog plays the synthesizer, because he’s kooky and does his own thing but it somehow always works out with what the rest of the band is doing. Matty Skulldrummer would have to be the drummer for obvious reasons.

That leaves Clay. I think Slowhand is an appropriate stage name for a bassist. A bassist tends to be the binding agent in a band, the person who quietly holds everything together and keeps the song moving in the right direction. The bass-line is the heartbeat of a song, and Clay Cooper is without a doubt the heartbeat of Saga. Also, I have a thing for bassists; my husband is a phenomenal one.

All of that randomness to say: I really loved this book. And honestly, I could go on about the employment of such a wide array of fantastical creatures and magical weapons and intriguing mythology, but I want to leave as much as possible unknown for others to discover for themselves. There were a couple of writing choices that I would have changed, like doing away with a few of the plethora of similes employed in the prose, but there was nothing that bothered me enough to keep me from giving the book five rocking stars. If you’re looking for something that mingles humor with heart, that will make you feel nostalgic and keep you entertained as you search for various pop culture references, I’ve found no other novel that can top this one.

Ashutosh

"HUMOUROUS, ADVENTUROUS, GRIPPING"

Plot: A long lost band of people who called themselves "Saga" gets reunited. 

I haven't read much fantasy tbh but the genre has got me intrigued so much so that I hardly pay much attention to other genres (All thanks to Brandon Sanderson). So from whatever fantasy I've read they are mostly towards a darker theme or grimdark would be a better word. But this book was something different. I laughed a lot while reading this one, it's filled with a good amount of humour and the way the characters communicate a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie comes up. I loved this book start to end without any doubt. The writing style was perfect, the pace was best suited for the story. 

It's filled with lots and lots of monsters , I had to search many of them to understand how they looked. It's like the author picked all the monsters ever mentioned in any book or lore and dropped them into the story(Not that its bad). The world building is good and somethings seemed similiar to Roshar, tho very few and if you've read SA then you'll understand what I was talking about after reading this. But yeah it's pretty good. The story is straightforward nothing complex, and still it's exciting and bingeworthy. What's more tho is the gory battles and fight scenes that are brilliantly described. One thing that can be ignored is that the humour overpowers so much that when the sad and depressing parts come up you won't feel anything.But one thing's for sure that they do made me feel for them. Like it happened with me but idk. Still I've read some reviews that say the next book "Bloody Rose"(2nd Book of The Band series, totally different story but same world) is more on the emotional side. Yet I felt for the characters. I loved the whole band tbh but Clay Cooper is my favourite from the book. 

I won't describe the characters coz I feel that it hinders with the personal imaginations and perceptions.

I recommend this to everyone as it won't waste your time and its worth reading.

Also this is a standalone, even though it's the first book of "The Band" an ongoing series but the next books have different band stories set in the same world. 

Happy Reading!!👍😀

4.5 stars! such a fun book about finding family, adventure, and love! one of my new favorites, excited to read bloody rose!

Sarah Escorsa

💀 DNF at 24%.

Well well well, look at me DNFing a book the whole universe and their cousin twice removed 💕lurves💕 to death. Now that’s a bloody shrimping giganormous surprise.



Okay, let’s cut the crab and analyze just how wrong I read this most glorious literary masterpiece, shall we?

① I thought it was boring as fish. Too many useless and endless descriptions. Too much pointless blah-blah-blah-get-on-with-it-already-I’m-not-getting-any–younger. It’s not as insomnia-inducing as Locke Lamora, mind you, but quite painful to read nonetheless. Then again, it gave me a chance me to practice my much neglected Skim Skim Skim Skills (S⁴), so I guess I can’t complain and stuff.

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② I didn’t think it was funny. At all. Probably because I have no sense of humor whatsoever. As least when it comes to immature as fish jokes. And eyeroll-worthy wife jokes. And silly as shrimp, oh-look-we-all-have-hard-ons-at-the-most-unexpected-times-how-hilarious-indeed situations. And downright lame jokes in general. (Told you I had no sense of humor whatsoever.)

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③ I didn’t like the characters. They had about as much depth as my favorite herd of ironing boards. And acted like a bunch of moronic teenagers, not like could-have-been-scrumptiously delicious seasoned warriors who have been there, done that, seen better days and stuff.

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④ I didn’t exactly like the way women were portrayed. Castrating bitches and whores and harpies, oh my! How positively delightful indeed. I want more. Pretty purlease and stuff ← this might or might not be a slightly sarcastic comment. Maybe.

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⑤ Overall, I think you could possibly say I didn’t quite appreciate this book as much as most People of Despicable Book Taste (PoDBT™) have.

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➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): is this lovely tale aimed at a somewhat juvenile as fish male audience, I wonder? 99.99% of my 50+ 30+ years old slightly clueless female friends misguidedly rave about it, which seems to indicate the opposite. So either my beloved friends are both slightly clueless and misguided (which is, um, quite obviously, um, not the case), or they are really precociously pubescent barnacles in disguise. Yes, the only plausible explanation this seems to be.



P.S. Another reviewer I shall not name out of the kindness of my black withered heart had the audacity to say this book reminded them of The Black Most Gloriously Glorious Company. Needless to say, my murderous crustaceans were most swiftly unleashed upon this heathen. Because some things are just not done and stuff. (view spoiler)[
  

  

  
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[Pre-review nonsense]

Yeah yeah yeah, I know I read it very wrong. Go me and stuff.



Review to come and stuff.

Sheila

Mildly entertaining, this book reads like a D&D campaign. Lots of slapstick humour, decent fights and characters, but too long for what it was.

A retired group of legendary mercenaries get the band back together for one last impossible mission in this award-winning debut epic fantasy. "Fantastic, funny, ferocious." -- Sam Sykes Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best, the most feared and renowned crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk, or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help -- the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for. It's time to get the band back together.

Deborah Kerr

Such a great book!

This is exactly what I needed at the exactly right time! Just an epic fantasy story that didn’t take itself too seriously with excellent action and lovable characters.

Sunyi Dean

Would definitely recommend

Not normally my kind of book but I enjoyed this one a lot. David Gemmel meets Pratchet in this sarcastic, dun filled, high octane adventure about getting the (war) band back together. A lot of reviews have been done on this book so I won't go into it further except to say itt was spirited and refreshing to read.

Judy McClure

Jade Flynn

Read for the 'Tis' the Damn Readathon' prompt - 1989: Morally grey character
Read for the 'BTS Readathon' prompt -RM: Epic battle by a fierce leader

2.5/5. Being relatively new to the fantasy genre I'm still figuring out which kinds of books I like and don't like. Having read Sanderson, Hobb, Martin and Lynch I can safely say Kings of the Wyld is not my kind of fantasy which is fine. For people that enjoy books that don't take themselves too seriously, with an abundance of slapstick humour and action scenes galore then this one is for you.

Kings of the Wyld The Band, Book One

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