Kings of the Wyld Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Short review: 

A fun, surprisingly emotional book with a few twists to the fantasy formula that really work.

Long review: 

I enjoyed this book a lot, especially the second half of it, when the action really ramps up. Most of the book's plot is spent in the classic "get the band together" trope, which in this case kinda drags a little bit but is needed to give each character some depth and backstory. In that sense, you can point to classic "heist" movies and stories. First you get the band, then you get the thingamabob, in this case, the band needs to rescue the daughter of one of their members, which gives the story its emotional weight and drive. Which also makes the first half seem a little long, like when a videogame character has an urgent quest but then spends 50 hours doing minigames (I'm looking at you, Geralt). So there are some drawbacks to that approach, but I totally understand why it had to be done in that way.

Now to the things I really liked:

• The "band of mercenaries as fantasy equivalents to a rock band" idea REALLY works and carries most of the story through the rough patches. I loved how it made total sense in this setting and brings a fun, relatable aspect to the story, even to the point of including groupies, war wagons, bar fights, big arenas with people shouting for their rock heroes, etc. It feels metal as fuck and makes it feel like the book should have an accompanying playlist ranging from grunge to death metal. Kudos, Nick.

• Choosing Clay as the main character and constant POV is a good choice. He's not the hero, he's the glue guy and makes him instantly relatable. 

• The character interactions are fun and remind you of a good D&D session or old high-school friendships and cliques. It does get a little too high-schoolish at times, especially with some of the jokes that fall kinda flat, but bad humor is also part of the experience.

What I think could be improved:

• The world-building is intentionally obscure and there's a lot of monster names and cultures thrown about so it feels like a monster compendium with a mishmash of bland human cultures. I'm ok with that in this setting because this is not a 1000-page bore of a book, and it has to keep a fun, action-packed pace. I hope this gets developed a bit further in the sequel, since there are some interesting things there with the druin and the monster hordes that are only hinted at or bandied about without too much explanation.

• The stakes are high for most of the story and the menace of the Wyld seems insurmountable, only for a deus ex machina to be introduced so that the characters breeze past most of the danger. I get why it works that way, because having the book take half its length taken up by fighting multiple monsters through thousands of miles could get boring fast. I just think this could have been handled a bit more openly from the start so it doesn't feel as a plot convenience.

Overall, I gave Kings of the Wyld a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5 stars. It could easily have become a five with a few tweaks, since the narrative talent and grasp of characters are there, and I hope book 2 in the series reaches those heights, since Eames has a really interesting, quirky setting here he can keep mining for awesome stories. On a fun basis, I'll keep reading because he brings something rather unique to the self-important fantasy that's out there, the heavy metal equivalent of cozy fantasy for those that need a palate cleanser from other longer works that ask a lot from the reader.