A retired group of legendary warriors must get the band back together for one last seemingly impossible mission in this rousing debut epic fantasy. Glory never gets old. 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 … 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.more
High fantasy meets low humour in this fabulous novel. Hard to put down, yet I did not want it to end!
What happens when heroes get old? They have families, get jobs and get tired. But the spark of courage is still within them. When a friend needs help, the old band of mercenaries get together, facing a horde of monsters in a fight that no one can win.
The world building is detailed and imaginative, and the characters dialogue crackles on the pages. Monsters, lost loves, dark deeds and forgiveness are bound together, and all the threads are woven into a satisfying plot. Bonus points for the way the author adds in modern phrasing and ideas which works surprisingly well.
This book almost made me crash my car.
While listening to the audiobook, I embarassed myself multiple times in public, with sudden snorts of laughter.
With memorable characters and great action, in Kings of the Wyld Nick Eames has made reading fantasy fun again.
Prepare for one of the funniest, grimmest, wittiest, cleverest, fighting-est (not a real word, but it works!) fantasy novels you’ve ever read. Mercenary/monster-hunting parties as rock bands, with all the fun and frolic that goes along with it. One hell of an unputdownable book!
Yeah, if you have a soft spot in your heart for the immortal rock star gods of the 70’s and 80’s, this book is for you. Honestly, even if you don’t this book is for you. The book is every bit as badass as it looks and then some. Eames is a hilarious new author, I’m looking forward to more from him.
A favorite
My expectations for this book were somewhere around Brutal Legend meets Lord of the Rings and they were not in any way disappointed. I laughed, my heart was warmed, I laughed some more. Highly recommend.
This is an epic adventure. It was funny, scary, heartbreaking, full of action, and a great book all around. I loved it. There wasn’t a bunch of page fillers. It was action from the get go. I’m glad I ran across it because it’s the bomb. I’ve never read anything where the mercenaries are the heroes and this was a great book. With a special blend of unique characters that I loved. Definitely recommend it.
I read this because 3 if the authors I love recommended it. This was a great read. Great characters and world building.
All Clay Cooper wanted to do was settle down, raise a family and try to put the past behind him. For ten years, he’d been doing just that. But when his old comrade in arms turns up at his door, asking for help, Clay can’t do anything other than help his friend save his daughter, save a city and maybe even save the world.
At its core, Kings of the Wyld has a very simple premise: what if the groups of mercenaries or adventurers common to many fantasy novels were treated like rock bands?
Fortunately, it’s an idea that works very well. Groups are described as taking tours of the wilderness to establish their monster killing credentials, they have agents to book their jobs & the like and, in the case of Clay & the other members of Saga, the repeated refrain is ‘getting the band back together’.
Far from resting on this basic conceit, Kings of the Wyld offers a number of other pleasures. The camaraderie between Saga’s members is at times foul-mouthed, bantering or poignant, but always rings true to the characters. And speaking of true to life characters, it’s refreshing to have one major character in this type of group be gay without it being a major plot point and another who discovers that rising to become a king isn’t the fix-all for some other stories would have it be.
The world-building is also a lot of fun, with hints about the history of the characters, their acquaintances and the places they visit dropped into the narrative, enough to keep the story moving but not too much to risk the dreaded infodump. Everything moves a goodly pace from beginning to end, with hardly any slow points to let things drag.
All in all, it’s a fun action-packed romp, with a fresh view on some fantasy tropes and some great dialogue along the way.
What if the old party of D & D characters reunited after a separation of many years for one, last high-stakes adventure? This is, essentially, the premise of Mr. Eames’ novel. If you’re a fan of D & D, World of Warcraft, Diablo et al., you will love this book. It’s chock full of laughs, monsters and rollicking adventure. It is to D & D, in many ways, what Ready Player One is to arcade gamers.
A fantastic romp with simple yet deeply moving characters whose close friendship and love for one another show throughout their perilous quest.
Nicholas Eames’ Kings of the Wyld is essentially a Blues Brothers version of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). It’s pretty awesome.
The story is set in a fantasy world teeming with a monster manual’s worth of beasties. Mercenary adventurers chase glory by hunting these creatures, and the most-famous group of exterminators was Saga—“was” being the operative word. Two decades after going their separates ways, the groups’ members are old, fat, drunk, married, etc. But when the former leader’s daughter lands herself in mortal danger, he sets out to reunite the other legends for one last job.
“We’re getting the band back together,” his first recruit says at one point, an exact quote from Blues Brothers. Other parallels include fetching one of the bandmates from prison (which, in this case, means reversing the basilisk’s stare that turned him to stone), dodging a female assassin, and raising hell in the name of a high-minded yet seemingly impossible mission. More generally, this is a culture where the best mercenary groups are celebrated like rock stars, the leaders are known as “frontmen,” and “bookers” arrange “tours” for their bands at various arenas. Saga was even (in part) broken up by a woman (à la the Beatles). The music influences are heavy.
This might seem like a strange pairing, but it works. The language, while modern—there aren’t many Tolkien stylings here—is frequently funny. Eames also does a good job of threading backstory throughout rather than dumping it all at once. Most importantly, despite the silliness, Kings of the Wyld has depth, and its point-of-view character is the heart: I liked Clay Cooper.
I thought the first act and its “getting the old fogies back together” dynamic was the strongest. The second act hinges on convenient encounters in the wilderness, and the ending relies on shortcuts that were established by telling rather than showing. But it’s all fun, and it made me wonder what other combinations of classic movie and D&D might be worth trying. The Goblinfather? Boogie Knights? Dude, Where’s My Centaur?
Those are all terrible titles. But if Eames wrote the story behind one of them, I’d probably read it, because Kings of the Wyld was a blast.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)
This book was witty, yet full of heart. The characters were funny, valiant, and just dumb enough to be really human. Reminiscent of “The Lies of Locke Lamora.” A fun read!
Kings of the Wyld is tremendous fantasy, touching all the important aspects and with plenty of humour, that is sure to delight anyone who ever played D&D.
*** What to expect
If you’ve ever played fantasy role-playing games and wondered how the world would really look with all those adventuring groups running all over the place, this book has the answer. Eames presents us with a rich, detailed, classic fantasy world that still has plenty of unique twists. In particular, there are plenty of adventuring bands that would feel familiar to RPG fans, which get both the fame and treatment they deserve.
One such band, coming back from retirement to save one of their members daughters, are the protagonists of the novel. Eames slowly builds up the tension and the stakes by exposing us to new details, and scale of adventures rise from the village where the story starts to the epic battle at the end.
*** What I liked
First and foremost, I love the humour and the small homages to classic D&D. Though not necessary to enjoy the novel, they enrich the experience. One also cannot but love the characters, each both representing a classic architype and having their own little twists or personality. Eames does a wonderful job of presenting real people dealing with real and powerful issues, and balancing it with touches of humour that make you laugh and feel from the first page to the last.
*** What to be aware of
The band of heros are coming back from retirement. Expect a lot of jokes about cracking knees and issues of parenthood – i.e. the novel’s themes run to mature rather than YA.
*** Summary
If you’ve ever played D&D in its various forms, you’ll love Kings of the Wyld. In fact, if you enjoy epic fantasy in general you’re bound to love this book for it’s characters, humour, adventures, and charm.
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Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia: A story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic – for lovers of Ancient Rome, Murder Mysteries, and Urban Fantasy.
Sometimes, you open a book and just a few pages later you know it’s going to be an awesome read. Kings of the Wyld was one such book. The concept behind it is unusual: “What if mercenaries were the rock stars of a fantasy world?”. It’s an interesting idea, but there is a lot more to this book than just this.
First of all, Kings Of The Wyld is a humorous book, a comedy. It doesn’t always take itself too seriously, so aspects that are usually important to me in a fantasy book, like worldbuilding, didn’t really matter here. For example, in this world, every creature ever imagined by fantasy authors or mythology exists. In a “serious” fantasy world, this would probably come across as lazy worldbuilding, but here, it works. Just like the equivalence between mercenary bands and rock bands, which is hilarious, only works because of the humorous nature of the book. And the reason it works is that the book is actually funny. Which brings me to my favorite thing about Kings of the Wyld – it’s a book full of soul. The narrator tells the story from the point of view of Clay Cooper, and even though it is told in the third person, Clay’s personality seems to infuse the narrator’s voice, making the prose extremely compelling. There is an ongoing theme of aging, legacy, and change. The protagonist and his Band all share a glorious past and have trouble adapting to the changing world. Most importantly, they have trouble adapting to their role as “old glories”. After all, how do you deal with the thought that your best is already behind you? Just like with the book’s main concept, this is handled brilliantly.
But it doesn’t end here. Every character you meet is interesting and believable. Every place you visit feels textured and lived in. Oh, and funny. You’ll always be wearing a smile as you read this book.
As for the plot, it’s not the most riveting, unpredictable one you’ve ever read, but it’s also not supposed to be. Sure, this is an adventure, but again, it’s also a comedy.
This is not a book about mind-bending plot twists. It’s about brilliant characters and the hilarious world they inhabit. It’s heart-warming, somewhat nonsensical fun. Highly recommended if you want a change from your usual epic.
A full, hard-rocking five stars from me.
There’s something to be said about voice in a book, and this book crackles with voice. Nicholas Eames is a tremendous new talent; his book is wildly funny, deeply heartfelt, and it packs in some great action. I adored every page.
This book kept me coming back for more. Can’t wait to read Bloody Rose.
I very much enjoyed the world Nicholas Eams crafted in this book. It was a story full of heros who actually felt emotions and weren’t invincible in their own minds. I felt these things made for characters that I could relate to. Real people with struggles of their own, but courage for each other.
Loved this story of the old retired warriors called back into action, reliving their glory days, to save a daughter of theband’s frontman. Lots of stabby-stabbies, monsters, heroes, great banter, it’s all here. My favorite read of the year so far
A fun read. Some great action scenes and the dynamics of “the band” are wonderful. Nicholas Eames puts together a fun world filled with creatures as if its the most normal thing in every day life. Get ready for an epic trip with old friends, as they attempt to do the impossible.