Kings of the Wyld (The Band, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

May 27, 2017 Kerstin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2017

Hilarious fantasy romp about a band of aged warriors, getting together for the last time, to help one of their old mates. Loved it!

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Oct 26, 2022 Cassandra Stirling rated it it was amazing

TL;DR: A fun epic fantasy book with a comeback band vibe, Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames was fantastic.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. The cover art and the battle of bands theme that pervades the story could go horribly wrong, especially from a writer who pushes the band concept too hard over the traditional sword and board fantasy story. But it doesn’t. In fact, there’s just the right amount of it, along with humor, emotion, adventure, and revenge. For all these reasons and m TL;DR: A fun epic fantasy book with a comeback band vibe, Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames was fantastic.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. The cover art and the battle of bands theme that pervades the story could go horribly wrong, especially from a writer who pushes the band concept too hard over the traditional sword and board fantasy story. But it doesn’t. In fact, there’s just the right amount of it, along with humor, emotion, adventure, and revenge. For all these reasons and more, I gave it 5 stars.

What I liked & liked less
There’s a lot to like in this book. In fact, I read it like a book from one of my favorite authors – all in one sitting (reading). The story is good, the ending rocks (pun intended), and the characters are likeable and solid.

There are quite a few pop culture references in this book. I saw at least two Princess Bride references and there may be more. It also has a good layer of aging rock band getting the band back together vibes to be different from your standard epic fantasy tale without overwhelming the story or the world building. And, there’s a lesson to be learned by what has happened in the time Saga stopped touring and the current events.

The characters are good. I really liked Clay Cooper, the narrator. He’s funny, has some great lines and insights, and his character journey is real. He misses his wife, a lot, and it comes up in various points throughout the story. Enough to be believable, but not enough to belabor the point.

The other band members have their own journeys to take and while not as fleshed out as Clay’s, they still resonate. It’s a last hurrah for all of them and then end the journey in a different place than when they started.

However, I was not a huge fan of how Gabriel was portrayed. He spends most of the time in sullen silence and after a while, it got old. I wanted to see more from him than the sad sack we still got three-fourths of the way through. To be honest, his behavior got old really quickly, even though I understood why he was the way he was.

The world building is solid, there’s no major holes or convenient magic to make the scenes work. In fact, the mage of the group has moments of brilliance, but also fails as well. The people and creatures they meet along the way are interesting and are fleshed out to be as real as the characters we’re following.

Was the last battle a bit confusing to follow? Absolutely, but then I have troubles following the most basic of battle scenes, so that may just be me.

To Sum Up (Too Late!)
If you like DnD, comeback stories, and epic fantasy journeys where lots of things go wrong, you’ll love this book. If you like humor and strong emotion in your epic fantasy, you’ll love this book. If you’re nostalgic for your own glory days, you’ll love this book because it brings it all back. Basically, I thought Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames was a blast to read and I highly recommend it. I may, or may not, read the second book in this world series. The “may not” is because I am not sure it can be as good (for me) as what he achieved in this book, but many reviewers say he did. ...more

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May 09, 2023 Diane ~Firefly~ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, fantasy, tt10, male-author

An aging mercenary band gets back together to save one of their daughters

What I enjoyed:
* It was an entertaining read. I liked most of the members of band and Clay was the perfect POV.
* It was interesting to see the band interact with friends/rivals from the past as well as with the so called current "heroes". (view spoiler)
* They all had famous named weapons except for the mage Moog
* Gabe's speech to all the mercenaries

Wh ...more

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