Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
Series: The Band: Book 1
Pages: 492
Format: Paperback
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.
I’m rating this book at a full five stars simply because I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and that’s what I consider to be most important. There were a couple points that aren’t quite done to perfection, but they didn’t majorly affect my reading experience. At the very least, this is a fun comedic fantasy that balances the overall humor and intermingled serious moments.
The first third of the book moved a bit slow, and it takes about half the book before we really get to know anything substantial about the side characters (Larkspur, along with the double-headed ettin named Gregor and Dane, were arguably my favorites out of the whole cast). That being said, our main group of heroes is far from typical. Once part of a legendary “band” called Saga in their youth—the novel’s equivalent of a Dungeons and Dragons party—our protagonists are now a bunch of old men past their prime embarking on a quest to save a member’s daughter. They aren’t a bunch of teenagers trying to figure out where they fit in the world. Saga’s members know who they are and what they want out of retirement, but now have to deal with the conflict of aging out of glory and reconciling their current lives with the adventures they remember over the course of this mission (including the long-term consequences of said adventures). There’s something very endearing about grumpy old men with back pain and bad knees on a near-hairbrained mission to save their family.
If you’ve ever played, or are even vaguely familiar with, Dungeons and Dragons, you are going to recognize a lot of the magic, character tropes, and worldbuilding. The novel even outright includes owlbears as one of its named mythical creatures, which I’m surprised to find out is not copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast. That being said, I greatly enjoyed the atmosphere that the D&D influence brought to this, and it certainly read like a novelization of an optimal campaign. But I think this also helps with the presentation of humor and serious/dark topics because D&D is largely expected to do exactly this. Eames plays to the expectations of this fantasy subgenre and creates a story that is equally heart-wrenching, heartwarming, goofy, and sober despite a premise that could easily have become outrageously pulpy.
One of the subtle strengths of this novel is the numerous references and callbacks to other fantasy novels, movies, and games. Usually, such references come across as heavy-handed, where you’ll recognize that a particular line is referring to something else even though you can’t place it, and so it completely takes you out of the novel. Kings of the Wyld manages to avoid all of that awkwardness. I noticed a few references to The Princess Bride, The Hobbit, and the video game Portal, but there could be others I missed. These references are integrated very cleanly—they’re completely unexpected and yet perfectly suited to the situations so that you wouldn’t even notice them unless you are familiar with the original material. And for a book that leans heavily on tropes and ideas most commonly associated with Dungeons and Dragons, these references to popular staples of the fantasy and gaming communities blend well with the concept Eames is working with.
I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did, especially considering that this was Eames’ debut. However, I found very little to be dissatisfied with, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel.
AMBER BUDD - Author 