Nicholas Eames in Sofia

Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld, came to Sofia for the Alley of Books. The official meeting with him was yesterday but I couldn’t make it. Thankfully, I managed to catch him at the booth and got an autograph 🙂

Friday evening was a great moment to visit the book fair. Many tents had writers and small queues with readers, waiting to get their signatures. I recognized a few names. I also and increased the my book harvest by two more books. My little kid got a hardcover version of Emil i Lönneberga, and my father got a history book.

I love the book fairs. Even if I don’t buy anything, they’re still usually great.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, Book Review

Clay Cooper is a retired mercenary, part of a group of 5+1 named Saga. His band was once the best group, known for defeating countless monsters, even a dragon. The plus one is the bard, which Saga could not keep alive, so they had to replace him or her so many times that the band members don’t even remember the individuals. Until one day they met an undead bard.

This book shares a world with another 2 series I recently read – it has the similar swarm of different fantasy creatures from Orconomics and Legends & Lattes. It has bands and heroes, harvesting monsters for profit. But it also has the epic-ness of LOTR (and its overall general structure), and the drama of Ready Player One.

Most characters both positive and negative (who aren’t bards) are nearly immune to anything the author can throw at them. This makes the story more like a fairytale than an actual fantasy. But it’s cool and somewhat balanced. A reader should particularly like it if they’ve not read any of the books I mentioned earlier.

5/5, I like it and recommend it but you need to have zero expectations of realism. Realistic it is not.