Book Review
Title: Kings of the Wyld (The Band #1)
Author: Nicholas Eames
Genre: Adult/Fantasy
Rating: *****
Review: I read Kings of the Wyld in January but I loved it so much I wanted to re-read it before reading The Bloody Rose in March. The opening to Kings of the Wyld introduces us to two of our main cast of characters, Clay “Slowhand” Copper and Golden Gabe. Gabe has come to ask for Clay’s help in getting their old band, Saga, back together in order to rescue his daughter Rose from the siege in Castia. At first, Clay refuses thinks of his wife, Ginny and his own daughter, Tally but Tally is the one who convinces him that he needs to go and save Rose which is the last thing Clay wants to do at his age. In order to get the band back together they need to find and convince Matrick, Moog and Ganelon to come with them but Ganelon might be harbouring a grudge towards the band. They also need to reclaim Gabe’s legendary sword, Vellichor back from their old booker, Kal as Gabe sold it to pay his debts. This is going to be difficult because Kal knows the worth of Vellichor as it is an ancient sword given to Gabe by the Archon, Vespain. Vespain is part of a race of mystical beings that used Vellichor to create a portal from their world to this one in order to save themselves. It is also going to be difficult since Gabe’s ex-wife, Valery left him for Kal but the pair set out anyway. However, it isn’t long until they are robbed on the road by Lady Jain and the Silk Arrows but she forms quite a bond with Gabe and Clay even stopping to others from taking Clay shield, Blackheart which is as legendary as Vellichor although less mystical.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Gabe, and Clay travel to Conthas to meet with Kal in order to get Vellichor back. This is where Clay realises how much the world of mercenaries has changed while he has been a father, since the new mercs are more style than substance which both Clay and Gabe find slightly repulsive. When they reach Kal’s home both are nervous but Gabe more so than Clay since his ex-wife is there, upon arriving they witness Kal’s legendary temper when Clay refers to his pool as a pond as he isn’t familiar with the idea of swimming for leisure. They have dinner with Kal which is awkward to say the least and Clay witnesses Valery’s drug addiction which means she is completely out of it most of the time they are there. Gabe tries to convince Kal to give Vellichor back to him like he said he would but Kal doesn’t want to lose the priceless artifact in case Gabe gets killed the wyld and he loses it completely and the only reason they make it out of there without being beaten bloody is because of Clay’s quick thinking, however, they leave without Vellichor. Immediately after this they seek out Moog who is in Conthas making a decent living for himself but they quickly learn that since the death of his husband, Fredrick, Moog has been obsessed with trying to find a cure for the disease known as the Heathen’s Touch or the rot. His latest attempt doesn’t work which upsets him and it is here he confesses to Gabe and Clay he has contracted the rot which is why he is eager to get the band back together because it might be the last time, they are all together. However, Kal knowing what Gabe and Clay were planning quickly turns up and they have to make a quick getaway using a portal mirror which lands them right into the bed chamber of the King of Agria, their old friend, Matrick. Matrick is surprised to see his former bandmates but is very grateful for their arrival and Clay accidently and unknowingly knocked an assassin unconscious upon his arrival. While Matrick refuses to go with them making the same excuses as Clay mentioning his wife, Lilith, a princess Saga rescued back in the day and his children. At breakfast, the next morning Lilith announces she is pregnant yet again with child number six but Clay doesn’t believe that this child isn’t Matrick due to the state of undress Lilith’s bodyguard arrived in the night before. The gang are staying around for the Council of Courts and to meet the Duke of Endland as they might be able to stop the siege or send an army to help which would mean the gang wouldn’t have to cross the Wyld alone. After breakfast, Matrick explains that he wants to leave but Lilith has been preventing him since none of the children are his and she doesn’t want him producing a legitimate heir and she has also recently been trying to have him killed and the gang begin thinking of a way to help their friend. By the time they leave for the Council of Courts, they realise that the Duke of Endland isn’t only a Druin like Vespain but Vespain’s son Lastleaf who they encountered once before when he tries to take Vellichor from Gabe and failed. While Lastleaf recognises Matrick he hasn’t noticed the other members of Saga but things are going badly when Lastleaf explains he can’t call off the Heartwyld Horde even if he wanted to and the best thing is for the Council to do nothing or he will attack their kingdoms as well which none of them want. Before the Council breaks up, Lastleaf realises that Moog, Clay, and Gabe are there too which means he is also aware that Gabe doesn’t have Vellichor which makes it even more important that they get it back from Kal but before then Matrick asks Moog to kill him in order to get him away from Lilith.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, I was loving my re-read of this book as I really appreciate the humour even in the darker moments that the gang have and Clay’s internal thoughts are divine to read. The only downside is we don’t get this from the other members of the band which I would have really like especially from Matrick and Ganelon as they are my favourite characters. Matrick’s “funeral” is one of the funniest scenes in the book and I couldn’t help but laugh at the antics of the band during these scenes, especially Clay’s. Seeing the band almost complete again did wonderful to my heart and I actually laughed out loud when they get robbed again by Lady Jain and the Silk Arrows because it is a strangely funny scene despite the lingering shadows of the bands inevitable deaths and the reason behind it. As the group press on, we are lingering on what Gabe saw in Moog’s crystal ball which wasn’t much but it was disturbing as we know the enemy is poisoning Castia’s water supply with their own dead which was horrific to even think about but they know for the moment that Rose is alive. However, when they encounter another band seeking to claim the bounty on Clay and Gabe, we get to see how being dragged back into the former lives is affecting some of the band members. We see this most clearly in Matrick who is visible shaken by the fight and Clay who reflects on a time Ginny asked him whether he wanted to be a man or a monster, and he can see that very monster staring back at him as he is forced to kill a man he once knew very well. Gabe explains that they need to go to Fivecourt as that is where they will find Ganelon but this confuses the other 3 band members as they are all under the impression that Ganelon was imprisoned in the Quarry but the Sultana of Narmeer after he killed her eldest son, a Narmeeri Prince but Gabe doesn’t say anything further on the subject. Once the gang arrive in Fivecourt, Gabe immediately takes them to the home of a kobold named Fender who has been looking after Gabe’s earnings as kobolds are like a cross between pack rats and magpies, so they hoard shiny things and Fender is also a friend of Gabe’s. Gabe is shocked to learn of Oozilk, Fender’s wife, getting throw into the arena after a fight at the market leaving him to raise their children alone and he feels some responsibility for this as he vouched for the kobolds to move above ground. However, Gabe can’t linger on this as the money he retrieved is to set Ganelon free so the group move quickly to their next destination, the home of a gorgon.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the gang head to Dinantra’s home in order to retrieve Ganelon who Dinantra purchases from the Quarry to be essentially a piece of art in her home. Dinantra has a pre-existing arrangement with Gabe but as the gang quickly learn Gabe wasn’t the only one to strike a bargain with Dinantra. Lastleaf is also in her home as well and Dinantra essentially tells Gabe if they leave, they won’t ever get Ganelon back so they are forced to endure the druin’s presence for the time being. During this time, we learn a lot about Lastleaf’s motivations which comes from the destruction of the Old Dominion and how even his people we treated like monsters and forced to fight to death in the Crucible before Lastleaf freed them leading to a massacre of the supposedly innocent people of Castia which explains why he is targeting Castia in the first place. He wants the people of Castia to suffer the same way the supposed monsters did as a form of justice which I can understand and it really makes you question who is the actual villain of the story since everyone has a degree of grey mortality about them. Saga can’t let this happen however, since Rose is inside Castia and they have to get there one way or another and their best chance at surviving the Heartwyld is Ganelon. However, Lastleaf has a proposition for them, he wants them to fight in the Maxithon against an unknown creature, if they survive, they get Ganelon and the alternative is left up to the imagination but Clay agrees for all of them. After reviving Ganelon from his stone form they realise that their friend has been unchanged by time so he seems 20 years younger than them when actually he isn’t and he isn’t as pissed at them as Clay thought which he finds strange but we learn the reason for this later on in the novel. The next day the fully reformed Saga enters the arena only to be facing down a Chimera, one of the deadliest beasts out there and they quickly come to realise this is going to be a fight for their lives and the fact more than one of them is extremely hungover doesn’t help matters much. While Matrick quickly dispatches the ram’s head from the chimera he passes out from shock soon afterwards and Gabe is quickly paralyzed by the dragon’s toxic claws leaving Moog, Clay and Ganelon to deal with the remaining two heads. Moog tries using magic against it but whenever Moog uses magic normally something either goes horribly wrong or it doesn’t work at all. Ganelon ends up taking on the chimera alone and killing it despite it taking to the sky and the arena being pulled from its housing. Lastleaf tries to get to them in the chaos but they are luckily rescued by another older band, Vanguard consisting of Tiamax, Barret, Ashe and Piglet who offers to drop them near to the Heartwyld but Gabe wants to double back to Conthas to see a man about a sword. It is during this time that Moog’s rot is made known to the rest of the band which breaks Matrick’s heart as they are very close but they have to keep pushing forward. With Ganelon and the others in tow when Gabe and Clay face down Kal this time they wipe the floor with him and it is Valery who surprises them by telling them about the skyship which would cut a huge amount of time off their journey. As they prepare to set off, they make one final journey into Conthas for any supplies they might need when Clay and Ganelon encounter a bounty hunter looking for Matrick which means Lilith knows he is alive and she is also looking for the other members of Saga. Clay and Ganelon are trying to wait for an opening to sneak away when Moog outs them all but not purposefully.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the introduction of Larkspur was amazing especially given what happens with a character later on that I definitely need to write a fanfic about someday. A brawl ensues in the bar between Larkspur and her thralls and the band which doesn’t seem to be going well as Larkspur has enthralled almost every man in the bar but Moog gets them out of it by using a concoction similar to laughing gas to give them a distraction. They quickly grab Matrick and the skyship and get the hell out of Conthas making straight for Castia over the wyld and for a brief period of time everything is fine until Clay end sup hurling Kal over the side for threatening his family which was a point in the book where I literally applauded him. However, things begin to go downhill from here as they enter a lightening storm where Larkspur shows up on her own sky ship looking to take Matrick back to Lilith and a fight breaks out on the deck. The band are pretty evenly matched against Larkspur and her thralls, Gabe is keeping Larkspur busy while the rest of them deal with the thralls. Clay literally made me laugh out loud during this scene as he gets punched in the face twice and ends up hitting himself in the face with his own hammer which was hilarious and really hits home why he is called Slowhand but this soon changes when Larkspur grabs Matrick and takes off into the sky. Gabe is ready to jump overboard after them but a lightening strike takes the pair down and they crash into the forest and obviously the rest of the band follow suit. During their walk through the Wyld to find Matrick, Clay learns that the nineteen years Ganelon spent as a statue were harder than they imagined as he was conscious the entire time and Clay wonders what they could do to a person. However, Ganelon’s remark that he never hated Clay during this time and often wondered what sort of a monster he was for even Clay to abandon him really hits home how much he let his friend down when he needed him the most but they don’t say anything more on it right now. They eventually find Matrick absolutely fine being taken care of by a troll named Taino. They also learn that Larkspur took a major blow to the head and busted a wing which has given her a form of amnesia as she is now calling herself Sabbatha, her name before she adopted the name Larkspur. The band decide to stay with Taino for the night and to keep Sabbatha with them as well so they can keep an eye on her. Here Taino presents them with something called mudweed to keep heal their injuries and it affects Sabbatha and Clay in a strange way as they see their memories flashing back before them as we learn that both Clay and Sabbatha had horrible upbringings which could explain why he feels a connection to her. The next day on their way back to the sky ship they end up running into a group of the many cannibals that live in the forest leading to one of the funniest fights so far as Clay makes an emotional speech to Ganelon about not leaving him behind again not matter how small the fight which was beautiful and we also get to witness why Ganelon is seen as one of the best fighters in the band. Shortly after this fight, the cannibals approach them again to make a trade with their chieftain and the band have no choice but to agree but we can see the other band members including Gabe deferring to Clay for the final decision which is a point that crops up later in the novel. In the village they meet a two-headed Ettin, named Gregor and Dane, but Dane is blind and his brother describes to him a world that doesn’t exist in order to make everything beautiful and pleasant for him which reminds Clay of the way he treats his daughter. However, this is overshadowed when they learn that the chieftain is dying from the rot and wants to trade Kit for Sabbatha as they want to breed her but Moog puts his foot down and refuses to let Gabe do this instead offering his magical food producing hat to trade for Kit.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Moog quickly realises that the chieftain has been cured of the rot and realises that the mudweed is the cure. He checks his own foot to find the rot gone and has an emotional breakdown as he realises, he could have saved the man he loved if he had kept searching the wyld for the cure rather than leaving the band altogether. After leaving the tribe behind and taking the Ettin with them, the band are continuing onto their destination of Castia when they come across a ruined fort which they are going to use as shelter for the night. It is here that they run into another druin, not Lastleaf, but this one calls himself Shadow. At first, he seems decent enough as he explains the history of how the druin came to be in their world and why Vespain was so desperate to capture Lastleaf before he eventually asked Gabe to kill him. We learn that the tale of the Gods is about the druin’s as Lastleaf is Vail, the Autumn Son as known as the Heathen which at first Gabe doesn’t want to believe but it makes sense. However, Moog realises that the druin is trying to put them to sleep and he confesses that he wants to take Vellichor from Gabe and a battle erupts. This isn’t like the other times the band have faced Lastleaf as Shadow employs druin magic to conjure up shadow clones of the band which they have to fight against and they ultimately succeed as they manage to destroy the clone and knock Shadow out. When they return to the fort it is just in time to see Sabbatha behead the druin despite Gabe’s insistence he should be kept alive as he might be the last druin after they kill Lastleaf. In the aftermath of this the group decides to move on as quickly as possible especially after Gabe speaks to Rose and knows she is still alive and they are less than a fortnight away from rescuing her. As they begin to climb through the mountain range, they have to make a choice on the best pass through and Gabe wants to take the Cold Road which would is very dangerous at this time of year and again they look to Clay for the final decision. While Clay knows that Ganelon, Moog and Matrick’s suggestions are safer they take longer and he knows that if it was his daughter, he’d want to get there as soon as possible so he sides with Gabe. They find a cave to sleep in for the night before heading to the Cold Road where we are treated to one of the best scenes in the book between Ganelon and Larkspur, if you’ve read you know what I mean but I am very bitter reading this as I know Eames does the dirty on my boy Ganelon later on which I am still pissed about and if he doesn’t reappear in another book, I am going to be so angry.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I didn’t really want to say anything about the ending section of the novel as this is everything the book has been building towards and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Gabe’s storyline is completed with him finding Rose alive and well but the druin, Freecloud at her side does pose some major questions especially since we know they happen to be sweet on each other. Despite saying that the ending of this book makes me really mad for two reasons, the first is that it ends on one of the biggest cliff-hangers I have ever seen if you are paying attention to the signs at what they mean which I bloody was. The second is how badly Eames screwed over Ganelon and it still hurts me. Literally this man spent 19 year as a statue, reunites with his old friend, falls in love (or the closest thing Ganelon can get to love), save the fucking world and then he ends up going back to the Quarry to be turned back into stone until Larkspur comes for him. Like WTF Eames it would have been nicer if you killed him but no he sent him back to the Quarry, Larkspur apparently had his son that he presumably doesn’t know about and if this gentle, not so gentle giant doesn’t get the happy ending he deserves in another book then I am going to rage so badly. The first time I read Kings of the Wyld and noticed this I pitched the book across the room, shattering a lamp in the process and my anger has lessened since then. Mainly because everyone else got a decent ending, Moog became famous for curing the rot, Gabe and Clay presumably went home to their family, Matrick became an Emperor and he still fucked Ganelon over and if you can’t tell I am still not over it.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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